A PROFESSIONAL motorcyclist has been killed in a head-on crash while on holiday in Scotland on his new "dream" bike.

David Thomas, 42, a fan of the BBC drama Hamish Macbeth, was heading for Kyle of Lochalsh to stay at the Plockton Arms, where part of the series is filmed.

The rider, known affectionately as "Big Dave", died instantly from a broken neck when his Triumph Tiger 900cc bike was in collision with a car on a sharp bend on the Fort William road out of Oban.

The bike was a Christmas present from his partner of five years, Christine Thomas, 29, who owns Black Cat Couriers, Oswaldtwistle.

His death has devastated the close-knit motorcycling community, coming only four months after Black Cat courier Philip Pirie, 31, was killed in an accident in Manchester.

Dave helped Christine run the firm from their home in Havelock Street, working as a courier and doing the books.

He set out on the spur of the moment on Saturday morning, prompted by the good weather.

Christine said: "It was his dream bike. He had wanted it for a long, long time. "He had just run it in and it was his first trip of the year.

"Dave had always loved Scotland. It was his favourite place. He rang me at 2.30pm to say he was in Scotland and having a really good time."

An hour before the accident, Christine keyed the words "I love you" into his mobile phone, a message she knows he received.

"It comforts me that he was where he wanted to be, on the bike he wanted to be on, in the sunshine," she added.

Christine said Dave was best described as a character, affectionately describing him as a cross between Ghengis Khan and actor Brian Blessed, who could bawl a courier out for doing something wrong and then take him for a beer.

"He was a lovely rather imposing chap and an excellent laugh. People had a lot of respect for him," she added.

Dave, originally from Kent, was a London despatch rider for 15 years, owned two courier firms in the capital, and also worked as a professional photographer.

Christine travelled to Oban with courier Garry Alexander and placed flowers at the scene.

The funeral is at Accrington crematorium on Friday at 1pm.

An escort of outriders is planned and Christine says motorcyclists are welcome to assemble from noon at Wolstenholme's, Willows Lane.

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