Schooled in eight-wheeled transport since he was a nipper Ben lived out every teenager's dream and joined a roller gang. This motley crew's lust for trouble, boundless energy and penchant for showing off led to increasingly greater feats of daring.

One day Ben got talking to a 17 year-old boy who had just got his first trials bike. Noticing the girls circling the bike and its owner, he decided to lay down the most ridiculous challenge possible - to hold on to the back of the bike as it hurtled down the road of the industrial estate. Ben managed this with some ease but was not expecting the rider to go straight on to the North Circular, one of London's busiest roads. Once there they kept up with the traffic at an eye-watering 50 miles an hour. Ben clung on for dear life and despite almost soiling himself came away pretty much unharmed; unfortunately his brand-new, two-tone SIMMs wheels (de rigueur amongst hardcore skaters) had melted to half their original diameter.

On their return Ben received a heroes welcome but it wasn’t long before the girls went back to the shiny new machine and its owner. As Ben says, "I have never really learned from the moral of this story and am unfortunately still an outrageous show off. Slightly more risk-averse, perhaps."

A show-off maybe, but undoubtedly a legend.

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