A MOTORCYCLIST from Ripon was today in a stable condition in hospital after suffering multiple injuries in a crash on a North Yorkshire road.

He was travelling on the A170 from Thirsk towards Helmsley with two other motorcyclists last night when he was in collision with a blue Toyota Starlet travelling in the opposite direction.

The accident happened at about 7.45pm, close to the Hambleton Inn, near Sutton Bank. The car driver, a man from Great Ayton, was uninjured. The motorcyclist was taken by ambulance to Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.

The road was closed for more than four hours. North Yorkshire Police are appealing for anyone who saw the Toyota travelling from Helmsley to Thirsk, or the group of three distinctive motorcycles, one yellow, one blue and one black, red and silver, being ridden from Thirsk towards Helmsley, before the accident happened.

A motorcyclist suffered serious leg injuries after an accident on an East Yorkshire road. The 29-year-old man, from Market Weighton, was taken to York Hospital after the accident on the B1228, near Aughton, on Wednesday evening.

Updated: 11:20 Friday, May 30, 2003