Bikers told an inquest how they regularly rode a double bend on a country road on which their pal was killed at around 80mph - despite there being a 60mph limit on it.

Andrew Lazonby, 38, of Astley Road, Seaton Delaval, was killed instantly on a bank holiday weekend when his powerful Suzuki SV1000 machine hit a tree on the C200 road at Stanners Burn near Falstone in Northumberland.

Coroner Eric Armstrong recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing how Mr Lazonby, who was found slumped over his upright machine which was embedded in the tree, had suffered multiple head and chest injuries.

The death of the team leader at Proctor and Gamble left his two children Paige, 12, and son Kurt, 10, and his wife Tracy, 40, heartbroken.

Mr Lazonby's pal Ken Norman of Collingwood Grange, Cramlington, told the inquest how he and Mr Lazonby had been bike mad since they were 16 years old. A group of them would regularly do weekend rides in the summer along two routes, one of them 150 miles and the other 270 miles.

On Sunday, April 30, they had set out on the 150-mile Kielder and Rothbury run and had been overtaking a group of touring bikers just before the accident happened on the double bend.

Mr Norman said: "I believe Andrew would have taken the corner where the accident was at about 80mph. It was a right hand followed by a left hand bend."

Mr Norman, who told the coroner how they often reached 80mph on their runs, added: "I thought maybe a pheasant or something might have made him alter his line."

Max Knights, of Clondyke, Cramlington, who was riding with the other two bikers, said he thought he had taken the same bend at 70-80mph without any problem. But the inquest heard how retired policeman David Dutson, one of the touring bikers, had been astonished when he saw the three sports motorcycles overtake a car ahead of him on the wrong side of the road with no escape route just before the bend.

In his statement to the inquest he said: "I remember shouting: `No, never, it's not on'. I did not believe anyone could be that stupid."

Mr Dutson then came across the Suzuki rammed into the tree and tried to give first aid to its rider who was lying over his bike with his helmet on and strap fastened. But he soon realised he was lifeless.

Accident investigator PC John Middleton said: "It is known the riders would regularly exceed the maximum 60mph on the road at speed at up to 80mph."

He said it was possible Mr Lazonby, who had made the same run on many occasions, had made an error of judgement coming out of the right-hand bend but there would have been other reasons and the exact cause of his loss of control could not be established. He said if the deceased was travelling at an excessive speed through the bend, it would have been extremely difficult to recover from any loss of control.

PC Middleton added: "It is extremely likely that rider error and excessive speed caused the loss of control."