Our Story

The ride doesn't end when the knees start talking.

Somewhere past fifty, riders start hearing the same question at family dinners and in parking lots: so when are you selling the bike?

It comes in different outfits. The insurance renewal arrives with a new number on it. Swinging a leg over the seat takes a little more planning than it used to. Somebody at the gas station calls you "sir" twice. And the people who love you most start saying, gently, that maybe it's time.

Plenty of riders keep riding anyway. Gray Throttle exists for them.

We make shirts for riders who are still at it — and who'd rather laugh at the parts that aren't original anymore than park the bike in the corner of the garage.

Who we make shirts for

Riders with gray in the beard and miles on the clock. People who learned on bikes that are now called classics, and who still check the weather on Friday night to see if Saturday is a riding day.

Some ride alone. Some ride with the same group that has met for breakfast for twenty years. Some ride two wheels, some ride three. Some have a new hip, a new knee, or a pair of reading glasses tucked inside the helmet. None of that is the point. The point is they're still going out.

We also make shirts for the people who buy for them — the wives, husbands, sons, daughters and grandkids who know exactly what the bike means and want a gift that says so. Our Gifts for Riders collection is built for that job.

Why the jokes are first-person

We write our lines as if the rider wearing the shirt said them. "My knees are aftermarket. The rest is stock." That's not somebody else poking fun at a rider. That's the rider telling the joke first, on his own terms, and getting the laugh before anyone else can.

How the shirts are made

Every Gray Throttle shirt is printed after you order it. There's no warehouse full of leftovers and no stack of last year's designs on clearance. Your shirt goes into production when your order comes in.

Production: 2–5 business days.
Delivery: 3–7 business days inside the United States after it ships.
Christmas: order by December 7 for delivery before Christmas inside the US.
Sizes: S through 3XL. Colors depend on the design and are listed on each product page.

We design for reading distance, not for squinting. Big, plain lettering. Strong contrast. If the rider at the next pump can't read the line, the shirt isn't finished.

We ship to addresses in the United States only.

What we promise

Our own lines, nobody else's patch. No club colors, no knock-off logos, no parody of another company's brand. Every design is written about riding with some years behind you.
Print you can read from across the lot. If it takes reading glasses to get the joke, we redo it.
If we get it wrong, we fix it. Misprinted, damaged or not what you ordered? Email us a photo within 30 days of delivery and we'll reprint it or refund you. You don't need to mail anything back.
Size worries are on us, once. If the fit is off, we'll send the right size one time, free, within 30 days of delivery. Need help choosing? Our Size Guide has the measurements.

Because each shirt is made for your order, we can't take returns for a change of mind. The full details are in our Refund Policy and Shipping Policy.

The riders are the story

We don't have a celebrity founder or a made-up legend to sell you. We'd rather not invent one.

The best stories here are going to belong to the people wearing the shirts. The first ride of spring. The seventieth birthday that ended in a parking lot with the whole group. The trike that kept a rider on the road when two wheels stopped making sense.

If you've got one, we'd like to see it. Send a photo of you and your shirt out on the road to support@graythrottle.com. With your permission, we'll share it.

Talk to us

Questions about sizing, an order, or a shirt that didn't come out right? Email support@graythrottle.com or use our contact page. A real person reads every message and replies within 1 business day. Please include your order number if you have one.

Common questions are answered in our FAQ.