HE’S the motorbike stunt rider who performs jaw-dropping mid-air tricks to adoring audiences every day.

But he wouldn’t even consider tackling Southampton’s roads on the way to work in the big top in Mayflower Park, describing them as far too dangerous.

Brodie Knibbs, 26, is part of the motorbike stunt team proving the star attraction at Circus Extreme, which is in Southampton until bank holiday Monday and also features high-wire acts, a wheel-of-death stunt, trapeze act, jugglers and Henry the World famous Prince of Clowns.

Brodie is a highly-regarded member of the Extreme Stunt Show Motorbike team, but revealed he doesn’t have a licence to drive motorbikes on Britain’s “lethal” roads.

He told the Daily Echo: “I did start taking lessons to ride on the road but I just didn’t feel safe.

“The difference is inside the big top I know exactly where I need to be riding and at what speed, but when on the roads you’re worrying about other vehicles flying around you and your destiny is in someone else’s hands.”

During Circus Extreme, riders fly through the air during the two-hour show’s spectacular high octane finale, displaying cliff-hangers, nac nacs and supermans.

They really get the adrenaline pumping as they defy gravity with incredible mid-air backflips.

The stunt riding team also perform the Globe of Death. The most death-defying act ever completed in the circus, they experience G-force similar to that of a fighter pilot. Audiences gasp as they loop vertically and horizontally all while encased in a mesh sphere in one for the petrolheads.

A particularly spectacular moment sees Brodie somersault on his bike over the huge mesh ball which also has three bikers spinning around inside it.

Brodie, who hails from Coventry, loved going to watch Extreme Stunt Shows whenever they came to his home city and taught himself to trick ride on cinder tracks until he was good enough to become a stunt rider.