One of the most famous motorcycles in movie history is rumbling off to auction, highlighting Propstore’s 1,700-lot Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction March 12-14 in Los Angeles.
Ridden by Peter Fonda’s character, Wyatt, in the counterculture movie classic “Easy Rider,” the signature motorcycle from the film features the iconic “Captain America” Stars-and-Stripes emblem painted on the gas tank, which is also autographed by Fonda. The chopper is based on a Harley-Davidson Panhead overhead-valve engine and includes the sissy bar Jack Nicholson’s character George Hanson leaned against while riding with Fonda.
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Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
In the climactic finale scene, shotgun-wielding yokels attacked Wyatt and Billy (Dennis Hopper, who also directed the film), crashing Wyatt’s signature American flag-patterned motorcycle and ending their freewheelin’ ride to New Orleans. This is the crashed motorcycle used for the scene, after the filming of which it was restored to its current state.
Considered the iconic counterculture film of the 1960s, “Easy Rider” was nominated for two Academy Awards, won a Cannes Film Festival award for Best First Work, and was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry for its impact on global culture. The motorcycle’s destruction was considered a groundbreaking, transgressive representation of widening political fissures between the popular hippie movement of the time and repressive mainstream American culture and remains one of the most acclaimed sequences ever put to celluloid.
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Wyatt’s motorcycle was originally designed by Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy of Watts, Calif., with design input from Fonda. Two bikes were customized with the “Captain America” (Wyatt’s nickname in the film) stars and stripes for the production to prevent filming delays. Following production, one of these motorcycles (along with Hopper’s motorcycles) was stolen from stuntman Tex Hall’s home. Hall gifted the other Captain America chopper – this bike, with VIN “53FL5070” – to “Grizzly Adams” star Dan Haggerty, who helped maintain the bikes during production following its destruction in the crash sequence.
Under Haggerty, the motorcycle underwent sympathetic frame-up restoration and was later signed by Fonda to demonstrate its authenticity. David Ohrt also performed additional restoration work after Haggerty sold the motorcycle to a private collector circa 2002. It was then displayed at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa, from 2002 to 2013.
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CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CAPTAIN AMERICA CHOPPER
Registration and online bidding are now open on the Propstore website.
Article courtesy of Old Cars Weekly.
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