Thrills and Chills of Filming a TV Show in Europe

So you want to make a television show? You see yourself riding around on the latest model motorcycles, visiting exotic locations and getting the video footage you need as you go. Fine food, fine dining, and each day a kaleidoscope of sunshine and dramatic scenery- What could be easier or more fun? And then after your return, you invite your riding buddies over to watch your adventures on the big screen in the living room. The credits roll, the music plays, and off you are reliving the experience one more time in glorious technicolor. Well, with five episodes of Trippin on Two Wheels under our belts, the truth is, it’s a long way from the idea most people have when you tell them you are shooting television in Europe. But, before I get into the mechanics of making a show though, let me introduce you to the cast of people that’s needed to make it all work.

Trip Master D., better known as Dennis Gage, was the face of Speed TVs’ highly popular car show, My Classic Car. Dennis was the voice of reason for our crazy, traveling circus. A long time motorcycle nut with seven machines in his collection, Dennis has been riding motorcycles for more than 40 years now. Responsible for planning, logistics, budgets, and keeping the crew in line, a bit like herding cats I’ve heard, the amazing thing was he still had any nerves left after five episodes. When not riding or filming episodes of MCC or Trippin, Dennis still lives and works in Evansville, Indiana at his production company, Bradley David Productions.

Bubba Fish. Occasionally referred to as Morrow Fisher, the owner of Fish Eye Video, “The Fish” as he is mostly called is one of the country’s top cameramen, counting Speed and ESPN among his clients. With a full dance card, he was a very hard man to track down for these shows, but his unique style and phenomenal work ethic ensured we couldn’t do it without him. Swinging his $100,000 High Def camera around like a teenage skate boarder with a three chip digital video recorder, the Fish was positively crazy. He must be, as he rode on the back of my motorcycle for all the onboard riding shots. And if you remember the series, you will recall this meant rain, snow, hail on some of the most treacherous roads imaginable. The good news was it ensured some of the most incredible shots you could see on television.

Mrs. Fish. Picture Bubba Fish as one half of Beauty and the Beast and you have Mrs. Fish’s part. Lisa, as she is known in her regular life, teaches school in Florida when not working as audio tech for our traveling circus. Living and working with five adolescent wannabes in close quarters for days on end would test anyone’s patience. But our Lisa always had a smile on her face, or an aspirin or benadryl ready for when we started whining about our latest, trivial medical complaint.

Beautiful, breathtaking Italy.

Sam. Son of Dennis, Sam grew up during the Trippin series, prompting the possibility he’d need years of therapy in later life. From riding as a passenger when he was still 16 years old in Scotland, to carving mountain roads in Italy as a young man in College, Sam was always been a great component of the team. Easy going, his only requirement was seat time to fully exploit the bikes. And Coca Cola.

Benoir Bh’alls. Also known as Ben Woelher. As producer, editor, POV camera tech, and van driver extraordinaire, Ben had the worst job on the show. He shared a room with me. Also piloting a big overloaded mini van through the narrow streets of Europe had to be a total nightmare at times. But he never complained and always did an incredible job in the edit suite when we returned Stateside.

The Scribbler. With nicknames we can’t reproduce here, I’m still trying to figure out why they brought me on all these trips. I pulled wheelies, crashed bikes, and always seemed to be meeting policemen or stranded young women. Responsible for taking a few pictures and writing the occasional article, hopefully someone will read this stuff one day so they will keep me around. As the one who originally came up with the idea for all this madness, I was the one to hate at the end of a grueling 18-hour day.

So for the fifth episode of Trippin on Two Wheels, we flew into Venice, Italy, with a meeting at the Aprilia headquarters in Noale planned with designer Miguel Galuzzi. Having filmed there 18 months prior, we were at least familiar with the lay of the land, so we checked into the nice clean Hotel La Rocca first to prepare.

Venice, the “Floating City”.

I had met the “E” Ville crew at the Crown Lounge in New York, thanks to Dennis’ Delta mileage status, so we had time to catch up on what had been happening since we had worked together in Quebec the previous year. Sam now had short hair and no beard. Ben cut his hair too, I’d grown mine, and Dennis was still doing his best Fu Manchu impression. The Fish family were on an eating vacation already in Italy, so we were four until we met up with them in Noale. Hitting the plane we did a pleasant 90 minutes on the runway without AC to get as gamey as possible before take off, and ten wonderful hours later we saw Venice under a cloudy gray sky.

With the surprise of all the bags making it to the baggage carousel, we piled into the mental rental and cruised off to the Hotel with Trip Master Dennis at the wheel. We couldn’t check into our rooms till 4.p.m so we headed off into town for lunch and a walk to try and shake off the effects of a wonderful night crammed into the midget sized coach class torture racks. Noale has a very ornate, clean historic center with an open-air market. All the earlier cloud had burned off to reveal a scorching summer day. Full of interesting junk and antiques on offer, my favorite was the young Italian lady in the Playboy shirt posing with the antique Singer sewing machine. Purely a cultural observation, I assure you.

Calm and relaxed, it was the perfect tonic for our jet-lagged state and in the center we stopped in a sidewalk café for lunch. Our waiter loved Dennis’ moustache, and during lunch MotoGP racing came blaring across the television to add to the bliss. A Fiat 500 Rally came honking through town next in a flurry of blaring horns and exhausts howling with all o’ them sporting racing numbers and trick wheels. A highly unique site for sure.

A rather tiny but noisy Fiat 500.

Hitting the road early the next morning for the Aprilia HQ, we arrived to find our smiling press contact, Federicka, and within minutes were into our interview with Miguel. We enjoyed meeting him last time, and he was as amiable as before as we discussed all the exciting events happening at Aprilia. Of course, I wanted to get a sneak preview of their World Superbike machine, but unlike the last time, it wasn’t to be. No problems though, as there was a lot to talk about with the new Shiva, Dorsoduro, and the highly interesting automatic Mana 850 that had just made it Stateside. The new enduro looked a lot like the Ducati Hypermotard, but with Aprilia’s own unique flair, and with a 750cc engine aimed at a different segment of the market. Like all Aprilia products, she’s a looker and I couldn’t wait to take one for a spin.

Interview over, we found ourselves with a free afternoon, so it was off to Venice. We had managed a few hours in Venice last trip at night, but this time we got to experience the magic of this storied city in broad daylight. It is just so different from any other city in the world. It’s worth battling the droves of tourists to wander the historic canals and labyrinth of back alleys. With Trip Master D at the controls, we lapped most of the other tourists a few times, but luckily I was able to dial some shutter speed into my camera to get some great pictures on the run.

Take off…

While it’s always fun to do interviews, play tourist, and stuff our faces in sidewalk cafés, we were here to ride. So pulling away from the Hotel La Rocco into a clear, warm Italian morning, it was hard not to be excited. Sitting upright and comfortable on the 750cc Shiver, it was immediately a friendly and easy bike to ride as we navigated the narrow Italian streets en route to the Autostrada. Camera guy “Bubba Fish” wanted a few shots of the town, so we started the “hurry up and wait” procedure that saw us sitting in full leathers in the sun as he set up the perfect shot. Thankfully, he was quick and in no time we were blasting north toward the Dolomites on the super smooth stretch of four-lane that took us from Noale. This gave us our first opportunity for riding footage shot from a chase van. With Ben in the outside lane, and Dennis, Sam and I just inches apart at speed trying to hold our position steady with the van for Morrow to get what he wanted this was one of the most demanding shots we made.

A trio of Aprilias for our journey.

Cruising between 70-80mph, it didn’t take long to catch our first glimpses of the mountains. Appearing magically on our colorful horizon, it took a moment to pick them from the clouds as the huge, verdant mountains covered in vibrant green grass and deep brown evergreen trees came into focus. Framed out with fields of colorful wild flowers and patches of clear blue sky bursting out of the cloud cover, we pulled off the highway to continue on smaller roads, but not before Bubba F had us make a bunch of passes. Climbing, twisting, and turning up through small mountain villages, passing through the fabric of local life as always, there was a familiarity about the scene.

Up front Ben pulled the van over, attached the onboard camera, and Bubba jumped on the back of my Aprilia. Now it was time to concentrate as we moved to the most difficult and stressful part of my “Trippin’” experience. Continuing to make our way up into the majestic mountains, there was nothing like a 240-pound gorilla and a $100,000 camera unbalancing the bike as it hung off the side to make you pay attention. With Morrow needing both hands to operate the camera, I had to ride as if there is a full glass of water on the passenger seat that I couldn’t spill, and it took 101% of my concentration on those tight, twisty Italian roads.

As we traveled, the roads were heavily populated with motorcycle and bicycle travelers and a lot of waving was the order of the day.  Everything from Harleys to Hondas were on the roads, and not all of them new. The one thing they all had in common was, they were heavily loaded down with luggage and all looked very purposeful as we passed.

Arriving in the town of Cortina, dark moody clouds were moving fast across the sky and the temperatures plummeting. Losing degrees as fast as we were gaining feet, by the time we pulled over for an early lunch, it was raining and cold. Finishing lunch we were in the clouds and looking for any sign of bright sky to plot our next move. Sitting it out under the train station eaves as thunderclaps roared through the air, I passed the time watching the other bike travelers passing through and families trying to dodge the rain. This was where the stress meter started to rev up. With heavy cloud and rain, we couldn’t film and it was only the first morning. Of course, no one said anything, as we tried to remain positive. But riding and filming all day in the rain really made it challenging.

Dennis never fails to draw a crowd.

With Dennis working on his application as adult ADD poster child, we weren’t going to be sitting long, so on with the full wets and off into the dark, foreboding mountains. Climbing into a surreal world of low lying cloud and consistent rain, approaching the Austrian border, our fuel lights came on, so we backtracked in search of fuel as the sun managed to send a few hopeful bursts through the gloom.

Gas tanks full, we headed on to the site of the 1956 Winter Olympics for an eye opening realization of how nuts ski jumpers really are. Checking out the wooden ramp and how impossibly high the takeoff area is above the landing strip, I was happy to get back on my Aprilia and motor off to the next adventure. This basically consisted of making as many riding shots as we could before the sun got too low and we had to find our hotel. This was not too problematic for a change, and while Dennis spent his nightly hour chatting to the camera, I always went first and was done in seven minutes, which might be the story of my life, but I digress, so I started carting the luggage to our rooms. Wow. An hour later, sweating like the Greek weight lifting team at a steroid test, the bags were in the rooms and I’d confirmed my lack of fitness. With the crew heading in, the cameras stowed, we headed to a restaurant and amazingly ate dinner by 9.30.p.m, which was an early night for us.

  Leaving dinner with a plan for day two, it was time to head upstairs and get to work. Ben reviewed the onboard video, charged the camera batteries, and downloaded the footage through his laptop to memory storage. I charged my camera batteries, downloaded and rough edited a couple of hundred photos and made sure my notes were up to date. It is soon well past midnight as we worked and discussed the day, and what shots we needed to achieve the next. Finally sometime after 1 a,m. we were able to pass out and catch a few hours sleep, before another crazy day in the Dolomites started with our small, dysfunctional family.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Neale Bayly

*Please take a moment to visit Neale’s foundation, Wellspring International Outreach. They are doing great work around the world.