Back in the saddle
Lee Gibson discusses his 1988 custom Harley-Davidson FXRP police special "Mad Max" Monday at his Rathdrum home. Gibson, who was expected to not ride again because of an injury crash, is back in the saddle and hoping to break a Guinness World Record with the bike.
DEVIN WEEKS/Press
Lee Gibson gives a "V" for victory Monday as he describes how he feels about being able to ride motorcycles again after an injury crash in 2021.
Rathdrum resident Lee Gibson sits aboard his custom-built 1988 Harley-Davidson FXR police special Friday. He is working to set a Guinness World Record with the bike, which he has named "Mad Max."
RATHDRUM — The thought of never again riding a motorcycle was painful for Lee Gibson.
“It felt like having a major part of me amputated," he said Monday, standing among the bikes in his garage. "A very important part."
Gibson, who is 57 and lives in Rathdrum, is a Navy veteran who served during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. He has been in 13 crashes in his motorcycling career.
"It's not because I suck on a bike," he said. "It's because I’m good and I push the limits."
The last crash, in fall of 2021, was a doozy: It almost ended Gibson's ability to ride.
He still deals with physical pain from the incident.
He said he decided six or eight months ago he's not going to give up that easily.
“I’ll never be fully healed, but I’m not going to settle down in a wheelchair, either,” he said, gesturing to a nearby sleek black motorcycle. “This is my wheelchair.”
Gibson exercises on a recumbent bike and rides sometimes on good days. His determination to be back in the saddle is fueled in large part by a custom-built 1988 Harley-Davidson FXR police special he named "Mad Max."
“This is a one of a kind," he said. "The only one of its kind in the world."
He worked on the bike years ago with the previous owner, a good friend in California who recently had to sell.
"He said if he was ever to sell it, he’d call me first," Gibson said.
Gibson has contacted Guinness World Records because he believes Mad Max is capable of beating the quarter-mile world record for fastest street-legal Harley-Davidson, and that he will be the one to take it there.
“I can tell you right now, the world record for a street legal Harley-Davidson in a quarter-mile is 110-plus miles an hour," Gibson said. "I’m going to make an attempt, because I’m absolutely certain that the 110-mile-an-hour record, I can walk all over that."
Gibson's return to the open road was just a couple months ago. He described how that moment felt after he returned to the activity he loves.
"Victory," he said, fingers upward in a "V" shape. "It felt like victory."
A smile rode ear to ear as he fired up the police special and the immediate vicinity filled with a deep rumbling sound one might mistake for a jet engine.
His hands shook as he killed the modified racing motor.
“This is adrenaline," he said.
A fifth-generation motorcycle enthusiast, whose son and grandchildren continue the love of the sport, Gibson is eager to welcome the Guinness scout and maybe have his name in the record book. He says he will keep The Press updated on how it all goes.
"Ever since I was a little boy, I always wanted to own the most-badass Harley-Davidson on the planet," he said. "And now I do."
