Living my second life

When a freak accident tore his world apart, Australia-based H.O.G.^® member Bob Rees had two choices – give up or start all over again. This is the story of how one man has generated a positively charged ‘second life’ from the depths of absolute despair

Words: Steve Moore

It happened on 19 July 2019, while riding through an isolated part of Northern Malawi. Australia-based Chris and Bob Rees were obsessed with motorcycle travel and this was their second major ride through Africa.

“We were wiped out on the narrow one-way bridge we were crossing,” Bob explains. “We were already on the bridge when a car appeared on the other side. It just kept accelerating until it smashed into us. I had nowhere to go.” As he hit the ground, Bob (now 75) knew instantly that his back was broken. Meanwhile, Chris, who had been riding pillion, had managed to sit up despite her injuries. “I thought she would be OK,” says Bob.

With no ambulances and no painkillers, the local villagers loaded the stricken couple onto the back of a three-tonne truck to be driven to the nearest hospital. Tragically, after five hours of bouncing down a rough road, Chris died. “A fat embolism, like a blood clot, went from her knee to her brain.” Bob pauses. “We had been married for 47 years, raised a family, and we rode motorcycles. She was my everything. I was grief-stricken and in an extreme amount of pain.”

He says that it would have been far easier for him to die then and there, but he knew that he had to keep living for the sake of their two daughters, Alex and Katrina, and his grandchildren. “It would have been horrific for them if I had died too.”

Recovery was slow. Bob was hospitalised for over five months. “It was tough, but at the same time, I was figuring out how I could ride a motorcycle again. It’s what Chris would have wanted,” he says as he recalls another memory from that fateful day. “As she was dying, I managed to turn over so that we could hold hands and tell each other how much we loved each other. She said what a fabulous life we had shared and how she wouldn’t want to change a thing.”

Bob sees this as his second life. “My first life was with Chris and we did all this stuff,” he says. “Now, it feels like I’ve died and come back, so I need to make it meaningful. Otherwise, there’s no point.”

The long list of injuries sustained in the accident has left Bob a wheelchair-bound paraplegic with plates and screws throughout his body. Regardless, he is determined to get on with living. Already, he has remodelled their home in Albany, Western Australia and modified his car so that he can live independently, while his extensively modified Harley-Davidson^® Sport Glide^® sidecar outfit forms a big part of his plans.

Previously, Bob and Chris had relied on BMW motorcycles. Their original 320,000-kilometre BMW R1000RS is one of many bikes he still owns, including a 1923 Harley-Davidson Model J. Now, with a very different set of needs, Bob was going to require a heavily modified mode of transport. A donor vehicle was needed and the Sport Glide was an ideal match. The frame being independent of the suspension, the single-sided exhaust and the low seat height were just some of the many positive factors.

So, with the engineering assistance of good friend Brendan Flower, the build began. Adaptations to date include a hydraulic ramp with backup battery, an additional 16-litre fuel tank, a sizeable storage box for the plethora of medical paraphernalia Bob needs to carry, and an adapted travel commode. The additional 100 kilos make it quite a beast to manoeuvre but it has given Bob (a proud Welshman, hence the dragon on the sidecar) the freedom to live his second life to the full, and to travel once more. Earlier this year, he put the trike on a ship to the UK and flew over to start his inaugural solo motorcycle adventure.

Firstly, he needed to visit his family in Cardiff, Wales and an old friend who now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. After that, Bob’s time was filled with visiting people all over Europe, many with similar tales of trauma and recovery. Christophe, a one-armed sports bike rider from France; Tirns, a Dutch Harley rider with only a right arm and right leg who’s built his own trike; and another Dutchman who became a quadriplegic after a car crash. “Jelle had owned a 12-metre boat that his village had converted for him. He invited me to stay so we could get out on the water.”

As an avid motorsport fan, the Isle of Man TT was something Bob was keen to experience. While there, he got to meet Australian racer Cam Donald – a two-time TT winner – as well as British racer, Colin Stockdale, who provided a paddock pass for the Rees Rig to access the pits and their marquee – something normally only for team bikes. He also encountered a number of disabled riders including New Zealand road racer Grant ‘Mad Dog’ Madden, who has very advanced MS, and whom Bob took for a lap of the iconic circuit in his sidecar.

Bob is continually campaigning for better facilities for the disabled and discovering so many like-minded souls just adds fuel to his fire. “The crazy thing is that I would have never got to meet all these amazing people if not for the accident,” he muses. “Wherever I go, people are initially amazed that I am doing this on my own without a carer. The fact that I am riding a motorbike just adds to their amazement,” he says.

Another facet of Bob’s second life is music. Initially intended as a form of therapy, he has discovered a passion for writing and performing his own songs, and has now released an album on Spotify called The Journey. It gives him another platform to spread his message.

“I have spent the last three years advocating for the disabled community, trying to improve things and to make my second life worthwhile,” he says. He works closely with his local council and regularly speaks publicly about living with a disability and how things can be better.

Bob admits that there are still some very tough days, but his zest for life is infectious. “I still miss my wife like crazy, but I’ve got to figure this out and keep going forward,” he says. His next stop is the US and Canada. Watch this space!

Bob is hugely grateful to Harley-Davidson for all their assistance and would like to thank everyone who has supported him on his second life journey so far.

You can follow him on Facebook and he has also appeared on empoweredpara.com, an uplifting source of information for anyone living with a disability.

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