Cliff ‘Soney’ Vaughs on his white chopper on Malibu Beach, 1971 The Captain America and Billy bikes were a collaboration of several men, built by several hands, and were an outgrowth of an established legacy of Afro-American chopper builders in South Central Los Angeles, in 1968. It is a powerful work of art, a coveted, elusive object, copied a thousand times all over the globe, but it cannot be truly captured, as it exists only in the realm of dreams. They wanted to own that bike and ride it and eat it and absorb everything the bike stood for into their very beings, to become the gods that bike promised we could become. Those admiring the Easy Rider choppers didn’t want to be Peter Fonda, they wanted to be Captain America.
EASY RIDER BIKES SKIN
Its lines and proportions are perfect, as is the American flag paint job, which slip under one’s skin and electrify subconscious associations: the cowboy, the outlaw, America, freedom, power, speed, sex, drugs and rock music. If anyone thought to ask ‘who built that?’ (and few did), they might have assumed Peter Fonda built it, but most admirers of Captain America were simply glad it existed, as if it had been delivered from the gods. The Easy Rider choppers: ‘Billy’ and ‘Captain America’, ridden by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda Far more people idolized that motorcycle than ever saw the film all they needed was a photograph of Dennis Hopper (on the ‘Billy’ bike) and Peter Fonda, riding through the anonymous landscape of the American West, modern day cowboys roaming the land free, just free. Such is the power of the machine’s image, and its place in the cultural history of motorcycling around the world. The Captain America chopper transcends its own story nobody needs to have seen the film, nor recognize Peter Fonda, to understand they’re looking at an icon, a magical talisman of Freedom. Show them TE Lawrence on his Brough Superior, and they’ll recognize neither the quizzical WW1 hero, nor his Brough Superior.
EASY RIDER BIKES FREE
Show them Rollie Free stretched out in a bathing suit over his Vincent at Bonneville in 1948, and they’ll laugh, but won’t know a thing about the bike or the man. Show someone a photograph of the ‘Captain America’ bike from ‘Easy Rider’, and everyone knows what they’re looking at. It’s the most famous motorcycle in the world, period. Meanwhile, Fonda says he has no idea which bike is original, or even if an original exists.Adapted from Paul d’Orléans’ book ‘The Chopper: the Real Story’ Eisenberg bought the bike in early 2014 from John Parham, a Midwestern motorcycle parts magnate who had bought it from Haggerty 12 years earlier. The bike which has just sold at auction was owned by Michael Eisenberg, a Los Angeles real estate agent and collector of Hollywood memorabilia. Haggerty later said it was not an original. Gordon Granger, of Texas, bought a supposed original Captain America in 1996 from Haggerty for $63,500. Haggerty said last week that he has authenticated and sold two Captain America bikes, while Fonda has authenticated at least one other bike, but later withdrew it, saying he had been duped by Haggerty.
EASY RIDER BIKES MOVIE
Three other bikes used in the film were stolen even before the movie hit the cinemas.īut some doubt still remains about the authenticity of the bike. The chopper was partially destroyed in the film’s finale and rebuilt by Grizzly Adams actor Dan Haggerty. The American-flag-decorated chopper ridden by Peter Fonda in the movie directed by Dennis Hopper was once endorsed by Fonda as the original bike. Profiles in History spokesperson Sabrina Propper says “the buyer is always confidential, I’m afraid”.īut there is now a cloud over the bike’s authenticity. The bike has just sold for a staggering $US1,350,000 ($A1.54m) in the Profiles In History auction in California to an undisclosed buyer. The world’s most expensive bike is the Captain America Harley Panhead chopper from the 1969 cult film Easy Rider … or is it?
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