Reuniting A Veteran With His Long Lost Harley Davidson

all right so a couple of months ago I made a video called something along the lines of help needeth on lost bikes something along those lines for my buddy Mike was looking for his dad's long-lost motorcycle basically his father who was a veteran during the Vietnam War served in the Army for over 22 years sold his bike in the early 90s an 82 harley-davidson long story short years ago by his father comes down with terminal cancer my kid his father had several conversations during that time period and asked him if he had any regrets and he said that his number one regret was selling that motorcycle during the time his father was sick he looked for over three years trying to find his motorcycle and with no luck well somehow through modern science with a will of God himself Mike's father recovered is now on a mission and although Mike never found the bike he also never gave up looking for it basically long story short I get with Mike and we make a video seeing if we can reach out to my subscriber fan base and see if anybody knows or it was in wallah you guys came through special thanks to mr. Richard Ford for making this happen he was able to through means find the vehicle and where it was registered to allowing us to get in contact with the original owner and it is thanks to him and you guys my subscribers for being able to give this man is Harley back so I sincerely thank you and I want to let everybody know that this is in fact the abridged version there's actually a little bit longer version about 30 minutes or so that I've linked in the description of us going through the journey in finding the bike and talking to the owner and in purchasing and bringing it back and it's a great video there's there's tons of adventure and we have a lot of fun and it's just a good video so so if you ever want to sit down and watch that video I suggest you do it's in the description it's a good video three years of research for this motorcycles boil down to about 24 hours of one guy asking his friend if he could pull in a favor and we found the bike so thank you guys so much since Mike is so nervous about his dad finding out he's very nervous he's he still wants us to be a surprise he's since he's so nervous about his dad finding out he's cooked up this elaborate lie to lure him here that he bought some sort of like rare skyline and I have to lie to his parents now now I'm included in the lie so yeah I'm just gonna be like hey I'm my name's Dan I'm from auto trader and I'm one of Mike's friends we're like whatever so him and his girlfriend are gonna go pick up the bike while they're here they're not here yet obviously they will be soon though and they're gonna surprise and be like dad come check out actually I bought a bike instead he's getting easiness with the parts so it's gonna be really cool it's gonna be fun hey pop I met the shop the guy from auto traders here Chelsey's down here as well I'm gonna take a shower and then as soon as you get down here I'll go and get the car and we'll do it the rest of the history so is mom gonna be able to make it sounds perfect can't wait to see you you know what's you know it's incredible it's like how bad you are at lying oh my gosh that's great so you're retired from the Army from the Army how many years did you serve 22 and a half 22 and a half ago sir I'll be the first to tell you thank you for your service my appreciated you know is there anything that you remember specifically you know growing up that that made you want to pursue that career oh my god drafted in drought that's right I figured out how to get out of here no I think he was drafted and then after in being in the army I and I went to Vietnam with him three months after being drafted and I was in an aviation unit decided I wanted to become a pilot come back and went to flight school and went back over as a helicopter pilot helicopter pilot all the way up until the time that I retired and then for an additional 10 years I was a test pilot with nine Corp out here at full rocker I went to law school at night and got a law degree opened up a long practice and for the last 20 years I've been a lawyer the last six of these 20 years have been a judge well hey that is incredible he didn't tell me any of that that is it's not really important well it's relevant I spent that's I spent all day in court yesterday I had a trial and I went from 9:00 in the morning till 7:15 and we broke this girl right here oh man you guys are thank you so much this is a motorcycle in Atlanta Georgia it is a 1982 harley-davidson fxw tube one in stage yes sir 15 it spokes in the Bennet yes sir wide front man it's got a couple of problems you know a leaking primary seal on one side another side I believe the Bendix and the jack shaft no longer acts the weight so you have to keep started and now it kicks over pretty much on the second or third kicked on the first pick for us the first kick when you kicked it yeah the tap sort of got out of a bag so to speak with me pulling the money if you give me an opportunity to explain the bike home with some spare parts would you like to see another time are you sure this isn't my bike that is the paint job those are my saddlebags it's my third friend whose work that's more Guiness that's a guy that did the water breathe how do I find that Mike is this the bike yep oh my god this is the bike this is your bike this is the begin tuck you got to be careful I am careful this is my finder the c'mere that's the point that I bought want to read it to you two minutes it's ready yeah one hotel Delta one Bravo echo Keela one one charlie yankee 0 1 2 8 oh goody I wanted to make sure that you had something to put the pot in the sidecar there's a fabric stayed behind it this is Danny he runs a youtube channel called do it with Dan I'm not actually from Auto Trader you really thought I went to barber really sucker the man that you sold this bike to was a man by the name of Searcy that's right seriously but also a Vietnam veteran I remember is that big port in the guy with the big white beard he moved everything house at home to come to Washington one year he did he is do you know why he's dead he went on a motorcycle trip to the Vietnam he owned this motorcycle and he had another motorcycle maybe I thought I had something like that on the way back he got hit and killed by a Paul on his motorcycle his son was about my age but knew about the same age when that happened he sold this motorcycle to afford to repair his dad's motorcycle he got killed on man that had this was a guy named Matthew Shaw and when he bought this he he had a son and couldn't do anything with it and just through the power of the internet and YouTube and and everything else we were able to find it and strike a deal and now it's back here for you this is your bike is that good thing man that's a good look kick it for you no I've never seen a man put on a bike better than that perfect [Music] [Music] she sounds real good got anything else for me you got a thing else no this has just been an awesome experience more than you could possibly know thank you all for what you've done thanks man thanks guys thank you forever as a pleasure thank you so very much and Mike I'm glad that were able to make it work yeah all right you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] he messages Mike finds out all the details we found the bike so we went to Walmart they didn't have the ramps like we thought so we call it around to probably like 10 different motorcycle shops and no one was willing to let us own the ramps dad used to take us to school on the bike when I had the sidecar it just needs a battery or maybe look at the cool look at everything in terms of fluids yeah just get it refresh screw down yeah just make it you know I got to see

Channel: Do It With Dan

Views: 1,310,445

Rating: 4.9573293 out of 5

Keywords: veteran, reunited, motorcycle, lost, long lost, return, returned, harley, diwd, do it with dan, doitiwthdan, travel, traveling, journey, army, military, marine, pilot, harley davidson, dream, bike, car, emotional, coming home, video, soldier, giving, gift, christmas

Id: 3dJJsMGIFws

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/iliveinmemphis]

full disclosure. I FF-d until about the 6 minute mark. Man...around 6:30 in-- when his dad says "oh mike. oh buddy. this is my bike." That youthful innocence in his voice and the look he gives his son. Holy shit--and there's 4 more minutes. OP, you're killing me, but damn that's some sweet powerful bond right there.

edit: I'm going to have to watch the whole thing...tomorrow. </onions>

yeah. watch the whole video.

[u/DukeMaximum]

This is so heartwarming. A buddy of mine was promised his dads Avanti, but when his dad died, his aunt sold it. Years later, he tracked it down to someone’s backyard, bought and restored it, and gave it to his son when his son graduated college.

It’s the coolest story I’ve heard, and I’m glad it’s not the only one like this.

[u/imsatansson]

Fuck

This is so good

[u/swordsumo]

“Oh, Mike, oh, buddy... this is my bike”

Waterfall

[u/aryeh56]

It's amazing how important a motorcycle can be to someone. It's a lot more like a pet than an object in some ways.

[u/beach_girl_34236]

We're a military family and that brought tears to my eyes. Thank you sir for your service!

[u/peppy2ray]

That’s awesome!

[u/blarghinatelazer]

Oh shit, it's DoItWithDan. This is definitely gonna get to me a bit.

[u/hoots76]

I'm not crying, you're crying! So sweet.