Original documented Easy Rider Captain America bike when on display in the Museum.
July 14 marks 50 years since the film Easy Rider hit theaters in America. The Dennis Hopper – Peter Fonda motion picture is important for a number of reasons. For one, it speaks to a generational shift, cultural changes taking place in America in the 1960’s. Children born just after World War II, so-called “baby boomers,” were coming of age around 1969 and did not hold to the same values as their parents. For many young Americans, different clothes and music, long hair, free love and experimentation with drugs were in motion. War in Southeast Asia had split our country, exacerbated by the draft put in place to develop a force to defend the West’s interests. Motorcycle sales had been growing exponentially. The arrival of Easy Rider, and Bruce Brown’s On Any Sunday a year or so later, confirmed Americans loved motorcycles, enjoyed a little risk involved in riding, even if their parents did not condone the new morals held by this generation.
The film Easy Rider did not invent the chopper, but it certainly locked it into our minds. The stylish motorcycle profile of cut steering heads, long forks and sissy bars had been happening for about a decade. Filmmaker Cliff “Soney” Vaughs had been riding them since 1961, and was hired by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as Associate Producer of a new project Fonda called ‘The Loners’, to be a “motorcycle Western.” Vaughs provided the name ‘Easy Rider’, and his real-life adventures riding a chopper through the South in 1963, including being shot at from a pickup truck that U-turned to chase him in Alabama, where he marched with Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Vaughs organized the creation of the Captain America and Billy choppers with his mentor, Ben Hardy, in the style Hardy had been building for years: outlaw street dragsters and stretched out choppers. Dennis Hopper noted, “like with Rock n’ Roll, the African-Americans were way ahead of us [on choppers].” The “far out” look of the chopper was a symbol, a visual, and part of a Bohemian lifestyle that Hopper and Fonda used to get their points across in the film.
Though in years past a documented Easy Rider Captain America bike was on display at the National Motorcycle Museum, (shown in the gallery photos) the Captain America bike and Billy bike now on display are replicas of the two matching bike “props” made for the 1969 cult classic motion picture. In the course of filming the final scene, one of the two Captain America bikes is crashed as Fonda is shot while riding it. This crashed bike is the only Captain America bike known to exist and is in the late Paul Allen’s collection in Washington. The matching Captain America bike and the two “Billy bikes” built for Hopper were stolen near the end of the filming and never seen again. Some say the Captain America motorcycle is the most famous, most recognizable motorcycle in the world. When you visit the Museum you can also see Easy Rider movie posters, including some rare ones from other countries.
Captain America and Billy bike replicas currently on display in the Museum.
We featured the Captain America replica in 2016 – you can view that post here. CLICK HERE
To celebrate the anniversary, this Sunday July 14 a restored 4K version of the film will be screened in about 400 theaters across America.
*For more of the story on the Easy Riders bikes, and a great, in depth history of choppers, get a copy of THE CHOPPER, The Real Story from the Museum Store. Author Paul d’Orleans did a lot of original research for his book which sheds light, blows away myth.
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I really enjoyed this article Although threw my 40 some years of Motorcycles most of this article I believe to be true Thank You
I have model for sale
I have the copy built on a custom bicycle frame that was used in the Aerosmith tour !!!
Man i love the sound of your bike
Do you want to sell it?
I’ve got both bikes here in New Zealand 🇳🇿
Anyone know anything about the original Franklin Mint die cast run of the Captain America that actually has the “EZ Rider” License plate? –
I have the two Franlin Bikes …your right ..it has the license # 484483
Man i love the sound of your bike
Do you want to sell it?
I’ve got both bikes here in New Zealand 🇳🇿
🙂
My dad jimmy DeMaster painted that Capitan America bike for easy riders
The replica bike is a lousy replica. It’s certainly not an exact copy. You could really only call it “similar”. The most obvious difference is the more vertical rake and the shorter length forks. That alone is a huge difference in the two bikes. Then there are many smaller differences everywhere on the bike. The forks are not the same, besides being shorter they have black “fork boots” or oil seals, the originals didn’t. The pipes are 5 different sections, the originals were only 2 pieces with the long wider flared pipe being all one piece. The original has a mirror on the left handle bar, the replica doesn’t. I could go on & on. I’m really surprised they even put that other bike there. It’s almost insulting to anyone who really knows bikes.
Well said. If you read The book “Don’t tell dad”…..
Fonda tells you. There is no original Captain America bike left. It was loaded in the back of a pick up and all the parts taken away. Some people might have a part of the bike. A spring, kickstand or something small like that but the rest of the bike was destroyed.
All these people claiming to have the original don’t even know what the frame was made of. Do you?
If I want to put a holidays in together is the SSSS a good motor to buy
Hi I’m looking to buy a Captain America bike I’m based in New South Wales Australia.
email me Kris I have one on fb check my old chopper then inbox me
Back around the 90’s I was there & at the time there was a “rope” around the Easy Rider bike exhibit looked at my buddy & said” I’ll NEVER get this close to this bike again & I sat on it & my buddy took my picture on it.” I still get the thrills & chills of sitting on this Iconic machine!
What an incredible tribute to an iconic piece of American cultural history! The Captain America bike from Easy Rider holds a special place in our hearts, symbolizing freedom, rebellion, and the spirit of the open road. Thank you for preserving and showcasing this legendary motorcycle for future generations to appreciate. Truly a must-see exhibit for any motorcycle enthusiast or movie lover! Keep up the fantastic work!
– Gary Ford