1963-2024
Chris Dabbs, who was a journalist and editor at EMAP/Bauer for 37 years, has died – he was 61.
Chris joined Motor Cycle News on 5 January 1987 and launched into a stellar career on the titles in EMAP’s biking portfolio.
When he joined MCN, Chris had already spent a couple of seasons racing a Suzuki RG250 in the 250 production class. He actually accepted the role of road test editor in a Covent Garden Italian restaurant from the then-editor, the late Jim Lindsay, on Friday 5 September, then broke a leg at Paddock Bend the next morning, so his first day at MCN three months later was spent in outpatients getting the plaster cast removed.
Chris’s 10-year road-testing career with MCN started with liquid-cooling and turbos; covered the RD and RG500, anti-dive and 16in front wheels; wrestling around GSX-R1100s and EXUPs; wringing the neck of 250 and 400cc grey imports and sampling the delights of race-replicas like the sublime RC30, with the arrival of the first-generation FireBlade book-ending those hectic years.
He kept his hand in on the racetrack too, and was a regular front-runner in the epic Harley 883 Sportster British championship race series that turned a few heads in the early 1990s. He even finished third in the 1992 season after plenty of elbow-bashing!
In July 1993, Chris suffered a road accident that put him in a wheelchair for life and changed everything in his world – but not his insatiable appetite for living. He returned to work nine months later as editor of BiKE magazine, before rejoining MCN in 1996, until retirement in December 2023.
Despite being ‘retired’, Chris continued his work at Stoke Mandeville Spinal Unit on the patient education team where his upbeat and positive outlook has helped countless others to recover from similar life-changing injuries.
Chris was one of the very best, both in his career and his selfless contributions to enriching others’ lives. He will be greatly missed.
MCN editor, Richard Newland, commented: “There was very little on earth that Chris didn’t know about or have an opinion on; very few people in the industry he didn’t know personally; and (seemingly) very few people on the planet who didn’t have a story of either hilarity about some past event, or of thanks for his kindness and support. Chris was, above everything else, a lovely human being. The world is a poorer place for his passing.”