DIRTY MOVIES

These cool ex-film star dirt bikes were about to go under the hammer at Bonhams’ sale at the Barber Vintage Festival as we went to press

Desirable mud-plugging irons, made all the more desirable by their film star keepers

Film stars and dirt bikes just go together. There’s an anarchic side to most actors – they’re almost always stand-out individuals – and the same can be said of motocross bikes. Motocross, like acting, is an individual sport. The best man (or woman) wins. Maybe that’s why some of the top Hollywood stars liked to play in the dirt when they weren’t parading before the cameras.

Steve Mcqueen’s obsession with off-road riding is well known – he competed in the ISDT on a number of occasions, was an accomplished desert racer and finished in the top 10 of the Elsinore Grand Prix – but there were plenty of other movie stars who were pretty handy on a motocrosser.

Four bikes that have had movie star owners recently surfaced on the list for the Bonhams auction at the Barber Vintage Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. What price a silver screen pedigree?