CannonBall Bike Run Update

I was mean't to be on this one myself but due to recent injuries reluctantly had to pull out - Chris Richardson however is down there and doing it ! Hailing from the west country and given the celubrious company in which Chris is riding, we have given him the alias of 'Goat Rider' - some of you will know that the legendary Ghost rider from Sweden is also on the trip although from what I can make out no one has actually seen him yet - someone has even suggested that he and the 'Stig' are one and the same ? Anyhow _ I though I would provide a brief update for those who have been folowing the preparations for the trip. Chris arrived at my house at 5.00 PM on Tuesday on his race bike - an RSV Factory - his token effort towards preparation was to cut a small hole in the right hand side of the race nose cone and fit a single light and another hole in the tailpiece to fit the rear light as well as strapping a number plate on - the bike did'nt even have a side stand and certainly did'nt have such luxuries as horn, indicators, mirrors etc - although we managed to stick a single left hand mirror on at the last minute. Chris's personal preparation included his race suit, boots and gloves and his race helmet with a dark tinted visor and as an afterthought we managed to squeeze my very light weight waterproof jacket and trousers into his rucksack - I hope for his sake it does'nt get too wet, cold or dark ! The bike arrived with its 15/47 520 chain race gearing from the last meeting at Pemberey so we managed to find a 17T 520 front which went on and we also swapped the discs which were badly warped for the ones off my smashed up SP in the garage. I received a text last night at 6.00 PM (having waved goodbye to Chris at 5.00 AM the previous morning) - the text said that he had so far been to Geneva and Cannes (all in the space of 36 hours) so it sounds pretty full on. If anyone else has a friend on the trip or contact with anyone else please add some information here - as far as I am aware there have been no mishaps yet but there was some mention of trouble with the police along the way ......... further updates will follow assuming I get another text - there are apparently a total of 3 factories on the trip.