Anyone that rides does it for their own reasons, but everyone who rides does it for the love of it. Living amongst the rolling hills of Central California, Jordan Graham has a killer set up with a stable of motorcycles and endless trails right out his garage. But rather than throw on new gear, press the electric start button, and pop wheelies on a modern machine, he loves his old bikes. “What really pulls me into the vintage stuff is the soul,” he said. “Old stuff has soul. I don’t know how to explain it, but you feel it when you ride an old bike.”
Recently, as luck would have it, he came across an old Triumph complete with everything needed to truly be labeled a desert sled. And he wasted no time in adding it to his collection. “I feel like the universe lands stuff directly in your path for a reason, and the right bike fell into my lap,” Jordan said. "It was a 1966 500cc Triumph, with all the tasty race parts, a spicy engine, and the perfect purple tank—my favorite color. When I found it, the bike had been freshly pulled out of a vintage MX legends collection after Frank Glasgow passed away a couple years back. It was then hauled from SoCal to Kentucky by Frank’s son Nick. Ultimately, I got her back to SoCal where she’s been racing her whole life.” As the photos will illustrate, Jordan doesn’t just keep this bike in a showroom, the purple sled gets regularly ridden, slid, and wheelied, leaving no doubt in our minds that the legends who helped start it all are looking down smiling, knowing the bike has found a good home.
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@j__graham