I remember that era. Guys working on their own bikes. Couldn’t afford a shop. Getting run off the road by cagers in trucks. Getting pulled over because of riding. Getting harassed. Oh ya. Those were the days. Freedom was more abundant then. People are still, even more so afraid of freedom. 69 now and I still ride.
Youth made it feel like freedom was more abundant then, but remember WHY rebels had social mores to rebel against and how tame most of that rebellion was. Today sex, drugs and rock and roll are mundane and there is nothing (except wokeness which mostly affects those who submit to it by choice of ideology or corporate greed) left to rebel against. The golden age of motorcycling ended with reliable motorcycles in the 1970s. Before reliable motorcycles mutual support was a necessity as was learning to wrench. The US was a much less densely populated place and comms were limited to landlines for most of the country. Shops were few and far between and often took advantage to screw customers. Waiting for a "minimum order" to be placed by an "authorized dealer" was horrible and insulting because it gave every shop a captive customer base due to what we now call vendor lock. You had to wrench to ride and mutual support was vital (one reason besides fun I learnt to wrench immediately). Unreliable vehicles filtered the posers in straight or in-between or outlaw communities. Motorcycles becoming appliances coincided with Easyriders and other magazines cashing in on public curiousity about West Coast choppers exemplified in Easy Rider. The aftermarket exploded and the rest was history as everything original gets commodified, diluted and dissipates... Police harassment and getting run off the road wasn't "freedom", it was CONFORMISTS using force and power AGAINST freedom. Harley-Davidson wanting nothing to do with the chopper culture which later gave Willie G all the ideas he wisely copied/used later (disc brakes, belt primary drives, the Softail frame, the Softail name, Sportster narrowglide forks on big twins, the Super Glide gas tank style, sissy bars. If you rode up to a dealer on a chop you might not get parts. The last of the old mutual support culture lives in the vintage/antique/chopper/AHRMA racing/etc motorcyclist communities which is natural for every faded vehicle enthusiast era. When the last men of the era pass into history only artifacts remain, but you can ride those and it's FUN.
The Bike Riders, in my opinion, is a documentary that showcases a raw, honest glimpse of bike culture, and quite simply put, it is what it is. It’s what happened, and there isn’t anymore. Danny Lyon is a true-grit genius with a highly perceptive gift for seeing beyond the dark. He bravely immersed himself in bike culture when it was feared by outsiders, including the police. His recordings and striking photos invite us to experience a snapshot in time, capturing the dawn of bike gang culture from the golden era of good ol' boys/charming rebels to its unsettling decline into a more sinister world. Thank you, Mr. Lyon, for sharing the excitement, goof ball moments, and dangerous happenings, and for inspiring bike gang culture into an iconic era, helping clear the mud on the misunderstood biker lifestyle.
well...saw it last Friday Didn't liked it that much but was pretty good also as a nonsmoker the amount of smoking in this movie haha Also lol not a single helmet used ey if that guy that hit that car and died would have wore one he would have probably lived I had an accident myself couple weeks ago,hit a van,helmet and jacket did the job,i'm fine,need to replave handlebars and brake lever tho at bike,parts arrived,getting the bike to the shop this wednesday
I love the photo of the Outlaw on the bridge. That's the 2nd st bridge over the Ohio River from Jeffersonville Indiana to Louisville KY. I've walked it many times. Always makes me think of home and the bikers I grew up with.
I keep hearing from people who find the movie "boring" and "not enough action" or "I thought it would be more 'Sons of Anarchy'," etc. I'm not sure the marketing team behind the movie did a good enough job preparing people for a character study film that's basically just people hanging out and having relationships, as the film takes place BEFORE the time when biker gangs got into serious crime. They advertised it as if it was basically "GoodFellas on bikes" and that's just not what it is. It's a fantastic movie and very much in the vein of mid-70's - early 80's character films. It's not "Fast & the Furious".
I watched the movie for what it was. But it wasn't really anything... it felt quite empty even tho it show'd us what it supposedly was back in the day. "Cool" guy acting with silent whispering conversations didn't sell anything.... to me it got so cringe after 20 minutes. Sure they played the cool part like they were told to... it just didn't fill the hollowness of the flick. At times it started to feel like a mockumentary against the people who lived it. But hey... not every movie is for everyone and I might have been overthinking about it.
@@juna61 You were overthinking it. Why would anyone expect depth from REAL LIFE? Life isn't deep or profound, it just is and that IS what "the day" really looked like. I was alive the. Life has no plot! Life has no plot armor. Life is hollow. What people do with/on motorcycles is just that and not some intense 24/7 all consuming drama. Movies are bullshit for the most part and the bullshit bath has conditioned viewers to expect UNreality so they get their dopamine escapist hit. T The movie was really a collection of snapshots anyone alive then recognizes, suitably compacted to fit the time slot. It may be the only "biker" movie that's effectively directed at real bikers.
to me the film documented a change from were the club had a patch and the patch was to say it we're in it and our members came first, and that patch changed over time into the members now put the patch first. Thats a big difference. I could as a kid join a club that supports its bike brothers, but not a club where the organisation of the club always came first. That just like what the worlds is like already. A man in the suit demanding only his way is allowed and stomps on any who says different. Thats not freedom. I don't know, maybe Outlaw 1% see it differently?
Danny Lyon is a fly fisherman?!!! I hope he is. Here in Central Oregon I ride My FLH, KTM and FJR1300 to my favorite water to fish. I'm looking forward to seeing this film. Glad to know the back story.
He casually mentions he was an Outlaw, then the pace picks up. This was a good video. I'd actually like to talk to this guy, he seems very intelligent and also has a lot of sense.
this is what i remember. this is why i started messing around with old bikes. because THEY WERE CHEAP!! the people were not as stereotyped as they are today. it was a poor guy's sport. fun! (by the way, the music was great; not the usual 'tough guy' cheese...)
Impressive that Lyon is 8 years older than me and this energetic! I'm a lifetime rider, but dirt not street. I was a teenager when these were taken and noticing even then that the "biker" types in Jr High and High School always wore jeans and vests and such...which were illegal in my school. Haha. Most of the women btw seemed to have giant 50s beehive hairdos. Outstanding stuff for early immersive journalism. I like the framing of the photos on many of the shots: out the window, fence in the foreground, etc.
My Mom dated “Andy” (Chicago VP late 1960’s) when I was a kid. He was kind to me. Met Angels too (Funny Sonny and Cowboy). They were riding together at that time. Partying stuff. 🍀 He’s leaning on the pool table pic.
I live in Oklahoma they have a clubhouse bout 20 miles from where I live people that live by them say you never hear nothing out of them and the ones they met are nice people
Yes it is. His name is Funny Sunny. Back then there weren't a lot of politics between clubs and it wasn't uncommon for guys to breeze in and out of town and hang out with other local bikers.
Absolutely it is and there is a picture of this that hangs to this day on the clubhouse wall in Milwaukee. The HA asked to have it but were denied. That's Zipco with Funny Sunny on the back.
review: it's the Good, Bad, & Ugly- the vintage photos are phenomenal. the interviews are 60/40. the best ones are "Meeting the Angels", "Drag Bike", "Chopped Scooter", and "Chase"- all involving technical aspects of the bikes, and high speed chases. Kathy's account of "Red Dress" is remarkable. So is Cal's account of "Army", and Johnny's "on funerals". However, on some of the interviews you find yourself just reading about how dysfunctional some of these people were. Drinking wine until you wreck you bike, the end up in the hospital, and drinking wine and beer in the hospital snuck in for you ? that's just moronic stupidity, asinine self destruction. "Picnic" about how filthy, disgusting one can be, eating a caterpillar, climbing a hill with a chopper, wrecking, vomiting on yourself, uh...that's cool ? It's not even worth repeating. One guy's many attempts to join the Marines but keeps not being able to get a ride there and sober ? It's not an attractive historic read material. It projects a junkyard life image of slummin' it. Not the open road with your hair blowing in the wind to the rumble of a V-twin. some of these guys were real losers. Yet, there is enough there for a good movie, the trailer looked really good, and I look forward to it....finally, yes, I'd not want the author to leave out one word, or change a thing, cuz it's 100% HONEST and TRUTHFUL. overall great work. I'd love to own, work on, ride one of those vintage bikes. awesome. thanks for adding the extra pics to the newest edition.
In the older clubs but the generation and time period the movie portrayed most of those guys were "early post-WWII baby boomer" demographic. If you were in your twenties in 1966 you weren't a vet. Some of that like wearing Nazi swag was to ANNOY WWII vet "squares". WWII ended 1945. The WWII demographic were portrayed in "The Wild Ones" with usual Hollywood schmaltz. Lee Marvin for example was a WWII combat vet. The differences are relevant to how motorcycle culture straight and outlaw (it was a spectrum) evolved.
Danny, neglecting speedlimits doesn't make you "crazier" ... and I'm sure you know that . Anyway, I love all your work. Your book was a big inspiration for me in my younger years. Love and respect, Chris1%er, Outlaws Mechelen, Belgium Motherchapter Europe.
So when you think about it it was the Outlaws that started the culture not the HellsAngels. Everyone is saying Hollister or HellsAngels. It all started with the Outlaws.
The advent of the "outlaw bikers" marked the first time in American history when the natural or normative maturation of boys did not have them automatically progress into men taking their wise patriarchal place in society, rather they diverged into arrested development cases and crime. The phenomena has only become more pronounced since then with the consequent detriment to the country.
yeah, didnt happen after the civil war, or wwii, or viet nam for that matter...." natural or formative maturation of boys.." shalped by war and finally distrust/disgust with the people supposedly running things, so dropping out or going your own way and finding like minded people groups... nah, not normal at all
I remember that era. Guys working on their own bikes. Couldn’t afford a shop. Getting run off the road by cagers in trucks. Getting pulled over because of riding. Getting harassed. Oh ya. Those were the days. Freedom was more abundant then. People are still, even more so afraid of freedom.
69 now and I still ride.
When I started riding the only people who wore leathers was the cops and us bikers....🙈
Yeah your right, Freedom scares the crap outta people now. So busy trying to conform to somebody else's Ideas. not like it was
Long may you ride, sir
Youth made it feel like freedom was more abundant then, but remember WHY rebels had social mores to rebel against and how tame most of that rebellion was. Today sex, drugs and rock and roll are mundane and there is nothing (except wokeness which mostly affects those who submit to it by choice of ideology or corporate greed) left to rebel against. The golden age of motorcycling ended with reliable motorcycles in the 1970s.
Before reliable motorcycles mutual support was a necessity as was learning to wrench. The US was a much less densely populated place and comms were limited to landlines for most of the country. Shops were few and far between and often took advantage to screw customers. Waiting for a "minimum order" to be placed by an "authorized dealer" was horrible and insulting because it gave every shop a captive customer base due to what we now call vendor lock. You had to wrench to ride and mutual support was vital (one reason besides fun I learnt to wrench immediately).
Unreliable vehicles filtered the posers in straight or in-between or outlaw communities. Motorcycles becoming appliances coincided with Easyriders and other magazines cashing in on public curiousity about West Coast choppers exemplified in Easy Rider. The aftermarket exploded and the rest was history as everything original gets commodified, diluted and dissipates...
Police harassment and getting run off the road wasn't "freedom", it was CONFORMISTS using force and power AGAINST freedom. Harley-Davidson wanting nothing to do with the chopper culture which later gave Willie G all the ideas he wisely copied/used later (disc brakes, belt primary drives, the Softail frame, the Softail name, Sportster narrowglide forks on big twins, the Super Glide gas tank style, sissy bars. If you rode up to a dealer on a chop you might not get parts.
The last of the old mutual support culture lives in the vintage/antique/chopper/AHRMA racing/etc motorcyclist communities which is natural for every faded vehicle enthusiast era. When the last men of the era pass into history only artifacts remain, but you can ride those and it's FUN.
Hell yeah brother
The Bike Riders, in my opinion, is a documentary that showcases a raw, honest glimpse of bike culture, and quite simply put, it is what it is. It’s what happened, and there isn’t anymore. Danny Lyon is a true-grit genius with a highly perceptive gift for seeing beyond the dark. He bravely immersed himself in bike culture when it was feared by outsiders, including the police. His recordings and striking photos invite us to experience a snapshot in time, capturing the dawn of bike gang culture from the golden era of good ol' boys/charming rebels to its unsettling decline into a more sinister world. Thank you, Mr. Lyon, for sharing the excitement, goof ball moments, and dangerous happenings, and for inspiring bike gang culture into an iconic era, helping clear the mud on the misunderstood biker lifestyle.
Here after seeing the trailer for the Bikeriders
probably my most anticipated film of the year since i'm a biker myself,since 2018
well...saw it last Friday
Didn't liked it that much but was pretty good
also as a nonsmoker the amount of smoking in this movie haha
Also lol not a single helmet used
ey if that guy that hit that car and died would have wore one he would have probably lived
I had an accident myself couple weeks ago,hit a van,helmet and jacket did the job,i'm fine,need to replave handlebars and brake lever tho at bike,parts arrived,getting the bike to the shop this wednesday
Just awesome! Beautiful pictures from the 70's era. I really miss that time era. Straight up Americana! 👍🏼👌🏼😎
' 60 ' s
I love the photo of the Outlaw on the bridge. That's the 2nd st bridge over the Ohio River from Jeffersonville Indiana to Louisville KY. I've walked it many times. Always makes me think of home and the bikers I grew up with.
Yep!! Also known as the Clark Memorial 🌉 I was wondering.... glad I came across your comment for confirmation 👍🏾 🤘🏾
Love this. I’ve admired Lyon’s photography for many years. Never knew that he was a 1%er.
I have a couple of his prints. Amazing stuff.
I wish this was longer!!!! Loved it!
Who's here after watching "THE BIKERIDERS" with Tom Hardy?
I read his book in 70's from the library.
I want to see it!!!
Really good film 😮😅😊
Who’s here in the replies after reading “THE COMMENT” with CarlosGuzman-vi9xw?
My wife and I have tickets to see the movie tomorrow. I’m definitely looking forward to it.
Excellent!
I keep hearing from people who find the movie "boring" and "not enough action" or "I thought it would be more 'Sons of Anarchy'," etc. I'm not sure the marketing team behind the movie did a good enough job preparing people for a character study film that's basically just people hanging out and having relationships, as the film takes place BEFORE the time when biker gangs got into serious crime. They advertised it as if it was basically "GoodFellas on bikes" and that's just not what it is. It's a fantastic movie and very much in the vein of mid-70's - early 80's character films. It's not "Fast & the Furious".
I watched the movie for what it was. But it wasn't really anything... it felt quite empty even tho it show'd us what it supposedly was back in the day. "Cool" guy acting with silent whispering conversations didn't sell anything.... to me it got so cringe after 20 minutes. Sure they played the cool part like they were told to... it just didn't fill the hollowness of the flick. At times it started to feel like a mockumentary against the people who lived it. But hey... not every movie is for everyone and I might have been overthinking about it.
@@juna61 You were overthinking it. Why would anyone expect depth from REAL LIFE? Life isn't deep or profound, it just is and that IS what "the day" really looked like. I was alive the. Life has no plot! Life has no plot armor. Life is hollow. What people do with/on motorcycles is just that and not some intense 24/7 all consuming drama. Movies are bullshit for the most part and the bullshit bath has conditioned viewers to expect UNreality so they get their dopamine escapist hit. T
The movie was really a collection of snapshots anyone alive then recognizes, suitably compacted to fit the time slot. It may be the only "biker" movie that's effectively directed at real bikers.
to me the film documented a change from were the club had a patch and the patch was to say it we're in it and our members came first, and that patch changed over time into the members now put the patch first. Thats a big difference. I could as a kid join a club that supports its bike brothers, but not a club where the organisation of the club always came first. That just like what the worlds is like already. A man in the suit demanding only his way is allowed and stomps on any who says different. Thats not freedom.
I don't know, maybe Outlaw 1% see it differently?
Très grand; total respect , moi en France j'aime beaucoup
Un grand merci !
Danny Lyon is a fly fisherman?!!! I hope he is. Here in Central Oregon I ride My FLH, KTM and FJR1300 to my favorite water to fish. I'm looking forward to seeing this film. Glad to know the back story.
I’m an ex 1%er and fly fisherman.
Me too @@mechcavandy986
Good on you for repping the Abe’s fly shop shirt. Best place for all your fishing gear and trips outa Navajo dam Nm.
He casually mentions he was an Outlaw, then the pace picks up. This was a good video. I'd actually like to talk to this guy, he seems very intelligent and also has a lot of sense.
In the movie the guy is not a member , no mention of that 😅
@@garyny4073 Wrong, Cockroach said in the movie:
" theres a guy who used to ride with us, he's taking photos, he said he's going to write a book"
Some of the best motorcycle culture pictures i’ve ever seen, all the best from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
wish you could do an exhibit down here
this is what i remember. this is why i started messing around with old bikes. because THEY WERE CHEAP!! the people were not as stereotyped as they are today. it was a poor guy's sport. fun! (by the way, the music was great; not the usual 'tough guy' cheese...)
Impressive that Lyon is 8 years older than me and this energetic! I'm a lifetime rider, but dirt not street. I was a teenager when these were taken and noticing even then that the "biker" types in Jr High and High School always wore jeans and vests and such...which were illegal in my school. Haha. Most of the women btw seemed to have giant 50s beehive hairdos. Outstanding stuff for early immersive journalism. I like the framing of the photos on many of the shots: out the window, fence in the foreground, etc.
Just saw it. I thought it was great.
Cool pic at 02:54, an Outlaw giving an HA a ride, apparently in friendship. You wouldn't see that today, sadly.
My Mom dated “Andy” (Chicago VP late 1960’s) when I was a kid. He was kind to me. Met Angels too (Funny Sonny and Cowboy). They were riding together at that time. Partying stuff. 🍀 He’s leaning on the pool table pic.
What ever happened to funny Sonny
Amei o filme
Nota 1000
Mesmerizing story ❤
I live in Oklahoma they have a clubhouse bout 20 miles from where I live people that live by them say you never hear nothing out of them and the ones they met are nice people
That picture at 4:51 is very cool !
Wow amazing interview
I was born up there in the 70s so my mom and dad were up there in 1965 in Northern Indiana
i just love danny
Seen it last night dam good show 👏
Awesome...
The midwestern bikers had that real 1950s greaser look, as opposed to the west coast, where it was more of a hippy style.
I love this. I'm so sick and tired of hearing about the 81.
GRABBA TISSUE, SNOWFLAKE....
I gree .
@@ronkruzyk5108 681
@@apumountainguides n u can spell, too....TRY THE GIRL SCOUTS!!! 😜😹
Boo foking hoo.
So I am curious after watching the movie . The kid unnamed is that Harry Bowman referenced ? Great movie . And thank you for sharing .
No. It was the 2nd president I forget his name. Taco was the 3rd I believe
So rad
Triumphs looking good
I enjoyed until the very end. Thank you.
The movie by the same name is great
Is that a picture of a Hells Angel riding pillion with an Outlaw.?
Yes it is. His name is Funny Sunny. Back then there weren't a lot of politics between clubs and it wasn't uncommon for guys to breeze in and out of town and hang out with other local bikers.
Absolutely it is and there is a picture of this that hangs to this day on the clubhouse wall in Milwaukee. The HA asked to have it but were denied. That's Zipco with Funny Sunny on the back.
Yes at the start they were friends until a big fight then it was war thats history and the truth 😮
Yes funny sonny n zipco
@@timothyweiss619 thanks for the info 👍
review: it's the Good, Bad, & Ugly- the vintage photos are phenomenal. the interviews are 60/40. the best ones are "Meeting the Angels", "Drag Bike", "Chopped Scooter", and "Chase"- all involving technical aspects of the bikes, and high speed chases. Kathy's account of "Red Dress" is remarkable. So is Cal's account of "Army", and Johnny's "on funerals". However, on some of the interviews you find yourself just reading about how dysfunctional some of these people were. Drinking wine until you wreck you bike, the end up in the hospital, and drinking wine and beer in the hospital snuck in for you ? that's just moronic stupidity, asinine self destruction. "Picnic" about how filthy, disgusting one can be, eating a caterpillar, climbing a hill with a chopper, wrecking, vomiting on yourself, uh...that's cool ? It's not even worth repeating. One guy's many attempts to join the Marines but keeps not being able to get a ride there and sober ? It's not an attractive historic read material. It projects a junkyard life image of slummin' it. Not the open road with your hair blowing in the wind to the rumble of a V-twin. some of these guys were real losers. Yet, there is enough there for a good movie, the trailer looked really good, and I look forward to it....finally, yes, I'd not want the author to leave out one word, or change a thing, cuz it's 100% HONEST and TRUTHFUL. overall great work. I'd love to own, work on, ride one of those vintage bikes. awesome. thanks for adding the extra pics to the newest edition.
Good majority were vets from ww2
In the older clubs but the generation and time period the movie portrayed most of those guys were "early post-WWII baby boomer" demographic. If you were in your twenties in 1966 you weren't a vet. Some of that like wearing Nazi swag was to ANNOY WWII vet "squares". WWII ended 1945. The WWII demographic were portrayed in "The Wild Ones" with usual Hollywood schmaltz. Lee Marvin for example was a WWII combat vet. The differences are relevant to how motorcycle culture straight and outlaw (it was a spectrum) evolved.
This is Milwaukee-Chicago in mid-60's. I list Milwaukee first, because the Brew City dominated.
I want to see an actual photo of John Davis. Or did I miss it somewhere in this video.
Im not sure one exists
I apologize, I spoke too soon. Yesterday I found an image (2 actually) of the original John Davis.
My bud, 16 yrs old, had an RD 400, no plates. Never needed them once, cops couldn't catch him...
Nothing wrong with being a little crazy.
i started riding in the sixties. big clubs then the Aliens in the bronx, nomads in manhattan the Breed in new jersey.
Cool
Danny, neglecting speedlimits doesn't make you "crazier" ... and I'm sure you know that .
Anyway, I love all your work. Your book was a big inspiration for me in my younger years.
Love and respect,
Chris1%er,
Outlaws Mechelen, Belgium
Motherchapter Europe.
Much respect, brother. Neil 1%er, SA, Mid Wales 🇬🇧
This is what the new film "the bikeriders" with tom hardy is all based on
I'm here for The Bikeriders (2024)
This is the real deal, not bullshit Hollywood
Cool background music. Anyone know the tune that starts at 4:58, is it a band or original production made for the series?
Songs called black top chasers by Sean lyons
Sparky is my great uncle my grandmother’s brother
Incredible !! That's amazing !!
If you want an original book you gotta pay anywhere from $300 to $1,800 for it depending on the condition you want it to be in.
So when you think about it it was the Outlaws that started the culture not the HellsAngels.
Everyone is saying Hollister or HellsAngels.
It all started with the Outlaws.
AMA RACING
It seems that freedom is something that cannot be experienced if not by fighting for it.
Anyone ever follow up on the blonde at 6:12 - beautiful.
2 Black men created and built the motorcycles/choppers used in easy rider! 🎉
Back in the good old days when bikers rode on panheads and were actually fit
You mean "actually young". 🤣
Movie: MUDD will you put me in a movie Danny (Wade) I have a script written & framed
You can't be an outlaw on a motorcycle because the Law says you have to carry insurance.
No more free rides.
The advent of the "outlaw bikers" marked the first time in American history when the natural or normative maturation of boys did not have them automatically progress into men taking their wise patriarchal place in society, rather they diverged into arrested development cases and crime. The phenomena has only become more pronounced since then with the consequent detriment to the country.
yeah, didnt happen after the civil war, or wwii, or viet nam for that matter...." natural or formative maturation of boys.." shalped by war and finally distrust/disgust with the people supposedly running things, so dropping out or going your own way and finding like minded people groups... nah, not normal at all
I cant read...forgive me
the bikers did not evolve from rock n roll. It was the WW2 vets.
They inherited the 1930s biker culture but that history didn't get recognized in recent pop culture so except for the serious it's ignored.
the Boozefighters were the original 1%ers
It's pronounced Lou-uh-vull.
FWIW
OFFO
Why on earth did the editor put these photos against a glaringly bright white background? Ouch.
AOA. GFOD
OFFO