The Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine
42
By: Lincoln Infield
Reunited
ow many times have you heard
someone talk about their first bike or any bike that they sold and now regret? Maybe you have said it yourself. But it’s a real thing. Maybe you were young and didn’t realize how cool that bike would be, maybe it’s just the nostalgia of your younger days. Whatever it may be, for most people those thoughts are as close to their old bike as they will ever get. This is NOT the case for Robert Inge, who in my opinion, is one of the luckiest guys around. Robert bought a beautiful red and white 1984 Harley-Davidson Super Glide from an individual and rode that bike for a couple of years before selling the bike as his life went in a different direction. Fast forward a decade or two and like many other life stories, motorcycling came back into focus. As the story goes, Robert and Cecil Whitley have known and practiced law together off and on for more than 20 years and currently practice law at the Whitley, Jordan and Inge P.A in Salisbury, NC. While Robert and Cecil were at lunch almost 2 years ago, the subject of
motorcycles came up. In the course of the conversation Robert made mention that he regretted selling his first bike, the ’84 Super Glide. Cecil said that he “immediately changed the subject cause I knew I was going to try to find that thing for him”. Cecil who may be one of the coolest, most thoughtful people EVER, decided to do something about it and the search was on to find Robert’s motorcycle. After a bit of searching, they found the bike was still in possession of the fella Robert sold it to. How lucky is that? The bike had never left Salisbury and was pretty much the same as when it was last in Roberts possession. Cecil called on Jay Richardson of Jaybird’s Custom Cycles to help him pull the coolest surprise ever. Jay keeps Robert’s current Ultra Limited road worthy, so he got the job to bring the Super Glide home. Jay recovered the Super Glide and took it to his shop on 5865 South Main St. in Salisbury, NC. The Super Glide hadn’t been ridden in a while and was stashed in the back of a garage just waiting on better times. Jay recalls that the bike was “under 6 inches of dirt and dust”. Being garaged kept while dormant also didn’t keep the varmints from mucking up a few things. Jay had to completely replace the wiring harness on the iron head sled, replace the carb, wheel bearings, handlebar bushings, and even pull four foot of rats nest out of each pipe. “bout the only thing we didn’t touch was the engine and transmission” Jay says. Lastly, he sent off the tins to get freshened up back to their original luster. Once Jay had the bike back to riding order, Cecil had a plan up his sleeve to surprise Rob with the bike. An office party was set up to celebrate an unrelated achievement by the law
