“I didn’t know that I was the only girl riding…I just knew I wanted to ride,” says Stacie B. London. “I had a picture of the bike that I wanted in my head…and it was coincidence and luck that I managed to find it.”

London isn’t your typical vintage motorcycle racer, and her steed, a Honda CB160, is not a typical vintage motorcycle. Sold for just one year, the tiny, jewel-like Japanese bike isn’t the easiest to find parts for…but that matters little to London.

“Going to that first race is when I realized I needed to race. There was nothing more clear to me that I needed to experience what it felt like to do that,” London says. “I didn’t really know what that meant, that I’d be in the shop every night for hours…and on weekends…”

With a master’s degree in industrial design and, until a few years ago, little interest in motorcycles, London’s introduction and approach to racing have since encouraged many more to don leathers and live life on two wheels.

London maintains Triple Nickel herself, with the help of a mentor, Ralph Hudson.

Through many obstacles—including a broken collarbone and finding parts for such a rare motorcycle—London’s fourth season of vintage riding was both challenging and thrilling.

“What I get out of it is this incredibly rich experience… In some ways, I got swooped up into this process that I wasn’t expecting,” London says. “Now it’s about discipline, focus, staying calm, adapting…”

“It kinda went from girls posing on bikes, and being pinups…now the pinups are riding.”

Source: Petrolicious
Photographs by Saam Gabbay and Spencer Canon for Petrolicious