Spotlight on Lady Riders: Gypsy

A member of HDForums this weeks Lady Riders spotlight shines on Gypsy.

How many years have you been riding?

All my life. Hell, for all I know I might have been conceived on Daddy’s Indian.
I know Mom rode with him pregnant with me.

What keeps you riding?

It’s in my blood. I can’t NOT ride.

What would you do differently?

Actually, nothing. The only regret I have is a dear friend was killed on my bike in ’03. Never worried about letting him take her for a ride. Wrong place/ wrong time sort of thing.

To illustrate the kind of toughness and determination that Gypsy has for not just riding but for life she shares her story with us.

This one will take a few minutes.
I was hit by a local Sheriff’s Deputy on 4-29-’07. He was on duty at the time & doing over double the limit. He was not on a call. I was being crowded by a truckload of kids & they had me blinded with their headlights. I couldn’t see & tried to get away from them, trusting that the oncoming (whom I couldn’t see) was doing somewhere close to the speed limit. I was wrong.

My hips were badly broken, my left femur was compound fractured, my right arm was broken so close to the shoulder it had to be plated & my left arm was crumpled up like a paper towel & hanging by a thread. They used my one unbroken limb (right leg) for parts. They took a vein out trying to save my arm. Unfortunately, the arm had to come off six months later.

Essentially, I lost my Harley (’02 1200 Sporty), my arm & my career (Aircraft Mechanic) that night.

They took my arm on Halloween of ’07, the day after my 41st birthday. How bad does that suck? At least they did it outpatient so I wasn’t trapped in the hospital.

After the wreck I was in the hospital for three weeks. It would have been longer but I had just quit a job & had no insurance. The hospital wouldn’t keep me (not ****ed up enough) & the nursing home wouldn’t take me (too ****ed up), so Butch had them send a hospital bed & brought me home. He has a handicapped daughter who he’s cared for for years (Angie’s 32) & now he had two of us & a full time job.

He had to help me learn to walk again after they took the fixater out of my hips. Bad enough he had to bathe me & put me on the handicrapper for over three months. Good man there.

…Anyway, we went to Florida for Christmas after they took my arm so Angie could go to Disney. We also stopped in Daytona so I could look up a couple of friends I hadn’t seen in over 20 years.

I caught up to Marcus Orabons working at Willies Tropical Tattoo in Ormond Beach & he was riding a sweet hardtail. When I asked him where he got it, he told me he built it. I told him, if I got a settlement, he was getting a phone call.

Three years later he built “Chump Change” for me. She got her name because I got a craptastic settlement. I had him throw a 107″ Ultima into a hardtail frame, chain drive and now I ride her.

We at HDForums want to thank Gypsy for sharing and think that although her bike isn’t a factory HD it fits right in!

Here’s my Flickr pics. Scroll to the bottom & you’ll see the wreck pics. (Editors note: These are graphic. The damage Gypsy suffered is severe so please only click knowing you will see something no one should go through.)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gypsylady1/?saved=1