A BIKER with a “beautiful soul” died after striking a deer and losing control of his motorcycle, an inquest heard.

Clive Godber, 64, of Dorchester, died at the scene of the crash on the A354 near Sixpenny Handley, north Dorset, after a driver saw him unsteady on his motorbike.

An inquest at Dorset Coroner’s Court heard that Clive was a farmer since he was eight years old and was “loved by all”.

His wife, Louise Godber, said Clive was a special man who was ‘always there to help people with a huge smile on his face’.

“Clive was my soul mate, I lost the love of my life,” said Louise.

She said that Clive was a grandfather and was always dependable, adding: “I miss him and everything we had.”

Louie also thanked the emergency services and the member of the public who tried to help Clive.

On April 21 Clive was riding a grey Kawasaki motorcycle on the A354 between Cashmoor and the Handley Cross roundabout to visit his mother in Nottingham.

At around 6am a woman drove past Clive and saw him ‘wobbling as if trying to get control’ before witnessing him falling off in her rearview mirror.

Despite best efforts from emergency services, Clive was pronounced dead by paramedics at 6.13am.

PC Burt said in a statement to the court that the incident took place on a rural, 60mph road which has no street lighting.

The remains of a dead deer were found near where the accident occurred, and the forensics teams found deer hair both on the road and in the motorcycle wheel.  

Police officers believe that Clive hit the deer and became unsteady on his motorbike before becoming unseated.

A postmortem examination conducted by Dr Julianne Stolte found Clive’s cause of death to be multiple head injuries

Assistant coroner for Dorset, Richard Middleton, concluded that he died because of a road traffic collision.

Clive’s family and friends raised £270 towards Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance and DocBike, a charity working to prevent motorcyclist deaths.