For Kevin Lear there is no place like home. Kevin has filmed video diaries while riding his motorbike around countries including India and Bosnia. His next venture will feature the place he loves more than anywhere: the Lake District.

“The Lakes is one of the reasons I moved to Cumbria from the north east,” he says. “I haven’t got tired of it. There’s bits of road I’ve been on so many times I’ve worn a groove in them.”

Kevin, 60, lives near Appleby and has produced hundreds of videos, many of them subtitled Motorbike Tours Cumbria. These have been viewed by thousands of people on websites such as YouTube.

His next Cumbria production will debut not on phones and computers but on cinema screens.

Its premiere will come at the Roxy in Ulverston before a showing at the Royalty in Bowness-on-Windermere.

Kevin’s local knowledge and enthusiasm are key to this. Technology also plays a part. He says: “When I started making videos in 2009 I was using a head camera, as I still do. But there was no stability. The whole thing was bouncing about. Now everything is so smooth.

“Last Christmas my son bought me a GoPro camera. It’s the size of these pots.”

Kevin points to the salt and pepper on the table of the Penrith café where we’re talking. “And what I’m filming with it is going to be shown on a cinema screen. It’s just nuts.”

Earlier this year Kevin posted on Facebook about his dream of producing a film that would be shown at a cinema. He was advised to contact Mark Latimer, who runs the Roxy and the Royalty.

“I got in touch,” recalls Kevin. “He replied to say ‘We already know about you and we’re really interested.’ I went down to see him and showed him a sample of my footage on the screen. He’s agreed to show the film as a matinee at both cinemas.

“When I walked into the Roxy, I just started smiling. It was a proper cinema, the kind I used to go to when I was a kid. I just had a great feeling about the whole thing.”

Kevin hopes that other people will share his enthusiasm. He plans to have the film - provisionally titled Cumbria: A Motorbike Rider’s Story - ready by next Easter.

The timescale depends partly on securing support from tourism bodies and businesses. Kevin has contacted Cumbria Tourism, Visit Eden and Visit Keswick. None has replied.

He says: “I don’t think this is true of Visit Eden, because I’ve worked with them before. But in my opinion Cumbria Tourism and Visit Keswick do not want to promote motorbike riding in the Lake District.

“Their belief is we’re going to tear around the roads, terrorising the sheep and creating mayhem. What they fail to realise is, we’re mature guys. We’re the only ones who can afford the damn things!

“They’ve given me not one iota of interest. That annoyed me.”

The film will be sponsored by Held, a German company which makes motorbike clothing. Kevin has contacted Lake District businesses which profit from tourism and is hoping to include some in the film. The Laurel and Hardy Museum at Ulverston has already expressed interest.

Regardless of what backing he receives, Kevin will go ahead with the project. This attitude is partly a legacy of his health issues. He is determined to make the most of his time.

In 2000 he underwent a lifesaving operation to remove his large colon and fit an ileostomy bag.

Kevin also has diabetes, arthritis in both shoulders, 50 per cent lung function, and is about to be investigated for possible heart disease.

He used to think life was long - there was plenty of time to do so much. His health problems and the deaths of friends have taught him otherwise. A trip to Cyprus a few months ago added to the lesson.

“I was going to ride on the island and make all these films. I’d been there in the army in my early twenties. I’m riding down the road and - oh my god, that’s it. A beach I was last on 38 years ago.

“All of a sudden it was like a time machine. I’d last run up this hill with a guy called Dave Lawrence. We were all drinking brandy sours. I was 22.

“The waves were lapping in. It was like, there’s my 22-year-old self standing there next to me.

“I had to get away. When I went back to my accommodation I ended up sobbing. I wondered, where the hell has this come from? I thought afterwards, I should have been happy I’m still alive. But that’s just how I am. I was due to stay there another week and a half. I brought my flight forward and just left.”

Reflecting now, it’s clear to Kevin that he was jolted into realising that life is short and time is passing quickly. His response is to try and leave a legacy.

“The legacy is doing what I enjoy. The films, the books, the photos. If one person says they enjoy it, it’s been worthwhile. You think, what have I done? I have experienced a hell of a lot. But I don’t know how much longer I’ve got. There’s still so much that I want to do.”

This includes a trip to India in November, possibly for three months, to make a film. Kevin rode there for nine days in 2015 and wrote a book about it, called An Englishman in India. His film is provisionally titled Tea, Tigers and Temples.

“The temples blow my bloody mind,” he says. “They are incredible. I want to see a tiger in the wild. I absolutely love them. I want to tell the story of tea. I know it’s been done, but not by me.”

This is another film which could find a home in Cumbrian cinemas. Kevin doesn’t know if he’ll be able to make money from his creations. For the moment he is a part-time HGV driver who would prefer to travel on his own terms, on his bike.

“I need to earn money. But driving wagons, I’m dead compared with what I want to do.”

This includes taking people on motorbike tours of the Lake District; something Kevin began doing this year.

“You think ‘Everybody knows the Lakes.’ But they don’t. The first thing people ask when they get here is ‘Where can I go?’ The feedback I’ve had - they absolutely loved it. They’re fascinated by the places I can take them. It’s not just a case of A to B. There’s so much more to the area. That’s what I want to bring out in the film.

“I can’t think of one film that’s been produced about Cumbria as a feature film for the cinema. It will feature history and heritage, things I’ve picked up over the years of promoting tourism in Cumbria. I used to have a business producing guidebooks, maps and magazines.

“If my films make money, they make money. If they don’t they don’t. But I want to make something that people will watch and say ‘Wow!’ I don’t want to be lying on my death bed thinking ‘Why the hell didn’t I just go and do it?’”