Revs and wheelie tributes at funeral of tragic biker

FAMILY AND FRIENDS SAY FAREWELL TO 20-YEAR-OLD WHO WANTED TO 'DIE ON A BIKE'

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

REVVING their engines and pulling wheelies outside Manchester Crematorium, friends and family gathered to say farewell to Kyle Maher, who once told his family he wanted to 'die on a bike!

The 20-year-old, from Wythenshawe, suffered fatal injuries when a motorbike on which he was a pillion passenger was involved in a collision with a car on July 29.

He suffered a catalogue of serious injuries, including a broken neck, back, leg and arms and died a few days later at Salford Royal Hospital. Yesterday, hundreds of family and friends, many of them wearing blue T-shirts and hoodies bearing his picture, gathered for Kyle's funeral service.

Moments before the service began, traffic on Barlow Moor Road came to brief standstill as some of Kyle's friends who had come to the service on motorbikes revved their engines loudly and sent plumes of white smoke into the air as they span the wheels of the stationary machines.

Others pulled wheelies up and down the main road. Police were close by but did not intervene.