Movie tough guy Vinnie Jones has spent much of his Hell Ride paycheck on his new love of motorcycling after playing a rider in the film.

The former British soccer star treated himself to a top-of-the-range Harley Davidson bike, and now it has become his favored mode of transport as he rides around his adopted Los Angeles.

He says, "When I got the call for 'Hell Ride,' we went out Santa Clarita way (California) and we were driving around with this guy who owns the Glory motorcycle shop in Hollywood, and the buzz just came back. I phoned my pal Jason Statham and said, 'Take me down to Harley (Davidson) in Glendale.' So I went in and saw a Harley and bought it. My money on the film basically went to my new Harley!"

And Jones can't believe he's back in the saddle after a bike crash years ago put him off motorcycles.

He recalls, "When I was 17 I bought a Kawasaki and nearly killed myself on it. I was just going around a country lane too fast, as you do, leaning right over, and a great big lorry was coming the other way, so I flipped it and thought, 'This is the end,' and went right into a barbed wire fence. I had to go to hospital, so I thought that was the end of my riding days."

And he wasn't sure he was ready to go biking when his first night trip on the Los Angeles freeways left him terrified: "I wanted to bring the bike on to the set, so I rode it to work but didn't realize it would be night time when we'd drive home. This was only the second time I've ever rode the bike. I was cr**ping myself on the freeway with the cars whizzing by, so the boys in the film drove home with me and protected me with the bikes. I had a couple of guys in front, three or four in the lane next to me and a couple behind and I got back that way."

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)