Coddenham motocross legend and stuntman Dave Bickers, who appeared in James Bond movies, celebrated in new book

A book has been launched which celebrates one man’s journey from champion motocross rider to stuntman extraordinaire.

Dave Bickers, also known as the Coddenham Flyer, was an accomplished scrambling racer in the 1960s and went on to provide stunt work for many blockbuster movies including seven James Bond films from For Your Eyes Only to Die Another Day.

The new book, Dave Bickers Unscrambled, was officially launched on Saturday and it was written by Ian Berry to deliver a captivating true life story drawing on the words from Dave’s friends, teammates, rivals and family including his son Paul.

Paul Bickers said: “When my dad died about nine years ago, Ian approached us to write a book on his life - not just about the scrambling but also about growing up during a time of war, his motocross career, going into the film industry and his retirement.

“I’m really proud of how the book has turned out and it’s a really easy read going through my father’s life - I’ve actually learned a lot more about him than I knew before reading the book.

“The launch was such a lovely day and we sold about 100 books in the end and we were really lucky with the weather - it was just an overall great success.”

The book explores many highlights in Dave’s life including when he won the European 250cc championship two years in a row in 1960 and 1961 for the Greeves factory racing team and also when he was awarded the Motorcycle News ‘Man of the Year’ award in 1960.

It then goes into his time working on the silver screen when he was a stunt double for Roger Moore in Octopussy and Escape to Athena which then led to a career in stunt coordination with his production company Bickers Action.

The business was established in 1976 and has been providing high quality camera tracking and stunt work for film and TV including work in the Fast and Furious films, the Harry Potter series, Pirates of the Caribbean as well as popular soaps Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

To purchase Dave Bickers Unscrambled, click here.

Dave died from a stroke aged 76 but through Bickers Action, and the new book, his legacy will live on through Paul.

“It’s nice to know his story will live on now,” Paul said. “We have a little private museum here dedicated to my dad’s life which has lots of things from his career - about 15 of his bikes and a rare stunt bike we used in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

“It’s funny - we used to travel around the world to Hollywood, The Hard Rock Cafe and things like that, and they have different film props on show that claim they’re the originals.

“Little do they know the actual original is in Coddenham of all places - that used to make us chuckle.”