Ananova:

A leather-clad former minister has had a motorcycle hearse built for bikers' funerals.

The Reverend Ray Biddiss hopes his unusual creations will be welcomed by the biking fraternity.

The motorbike pulls a glass, black and chrome coffin carriage with a steel deck that was designed by Mr Biddiss.

Grieving relatives can even travel on the pillion on the three-wheeler, which cost more than £18,000, and was converted by Devon firm, Wackey's Trikes, from a Suzuki Boulevard 1400cc Intruder.

Mr Biddiss, 54, a former minister at Pellon Baptist Church in Halifax, has been a biker since he was 15.

He designed the motorcycle hearse because he wanted to give people the opportunity to make their last goodbye the way they wanted to, rather than "what Church tradition dictates."

He is, he says, very passionate about "introducing choice into funerals" so that "every very personal final journey" ends up being "a true celebration of their life".

The widower who lost his wife to cancer in 2004 is a reformed gambler who once had his house repossessed to settle a bill.

He joined the church as a fully ordained Baptist minister in 1996 before leaving in 2003. Since then he has become a civic celebrant - someone who organises civil funerals.

During one highly unusual 'Punk' funeral he memorably had to ask anyone who was easily shocked to leave before punk legend Sid Vicious' expletive filled version of the Frank Sinatra's My Way was played.