--- title: Easy Rider & The Bike Builders | V-Twins description: Discover the iconic Easy Rider motorcycles and the talented builders behind them. Learn about their impact on motorcycle culture and the legacy they left behind. image: https://news.v-twins.com.au/hubfs/Easy%20Rider.jpg --- **Welcome to North Coast V-Twins!** [About us](https://www.v-twins.com.au/pages/about-us) # [![V-Twins Motorcycles](https://v-twins-motorcycles.myshopify.com/cdn/shop/files/V-Twins_Inline_White_RGB_CROPPED.svg?v=1705640129&width=360)](https://www.v-twins.com.au) [Cart](https://www.v-twins.com.au/cart) Menu - [Motorcycles](https://www.v-twins.com.au/pages/motorcycles) - [Gear & apparel](https://www.v-twins.com.au/pages/apparel) - [On Sale](https://www.v-twins.com.au/collections/sale) - [Service & repair](https://www.v-twins.com.au/pages/service) - [Book a test ride](https://www.v-twins.com.au/pages/book-a-test-ride) - [Blog](https://news.v-twins.com.au/blog) - [About](https://www.v-twins.com.au/pages/about) - [Contact](https://www.v-twins.com.au/pages/contact) ![Easy Rider & The Bike Builders](https://news.v-twins.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Easy%20Rider-01.jpg?width=1920&name=Easy%20Rider-01.jpg) # Easy Rider & The Bike Builders 03 Oct 2026 [Share on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.v-twins.com.au%2Fblog%2Feasy-rider-the-bike-builders&src=sdkpreparse) [Share on Twitter/X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?&;text=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.v-twins.com.au%2Fblog%2Feasy-rider-the-bike-builders) [Share via email](mailto:?subject=Easy%20Rider%20&%20The%20Bike%20Builders&body=Discover%20the%20iconic%20Easy%20Rider%20motorcycles%20and%20the%20talented%20builders%20behind%20them.%20Learn%20about%20their%20impact%20on%20motorcycle%20culture%20and%20the%20legacy%20they%20left%20behind.) ###### Welcome to today’s V-Twins Sunday Run! There are famous and interesting bikes in our photos today, and who wouldn’t want one of these in the garage, or inside near the fireplace, or even on the old coast road with the alluring South Pacific Ocean surf on one side and the Great Dividing Range on the other! The bikes, of course, are the Captain America and Billy Bike from Easy Rider.  ![Easy Rider-07](https://news.v-twins.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Easy%20Rider-07.jpg?width=543&height=550&name=Easy%20Rider-07.jpg)How important are these bikes? On October 18th 2014, the Californian auction house “Profiles in History” auctioned the last authentic motorcycle actually built for and used in the filming of 1969's Easy Rider movie. That Captain America chopper is considered to be the most famous motorcycle in the world. If (as we suspect) most of you weren’t around in 1969, it’s worth noting that Easy Rider ended the tumultuous 1960s with a depiction of the outer-edges of the ‘counter-culture’ decade. It pinpoints an expression of the zeitgeist, and the movie’s massive popularity is demonstrated by the fact that it earned $60 million worldwide from a tiny filming budget of $400,000.  Movie critics praised the performances, directing, writing, and soundtrack, and the visuals… wow! Who doesn’t still want to ride a chopper over the Colorado River bridge with the song “I Wasn’t Born to Follow” in your ears? (We wonder if that’s the essence of all of us as Harley riders? We’re just not ‘born to follow’.) Given that relaxed yet gritty counter-culture look and feel, Easy Rider also should somehow  be awarded for the best tag-line of all time: “A man went looking for America. And couldn’t find it anywhere…” Anyway… back to the bike auction. Peter Fonda, who played Wyatt and produced the Dennis Hopper-directed film, rode the Captain America bike, and the one sold in 2014 is the actual bike crashed in the film’s finale. Obviously it was rebuilt and restored – and its value was estimated in that 2014 auction at US$1.2 million. But despite the bike's fame, and the beautiful Billy Bike always alongside it, the history of the creation of the Easy Rider bikes was for many years largely unknown.  So… who are the two gentlemen in our photos today, and who built those bikes? Let’s take a roundabout story and introduce them to you.    Distilled from a giant confused mess of information, here’s the story. Peter Fonda, as a part of his conceptual planning for the film, imagined custom chopped Harleys visually pretty close to the final bikes. Fonda then took his concepts to the man in the colour photo with this post: Clifford Vaughs. Vaughs designed and coordinated the building of the motorcycles.  As producer, Fonda purchased four former LAPD police bikes for $500 the lot, he scored 1949, 1950 and 1952 build Harley-Davidson FL Hydra-Glides. His concept bikes needed a backup each to make sure that shooting could continue in case one of the old machines failed or got wrecked accidentally. Vaughs took his ideas based on Fonda’s thoughts to motorcycle builder Ben Hardy, the person in the B&W photo here today.  ![Easy Rider bridge](https://news.v-twins.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Easy%20Rider%20bridge.jpg?width=781&height=550&name=Easy%20Rider%20bridge.jpg)The Panhead powered Hydra-Glides were massively re-built… hand crafted… by Hardy and Vaughs – two of each bike - on hardtail frames, with different, unique, and brilliant styling and paintwork. On the film’s release, choppers suddenly became "a quintessentially American folk-art form" according to social historians. Choppers immediately appeared around the world as custom builders grabbed the trend… and of course that trend has never stopped. Choppers, like custom cars, were usually identified by being associated with their builder, but that didn’t happen properly with the Easy Rider bikes until 2006! Despite Fonda’s statement that “black guys from Watts helped me build these," Vaughs and Hardy’s names weren’t publicized.  Finally, in the pre-publicity for the 2014 auction we spoke about earlier, it was stated that “the Captain America bike was designed and built by two African-American chopper builders — Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy — following design cues provided by Peter Fonda himself." That’s very late recognition, but finally cool. The designers and builders of “the most famous motorcycle in the world” deserve credit.  How famous were the bikes and the movie? How influential has it all been? Think about this… in the movie, on the back of Peter Fonda’s jacket is a large USA flag patch (photo here today). In 2007, that patch… not the garment, just the patch… sold for US$89,625.  And just for interest, the two Billy bikes, and the spare Captain America bike, were all stolen before the movie was even released!  Have a great Sunday Run on your bike today! ![Easy Rider-08-patch](https://news.v-twins.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Easy%20Rider-08-patch.jpg?width=972&height=720&name=Easy%20Rider-08-patch.jpg) ![Easy Rider](https://news.v-twins.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Easy%20Rider.jpg?width=1037&height=582&name=Easy%20Rider.jpg)   ## Recent articles ## [![The V-ROD Destroyer](https://news.v-twins.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Destroyer.jpg?width=768&height=512&name=Destroyer.jpg) The V-ROD Destroyer Discover the iconic Harley-Davidson VRXSE Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod Destroyer, a legendary drag bike renowned for its power and performance on the racetrack.](https://news.v-twins.com.au/blog/the-v-rod-destroyer) ## [What Full Sales and Servicing Mean at Cruiser Dealers Learn what full sales and certified motorcycle servicing mean at Australian cruiser dealers so you can evaluate dealer support with confidence.](https://news.v-twins.com.au/blog/sales-and-servicing) ## [![Leather Jackets](https://news.v-twins.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Jacket%20leather-08.jpg?width=768&height=512&name=Jacket%20leather-08.jpg) Leather Jackets Explore the history and evolution of leather jackets in motorcycle culture, highlighting their benefits and iconic style that remains popular today.](https://news.v-twins.com.au/blog/leather-jackets) ## Join the family! 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