A chance meeting
How Lili Myers Met Dave Myers During a Hairy Bikers Filming Trip
Long before television audiences knew the Hairy Bikers, Lili was managing a hotel in Northern Romania.
A television production team arrived looking for somewhere to stay while filming what would become one of the earliest Hairy Bikers adventures. They needed someone who could translate, introduce them to local people and help them navigate a part of Romania they barely knew.
Lili became their guide.
She laughs as she remembers that the crew had originally booked somewhere else before deciding to try another hotel further down the road.
"I don't believe in coincidences," she says. "It was serendipity."
After filming, she and Dave stayed in touch mainly through emails. Every few weeks another message would arrive from somewhere different in the world. Turkey. India. Argentina. Morocco.
"I'd never travelled before," she tells me. "I was seeing the world through his eyes."
Those emails weren't just postcards from distant countries. They became windows into another life — full of food, people, motorcycles and cultures she had never experienced herself.
It's impossible not to smile when she remembers another first.
"The first man who ever cooked for me was Dave."
She pauses. "It was just a sandwich."
Growing up in Romania, where traditional family roles were very different, that simple sandwich, made with Dave's signature flair and attention to detail told her more about his kindness than any grand romantic gesture ever could.
From Pillion Passenger to Learner Rider
'You're the rider. I'm the pillion'
Motorcycles had never featured in Lili's life. As a young woman she remembered occasionally seeing groups of foreign bikers passing through Romania and stopping to admire the beautiful machines with her son, fascinated by these visitors from another world.
She never imagined she would one day become part of that world herself.
Her very first ride on a motorcycle was on the back of Dave's bike while helping with filming.
"I always said to Dave, 'You're the rider. I'm the pillion.'"
Lili Myers smiles as she says it, almost as if she's remembering a conversation she's had a hundred times.
For years, that simple agreement defined her relationship with motorcycles. She loved travelling with her husband, Dave on the back of his bike.
"You're both in your own little bubble," she says. "You can't really talk, but you can tap each other and say, 'Look at that.'
"You're sharing exactly the same experience.
"You're not separated, you're part of everything."
She loved the closeness, the shared adventures and the quiet language that only a rider and pillion understand. Learning to ride herself? That was never part of the plan.
Now, approaching her sixtieth birthday, she's doing exactly that.
There have been bruises. A broken wrist. A broken thumb. More than a few moments where it would have been easier to walk away.
Instead, she bought herself a little Yamaha 125 and carried on.
"I love a challenge." It's impossible not to admire that determination.
How the Motorcycle Community Supported Lili Myers
Like many who have never spent time around motorcycles, Lili assumed bikers might be intimidating. Big personalities. Tough exteriors. Perhaps a little unapproachable.
Instead, she found kindness.
Following Dave's illness and after his death, the motorcycle community wrapped itself around her in ways she never expected.
"The biking community has done wonders for me," she says quietly.
"There was always somebody asking, 'How are you? Is there anything you need?'"
She pauses again.
"They can't do enough for you."
Then comes the sentence that, for me, captures exactly why so many of us stay in this world long after buying our first bike.
"I don't know bikers from Scotland," she says, "but I feel connected to them."
Every rider reading that will understand because somehow we all do.
Riding Forward and Honouring Dave Myers’ Legacy
Lili is clear that learning to ride isn't about replacing the journeys she shared with Dave.
Those memories belong to them both.
This is something different.
"I feel I'm taking forward something that he loved."
That future already includes charity rides, plans to complete Ride to the Wall on her own motorcycle, and supporting the causes that mattered deeply to both of them, including NSPCC Childline and local charities.
She's also encouraging riders to explore Britain through the Dave Day Passport, collecting stamps at biker cafés and meeting places across the country while raising money for charity.
There are plenty more adventures planned.
This time, from the rider's seat.
Find Out More - Read Lili's book....
Liliana's beautiful, uplifting celebration of the life of The Hairy Bikers’ Dave Myers
