*RIP* Jerry Graves
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4EH1Ny7_5s[/youtube]Read in Cyril’s blog today that Jerry Graves had died. What a shame – this was one young, talented and innovative bike builder that had a unique over the top wild style., a wild personal look and a fun super detailed flair. All of the bikes that i saw that Graves built were wild…take this red beauty below that got him alot of attention back in 05 in Sturgis. He was super jazzed to be recognized as the pic below shows….A funny story on how I came to know Graves.
I guess he was a pretty well known guy in his neck of the FL woods, but he wasn’t on the radar at American Iron Magazine (my employer at the time). So, I am running a bike show at Thunder Road (pretty sure it was 05) – all american customs show – and spend the early morning hours registering great bikes of all sorts and in the process of this long ass morning – I hear all kind of stories, you know how it is…you get kind of numb, the noise, people yelling at you and talking at you, heat, lack of food, you get kind of zoned out.
So here comes 12 noon, closing time for registration…and i cant wait for this to end , so i can get some damn shade and figure out with Chris, the Editor, just how in the hell we are going to judge this show….there are a TON of bikes and to do it right, we need to take our time scoping each bike carefully. This is a long day ahead of us on our knees…literally…ya might not think it, but judging a bike show is a lot of work and not much fun…people get pretty nuts if they dont do well…another story for another time there….
Just as I am closing down and walking away from the registration table I hear a loud ruckus and see Graves and like 4 of his pals roll-up on some wild looking bikes – this red one actually was pretty tame for Graves, he had some outrageous machines in his crew. So I turnaround and walk back to tell them, “sorry, no deal – closed for the day, ya missed it”…and stop to look at the bikes.
Shit, these machines were just too damn good to not let him into the show – and besides , this fierce looking warrior of a guy was calm, cool, polite and just easy to speak to, he was ready to say “fuck it -lets go ride and drink”, which I loved…lol…..well, I let Graves and his boys into the show and they won a bunch of trophy’s and he got a Feature in the magazine out of it. Graves gave me the shirt off his back (see pic after show below) as a thanks for not being a dick and locking him out of the show because he showed up late… not like he didn’t need a reason to pose without a shirt on…lol
He came back the next year with some crazier shit, just to show us what he could do..and won some more trophy’s. Graves was a talented builder, he had a loyal crew and I liked him. I dont know what the particulars behind his death are.. but I know his friends and the people that knew him will miss him, he was a character.
Graves 2005 Sturgis, Thunder Road
Born in Frankfort, Indiana in 1971, 3rd generation biker
Started modifying his own bike at 16 years old
Built his 1st full-blown custom at 19 years old
Started building custom bikes for all his Dad’s friends.
Built most custom bikes in a 50 mile radius of his home (in Indiana)
Moved to Florida in 1999 to work for a custom bike builder
Opened “Graves Custom Cycles” in October 2002
http://www.gravescustomcycles.com/
Posted: January 11th, 2009 under thoughts on this & that, Uncategorized.
Tags: bike builder, Jerry Graves, man done gone, Sturgis
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