Captain America Motorcycle

in this episode we're going to bring to you arguably the most famous harley-davidson ever Captain America Captain America was produced for the now iconic and blockbuster movie Easy Rider which starred Peter Fonda our particular bike was built by John shared of Main Street power sports in Schaumburg Wow well hug baby John hello John Alan masters a little too old classic yes great to meet you finally so John listen you know why we're here to see this wonderful bike that you built this Captain America Harley you know we've been talking about it all week so excited to come down and see this bike it's an icon right there's only one other one in the world and it just sold for 1.35 million dollars that you have pretty well an exact replica of it so we're gonna take a look at that in a little while but but you know what yeah let's talk a little bit about you first you know how did you get into Harley and building custom Hollies it started I guess after motocross racing i I just got a passion for the street bikes and it had to be a v-twin it was just the sound of that engine and and that's where I went that's what sold it for you yeah so but you actually became quite a prolific builder you're not just a quasi as write you know somebody that just ran you actually build some pretty serious a custom only as I understand during the 80s and 90s we we did a lot of first-place trophies most of them are on the walls here and then after that I got into the production and that was during the period of the biker build ups where everyone wanted to build a bike in their garage and i produced those kits for people to produce in their garage and we sold over 2000 units in the United States alone Wow so see you actually became the quasi the the background builder for some of the builders that started off in the US so some of them some names down there did you build for some of the knees would be big bear choppers in Paul Yaffe we were a ghost builder for custom chrome and another another of show winners hmm but really the economy collapse in 2008 and that was the end of that tell us a little bit about how did you get involved in in the Captain America project one of my customers granny is a collector of exotic cars and had motorcycles and hid fantastic guy and he came in and he commissioned the bike to be built mmm not as a replica but a bike that he could ride on Sundays and not break down so it was a challenging project oh well so bite that looks every piece the original Captain America but Ashley from a drivability standpoint is more up to modern standards exactly yeah fantastic well you know I can't wait to have a look at that bike and maybe throw my leg over it you know whoa there she is Captain America I can't believe it you know up as a kid they saw this bike and I just said you know if I was going to have a Harley this is a bite that I would want right here its iconic so John tell us a bit about this this machine so you know what your mentality you know in getting into building it how you what you thought about it you know how you would build it and some of the things that that we'd like to know it really comes down to the demands of the customer whether it's a museum piece and a complete replica or this one that granny commissioned and he wanted to be able to ride this at any time on any day and enjoy the ride and get home so this one here has been corrected as far as hydraulic brakes for safety and geometry for handling I see so you told me the original had drum brakes on the back it had a drum brake on the back and no brakes on the front and no brakes on the front yeah kind of not what you need today and not today today's traffic wrap so and you were mentioning that the frame jumo geometry on this bike is a little different makes it easier to handle and so on back in 69 no one really understood much about trail and rake to make a bike handle properly so they raked them out and they suffered and and really kind of just muscled their way around but today we can actually build a bike that handles really long and these exhausts they're kind of like a fishtail looks kind of a Ripper replicating the Brooklyn's exhaust of yesteryear used on some the British bikes like Bella set and guys I do always had the big fish tail on there right so probably the designers had these in the back of the shop when they built the bikes for the movie oh so you feel let's just well put them on write mine yeah and of course the ioniq bar I mean this was new at the time wasn't it just got this this design and length of the bar this was if you look at the magazines of that era you'll always see these big bars with beautiful girls on the back leaning back and it really is part of the iconic image of a traveler and of course you can't have a chopper without there a panga bars that's right and this was a part of this base design at the time so you've got you you got your right front end you've got your hat your ape hanger bars and your up swept exhaust and of course the thing that really made this bike stand out in that movie is the American a teardrop tank with the American flag on it yeah yes nobody could miss that every shot in the scene of that movie when he rode in with that bike with that tank you went the the the bike stole the show in my view in in within those shots that's right you know they were fantastic yeah so here we are and of course it was a panhead now this is a panhead yep and so what have you done to the engine this engine is actually a reproduction and to make it more reliable we got rid of the generator so we have an alternator system electronic ignition and in replace of the generator is actually an oil filter so we were filtering the oil which is a good thing today isn't it's a good thing and other than that this is actually a big bore but it is reliable yeah so I'm looking on the air there's been no leak since I've been here so okay so that those issues are a bygone era now for Holly this bike originally was a total loss primary system the oil was fed to the chain and then it leaked out on the ground that's all as I said what I was getting at yeah but now of course yeah you know it it's a beautiful job you've done it Jonah I see that you custom-made the fluorescent shifter so on everything again is for safety or the hydraulic system the hydraulic brakes and it's it's just it's an easy bike to ride if that's what you want built okay so now this is the big the big question am I going to be able to ride this bike I think we could probably push it yeah I know it's very very valuable I know the customer is probably very very you know dedicated to this behind letting people write it too much but if there's a chance that it suits you don't want to pass it control it on this I would die to do it alright I'll take the heat we're on yeah good stuff do I get a chance to write this now John I know there's some special things that we have to know and that insurance all the other stuff but this is such a valuable piece of equipment just something you're happy with me too as long as I wear this helmet all right we got a deal we got a deal this is the famous Captain America I can't believe it the things I have to do for motorcycles for our show look at this holy torpedo I can't believe it I remember this movie when I was a young guy what is he a kid but a young guy and it was a the movie was just a phenomenal blockbuster it you left that show stunned if you never saw the movie you left it stunned Yuko whoa what just happened they just killed everybody you know yeah and this is the bite that started at all the chopper that started the movement and I can't wait to get my leg over this of course the viewers have to know I'm dressed for this park so I don't have my full riding gear on oh sure I'll be easy right in

Channel: Two Wheel Classics

Views: 352,852

Rating: 4.6016788 out of 5

Keywords: Easy Rider motorcyle, Captain America, Harley Davidson, famous american motorcycle

Id: VPtZikWzY7M

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2016