Motorcycle fans honor a true friend By BRYAN McKENZIE Daily Progress staff writer Mark Twain once wrote that a person’s race, creed or religion are not important. All that needs to be known about a man is that he is, in fact, a human being, and he can fall no lower in esteem. Most times I concur with Mr. Twain’s assessment, but there are people who make us question the credo. I’m betting Sidney Gray was one of those people. Mr. Gray wasn’t famous like athletes or politicians, or even a faux celebrity like those who write drivel for newspapers. Still, he is remembered fondly by an offbeat, mix-and-match, loose-knit grab bag of cyber-space motorcyclists known as the Ytriple Club and its associated Cheap Bastards Motorcycle Maintenance Association. So important a part of the club was Mr. Gray that its third-annual Eastern region gathering in Shenandoah National Park will include a ride and memorial service on Saturday at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Universalist Unitarian Church, where Mr. Gray is memorialized. In 1998, Mr. Gray attended the first-ever gathering of Ytriple club members, with bike owners from the eastern United States meeting in Shenandoah National Park. He showed off his collection of Yamaha triples and led members on a trip and tour of Monticello. Cyclical adventures The club is made up of motorcycle enthusiasts who swear by Yamaha XS-750 and XS-850 motorcycles with three-cylinder engines and a shaft drive similar to those in cars. “If you take one of these triples to the Yamaha dealer, they won’t touch them,” explained Charles F. Cotham, a club member from Winchester, Tenn. “We got together through the Internet and do a lot of swapping and begging and borrowing of parts and information. Sid was an important part of that.” The bikes were built from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. That means getting parts and making repairs is an adventure involving phone calls, e-mails and recitations of prayers and curses. “Sid was active not only on the Internet with the club, giving out advice and information, but if someone needed a part — electronic ignition, brake calipers, wire harness, whatever — he’d pack it up and send it to the person for the price of shipping. Sometimes he’d take the parts off his own collection of bikes. If he could help, he did,” Mr. Cotham said. A Southern gentleman Mr. Gray was battling cancer in 1999, but he attended the second annual Ytriple meeting anyway. Four months later, on Dec. 7, 1999, Sidney Gray died. “The passing of Sid Gray is notable as he meant so much to the Ytriples community worldwide,” wrote Jean Akers, a Ytriple member from Maryland. “Sid was a Southern gentleman who had contributed much to our shared interest in these old bikes.” Mr. Gray’s e-affiliation with the club and short face-to-face friendship made an impact on club members. “He’s fondly remembered. He’d do anything for you and was an important part of the club,” Mr. Cotham said. “Sid Gray was just a good human being.” And as you know, those can be very hard to find.