An Unexpected Meeting in the Woods

*Editor’s note: Many of us recall a motorcycle from our younger years that we wished we’d never sold or that we had rebuilt, and could ride again in our current years. For Neale Bayly, it’s a prized Laverda 1200 Mirage. In this 3-part series, we journey with Neale from his earliest experiences with this incredible motorbike, through loss and neglect, and the resurrecting of a dream. And the journey continues. Let’s ride along with Neale on his adventure with the dream bike of his youth.

The air feels heavy from the recent rain, as if there is nowhere left for all the moisture to go. The saturated path is soft and spongy underfoot, and tree limbs hang heavy from the weight of the water drops. Overhead, black threatening clouds hang oppressively low, matching the darkness in my soul. It’s cool, not cold, but I shiver as I climb up into the dark, silent woods, alone with my thoughts. Just two weeks out of riding through the war in Ukraine for five weeks, I still haven’t made it back home yet.

Suddenly, a young dog comes racing around the corner, the first sign of life I’ve seen as even the birds seem to have stayed home today. Clearly inquisitive, but wary, he circles me as his owner comes into view. The quintessential Scottish dog walker- wax cotton rain jacket and rubber boots, the practical choice for these conditions. He has a shock of dark hair, a thick goatee beard covering his face and after calling his dog, we exchange pleasantries. Actually, we enter into a bizarre conversation that just seems to get stranger. At first, I think we must have met the year before, the way he greets me, so I ask how his dog has been doing. He tells me he only just got him, hence his untrained behavior. These disconnected exchanges continue as I conclude that we haven’t met before. Then he asks me a question that leaves me as stunned as I am bewildered.

“How’s the Mirage doing?”

The rolling hill country of south Scotland, where my chance(?) encounter took place.

Rewind a couple of years.

It had all seemed to make perfect sense. Nate possessed all the right mechanical skills to rebuild the Laverda, and after working his magic tuning and repairing my Triumph triples, I didn’t need any convincing of his talents. His European motorcycle repair shop had a spare room I could turn into a studio specifically for the old Mirage, which was still sadly in pieces. My good friend and filmmaker Terrence Gordon had already created a couple of videos about how I acquired the Laverda and, like me, it’s rather checkered history. We had all the ingredients in my now home town of Charlotte, NC, to finally embark on rebuilding the beast after two false starts and decades of neglect.

In the coming weeks I devoted one day a week to gutting and refurbishing the old storage room, repainting the walls, ceiling and floor. My buddy Denny Wells hung new ballast and some cool motorcycle memorabilia on the walls. By this point Nate had pulled the crankshaft, on video, and we had taken the engine cases to be vapor honed at a nearby facility. Small steps, but our growing YouTube audience seemed engaged as the “Laverda Project” moved slowly forward both in person and online.

Denny and I transforming a little corner of the “Ink Floyd” shop into a small studio to record our YouTube shows.

Denny and I then built a second studio over at my friend Dave Collier’s business, and digging back into the memory banks I should actually credit Dave with this whole mad plan, as he originally came up with the concept to create the first video and agreed to interview me while Terrence filmed. It was Denny who came up with the concept of a second show that he would film and edit, also for YouTube, to help grow the audience for the Laverda Project.

The secret to creativity they say is not revealing your sources, so we hadn’t mentioned Top Gear when we originally talked to Dave and Nate about creating a bi-weekly motorcycle show with three on-screen characters. I would do the main feature, a sit-down interview with someone from the motorcycle community as Charlotte has a plethora of interesting and accomplished motorcyclists. These range from an ex MTV VJ, to a lady track day coach and provider. Then Dave, who is incredibly talented on a creative level, would become “Basil”, in honor of John Cleese’s character Basil Fawlty in the old British comedy series “Fawlty Towers.” His segment would be called, “The News” as a satire on the political propaganda fed as news these days. Basically, Dave would ramble on about anything that came to mind with his natural comedic humor bringing the viewer along on whatever bizarre journey he elected to take them on. From hallucinogenics to UFOs, a set up gag where we faked going to Richard Branson’s private Island, Basil guaranteed a visit to the bizarre. With most of it somehow connecting to motorcycling.

Show host Neale with Dave; Dave as “Basil”; Nate in “Get Off My Lawn”.

Nate’s character had his own highly unique flavor with a segment called, “Get Off My Lawn.” Here he played a grumpy, often belligerent, industry veteran bitching, quite rightly, about the stupid things customers say and do in regard to their motorcycles. I’m sure most motorcycle shop workers could relate. “Ran When Parked” was the subject of his first rant. Another good friend Chris Parker created all the graphics for the segments, the titles, and lower thirds as well as another important part of the show, “Shameless Plug.” With so much of the industry busily handing out thinly disguised product snow jobs as reviews, we decided to call a spade a spade when someone gave us some product to use.

A very talented local shooter and editor, Shamus Comey, replaced Denny when he relocated out of state and we were soon full steam ahead. The big idea behind the studio show was simply to grow our YouTube audience, and create a platform to share updates on the Laverda Project. If we could monetize the show perhaps we could fund the build? With Covid 19 number one at the top of the media charts for over a year already at this point, we were all pretty much confined to barracks anyway, so it all seemed to make perfect sense. And what a fun time it was!

With the Laverda room built, all the engine cases vapor honed and the engine covers all machine shop polished (well, actually done by hand in the evenings on the “Bayly Towers” dining room table), the Laverda room was looking good. All the engine internals were on display, with cycle parts set up around the room. The videos from both series were gaining traction and we were growing our subscribers. Then we picked up our first advertiser, Continental Tires, and the show now had commercials running. Road Runner magazine dropped off a test bike for us to ride, film and upgrade with the supplied parts. Not only were we making progress, we were having fun, and seeing my old Mirage in its own studio after so many years of neglect was energizing.

And then that lone dark cloud that floats across a clear blue summer sky was about to cover the sun, and plunge everything into darkness. Driving home from my Sunday bicycle ride I saw Nate go blasting past on an old 1970s Triumph Bonneville. With the rare skill set of knowing vintage as well as modern European motorcycles it brought a smile to my face as I had ridden this particular machine. I changed course and headed to the shop.

It was one of those times that feels like a scene in a movie to me. A beautiful day, lively animated conversation and more importantly the next step for the Laverda Project. At this point in the story I had been emailing with a gentleman in the UK by the name of Keith Nairn about the crankshaft. One of the world’s leading experts on all things Laverda, we had discussed him balancing and polishing the crankshaft, installing new bearings, his custom connecting rods so that Nate could start rebuilding the engine. Nate was also talking to a gentleman in Canada, and we made a decision to box up the crank the following day and ship it to Canada as Keith was backed up for some time over in the UK (with work, not a medical issue). I felt the rush of adrenaline. For sure it was going to take money I didn’t have, but it meant some serious progress for the Laverda, so I had to act.

Studio 2, for the Laverda Project, parts laid out and ready.

And then that lone cloud floated across the sun. The movie went dark and all the progress of the last year or so was about to come to a screeching halt. Standing at the back of the building I saw the shop office worker walk in with a pack of beer, and as Nate cracked his Tall Boy I felt the life drain out of me. I’d put in 65 hard miles on the pedals that morning so figured I was hungry and needed food so quickly left and made for home.

Later that evening as my girlfriend was leaving Bayly Towers (my residence) I was in deep distress; something was horribly wrong but I didn’t know what it was. A couple of nights earlier I had woken from a nightmare where a bad motorcycle accident had taken place. It seemed so real, but I couldn’t tell who it was. It just felt like it was someone close. As my girlfriend tried to talk me back from the dark place I couldn’t leave, I just kept experiencing waves of nausea and stress rolling over me as something felt horribly wrong. Fighting the waves of darkness I eventually fell asleep but I couldn’t shake the feeling. The amount of alcohol and pot being consumed by the group before and while out riding was freaking me out. As a professional and lifelong rider, it just went against everything I stood for as a motorcyclist. To compound the danger of riding a motorcycle in our modern traffic with alcohol and pot was just insane.

The following afternoon after not having any texts returned, I went to the shop for my usual Monday visit. As I walked in the atmosphere immediately set alarm bells ringing, and I learned Nate had been in an accident. Leaving the pub on a customer’s motorcycle, he had hit an oncoming car. Wearing sneakers, the impact had badly damaged his foot and the word “amputation” floated across the room as a possibility. With Nate’s last rant on the show being about dressing for the ride, with one of the more foretelling statements being, “Come on skin-graft Sally,” in a split second it was over. I wandered into the Laverda room through the dark corridor as the shop lights were off on a Monday due to being closed. There sat the broken bones of the project. I was close to broke, tapped out on energy and the Laverda pieces were once more destined to be loaded into boxes and moved again. So much for the Laverda Project.

Or so I thought.

Keith Nairn, the “Maestro” with a few of his Laverda projects.

Fast forward two years.

As I heard the interesting Scottish stranger inquire about the old Mirage, I heard another voice say, “the project’s on hold.” It had gone to Alabama on another promise, which had gone nowhere, so where did those words come from? Before I could say anymore I heard, “You are Neale Bayly, right?” And it all got stranger still. Totally confused now, I asked, “Who are you?” as I still couldn’t figure out how this man knew me. “I’m Keith Nairn. Would you like to come and visit my workshop?” I heard myself stammer out an affirmative and five minutes later I was in some sort of Laverda wonderland. Everywhere I looked there were Laverdas, engines, frames and more. An RGS Jota, a 3C, and a Formula Laverda to name a few. My excitement equaled my bewildered state and thankfully Keith carried the same look of shock and surprise I knew was written all over my face.

Over the next couple of hours, the most amazing story unfolded. Here on the edge of Skiff Woods, two miles from my sister’s house, one of the world’s leading authorities (if not the lead) on Laverda motorcycles was quietly rebuilding, restoring and tuning the famous Breganze triples. Room after room either had milling machines, lathes, vapor honing or partially built engines waiting for the Maestro’s hand. An old restored Rolls Royce had put the pause button on sixteen years of non-stop Laverda restoration for a time, but from the piles of crankshafts and parts scattered around the huge building, it’s going to be carrying on for a while yet.

A cup of tea with his wife back at their house confirms there is something at play here that is beyond us, as Keith offers me a ride back to my sister’s. I have a family dinner and early flight back to the USA in the morning so with a handshake and shake of our heads we say goodbye, the next chapter getting ready to take shape.

To be continued…

Neale Bayly

*Check out the original video on the Laverda Project: