May 21, 1970, Highway 1, Southern California.  My college buddy and fellow fairingwright,  Duane Anderson and I were heading north into Big Sur, racing from gas station to gas station on our new Kawasaki H1s, because that is what you did on Kawasaki H1s.

I must confess that my first impression of Loyal was that of dis-belief.  This LA-Hipster could not be real.  He reminded me of one of the "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" * 

Loyal Truesdale sure could talk.  He said he was a tech writer for Lockheed...  or maybe he was a riviter.  He was Lyn Abram’s sales manager at Racecrafters.  Or did he race for Lyn? He was a drug runner from Mexico and had spent a lot time in jails south of the border.  Except, the “Federales” were his friends and brought him presents in jail. Al would nod, indicating that it was all true.   Loyal gave me his card - above, which I glued into my notebook for posterity.

Maybe it was the beer but I liked this guy.  I have never met anyone remotely like him before or since.    But, who was he really?

After 40 years, I still am not sure.  Guess what? If he was here with us now, we still wouldn’t know.

Loyal returned to LA and I returned to Illinois. We became pen pals of sorts.  The next year, when he heard I was riding to Aspen to see Bucky Fuller, Loyal said wanted to see Bucky too. He rode out on his poky old BMW.

The fact is, Loyal George made you happy. Look at that grin. He was always happy. Well... “happy-go-lucky” might be a better description. I don’t think he worried about a thing. Amazingly, things always seemed to work out for him.  He certainly led the charmed life.

Loyal liked people and motorcycles.  I soon realized that he might be a good person to represent my company, which made motorcycle fairings. Loyal wanted to give it a try too.  In 1972, when it began to warm up in Illinois, he arrived from LA to head up our sales department. Can you imagine the stir he created in the little mid western town of Rantoul? They had never seen anything like him. There wasn't anybody like him.... anywhere.

Loyal arrived at a time when we were hopelessly back-ordered.  Worse, we had just discovered that we weren’t making any money.   If we were to survive, we were going to have to raise the price of each new Windjammer fairing by $50!  The job fell to Loyal. Turns out he was the right person at the right time.

Actually, anyone would buy a fairing from Loyal George Truesdale III... probably at any price, too. He had the gift. I would stand outside his office door and listen as he called our unhappy dealers:

“I have good news and I have bad news”  he would begin.  “The good news is that we will be able to ship your fairings out in a couple of weeks.  The bad news is that they are going to cost $50 more each.”

I can still hear him saying those words. After all was said and done, Loyal did not lose a single order.  In fact, he ended the day with additional orders!  Loyal George Truesdale III just might have saved my company.  I certainly could not have done what he did.

I told you he was a great talker. 

Loyal could stand only one Illinois winter and at the end of 1973 before it got cold, he returned to his beloved LA. The next time I saw him he was in a Harley ad in the 1974 November Cycle Guide:

Look! He's got them all doing the Loyal Truesdale grin! How did he do all these things?  What did he do next? What did he really do before? I leave those stories for others to tell.

Loyal George Truesdale III was certainly the most unusual person I have ever met.  He really was the man on his card and more.  As I reflect today, I realize that, in all his story telling, he never said an unkind thing about anyone. Inside that outrageous character was a genuinely kind and gentle man.

That counts for a lot.

Sumbitted by his friend, Craig Vetter, Carmel, CA

*Gilbert Shelton was the creater of the Fabulous Furry Freak Bros, not R. Crumb as I first reported. Gilbert is still alive. Maybe we could find out if his character was inspired by Loyal. There could not have been another person like him.