A 59-YEAR-OLD man taking his dogs for a stroll on Clontarf Hill was run over and viciously beaten by a trail biker last Friday.

Frank Vazzoler spent two days in bed with concussion and severe bruising after the attack, and a week later finds it painful to breathe because of a suspected broken rib.

Mr Vazzoler was on a walking trail on the hill’s ridge at 11am when he spotted the rider — known to locals for being aggressive towards anyone challenging his illegal riding — sitting on his bike.

“I told him he wasn’t allowed up here and suddenly he turned his bike, zoomed towards me, and hit me full force, knocking me on my back,” Mr Vazzoler says.

• Frank Vazzoler on Clontarf Hill with his dogs Sunny and Toddy. He’s smiling now, but last Friday was the victim of a sickening attack which left him semi-conscious, with a suspected broken rib and bleeding Photos by Stephen Pollock

“He jumped off his bike, took off his helmet, and started punching and kicking me while I was lying on the ground.

“I was semi-conscious and in a bad way, so all I could do was sort of stick my legs up in the air to try and fend him off.”

Three ramblers found Mr Vazzoler curled up on the path and phoned the police.

The Hamilton Hill resident says his attacker, in his early twenties with dark eyes and thick dark hair, was riding a red and white Honda CRF 250, with Melville Honda stickers and custom stubby handle bar leavers.

“He didn’t have gloves on, which is unusual for a biker, and police suspect he could have been a thief checking out houses from the top of the hill.”

Mr Vazzoler, a colourful local, has lived at the base of Clontarf Hill on Healy Road for 20 years.

The tough old rooster refused to go to hospital and convalesced at his bohemian property after the attack.

His garden is like a scene from television series American Pickers, dotted with an old Tasmanian police bus, vintage motorbikes, sculptures and a retro van.

Friends of Clontarf Hill member and friend Kylie Wheatley says Mr Vazzoler lives a semi-Buddhist lifestyle.

“He’s actually a second dan in karate and knows how to defend himself, but he’s very gentle and I’ve never heard him raise his voice or lose his temper.

“If he hadn’t been knocked down by the bike, I reckon he would have been able to neutralise the biker quite easily – that guy had a lucky escape,” Ms Wheatley said.

Police say they are investigating.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK