The last one sold at auction

In 2014, the (alleged) last remaining authentic motorcycle used in the filming of Easy Rider was auctioned off to an anonymous buyer for $1.35 million, despite claims it may not be authentic.  California auction house Profiles in History said bidding had been fierce but did not name the buyer.

Reportedly used in the film’s climactic crash scene, the Harley-Davidson was restored by actor Dan Haggerty, famous for his starring role in the TV series Grizzly Adams.  Yet the bike’s authenticity has been questioned by another collector who claims he owns the actual chopper used.

Gordon Granger of Texas also claims he has a certificate signed by Haggerty, proving his bike is the genuine article.  Haggerty, who had a small role in Easy Rider, admitted to the Los Angeles Times he had authenticated and sold two “Captain America” bikes.  Yet he insisted that only of them was genuine – the one belonging to California real estate agent Michael Eisenberg that was sold at auction.  The auctioned motorcycle is also alleged to bear Peter Fonda’s autograph on the gas tank.

Fonda himself has questioned the bike’s authenticity.  “There's a big rat stinking someplace in this,” he is quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times.  “I can't tell you which one is real.  I know there are two bikes out there that are both authenticated by Haggerty.  That’s not right.”

We may never know whether the auctioned bike was authentic, but one thing that’s known for sure it that the other three motorcycles used in the filming of the movie were stolen even before the movie’s release.

Who built the motorcycles?

The central characters were Cliff “Soney” Vaughs, Ben Hardy, and Larry Marcus, part of a larger network involved in the procurement of frames, engines, and other parts and in the design and engineering of the final products.

The late Cliff Vaughs, who was known in the motorcycling community and often credited for designing the bikes, was actually on the original Easy Rider film crew as an Associate Producer.  Vaughs stated in an interview, “Peter [Fonda] and Dennis [Hopper] had a long background in the industry.  They would raise the money.  I would design and build the motorcycles and develop the visual themes.  Captain America and Bucky [Captain America’s sidekick, later renamed to Billy], costumes, colors: red-white-blue.  I was accorded the title of Associate Producer.”

Vaughs added, “From my apercus the production proceeded admirably until the New Orleans shoot, when there was a dispute about how much film was being used by the director, Dennis Hopper.  I was summarily fired from the production.”

After most of the original film crew was fired, Vaughs’ lawyer sued the film studio for severance pay, which resulted in a payment to Cliff and Larry Marcus of $333 each, and the same for their lawyer.

Larry Marcus, who built the extra bikes to be destroyed in the final scene, recalls, “As part of the settlement, we had to sign a document agreeing that our names would not appear on the final credits.”  That contract undoubtedly contributed to 45 years of misinformation and conjecture regarding “who built the Easy Rider bikes”, as there remained no official trace of Cliff Vaughs’ involvement in the film.

Ben Hardy, who passed away in 1994, was a prominent chopper-builder in California, with a shop in Watts.  He was instrumental as a mentor to Vaughs (he was ten years older than Vaughs) and was also involved in building the bikes.  Marcus explains, “I would call Soney the designer of the bikes, and Benny the head mechanic and assembly man.  We were all involved.  Soney was the true designer as far as I was concerned, of the style and design.  Soney gave Ben Hardy the money to buy the first two police bikes at auction for $400 each.”

Peter Fonda has muddied the waters over the years as to the building of the bikes, often giving himself full credit.  He told WHYY’s Fresh Air in 2007, “I built the motorcycles that I rode and Dennis rode.  I bought four of them from the Los Angeles Police Department.  I love the political incorrectness of that.  And five black guys from Watts helped me build these.”

But in 2009, Dennis Hopper recorded an audio commentary track for the Criterion Collection release of Easy Rider (2016), in which he says Vaughs “built the bikes, built the chopper.”

Larry Marcus, in a phone interview for NPR, said, “Cliff really came up with the design for both motorcycles.”

It’s a shame that credit has not been properly given where credit is due, and that not more people know of the contributions of Cliff Vaughs, Ben Hardy, and Larry Marcus.  But the motorcycling enthusiasts, especially the chopper-riding community, know of their important contributions, and will always celebrate it.

Easy Rider returns to movie theaters across the country for two days only: Sunday, July 14, and Wednesday, July 17.

The film, which received Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson), will be shown in more than 400 movie theaters at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time each day via a partnership between Fathom Events and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The Fathom presentation will also include a brand new, exclusive introduction by Fonda and will be released with a new 4K restoration.  In 1998, Easy Rider was added to the National Film Registry, and the iconic movie is also part of the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Best American films.