Many times I've thought, I've not heard from that toerag for ages' then I go, 'Oh, man ...it's still raw

Si King will sometimes get a good food idea and pick up his mobile to tell his best friend.

- MARK JEFFERIES

But the TV chef then sadly remembers that Dave Myers died in February.

Si, 58, spoke about his grieving process as he launched a Hairy Bikers book that he had to finish on his own following Dave's death from cancer aged 66.

He has endured a tough year or more - as he says he felt the pain of bereavement even before Dave passed away.

Si said: "The grieving process started quite a long time ago for me, when Dave was diagnosed - it was a big diagnosis.

"It was all about the fight and that's what we concentrated on.

"Grief is a very individual journey because it's about an emotional adjustment of loss and the things that are no longer tangible, and that's the bit that's odd to get your head around.

"The amount of times I've thought 'I've not heard from that toerag for ages... and then I go 'Oh, man..."

Earlier this month Si said of the effect Dave's death had on him: "More than once I was on the verge of jumping on my bike and heading into the sunset.

"Not tell anyone where I was going.

Just clear off and never come back."

He added this week: "It's raw for anybody that loses somebody but there are two things that are certain in life you begin it and you end it. The bit in the middle is about what you do with it.

"Dave loved his life, he lived it to the full and he was joyous to be around."

Si and Dave found fame together as the motorcycle-riding cooking doubleact more than 20 years ago.