HOME
This page is the story of
Chris Jones's
Road Racing and Travel Experiences

The first photo is of Chris at Pembrey in his first year of road racing
In the photos with him are:-
Carl Haddrell (marksy), Richard Evans (titch tart) and Richard Walker (Mr. Blobby). These were regular travallers with Chris.
The third photo shows Chris in 1990 with his awards in road racing.
The rest are of Chris's equipment when he travels around Europe, taken at the Clubs 85th anniversary motorcycle show in October 2004.

The contents of this report is from an E-Mail sent by chris on Thursday September 8th 2005.

I, Chris Jones have been travelling on a motorcycle for the passed four years.
The bike I use is a 1999 Yamaha XT 600E.
I chose this bike because it has a simple single cylinder air cooled engine which would be easy to work on, if things went wrong.
Being a trail bike it also can be taken off road, would be comfortable on long trips and was cheap to buy.
This bike also had a good reputation for taking a beating…
The XT's have been used in the Paris to Dakar rally and on world trips.
Travels so far have been to, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Morocco.
This trip is to Scandinavia.
I left Wayne Bowen motorcycles after having a last cup of coffee with Barry (mucky motors) Trembath at 11am Saturday 16th of July.
Heading for north Wales and then on to Newcastle to catch the ferry to Kristainsand, Norway.
When I arrived at the ferry on the Monday at 2pm there were bikes everywhere, there was a big bike meeting in Latvia.
I started speaking to a guy from Scotland who was going to north of Norway and on to Russia.
He was riding a very badly prepared XT he had bought the XT one month ago and give it to a bike shop in Scotland to prepare for him.
The arm on the back brake calliper was seized, so they put one end of the calliper in the vice and hit it with a hammer and the calliper broke in two.
The Scot "Kelston" was not a happy man he was leaving in two day's.
He could not find a calliper anywhere in such short notice, so he had it welded.
So onto the ferry we went.
Having one or two beers on board was no problem because the trip took about twenty-one hours.
We arrived at Kristansand Norway at nine in the morning, a great time to arrive in a new land.
The weather was not so great though light rain but not cold. Kelston left the ferry a couple of places in front of me, so I did not see what happened.
The first left hand bend Kelston went round, he fell off and hurt his knee and ankle, I suggested that we go to the first café and assess the situation, which he agreed.
The crazy bastard had trainers on, how mad is that doing a trip up around the cape of Norway and into Russia with a pair of trainers on your feet.
Well his knee was swollen and his foot was Bleeding.
I went to try and get some ice for his swollen knee.
There was a very nice looking Norwegian girl serving at the counter, I told her what had happened and she give me some ice.
We were talking very happily together when I heard a voice behind me saying "Oh Welsh bastard where's my blinking ice" I had forgotten about the mad Scot the ice had half melted so the friendly Norwegian girl give me some more ice, I said to Kelston I've got to get my priorities right and you was second priority, we both laughed and I give him the ice. I decided to change my route and travel north with Kelston to make sure he was ok.
I will let you have another report later.
Regards to all at the Club.
Chris.

Text message recieved SEPTEMBER 21st 2005
Just entering Poland heading towards Russia. Up NORTH in a place called KOSZALIN Beer is very cheap just 80p for a big one.
Trying to find an internet site to take a disk. Weather getting colder now can feel it on my nipples, dented front wheel in the forests so trying to get that out.
Going to go south now to Austria where it will be a little warmer.
Not far from Kalingrad, got little holes in the gloves they've only lasted 4 years, must be those cheap ones from Barrie, need a chain sprockets and tyres now, hope someone can fetch them out to Elbag (it's just south of Kalingrad).

Text message recieved September 22nd 2005
I'm now in the middle of nowhere and my exhaust stud has snapped, fixed the wheel though, sucking in air like no tomorrow and got no light.
Regards to everyone, Chris.

CONTENTS OF E-MAIL RECIEVED OCTOBER 4th 2005

So the Scot and me went North together.60 miles into the trip he was in a lot of pain with his knee from the accident he had had coming off the ferry.
He said I need a doctor so we went to a small village and luckily there was a doctors surgery.
The doc took 10 syringes of blood out right in front of my eyes, "nice".
We stayed in a hotel that night to rest his leg, next morning after 11 hours sleep, we were off, he was feeling a lot better, but first I wanted to check over his Yamaha.
I couldn't believe what I saw, the front tyre had 15psi to much, it was like a rock, and this is why he probably fell off.
The rear had 17psi to low great start; the chain was like a poker and I went to adjust it my GOD!! The bike shop that had gone thoroughly through it my ass, and the wheels were miles out of alignment.
The spindle nut was so slack I could have undone it with my teeth, the locking nut that stops the wheel from sliding freely was almost out held in by 2 or 3 threads.
Kelston the Scot just stood and looked at me.
I said what tools do you have with you, because I was starting to see a picture here.
Yes I was right, the lunatic only had the tools that came with the bike and half of them were missing, then After setting the bike right we were off at last.
I was in front staying at a steady speed, when 2 to 3 hours in to the trip the roads were getting wetter and wetter, I went through some s-bends looked in my mirror, no sign of the Scot, dropped into fourth gear then third, second then into first.
Heck I thought, where is he, I turned round "OH NO" there were cars stopped everywhere and people running my heart started pounding, it's got to be Kelston and there down the banking was a Yamaha XT with a crazy Scot looking at me shaking his head.
What happened? I said getting of my bike, there were bits scattered all over the road, bits of plastic, clothes, oil, gas cans and a camping cooker.
He had come around the corner a bit wide and coming the other way a bit wide to was a Danish campervan. "Yes they met".
First impact was the XT's crash bars (big ones) saved his life though, into the door of the van, then the Givi side pannier smashing into a thousand pieces along the full length of the camper he went, bounced off and he went down the banking for a ride.
It's unbelievable how he is still alive. The XT was fine though hard as heck.
The campervan, well what a mess, don't mess with big crash bars.
Now it's the task of getting the bike out from the banking, He said, I can't do it will you do it.
So it was up to the Welshman to sort it out, I give it a big hand full and it was out.
Kelston and the Danish couple from the van swapped insurances and we strapped what was left on the road back on the bike and we were off again at about 20mph.
You can't beat Kelston for entertainment value.
The main thing was, that he was ok.
A few miles down the road it was time to part company I was going west to Bergan and he was going North to the North Cape. Kelston and I sat down for a last coffee said our goodbyes laughing.
I thought to myself he never make it.

Text message recieved Tuesday October 11th 2005

I'm now resting in my hammock drinking a glass of red wine and eating pasta and mushroom soup which I have just made on my little cooker down in mid Italy listening to Bob Marley on my MP3 player. It does not get better than that. There are a couple of Oak trees still here if anyone wants to join me.
I will send more details later,
regards,
Chris.

There will be more photos to follow and a full report as Chris returned on Monday October 17th 2005.

HOME