Well, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. We all love two-wheelers, be it plain-jane cycles, mopeds or hardcore custom choppers, and in whichever manner of propulsion they bring forth, including human power, batteries, regular pump fuel or even the one used to blast rockets into outer space. It’s the freedom and the openness they bring, and we adore it. So what about motorcycling movies then? Hollywood’s been a big fan as well, it seems, with movies centered (or at least playing a noticeable part) around two-wheelers dating as far back as the Twenties. Okay, sounds cool. So, we’ll be posting a couple of the better ones (names and a basic plot analysis, not the real movies!) as we go along, starting with that really famous one, Easy Rider.

Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the early 1970s.

The motorcycles for the film, based on hardtail frames and panhead engines, were designed and built by Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy, following ideas of Peter Fonda, and handled by Tex Hall and Dan Haggerty during shooting.

In total, four former police bikes were used in the film. The 1949, 1950 and 1952 Harley Davidson Hydra-Glide bikes were purchased at an auction, with each bike having a backup to make sure that shooting could continue in case one of the old machines failed or got wrecked accidentally. One “Captain America” was demolished in the final scene, while the other three were stolen and probably taken apart before their significance as movie props became known. The demolished bike was rebuilt by Dan Haggerty and shown in a museum. He later sold it at an auction in 2001, and now resides at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa.

Read more at IMDB