Easy rider ... in a rickshaw! (From Warrington Guardian)

Easy rider ... in a rickshaw!

MARTIN Hampson has brought the subcontinent to the streets of Lymm with an imported Indian rickshaw.

He paid £1,000 for it then another £600 for it to be shipped to Bahrain, then Hamburg and finally Felixstowe.

It has no doors, no seatbelts and a flimsy roof but Martin said: "It's not scary!"

The only nod to safety is a hand-operated horn that Martin bought in India for £2 and taped to the front.

The 70-year-old said: "It's classed as a motorbike but I don't need a motorbike licence."

It took two years for the DVLA to approve of it because Martin was initially going to import a two-stroke model - which produces too much smoke.

But the four-stroke model he bought has a catalytic converter. It is powered by a 177cc engine - about a 10th the size of the average saloon car.

"With a tail wind on a hill it can go 50mph!," said Martin, from Burford Lane, a former pub landlord.

"But I just potter around at 30mph.

"You get all the BMWs behind you beeping to go past. But I just put my hand out to them and say 'slow down'."

The divorced father of three daughters, who visits India every year, added: "They say you should never grow up!"