Neale Bayly

Resurrecting A Laverda, Part 2

Posted by Neale Bayly | Feb 11, 2025 | Legendary Bikes |

Then one fateful day my enthusiasm got ahead of my abilities, both mechanically and financially, and I decided to do a complete restoration from the ground up. The frame got shot blasted and painted and I started pulling the engine to bits. Unfortunately, travels came, children came, careers came and the parts just ended up moving from location to location in boxes. With all the growing responsibilities of family life, spending money on an old box of bits grew further and further from the front burner.

Cardo Comms in Peru

Posted by Neale Bayly | Feb 3, 2025 | Bikes & Gear |

Arriving in Arequipa a week earlier, we were greeted with a plethora of “to do” items as we got ready to take seven riders on their first motorcycle tour in Peru. With Chip having had a job launching the Space Shuttle in his previous life, I asked if he would install the Cardo PACKTALK EDGE Duo units into our helmets. I was more than a little consumed with minutia as well as being a mechanical and electrical Muppet. I have a Klim adventure helmet and Chip wears a Bell Qualifier with built-in comms pocket.

Resurrecting A Laverda, Part 1

Posted by Neale Bayly | Jan 13, 2025 | Legendary Bikes, Ride Life |

In early 1981 I rolled into the town of Colchester on a well-worn Yamaha XT 500, flat broke wearing a leather jacket, a pair of thread bare jeans, and just a bag of clothes on my back. As I pulled over in the high street to get my bearings, it happened. A bright orange Laverda Jota fired up a few hundred yards away, filling the high street with the most blood-curdling roar as the owner blipped the throttle to warm the engine. Watching transfixed as he then climbed on, clicked the snarling beast into gear, before dropping the clutch, and taking off with the most intoxicating cacophony of sound I had ever heard. Winding the big triple up close to red line in first gear before letting off to slow for the traffic light, the noise the big Laverda made on the overrun was as equally stunning as it snorted and backfired in the quiet English afternoon.

Neale Bayly’s Moto Flashbacks: Back to Sunny Florida

Posted by Neale Bayly | Jan 2, 2025 | Ride Life |

As the minor character in this horrendous drama, the fact that my bones were mending and my dependence on narcotics was waning, apart from when Wibbly came to visit, and I was beginning to get my strength back was all positive. Walks around the garden were extending to the end of the drive, the end of the road and even down to the local chippie (fish and chip shop in English). My thoughts began now to focus on Florida, specifically the sun, beaches and girls in bikinis. Not that there’s anything wrong with living with your mother in freezing, cold, damp weather with seven hours of murky daylight.

Neale Bayly’s Moto Flashbacks: Broken Bikes and Bones

Posted by Neale Bayly | Dec 4, 2024 | Ride Life |

Life has a way of sorting itself out and somehow, we all made it back to England. My mother got back to her usual high-pitched soprano from the wedding-induced contralto, and life carried on. Dickie loaned me his Honda CBX550 so I could get around, and just when things were beginning to pick up another little faux pas was about to happen…

Neale Bayly Rides: Yamaha 360 Getaway Bike

Posted by Neale Bayly | Nov 5, 2024 | Ride Life |

The work was dirty and laborious, but there on the dock sat the reward for my day of toil- a rather ratty Yamaha XS360 four stroke parallel twin. Once the day was over, I would have the pleasure of riding it across town to the duplex where I was staying, in what could be described as a slightly dodgy part of town. My Landlord Jimmy owned the bike, and a Triumph chopper, which is actually how we met, although thinking about it his sister Debbie was the reason we met. I guess she thought we’d get along because we were both into motorcycles. Debbie was actually married to Crazy Laughing Dave Wainright, who was Jimmy’s best friend, and he had a Honda 550 chopper so we all got along swimmingly.

Neale Bayly Rides: A Fire-Breathing Yamaha

Posted by Neale Bayly | Oct 2, 2024 | Ride Life |

With the tuned motor, lowered gearing and motocross bars, the RD400 wheelied through the first three gears, and immediately began jacking adrenaline through a system going through intense motorcycle withdrawal at an alarming rate. Thankfully, the RD quickly ran onto reserve (the method used before fuel lights) and I flicked the petrol switch and carefully burbled back to the storage area to hide it while attempting to come down off the high. Wow! If you’ve never twisted the Go Handle of a tuned up two-stroke twin on a narrow English street, I would advise going straight out and giving it a go. It’s shocking!

Neale Bayly Rides: Mishaps & Second Chances

Posted by Neale Bayly | Sep 5, 2024 | Legendary Bikes, Ride Life |

‘Where ignorance is bliss tis folly to be wise,’ should have been stamped on my birth certificate. Spinning down into my hometown on a beautiful late summer’s morn, around the crack of eleven, on a new 1983 Honda CBX550, all in the world was well. August in South Devon, England is charming, and my friend was waiting at our local café on the terrace to share his latest horse racing system that was going to make us rich. Having found the joy of credit, credit cards, bank loans and financing, we were basking in the joy of fast motorcycles, pockets full of drugs, and the other accoutrements of our newfound wealth.
We just hadn’t figured out how to pay it back yet.

Neale Bayly Rides: Grand Plans, Harsh Realities

Posted by Neale Bayly | Aug 7, 2024 | Ride Life |

Riding my 1973 Honda SL125 onto the ferry back to mainland England from the Island of Jersey with the hangover from hades, just seven days after arriving, the prophetic words of the not-so-friendly policeman we had met were ringing embarrassingly true. Accompanied by my Nit Wit Mate Wibbly, on a slightly newer Honda XL125, our only mission now was figuring out how we could sneak back into town unnoticed: Especially after the fanfare of the local newspaper announcing our “round-the-world” motorcycle trip just two weeks earlier.