But this is all guesswork and no-one knows for sure. There have also been suggestions that some of the uncannily authentic-looking replicas of Captain America that continue to surface were modelled from the real thing.
#Easy rider bikes movie
Some say they were broken for parts before their significance as movie props was realised, while another rumour persists that they were stolen by Hells Angels and may well sit in a clubhouse in Oakland to this day. Three of the four bikes were stolen before the movie had even wrapped (which is why they don’t appear in the final campfire scene) and their whereabouts remains unknown. Fonda also took it upon himself to run the bikes in around the streets of Los Angeles to get them looking grubby and well-used before filming began. Hopper’s bike was made much more sedate because he wasn’t as experienced on two wheels. The four Panhead Harley-Davidsons were bought as a job lot at auction (a 1950 model, two 1951 models and a 1952 bike) for just $500!Ĭaptain America could only be made as extreme as it was (with its ludicrously long forks, absence of front brakes, and impossibly high bars) because Fonda was a skilled rider. Two Captain Americas were built for Fonda and two Billy Bikes were made for Hopper who, funnily enough, played a character called Billy.
The bike had a hard-tail rear, an ultra-high-backed sissy bar seat, extended forks (and no front brakes), upswept exhausts, ape-hanger bars and, of course, that iconic stars-and-stripes peanut fuel tank. The Panhead engine was retained, as was the Harley Wishbone frame, but almost every other part of the bike was custom-built by African-American chopper builders Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy. In reality it was a former Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide police bike of 1952 vintage. The most famous bike in the movie is the one ridden by Fonda and dubbed Captain America.
It may not stand up so well today Easy Rider was, after all, a movie of its time, but it truly tapped into a nerve in the summer of ’69 and celebrated a new form of freedom that caught the imagination of millions and changed the face of biking forever. The movie tells the story of two drug dealers (Fonda and Hopper) and a drunken attorney (Nicholson) who ride around the American south west selling dope, lighting campfires, and getting stoned. The image of Fonda riding Captain America is one of the most iconic in motorcycling and has led to claims that the bike is now the most famous, and certainly the most copied and argued over, in the world. The movie, starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, became a cult classic and kick-started the custom chopper craze as well as laying out the blueprint for road trip movies. Easy Rider hit cinema screens in the summer of 1969 and became a global smash, eventually grossing $60 million from its paltry $360,000 budget and earning an Academy Awards nomination for Best Original Screenplay. It’s 50 years since arguably the most influential motorcycle movie of all time was released. Words – Stuart Barker – first published – 03/04/19 Oil in the Blood: feature film lays bike culture bareĮasy Rider, the film that made biking cool.
The film was a portrait of the death of the American dream and stuck two fingers up to the Hollywood mainstream.Īn Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay followed (Fonda co-wrote the film with director and co-star Dennis Hopper) however the President of the Motion Picture Association saw to it that they didn’t win after saying: “It’s time we stop making movies about motorcycles, sex and drugs.” Thankfully no one listened and Easy Rider’s legacy lives on to this day.įonda passed away at his home in Los Angeles after a short battle with lung cancer. Riding a Panhead Harley-Davidson chopper in the American desert, sideburns and floral shirt billowing in the wind, Fonda’s character was a lightning rod for the youth of the day. Fonda had a long and varied career, however it was his depiction of Wyatt in the cult 1969 road movie that he was arguably most famous for. Peter Fonda, the star of the iconic motorcycle film Easy Rider, has died aged 79.
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