Update

update

LeGrand Jordan died on November 9, 2001, at his home in Malibu, California, aged 100, just as this issue was being put to bed. He was, as King James wrote, full of honors.

The Jordan Four is with us still, the prize exhibit (for some of us, anyway) at the Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, California.

This isn’t so much an update as it is a happy ending.

To no one’s surprise, my 1983 article about the Jordan didn’t result in any investment bankers coming forward, nor did the motorcycle makers in 1983 show any more interest than they had in 1941.

Instead, the prototype Four stayed in Jordan’s shop until he read in 1995 about the then-new Petersen Museum. He called, and museum staff went to see the bike.

They were, of course, impressed, and instantly offered the motorcycle a home, which was what Jordan had hoped would happen, and it’s been there ever since.

Jordan moved to Malibu after his wife’s death. He celebrated his last birthday there, in August, 2001.

Jordan was profiled in 1992 by Zenith, the California Highway Patrol magazine. They ran a photo of Jordan

aooaru a mouern unr Harley, and reported that he was more impressed with the Harleys of 1992 than he’d been with the brand in 1932.

Just as well, one thinks now, because if he’d been a Harley fan then, none of this would have happened and we’d all be

the poorer for it.

Allan Girdler