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Adventure Rider Radio

From London Traffic to Global Motorcycle Rider

Adventure Rider Radio

Canoe West Media

Automotive, Adventure, Traveller, Motorbike, Trip, Discover, Moto, World, Documentary, Outdoors, Overlander, Adv, Bike, Travel, Touring, Biker, Advrider, Dualsport, Traveler, Explore, Rider, Overland, Ride, Motorcyclist, Motorcycle, Places & Travel, Society & Culture, Leisure, Leisure:automotive

4.9915 Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2025

⏱️ 92 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Damian (Demon) Rowley spent 35 years riding motorcycles professionally in London—first as a courier, then as one of Virgin’s elite “limo bike” riders, trusted to ferry celebrities and executives through the city’s relentless traffic. With over half a million miles behind him, Damian shares the toll of crashes, injuries, and burnout, as well as the moment he realized he needed a change. At 50, he walked away from security, ended a long relationship, and set out solo on a KTM 690 to ride the world. His story isn’t just about motorcycles—it’s about reinvention, confronting fear, and discovering personal growth when the safety nets are gone.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You've heard of the Virgin Group. You know, Richard Branson, that guy who does all kinds of things. He has all kinds of businesses. I remember he started out in records in the early 1970s. I think a mail order record business that grew into version

0:21.2

records. Next thing you know, he's got airlines, telecom media, and supposedly hundreds of other

0:25.9

ventures. Well, this is a venture that I've never heard of. No, the story's not about Branson.

0:31.6

It's about a guy who ended up working for one of his companies. His name is Damien Rowley.

0:37.4

Damien has had an incredibly interesting

0:39.6

career. He started out in London, riding his motorcycle around as a career at the age of 17,

0:46.3

buzzing around every single day in London traffic. And then through, you'll hear this today,

0:52.2

he ends up getting into this elite service that was owned by

0:56.1

and probably started by, I think, Virgin Group of Richard Branson fame. And what the service is,

1:02.1

is they're driving people around, like picking them up at the airport. It's a taxi service sort of on a

1:07.6

motorcycle. I mean, I've never heard of such a thing, but it's an extremely

1:10.9

interesting career because he's not just taxing the average person. He's taxing a lot of executives

1:15.9

and very famous people like Ewan McGregor, for instance, or Bear Grills. So you can imagine the

1:23.3

pressure that he was under to get through London not only quickly and efficiently. This is the whole

1:28.2

point of it, but on the back he has these people that are probably not only high profile, but

1:33.7

kind of expensive. It would be demanding, risky, and it really shaped his whole life. I can imagine

1:40.5

there's a lot that was just incredibly interesting and fun, and you're going to hear about this today. Now, though, in his 50s, things are looking different. His back has taken a beating

1:50.3

over the years and you'll hear about that. He had a long relationship that ended. And he started to

1:55.6

wonder what was next in life. He wasn't satisfied with where he was and how things were happening. So he stepped

2:03.0

away. He left the job. He packed up his KTM 690 and set off on a motorcycle adventure.

2:10.5

He's out there learning about the places he's traveling through, the countries, the people that are

2:15.7

in those countries. But what he's really after is learning about himself.

...

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