Broken Hill - 80s Jota owner?

Reading a couple of posts here, it appears there might be a misunderstanding of exactly where you wear a sleep apnea mask:eek::ROFLMAO:
Well said Shajata, 😆😆😆

But like I said, I’m definitely not the one anyone should be asking about such harnessing 🙈🙈🙈😆😆

N
 
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Nadia, very pleased you have been able to catch up with your old friend. I grew up around Wilcannia and Broken Hill so I found this story really interesting. It has got me thinking I should ride my Jota to Broken Hill!

Cheers

Bottler
Well Bottler,

I have a birthday get-together for a family friend, which just happens to be in Broken Hill, this coming weekend and the birthday buddy loves railway museums and I refuse to visit the BH railway museum “again“ so have organised a visit to the SA Peterborough Railway Museum https://www.steamtown.com.au/learn-about-steamtown/ and the Peterborough Motorcycle Museum http://www.pbmcm.com/ for his birthday 🎉 and G has agreed to join the party 🙈.

I’m shaking in my proverbial boots at meeting G (apparently G loves museums), let alone letting my family loose on him for an entire day but here goes.

Wish us well
Nadia
 
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Cool!! Graham doesn't sound like the kind of person anyone like you should be worried about meeting again. You'll be able to yack about back then and the years since. Bound to be a cathartic experience.
 
Cool!! Graham doesn't sound like the kind of person anyone like you should be worried about meeting again. You'll be able to yack about back then and the years since. Bound to be a cathartic experience.
Terrific Piranha-bro2,

“cathartic“ that idea just terrifies me even more. This poor man will be stuck in a car for a 280km drive with a women he hasn’t seen in 38 years and my family - this has now become Montypythonesk.

And let me remind you all (delightful as you may all be) - you are all partially responsible for the outcome of this mayhem.

G-d help me, let alone him.
N
 
Hope it all works out for you and Graham, have a great time and I’m sure we’ll all be waiting for the next chapter in this amazing story👍😀
Ciao Tom
 
Dear All including my friend G,

Firstly, many thanks to all those in the “Laverda Family” who have helped bring this story full circle and I mean - “full-circle” both physically and emotionally. Which I believe has ultimately been what this 38 year journey has always been about and boy have the past few days been tough.

I told G before social media, I used to leave messages on every Ducati, that I found, that fitted the description of his, the one we used to travel on, - obviously back then - in the pre-social media world - to no avail - I guess the journey was, then, not ready to be completed.

40+ years ago I met the most extraordinary man, G, who changed my life in so many ways that only he will ever understand. It’s true G introduced me to Italian bikes, specifically the Moto Guzzi, pleasantly the Ducati and annoyingly that bloody Jota. I recently asked him why Italian bikes - and he simply replied because he believed they were “the best built bikes and the most beautiful to look at”. With a name like mine it’s not hard to guess that I too, am Italian and that the romantic in me fancifully, wondered if in some magical way he was describing some part of me too (perhaps the 20 year old me)?

As you all now know I finally purchased G’s recommendation - the Guzzi - the romantic in me rather thinks that I didn’t so much purchase her but more likely was ready to let her into my life, which has in some way opened a very special and protective door into a world that many of you (his like minded brothers and sisters) have for each other. The opening of that door has somehow given me some degree of insight into your very special world which has somehow allowed me to finally find my friend G. Yes we have now grown old but our souls have ultimately never changed, yet our circumstances have.

We have spent some of the past couple of days catching up on the real story of the past!

The accident, I had on G’s Jota, literally tore us apart but it was the man who engineered that accident that was really responsible for tearing two people apart and true to his nature G still protects me and won’t tell me who that person is/was. That man may have torn us apart but I believe this Guzzi and the Laverda Family has bought us back together for closure.

Yes, I understand it’s too late for G and I and that G has other commitments now, that he must honour - that’s the gentleman he always was and the gentleman that will always mean so much to me. As a result I don’t believe our lives will journey together but our souls will be forever interconnected and I wish him well and love him to this day the same way that I loved him the day I was naively nearly killed for his bloody Jota.

My final words are goodbye my sweet friend G - may you travel well and always upright.

Always.
Nx
 
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We carry out former times with us in our pockets. Some histories remain open, some close off. The ones remaining open can often whisper loudest in our ears. I'm glad you found G and moved that aspect of your life forward. You are half a world from me, but nevertheless I reckon you are quite a gal.

So, get your ass over to a Laverda meeting, crash another one and tell us the story.....
 
Wow, you've really been on an emotional rollercoaster in the last few weeks, Nadia. But to finally find and meet Mr G has obviously been many things: cathartic, painful, stressful, mysterious to name a few. I believe it's always a positive thing to seek closure on serious life-altering experiences such as yours, whether that means rekindling an old loves/friendships or moving on from them. It's been great watching you embark on that latter stages of your journey from our screens. All power to you.
 
Did you camp on the mountain at Bathurst, it was brilliant fun back then. Hope someone knows the bloke. Be a great ending for sure. My gravel rash story came after I crashed years ago on the outskirts of Narrabri. The local GP, charming arsehole gave my 18-year-old self a lecture while I was dripping blood on his surgery floor about being sick of fixing Motorcyclists and he wasn't interested and I should piss off to the hospital, that I had no idea was there. The local Theatre Nurse dressed the gravel rash, it was on my shoulder and BAD. So I continued to Serate in Queensland where I discovered I also had it under my armpit. That scab had formed through my T-shirt. I spent the next week turning up to that One Nurse Hospital in Serate having the dressing changed. Those dressing kept sticking so every day the scabs came off again. Those Nurses were fantastic, horrible job but they did their best for me. My first and last bit of Gravel rash, I learned a good lesson about wearing gear in plus 40c. BTW Mad Max 2 was filmed as Silvertown as well. I have a story about that as well. Not now though.
Hi Vince,

I asked Graham about the trips to the, then Bathurst bike races and it seems his memory is a darn side clearer than mine. If I’m understanding him correctly he believes that 1984 and 1985 we spent in tents on the top of the mount. I remember we took the Ducati as he preferred it for longer journeys and we were coming from Broken Hill, so I asked did he remember talking to any Laverda riders and he wasn’t absolutely sure but his comment was “if he had seen a Laverda he would have been drawn to them like a magnet”. So chances are - yes - you may well have met in Bathurst.

N
 
Hi Nadia and all

I just read this thread start to finish.

Welcome Nadia, and glad you found the contact info you obviously had been seekiing for decades.

Couple of comments arising from the thread......

Both Ron and Yogi were reinstated on the Laverda Forum quite some time ago. Ron reappeared initially briefly after the suspension was lifted, then went silent. Yogi I gather has chosen not to return, I saw a post from him on Facebook the other day offering all his Laverda's for sale, the ad indicated that none of them are presently road registered.

For Nadia's Guzzi 750 only being suitable for shorter riders, when MartyMoose visited my wife and I in western Canada, I lent him the use of a couple of bikes. The 79 Laverda 1200 for a proper tour of western Canada, and a then nearly new 2013 Guzzi V7 Special. At 6 foot 9 inch + I think Marty was more comfortable on the Guzzi V7 then the Laverda 1200 even if his legs were sticking out at 90 degrees straight out the sides, still makes me smille thinking of watching him in my rear view mirror as he topped the poor little Guzzi out at 160, 170 kph or however fast it would reach, as I was disapearing into the distance on a much much faster bike..... I will have to try and dig out a photo of Marty on the little Guzzi.....

the comments about the quality of this forum also were great to read, we have been running now since 2001, now sort of a world wide social club of sorts, I have met members all over the world over the years. Always a great experience. Always great for the hospitality and the local knowledge. An aging group, Laverda's do not seem to be attracting very many of the younger crowd. For many of us in our heads our Laverda's are still the modern high performance bikes they were when they were new and we were younger. For others the Laverda's are getting retired as the riders age out. And some like me who still has three Laverda triples but also a couple of the latest and greatest in modern highest performance bikes, where while the Laverda triples still get used, just not as much anymore. There are also still some here that use their Laverda's as their primary motorcycles. In many countries, including Australia, an active social scene revolving around interesting motorcycles like Laverda's and other now vintage bikes, and interesting people

We have only had a few female members over the years, Nadia, you are a breath of fresh air, feel free to stick around, and I hope you do. Friendships are here to be made.

Paul LeClair
 
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