PETE ’ S PEOPLE
defunct ) where he was going to visit “ Grimmy ” who ’ d previously fallen off the beloved Honda . Chris was idling along at 20mph trying to find the right entrance for the Hospital ’ s A & E Department . Upon spying the correct gate he turned right into the driveway without looking behind , only to get collected and totalled by an overtaking vehicle . This apparently simple turn resulted in a femur broken into seven separate pieces , a shattered heel , and he also managed to chop off the top of his right thumb . Hell of a visit . The second notable ‘ off ’ was while travelling on the M40 into London for work . “ I was riding in the middle lane , minding my own business , when a geezer in the car in the left-hand lane decided he needed the space I was occupying more than I did . So this action created a need to move into the fast right-hand lane , to avoid being hit . “ What actually happened was the traffic inevitably stopped dead , and all I can remember was travelling through the air , flying forward over the handlebars , and landing on the vehicle two cars ahead , collecting the car with the top of my AGV helmet , and creating some fairly ugly breaks in my pelvis , amongst other bits and pieces .” Chris relates that all of these crashes were avoidable , “ if I hadn ’ t been stupid , and had actually remembered all that the riding instructor had imparted when I was learning .” Probably the reason he ’ s so passionate about rider safety and road behaviours these days .
MOTORCYCLING AS A PASSPORT Chris ’ adventures have taken him all round the globe ... “ to over 20 different countries , and I ’ ve crashed in every single one of them .” To be honest that ’ s actually his line of work , as a stunty he gets paid to crash and fall off , as spectacularly as possible . But Chris freely admits that at other times it was his “ own experimentation with various techniques that I suddenly discovered didn ’ t work ”. Although Chris is a safety conscious instructor and a stickler for learning properly , so that these painful incidents are lessened for other folk , I managed to convince him to tell me one of his ‘ why the hell not ’ moments : as alluded to at the beginning .
Bikes and more bikes … Chris has had a few
82 KIWI RIDER