History of the Chopper

[tacoman]

Has anyone seen this show on the Discovery Channel?  I wasn't going to watch it as I thought it would be all those guys that try to weld all kinds of junk on a pre-made frame in under 2 hrs. etc.  When I saw it was hosted by Jesse James I thought ok.  Very interesting, some of the real forefathers of custom bikes are guys I've never heard of.  Two were black guys and they built the choppers in Easy Rider.  They got no credit, being black in the late 60's and Harley Davidson being totally against their bikes being modded, they got no recognition and no one has heard of them.  One is still alive and living in Mexico where Jesse James found him for a quick interview.  Watch it if you get a chance.

[ant_129]

I watched it too.  I liked it but I also like watching the other chopper shows.  But I think I have to agree with the Sugar Bear (or something like that) when he stated that most white guys wouldn't admit that their was a prejudice back in the day.  It was every where so I seriously doubt some of the comments that the older white guys said about it.

[tacoman]

The 60's were a lot different than today, so there was a lot of prejudice.  At least the truths are coming out now.  These guys were real craftsmen, they hand hammered all their parts.  The Orange County guys go to a bike warehouse that looks like Costco and buy all their parts.  But, to make a living you need to turn out bikes and hand making them will get you respect but probably won't bring in the $$s.

[fritobandito]

Prejudice was definitely alive in the 60's. I have a home movie video my parents made on a trip to Tennessee in the 60's. They stopped at a gas station somewhere down there and filmed the signs over the restrooms: Men, Women, Colored. Very disgusting! It's hard to believe it was till so prevalent 100 years after Abe Lincoln.

[ant_129]

Well what I meant to say was that they denied it being in the chopper/motorcylce world.  I find that hard to believe.