And five black guys from Watts helped me build these."Ī publicist for Fonda said that he was unavailable for comment for this story.īut in 2009, Dennis Hopper recorded an audio commentary track for the Criterion Collection release of the film, in which he says Vaughs "built the bikes, built the chopper." I love the political incorrectness of that. "I bought four of them from Los Angeles Police Department. "I built the motorcycles that I rode and Dennis rode," Fonda told WHYY's Fresh Air in 2007. Peter Fonda, meanwhile, has said that he himself played a greater role in the design and construction of the bikes. He says he also worked with Ben Hardy to purchase engines at a Los Angeles Police Department auction, and coordinated the building of the bikes. By his account, he designed the bikes himself, and is responsible for the distinctive look of the "Captain America" bike. everyone's got an entirely different story."Ĭlifford Vaughs, for his part, says he acted as an associate producer early on in the film's production. "The whole thing has been like a Rashomon experience," producer Bill Hayward, who died in 2008, told the filmmakers who made Easy Rider: Shaking The Cage. The history of the production has also been particularly messy. Several of the key figures involved with the film have died, including director Dennis Hopper and credited screenwriter Terry Southern. More than 45 years after the production of Easy Rider, it's difficult to sort out the exact timeline of the film's creation, and the various responsibilities of the people involved. That film would eventually become Easy Rider. "I said, 'Well, I can build whatever we need for the film right here at my place,' " Vaughs remembers. An Associated Press story in the Los Angeles Times even noted his work in Mississippi in 1964. In bits and pieces, the story behind the Easy Rider choppers began to emerge publicly, and identified two African-American bike builders: Clifford "Soney" Vaughs, who designed the bikes, and Ben Hardy, a prominent chopper-builder in Los Angeles, who worked on their construction.īefore working on Easy Rider, Clifford Vaughs was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In fact, two documentaries about the production of Easy Rider - 1995's Born To Be Wild and 1999's Easy Rider: Shaking The Cage - never name the men who designed and built the choppers. And curiously, the Easy Rider bikes were never associated with any particular builder." Whose hands turned the wrenches? Who welded the steel? Most of the time, d'Orleans says, choppers are associated with their builders, "because they are an artistic creation. I mean, suddenly people were building choppers in Czechoslovakia, or Russia, or China, or Japan." The bikes in Easy Rider, d'Orleans says, "did more to popularize choppers around the world than any other film or any other motorcycle. The "Captain America" bike is an unmistakable and legendary chopper, and has made an enormous impact on the world of motorcycling. I mean, suddenly people were building choppers in Czechoslovakia, or Russia, or China, or Japan. They did more to popularize choppers around the world than any other film or any other motorcycle. And the man who designed and coordinated the building of the motorcycles, Clifford Vaughs, says he and the other bike builders have not received proper credit for their work.
(The three other bikes used in the production were stolen prior to the film's release.)Īccording to Brian Chanes, acquisitions manager for the auction house, the bike's estimated value is between $1 million and $1.2 million.īut despite the bike's fame, the history of the creation of the bikes used in Easy Rider has for many years been largely unknown.
The bike currently for sale was partially destroyed in the film's finale, the auction house says, and then rebuilt by actor Dan Haggerty. Peter Fonda, who played Wyatt in the Dennis Hopper-directed film, rode the so-called "Captain America" bike, named for its distinctive American flag color scheme and known for its sharply-angled long front end. 18, the Calabasas, Calif.-based auction house Profiles In History will auction off what it says is the last authentic motorcycle used in the filming of 1969's Easy Rider, and what some consider the most famous motorcycle in the world. Peter Fonda rides the "Captain America" chopper in Easy Rider.
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