2007 Dyna Wide Glide

2007 Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide

Project: Sandy

The Story Behind the Bike

This next one isn’t exactly a project—it’s more of a rescue. The story is a bit heartbreaking, but the motorcycle behind it is absolutely fascinating and deserves to be told.

When it comes to Harley-Davidson motorcycles and parts, I’ve developed a bit of a reputation as the “finder of unicorns.” Maybe it’s because, when I’m not wrenching on something, I’m scrolling through Craigslist ads looking for rare finds. People often ask, “Why not just use Facebook Marketplace?” I do check it from time to time, but honestly, it feels like it’s full of Harley vultures—guys like me scooping up every good deal the second it posts. Craigslist, though, still has that quirky, forgotten-corner-of-the-internet vibe, and that’s probably why I find some of the gems I do.

Case in point—I’ve had two Harleys that were over two or three years old with less than 100 miles on them. Both of those bikes will have their own write-ups on this site.

Sometimes the unicorns find me. One day, my buddy Roger called. “Hey brother,” he said, “my neighbor down the street is a widow. She’s got an old Harley she’s trying to sell. A broker offered her $3,500, but I think he’s lowballing her.”
Now, those who know me know there are a few two-word phrases that get my full and undivided attention: free food, free beer, and old Harley. Roger had me hooked. I told him I’d be happy to check it out and give her an honest idea of what it was really worth.

We went over to her place, and she walked us around to the side of the house. She opened the garage—and inside was a Harley-Davidson trailer. And inside that trailer… was the unicorn. I stood there, jaw dropped, staring at something that looked like it had just rolled off a showroom floor. It was pristine—bone stock—and honestly looked like it could still be sitting at a dealership with a new price tag on it.

The backstory was just as incredible. Her husband had been a bush pilot in Alaska, flying people in and out of remote areas. Around 2009, he came across this Dyna Wide Glide for sale. The original owner was a younger guy who only rode it occasionally and always kept it garaged. It had only 3,700 miles on it—and you could tell. It looked like it had never seen rain, never hit a mud puddle or dusty road. This was a sunny-day-only kind of bike.

So the bush pilot buys it, loads it into a trailer, and hauls it to their new retirement home in Northwest Arkansas. He backs the trailer into the garage—and there it sat, untouched, for fifteen years. It didn’t see sunlight again until 2024.

I asked the widow more about it. “Did he ever ride it?” I asked. She shook her head. “No. He bought it for retirement,” she said. “But after we moved back here, life just kind of happened. Every now and then he’d open the trailer and look at it, but that was about it.”
Then she told me the hard part. This past winter, while trying to corral their dog, he slipped on ice, hit his head, and passed away. Now she was trying to sell everything—including the bike—but had no idea what it was worth.

A few years ago, I would’ve bought that bike on the spot. But at the time, I already had five Harleys and was supposed to be thinning the herd, not adding to it. My wife definitely wasn’t going to be thrilled about number six. So I told her I couldn’t buy it myself, but I’d make sure she got a fair deal.

I explained the basics: the bike had been sitting for years, so it would need new tires, fresh fluids, and a fuel system cleanup. Harley made electronic fuel injection standard in 2007, with gasoline sitting that long means the fuel pump and lines have to be cleaned and seals replaced. I offered to take the bike back to my shop, go through it, and get it roadworthy before listing it for sale.

And that’s exactly what I did. I tore it down, flushed the fluids, replaced the seals and brake fluid, did a full three-hole service, checked all the fasteners, and gave it a full once-over tightening and torquing all critical fasteners. By the end, it was ready for the road. I did the work for the cost of parts just to make sure those swindling, conniving, back-alley broker types didn’t get their greedy little paws on it.

But what made this particular bike truly special wasn’t just its condition—it was that it marked the end of an era. Harley-Davidson discontinued the Dyna line in 2017. And while I’ve never been a huge Dyna guy—I’ve always leaned more toward the Softail line because I like the hardtail look with decent suspension—there’s one thing I absolutely love about Dynas, especially the Wide Glide: the rake. That long, stretched-out front end just hits different. This one nailed it.

Then there was the paint—White Gold Pearl. Pictures don’t do it justice. When the sun hits it, the gold flakes explode off the metal like fireworks. It’s absolutely beautiful. And when I took it out for test rides, it rode like a dream. It was honestly painful not to keep it.

Still, the goal was to find the right buyer—ideally a collector who would appreciate what this bike was. I listed it and waited.

A couple of weeks later, a man about my age came by with his wife. His kids were grown, and he was looking for something to cruise around town on. It was obvious he didn’t have much experience with Harleys—he figured since the bike was a 2007, he could get it for next to nothing. At the time, I was still holding out hope for a collector, so I didn’t budge on the price. He and his wife thanked me and left.

About a week later, he called back. “Are you firm on your price?” he asked.

I told him, “Look, this belongs to a widow. It’s a time capsule. You won’t have any problems with this bike for a long time. It’s in immaculate shape. This is as close as you’ll get to buying a brand-new Harley from 2007.”

He said he could come up with $8,500. I called Sandy, the widow, and said, “I know we talked about trying to get top dollar, and I still think a collector would pay more. But you need to buy a car, and honestly, I can’t think of anything your husband would’ve liked more than seeing this bike go to a couple who’s actually going to ride and enjoy it. Not just tuck it away in a garage in a sea of other bikes that don’t get ridden either.”

She agreed. We sold it to them.

And that’s the story of the 2007 Dyna Wide Glide—one of the ones that got away from me.