Alabama Man Gets Second Chance To Build Dream Motorcycle
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — “Perseverance” means the steady persistence in a course of action, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles or discouragement. “Perseverance” is also the name of Tim Martin’s Harley-Davidson Road Glide.
After successfully completing the motorcycle safety course, which he had been eagerly anticipating, the instructor looked him in the eye and said, “With your skills, you may take the M1 license exam.” It was a moment he had been waiting for, the culmination of his dedication to mastering the art of riding.
It starts at the front with a 30-inch wheel and travels to the dash where an iPad controls the stereo. It’s bigger than the first one at about 10 feet long and about 4 feet wide.
Both bikes are worth between $80,000 and $100,000, said Martin, an electrical engineer at West Rock in Demopolis, Alabama.
He said he likes this motorcycle better than the first one, but he couldn’t say he was glad to have to start over again to achieve the outcome.
In June 2014, Martin loaded the first bike onto a trailer and headed to Chicago for a bike show, hoping to achieve his dream of getting his bike in a magazine. He had been working on the bike for a year, during which he was diagnosed with Stage 4 renal cell carcinoma, kidney cancer, at age 44.
The trailer, along with the bike, was stolen from his hotel parking lot and has not been found.
So, he bought another Harley-Davidson Road Glide on eBay a month later and started over.
He said of his health “it is what it is,” and he would have started over even if he hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer. But if he hadn’t been diagnosed, “I think it would’ve been a little easier to quit,” Martin said.
So, he decided to persevere.
“During the process of building the bike, I got diagnosed with kidney cancer. We got the bike finished, and within 24 hours, it was stolen,” Martin said. “I felt like everything was turning against me. It’s just been one thing after another trying to keep me from getting this finished. It just seemed like I just had to push through it and get this thing done.”
He said he decided not to let anything stop him, not even a lack of money.
“You get to a certain point where you know (you) may not get another chance to do this again,” he said. “So I need to take advantage of the opportunities I’ve got right now.”
The finishing touches were added to the new bike Wednesday night, and about 60 of Martin’s family members and friends joined him to view the bike at Steel Syndicate Chop Shop on Skyland Boulevard for a preview before the bike hits the road today headed for Sturgis, South Dakota, for the 75th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
“Last time, we rolled the bike out of here into a truck and nobody saw it. We had been talking about this bike for a year, and then nobody got to see it,” said Martin’s wife, Elayne Martin. “You come back (from Chicago) and you try to tell them about it, and words can’t describe and pictures can’t describe how awesome this bike is.”
Martin’s mother, Jody Sandlin, said she had never seen anything like it, even as a former biker.
“It’s a whole lot better than him getting all depressed,” Sandlin said. “He’s had this bike to encourage him.”
Martin agreed that the bike helped him keep his mind off his disease, which is incurable.
Since his diagnosis in March 2014, Martin has had his kidney, adrenal gland, a rib and a lobe of his lung removed and is treated with an experimental drug at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center every three weeks in Nashville, Tennessee.
During that time, Martin said he, Chris Elliott, who painted the bike, and Scottie Hubbard, owner of Chop Shop, worked thousands of hours over the past year to rebuild and customize the new bike.
“It’s an awesome bike in every way,” Hubbard said.
Sandlin said she is proud of her son for finishing the bike, especially because of his diagnosis.
“This is his legacy.”
___
Information from: The Tuscaloosa News,
