The Chopper of All Choppers, “Captain America” Goes to Auction

The Captain America chopper Peter Fonda rode in “Easy Rider” has come to symbolize the counterculture of the 1960s. Now it’s for sale.

According to The Associated Press , auction house Profiles in History estimates that the iconic American flag chopper will bring between $1 million and $1.2 million at the sale, which will be held online and at their galleries in Calabasas, California.

Easy Rider stars Peter Fonda and Hopper as two drug-smuggling hippies on a psychedelic – and, ultimately, tragic – cross-country trek to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Fonda’s panhead chopper, which comes with three letters of authenticity (one signed by the actor himself), features “forward-angled front wheel and handlebars, fishtail exhaust pipes and a teardrop-shaped gas tank.”

The panhead was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine, so nicknamed because of the distinct shape of the rocker covers. The engine is a two-cylinder, two-valve-per-cylinder, pushrod V-twin. The engine replaced the Knucklehead engine in 1948 and was manufactured until 1965 when it was replaced by the Shovelhead.

As the design of Harley-Davidson engines evolved through the years, the distinctive shape of the valve covers has allowed Harley enthusiasts to classify an engine simply by looking at the shape of the covers, and the panhead has covers resembling an upside-down pan.

The “Captain America” chopper used by Peter Fonda had a panhead engine, as did the “Billy Bike” ridden by Dennis Hopper’s character.

The gleaming stars-and-stripes panhead chopper with chromed hardtail frame is accompanied by three letters of authenticity. One is signed by the National Motorcycle Museum, where it was displayed for 12 years. Another is from Fonda and a third from Haggerty.

The bike features a forward-angled front wheel and handlebars, fishtail exhaust pipes and a teardrop-shaped gas tank where the protagonists stashed their cash. It was designed with input from Fonda who insisted on it being decorated with the American flag.

“Easy Rider” is a classic road film about two drug-using, long-haired bikers, Wyatt (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper), who go on a cross-country odyssey to New Orleans in search of personal freedom and easy money.

The seller is Michael Eisenberg, a California businessman who once co-owned a Los Angeles motorcycle-themed restaurant with Fonda and “Easy Rider” co-star Dennis Hopper. Eisenberg bought the bike last year from Dan Haggerty, perhaps best known for his roles in the “Grizzly Adams” TV show and movies, who was in charge of keeping the custom-designed bike humming during the 1969 movie’s filming.

The restaurant, Thunder Road House, was one of the coolest establishments because it had great atmosphere, good food, and a custom bike shop just a few feet away. Also, service was slow because all the cute waitresses were checking out the patrons (producers, director or agents) in order to be discovered or to get a leg up on the competition. Eisenberg ran the Thunder Road House in West Hollywood with Fonda and Hopper in the 1990s until it burned down due to an electrical fire.

Four motorcycles were created for the movie, but only one is known to have survived. It was used in the climactic crash scene in which Fonda is thrown off the bike.

“Three of the motorcycles were stolen, even before the movie was released, which was a sign of the overwhelming power that these motorcycles had,” said Haggerty. “They were never recovered.”

Eisenberg said he plans to donate “a significant amount” of the proceeds to the American Humane Association to honor Fonda’s involvement in the organization.

What is a Chopper
A chopper is a type of motorcycle that is either modified from an original motorcycle design (“chopped”) or built from scratch to have a unique hand-crafted appearance. Some of the characteristic features of choppers are long front ends with extended forks often coupled with an increased rake angle, hardtail frames (frames without rear suspension), very tall “ape hanger” or very short “drag” handlebars, lengthened or stretched frames, and larger than stock front wheels. The “sissy bar”, a set of tubes that connect the rear fender with the frame, and which are often extended several feet high, is a signature feature on many choppers.

Choppers typically are stripped down and have had many parts found on stock bikes “chopped” – that is cut down or modified to be smaller, or removed altogether. Parts often removed include the front fender, turn signals, one or more mirrors, speedometers and gauges, electric starters, batteries, chain guards, and various covers. Two anachronistic front suspension systems, the girder fork and the springer fork, are often used on choppers, to further differentiate them from the telescopic forks found on almost all modern production bikes.