The Yosemite Sam Radoff Story

The self-exiled badass is a cliché character found in every action genre of filmmaking. Whether it’s Clint Eastwood’s William Munny in The Unforgiven or Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens, somebody’s always disappearing only to have someone or something force them back into the game. “Yosemite” Sam Radoff is a bit like that. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, he was one of the coolest custom car and bike builders in the Midwest, if not the country. Eventually, he closed up shop when business slowed down, and now, thanks to Instagram and Facebook, he’s let the world know he ain’t dead yet. Only instead of exiling himself to the Himalayas or some Jedi planet in galactic BFE, he’s gone somewhere a bit closer to home: Canada. Right around the time we started seeing more and more of his cool old photos from way back posted on Instagram, he looked us up to see if we wanted to run a story on him. We jumped at the chance. Here’s what he had to tell us… read more >