John Deacon (1962 – August 9 2001) was a Motorcycle enduro racer. He had won several Paris Dakar Rally stages. He died as a result of head injuries sustained when his BMW bike flipped, 77 miles from the town of Palmyra during the seventh stage of the Masters Rally between France and Jordan. He was lying third in the event at the time.
He won the British Enduro four-stroke championship on ten occasions and won nine gold medals at the ISDE event. He first contested the Paris-Dakar in 1997, becoming only the second British rider to finish the three-week, 7,000-mile event across Africa on a motorcycle. Within two years, and still funding his own participation, he claimed his country's best finish of sixth, beaten by five riders who enjoyed substantial financial backing.
The dangers of the sport were highlighted in the 2000 event, run in reverse from Senegal to Egypt, when he was offered a ride for the BMW Gauloises team but crashed on the fifth day, fracturing his pelvis and wrist, as well as dislocating his shoulder.
John Richard Deacon (born August 19, 1951, in Leicester, Leicestershire) is an English musician, best known as the bassist for the rock band Queen. Of the four members of the band, Deacon was the youngest, last to join, and wrote the fewest songs; however, several of his compositions were big hits, such as "You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want to Break Free". He also played rhythm and acoustic guitars on several albums as well as occasional keyboards.
Deacon retired from the music business in the late 1990s, and has chosen not to participate in the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour.
