Last month, Machinehead Moto, in Guildford, Surrey, opened in an unlikely destination, the grounds of Loseley Park, a fourteen-hundred-acre stately home. A place for motorcycle enthusiasts, part workshop, part retail shop, part community hangout space.
It has become a place for bikers to ride up to, to just hang out. It is the brainchild of couple Dave and Niky Raymond and they are building something more than a space, they’re building a vibrant community in the South East.
While only opening its doors a number of weeks ago, Machinehead has its beginnings years ago. It is the realization of the couple’s dream, something that had its genesis in their own struggles. They’ve been through a lot.
“When I was 39, I suffered a significant brain haemorrhage, completely out of the blue,” says Niky.
“I didn’t know, but I had an AVM [Arteriovenous Malformation] in the centre of the two brain hemispheres and just before my 40th birthday, it decided to blow. I was the fittest I had ever been, I was on top of my running game, I was in the gym regularly, there was no warning. We were just about to open our new consultancy. We had both worked corporately for a decade and we had just reached that stage where we were suffering burn out. So woke up on my 40th birthday with 56 staples in my head”
It’s not unusual for people to turn to motorcycles after a big change in their life but a serious health scare, and all the challenges in recovering from that, can be utterly transformative.
“It has completely changed my outlook on life,” says Niky. “There’s nothing like a good death scar to put things into perspective and it just made me more appreciative of life and how fragile it can be. I think I was always looking for something, to get a bit of head space, to help with my recovery and that’s why I turned to motorcycles. It took me ten years to come back from it. It’s only now I feel like I’m back. The physical side is one thing but there’s also the mental side. Now I feel whole, like I have something to offer other people. If there’s something I can do to help other people, then that’s what I want to do.”
One near death experience in a couple is scary enough, but Niky’s partner Dave also had a big scare. This happened just ten months before Niky had hers. He had been working a high stress job in the corporate world and all the pressure built up, until one day, it all came to a head.
“I was in a business meeting in Japan, and I realized I had a massive pain behind one of my eyes,” says Dave. “I went back to my hotel, and I was trying to rest as much as I could, but I was being pressured by my boss to work harder and work more and I realised I couldn’t see out of one of my eyes. So, I got a Japanese doctor to come and see me and he said, ‘what I’ve seen behind your eye, you need to get back to the UK and see a doctor as soon as possible’. I was a senior director in a big consultancy firm we were trying to sell, which was down to me to do, and it was just push, push, push.
“I realised I had a haemorrhage behind my eye. I had a really rare condition, but they didn’t know what it was”, says Dave
Originally, they told me I had MS, and you can imagine all the things that come with that, we had two young kids.
“I went to loads of specialists and eventually they found I had this rare condition with these little stones behind my eyes that made my eyes pop from time to time. I put myself on a short license, we both still are on them. So, with all we went through it gave us a completely different perspective on life.”
“Bikes had always been part of my life, so it just drove me back towards getting a bike again and getting back out on it”, says Dave
As Dave was getting back into bikes, it wasn’t long before Niky was in on the same trip.
“I hired a Multistrada, and we went on a road trip around Scotland with Niky on the back,” says Dave. “We were going around a backroad and I could hear screaming on the back screaming. I thought she was scared, but it turned out, as usual, she just wanted to go faster. We’ve always been a bit competitive.”
So, with both of them back and enjoying their love of bikes and riding, their newfound perspective on life and wanting to work for themselves but also spend their time doing something they loved, the idea of Machinehead Moto was born.
“We were running our own business, and we still do and they’re going great, but we were at a point where we enjoy the lifestyle part of it,” says Dave. “Niky is naturally very creative, and it wasn’t really being harnessed in what we were doing. I was an engineer for about 15 years, so I was always good with my hands, but I found myself pushing paper around, but I wanted to tinker.
“We got involved with the Bike Shed, we’re still involved with them. We do their Health & Safety, but they are like family to us. So, we just wanted to do our own thing, create something that was ours and have a space, a bit of a lifestyle change really, to harness both of our passions.
Machinehead brings together both Dave’s and Niky’s passions. Dave as the engineer customises bikes, while Niky, the creative works more on the aesthetic side. It’s a perfect complement of talents and skills.
“We wanted to create something that would combine creativity and engineering.,” says Dave. “We have a big community and friends that we spend a lot of time with. But also, people we don’t know yet, we want to connect with. We spent a long time looking at spaces and we were lucky to find the place we have here, which is in the grounds of Loseley Park. We’re in a converted shed. It had the right space where people could ride in, there’s a shop, a workshop, it all linked in.
The space houses a workshop and retail space, but there’s a lot more to it than that. It really is about community first, creating a space where people can come and hang out, for no particular reason, and just be themselves.
“We wanted to provide a home for riders,” says Niky. “A judgment-free space where people can celebrate that individuality. Most riders just want to be individual in some way and that appeals to both of us.
It might seem like an unusual setting for a biker community space, a stately home. But Dave says that the owners have welcomed them with open arms.
“Initially they were like motorbikes? Really?’ he says. “They thought we’d be doing wheelies up the driveway, but they met us, and they liked us, and they understood what we were trying to do, We help out with the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride in Guilford and they happily let 800 bikes ride up their driveway and park in front of the house.
So now it’s a meeting place, it’s a destination for people to come to the stately home, mainly it’s people who ride up, park in the garage, and walk in. They know they’ve got certain products, accessories and apparel there but Dave and Niky are focused on the individuality that they enjoy, and people respond to that. They can come for a coffee, and with a bakery just 20 feet away, a slice of cake.
“We’re trying to create a space where people feel comfortable. People tend to not stay five minutes, they can stay all day if they want to, enjoy some good coffee. We just chat and enjoy it.
“We’ve had people come and say, ‘we’re not telling anyone else about this place,” says Niky. “We prefer if they do, but they don’t have to!”
Of course, Machinehead is a business, but Dave and Niky are not looking at it that way really. It’s community first.
“We just chat about things, what they’re doing or things we’ve done last year or whatever and then it comes out that they have two bikes in their garage that they want to customize but they don’t know how to, or they don’t have space, and you end up chatting about a project with them and booking it in,” says Dave.
With a sense of community, there is also the opportunity to do some good and for Dave and Niky it’s really just about providing a safe space, where people can be themselves. They can talk about whatever they want, or not.
“I’ve been involved with DGR, and we did a Movember event a few weeks ago.,” says Dave. “I’m quite a big advocate for men’s mental health, because the biking community, it’s such a large male community. There are more and more women coming through, but men don’t talk to people enough.
“I’ve literally been sitting in the middle of the desert with a mate, stopped having a drink of water and he’s talking about his problems, just getting stuff off his chest because he’s got the head space to do it. The motorcycle is great for that. Machinehead is just a common ground for people to come, have a coffee and have a chat about anything they want to really.
So, while not open for long, there is already a solid community around Machinehead and it’s growing. There are endless opportunities for what it can be. Next year will see more events and further down the line ride outs and trips. There’s even an offroad track in Losley Park that can be used for bikes. The sky’s the limit.
The BMIC would like to thank Dave and Niky for chatting with us and sharing their wonderfully uplifting story. We wish them continued success.
To learn more pop over to their website to join the Machinehead Moto community, browse the enticing range of apparel or get to work on that custom part you always dreamed of. And, be sure to follow their Instagram account for the latest.