Gareth Jones – Pan Without A Plan

It takes a butt of steel and a special pair of balls to ride a hard tail motorcycle for six months around Africa. For those of you who don’t know, a hard tail is a motorcycle that has a rigid frame where the rear axle is slotted directly into the frame. No swing arm, no rear suspension, no nothing. The only thing cushioning your butt from the impact of the road is the air in the tire and whatever softness your seat provides you.

I’m referring to a gentleman call Gareth Jones and his 1951 custom built Harley-Davidson pan head. He has a page on Facebook called “Pan Without A Plan” and I’ve been following his progress through Africa as he posts some of absolutely amazing pictures of his motorcycle using the African landscape as a backdrop. Here are a few of them.

Today he posted this picture with pretty much sums up his ride so far.

He captioned this picture, “After riding a rigid bike around Southern Africa for 15000 km I tend to agree with this blunt statement!“. Click the image above for a larger view.

There are adventure motorcycle riders and then there are people like Gareth Jones. They take the phrase “ride hard” to a whole new level of hardness. I normally wish fellow riders with “ride hard, ride safe”. To Gareth, I’ll just wish him a safe ride. He is already riding hard. 🙂

Gareth, you the man.

Note: All pics credit and copyright Gareth Jones