Reunited

By: Lin

oln In iel

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

office. The staff of the law firm, who were in on the deal, but sworn to secrecy were all wearing Jaybird Custom Cycle shirts. Robert was doing official lawyer stuff but took a break to come down to the catered party. Cecil, the office staff, Jay and the Jaybird’s Custom Cycle Crew and Robert’s wife were all waiting on Robert, who was unaware of the surprise he was about to receive. Cecil called for everyone’s attention, and gave a quick speech thanking Robert for his recent victories at the law office. As Cecil presented Robert with a Harley-Davidson coffee table book, Jay fired up the prodigal Shovelhead that had been stashed out of sight in Jay’s trailer and rode it over. The look on Roberts face was absolutely priceless when he turned around to see that that sweet rumble was coming from his old ’84 Super Glide. Robert’s wife, who was the only other person present that wasn’t in on the secret asked Robert if that was his first bike and with his hand over his forehead and a look of disbelief, he confirmed to his wife that it was in fact, his first motorcycle. It was quite a moment and there was

no way not to be caught up in the excitement. Robert walked around the bike and pointed out a battery box emblem that he had put on the bike nearly 26 years ago. Cecil regained everyone’s attention to ask if we thought that Robert might need a bookmark for his new Harley-Davidson coffee table book. With that, Cecil produced the title to the ’84 shovelhead from his breast pocket and presented it to Robert. Naturally Robert took the bike for a spin around the block before the staff posed for some photos. Jay jokingly told Robert, “You don’t know how many times you’ve walked past this bike at the shop”. There was even a story told that Jay had to scramble to cover the Shovel with a blanket when Rob showed up unexpectedly at Jaybird’s Custom Cycles. Cecil remarked to answer about his motivation to make this miraculous reunion between man and machine that. “I don’t have a lot of money, everybody thinks lawyers have a lot of money. But I want to give all my gifts away while I’m alive so I can see them enjoy them. Rob and I have always been really close, he’s more like a son to me. This is a family up here and I have my family at home. My staff up here is like my daughters and granddaughters up here. I’d do about anything for him and I think he’d do the same for me. And the other thing was I wanted to reward him for some of the things he had done for the firm.”

Since being reunited, Robert has taken the Super Glide on some rides and rekindled some memories of riding that old Shovelhead as a younger man. Though he also said he has relied on the electric start and that he hasn’t tried to kickstart it.