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Ticket to Ride DGR brings manners, men’s health awareness, and dapper style to the local motorcycle scene / by Emily Price
// photograph by Paul Mehaffey
here’s just something about a man in a suit. Especially when he’s riding a rare vintage or classic-styled motorcycle, such as Jim Oden’s 2013 Triumph Bonneville—which looks exactly like the original Triumph made in 1959, aside from a bit of modernization such as fuel injectors, and is “customized to the max, but not overdone. Just one of a kind,” he says. Or Greenville native Joe Barnes’s 1972 BSA Thunderbolt, a rare model that’s “a survivor” from the last year the renowned British manufacturer produced bikes, and which was originally Barnes’s late father’s. Barnes got his license on it, and it became his graduation present. He’s completely restored it over the past year. This distinct brand of unparalleled, masculine swagger—and even more so, the opportunity to celebrate the tradition of dapper style with attention to classic details—is the allure of the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR), an international charity event that raises awareness and funds for the Movember Foundation, the largest organization to exclusively serve men’s health initiatives such as prostate cancer and suicide prevention.
60 TOWN / towncarolina.com
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10/14/16 2:29 PM