Not long after, Vaughs says, Fonda and Dennis Hopper came by his apartment in West Hollywood, and discussed early plans for a motorcycle movie, and building the bikes they would need.įather Ricks would establish the Chosen Few MC in 1959 with 5 of his friends:Chosen Few MC became the first racially integrated 1% Club in the world. Vaughs says he covered Fonda’s court appearance for KRLA and, in the process, got to talking with the young actor about motorcycles. In the summer of 1966, Fonda was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. Vaughs says he first met Fonda in his role at KRLA. He had also worked as a civil rights activist and photographer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and was a member of the newsroom at the Los Angeles radio station KRLA.
But in an interview this week, Vaughs, now 77 years old, explained his role in the creation of the “Captain America” bike.Īt the time, Vaughs was a motorcyclist and had built bikes himself.
The Discovery Channel‘s “History of the Chopper” identified Hardy and Vaughs in 2006, an exhibition at the California African American Museum noted Hardy’s contributions in 2008, and Paul d’Orleans wrote about Vaughs on his blog The Vintagent in 2012.īen Hardy died in 1994. Is It Time to Panic Over Harley-Davidson? The bike maker is facing pressure from all over. 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. 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. “It’s a quintessentially American folk art form.”īikers for Trump- Are they for the Biker Lifestyle or only using it to advance the founders personal agendas? I choose the latter They were “choppers,” crafted by hand.Ĭhoppers are “a type of customized motorcycle usually defined by a stretched out wheel-base, and pulled back handlebars, and a sissy bar, and a wild paint job,” says Paul d’Orleans, the author of the upcoming book, The Chopper: The Real Story. The motorcycles used in Easy Rider were not simply rolled out of a showroom and in front of the camera. 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. The Hottest New Biker Book of the Year “The New Age of Biking & Brotherhood” Now Available on Amazon and every major online book retailer.
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