It should be noted that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is largely a autobiographical. Most of the events, and certaintly all of the ideas, presented in the book actually happened to Robert M. Pirsig.
It should also be noted that Chris is dead. On November 17, 1979 he was murdered by two men in San Fransisco who tried to rob him as he walked out of the Zen Center. He said something that witnesses could not hear, and then one of the men stabbed him in the chest. Blood filled his lungs and he died on the spot.