Lawlessness, rampant sexual promiscuity, theft, gambling, drugs and being a general menace to society are the stripes motorcycle riders wear… 40 years ago! No doubt the image of motorcycling in the U.S. hit a low spot starting in 1947 with the infamous, and allegedly staged, photo of a Boozefighter motorcycle club member surrounded by empty beer bottles in the gutter, lying next to his bike. There’s more detail to that story, but this incident eventually became the premise for the Marlon Brando classic, “The Wild Ones.”
A couple decades later, during the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Hell’s Angels became the face of all that was wrong with motorcycling in the public’s mind. Since then it’s only been in the past 15 or 20 years that motorcycling seems to have largely made a full public image recovery. Though there’s still a faction or two that seem to keep biking with one foot in the grave. Regardless, in the U.S. the image of motorcycles and riding them has come light years from where it once was for a very long time.
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For every rider who has ever thrown their leg over a bike, there is surely one particular model that they can recount as being responsible for infecting them with the contagious riding bug. While some were fortunate to have biking in their blood and Hogs in their garage, others have undoubtedly become acquainted through the various forms of media within popular culture. Whether you caught the itch from seeing Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones, or Erik Estrada in CHiPs, many riders were inspired by images that shone upon the silver screen or appeared on their television sets each week. Not simply reserved for bikes from the entertainment industry, many a rider has become infatuated with the two-wheeled world through motorsport.