This is one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to write. David “Davo” Jones, he of the transcontinental rides, the FarRiders, the GTR forum and so much else, has died as the result of a bike crash.

Davo was in the United States living his dream – he was taking part in the Iron Butt ride, one of the few Australians ever to get the nod for this invitation-only event. It seems he was only about 65 miles from the end of the ride when he collided with a deer. He suffered a broken hand, and head injuries from which he died in hospital in Coeur D’Alene.

This is where the story becomes bizarre. The State Trooper who attended the crash reported that Davo had not been wearing his helmet.
While I certainly don’t want to question the Trooper’s report – after all, he was there – I simply cannot understand this. Davo was one of the most safety-conscious riders I have ever known. When we planned his ride across Australia and back for ARR to assess whether the Kawasaki 1400 GTR really was a “transcontinental” motorcycle, both his and my priority at all times was safety. He could have done the ride much faster, but at a risk – and we decided that that risk was simply not worth it. Davo was a father figure for many riders, and one subject on which he knew no compromise was safety.

I just can’t believe that this was the same man who was supposedly out there with his helmet strapped to the back of his bike. My first reaction was – maybe he’d swapped bikes with someone else, for some weird reason, and it was the other person who crashed. Silly, I know, but you reach for the strangest explanations when reality doesn’t make sense.

To bring the whole thing into absolute relief, it seems that one of the doctors treating Davo said that if he’d been wearing his helmet, his worst injury would have been the broken hand.

But enough of that. All of our thoughts now are with Davo’s wife Wil and the rest of his family. The wider motorcycling family, including the Ulysses Club and Davo’s own beloved FarRiders, has been inundating his son-in-law Jim with offers of help. We’ll help, too, in any way we can – and eventually, with the agreement of the family, we hope to organise some kind of memorial for Davo. Probably something relating to road safety.

In the meantime, all I can really do is write “goodbye, mate… I’ll miss you”.

Peter “The Bear” Thoeming