Arnie: I'll be back on bikes

A fat-lipped Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to keep riding motorcycles – despite a weekend accident that left the former Hollywood action hero with minor injuries.

As an actor, he had to sign contracts covering possible injuries from stunts, said the man who is now California’s governor.

“I did all those things anyway,” Schwarzenegger said. “I never played by the rules.”

The governor received 15 stitches in his lip after he and his 12-year-old son Patrick were involved in the accident on Sunday near their Los Angeles home, his spokeswoman Margita Thompson said.

“I was very lucky,” Schwarzenegger said during an appearance at a health centre for women and children in North Hollywood. “It could have been very different.”

The left side of the governor’s upper lip was swollen and puffy but did not affect his speech or appear to cause much pain.

Schwarzenegger was riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle with his son in a sidecar when another driver backed into the street, Thompson said. Schwarzenegger collided with the car at low speed.

He and his son were treated for minor cuts and bruises at St John’s Hospital in Santa Monica and released. Both were wearing helmets.

The other driver was uninjured. No prosecutions were brought over the accident in the city’s Brentwood section, said Officer Jason Lee, a police spokesman.

Schwarzenegger, who famously rode motorcycles in the Terminator movies, never obtained an M-1 or M-2 endorsement on his California driving licence that would allow him to legally ride one on the street, KFI-AM radio in Los Angeles reported yesterday.

“He has acknowledged he should have the appropriate endorsement on his licence and will be getting one,” Thompson told The Associated Press.

The governor does hold a Class C licence that entitles him to legally operate a motorcycle with a sidecar attached. He also held a European licence that “covered motorcycles when he first came to the country”, Thompson said. She did not know if the European licence was still current.

In December 2001, Schwarzenegger broke six ribs and was in hospital for four days after a motorcycle crash in Los Angeles. The accident occurred when a car stopped in front of him and he was unable to change lanes to avoid the vehicle. His ribs were broken when his chest hit the motorcycle windscreen.