Shane Byrne gets back on a bike eight years after career-ending BSB crash

Eight years on from his career-ending BSB testing crash at Snetterton, Shane Byrne has been able to return to riding for the first time.

Byrne suffered significant neck injuries in the crash at Snetterton during a BSB test there in 2018 when he was defending champion. Since his retirement he has gone into TV, working with TNT Sports on their WorldSBK and BSB coverage, as well as working with fellow Kent rider Bradley Ray.

The five-time BSB champion, though, had been unable to return to a motorcycle since his crash, but but eight years on he was finally able to when asked by Ducati – with which he won three of his five BSB titles – to take part in their centenary celebrations at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

“I got asked about doing the Ducati Centenary anniversary at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and I can’t even begin to tell you how good it was to be back on the Panigale there,” Shane Byrne wrote in a blog for Ducati UK.

“But in the lead up I spoke to Sara Falzolgher at Ducati UK, and she said it was no problem to lend me some motorcycles to ride. 

“I haven't really ridden in like the eight years or so since my accident. And the first bike they sent me was a Panigale V4 S Corse! 

“It’s hard to say how that made me feel getting on that after such such a long time off. To get on something as just remarkably capable as the V4 S, it was like ‘Oh, my God. How much did the game change?’ 

“It was really, really interesting for me.”

Byrne also had the chance to ride some different bikes, and was even able to get out on the roads with his daughter as pillion.  

“The thing that struck me the most was after the V4 S, Ducati UK loaned me the Hypermotard V2 SP. And the way that I rode that compared to the Panigale was completely different. 

“For all I thought what the Hypermotard was going to be like and how I’d ride it, I actually found myself going completely away from that and just plodding through little country lanes and riding it out on little single-track roads and stuff like that. And I loved it, happy as a sandboy.   

“But last week, they delivered me a Multistrada V4 RS. Straight away, I said to my daughter, because it's school holidays ‘We're going for a ride’. 

“This was the model that I was really looking forward to. 

“I think if you had to choose one bike that did everything, it's like almost mission impossible, but in terms of perfection, in terms of steering, in terms of performance, in terms of capability, to go a long way, to go a short way, to being in traffic, to do whatever, I think you're going to be pretty hard pushed to beat that Multistrada. So far, so very, very good!”