Chris Jordon

Update October 2009

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I used to live in Luther Street, the west end of Leicester, but I now live in Enderby. I'm still married to Kath who used to ride pillion on the back of my bikes on the bike runs and rallies. I remember having the GS750 and an old RD250 when I was with the Phoenix.

We had a daughter Vicky in 1982 who finished her degree at Leeds uni two years ago and came away with a first in Cognitive Sciences. She has a partner who completed his PHD last October again at Leeds uni, and now has a doctorate in genetic Diseases. They have just brought their first house in Leeds. Guess who's doing all of the "little jobs" for them at the weekends?

During the years I spent riding out with the Phoenix I worked at Leicester College in the faculty of construction a job which I really enjoyed, but decided to leave after 28 years for a job with Leicester City Council as the housing departments asbestos coordinator. It was literally a new job as no one had ever done it before so I started with a clean slate as it were. We now have a small team of surveyors who I line manage and a team assistant. I must admit I love the job, but it is very demanding on time and energy.

Away from work I still have the bike (1200 Bandit) which suits me down to the ground as a bit of a hooligan's tool when I get to ride it. I've been out once with the Phoenix on the Bandit for a short day back in 2004, to the Arnesby festival. Cracking day out, but time is at a premium these days and I rarely have a chance to ride the bike at the moment.

I did spend a short few years playing drums again with a band again back in the 1990s which was the most amazing fun, but again I haven't the energy these days to carry on gigging like I used too, so I sold the kit apart from an original Premier maple shelled snare drum and an 18" rack tom which is now a money box. It holds a small fortune in ones and twos.

My other great pastime is still my aviation interests. I remember taking a bunch of bikers gliding at Husbands Bosworth in 2003 and rattling it back from over Market Harborough at 90 knots so every one else could have a decent flight. I haven't done any power flying since the mid 80's when I helped a local business man build an Evans VP2 with a VW 1800 motor blown to 2100 with a Kavan type 4 conversion. It was crazy, an open cockpit with a large fuel tank directly in front of us bolted to a 3/4 ply bulkhead along with the engine. The fuel guage was a length of piano wire through the filler cap with a cork dipped into epoxy resin on one end. The other end had a red bead. When that was level with the bottom of the screen it was time to land and refuel. It didn't even have a radio but we managed to get a CAA ticket for dual. The chap who owned it sold it on after a time and it's now somewhere in Kent I think.

These days it's mainly my radio controlled "toy planes" that I still fly. As I'm close to retiring from work I've been collecting kits, engines and radio so I can spend some quality shed time building and more time flying as well as getting out on the bike.

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