Sixty Years ago today....

[T. Cotten]

What would motorcycling be like today if this photo wasn't snapped?

....Cotten

[AdminGuy]

A much, much bigger industry. That is certain.

[AFJ]

A few years ago I read a long article about this photo and the taking of it in which the bearded young man standing in the background, a Hollister local, was quoted as saying that the picture was "posed" by the out-of-town photographer, the guy on the bike was just a local bum, the bike was not his bike at all (he was not a motorcyclist), the beer bottles under the bike were pushed there to make things look worse than they were.

I think that the "importance of the Hollister incident" has been much overplayed, particularly by motorcyclists.

AFJ

[Paquette]

AFJ,
I have to respectfully disagree with you. This staged photo from the Hollister rally gave motorcycling enthusiasts a black eye that I do not think we have ever recovered from. This was the true beginnings of the 1%er's and the outlaw image that still pervades our hobby. Remember " You meet the nicest people on a Honda" ? ( please excuse my grammer). This was a real turning point in how motorcyclists were and still are viewed by the non riding public at large. However, without it, we would never have had all those great movies such as "Hells Angels" "the Wild Ones", "She Devils on Wheels" and the rest of that great genere' ---LOL---Paq

[DWN]

Interesting thread ya got started.
Now consider this angle...Would Harley be enjoying the success they're having were it not for the bad-boy image so many baby boomers are trying to project? Do you think there may be a lot of guys buying a bike because their parents wouldn't let them near one when they were young? I know more than a few.
The Life (or Look?) magazine article on Hollister definately pushed the motorcycle pendulum, but to which side, could be discussed for a long time.
There's a local group of 60ish "bikers" who meet at the church to leave on their Saturday supper ride. All of them ride new Harleys and wear 100% Harley clothes. My wife and I go with them a couple of times a year. They ride painfully slow......
We refer to them as the "Born to be Mild" group. :-)

[exeric]

Rickieieo is absolutely correct. If it wasn't for the "bad boy" image of the outlaw biker, motorcycling as we know it today would not exist. It was the outlaw image that saved Harley Davidson and it was that flood of new blood into motorcycling that grew the AMCA. When I joined the AMCA back in the 70's, young members were all long haired bohemians and bikers. People today do not buy Harleys, choppers, and metric cruisers because they want to meet their friends at the ice cream parlor. They want to project the image of someone not to be messed with. Hollister and all of the other real and fabricated incidents involving "bad bikers" have done more to sell and promote motorcycles than anything the AMA has done or Madison Avenue.

[INLINE4NUT]

Well as stated this surely is and interesting thread! By the way Happy 4th to all !!!I started my MC obsession in the late 60s.and most of the people I knew where neither BAD or 1%ers, most where hard working blue coller workers that after work played hard and had lots of fun on MCs and drank and chased women,at least the single ones did (ha!ha!) As for myself it was a cheapway to getaround and most of my buddies had a Bike or if they were going to hang out with us soon got one!I remember also any time we went anywhere we attracted a a certain kind of women,they like us liked to party pretty hard for days on end,now those days are long gone for me and I do not feel any connection to most people riding today,just have a slight conversation with them,youll know what I mean! As a matter of fact I doubt with the exception of a few not many here would be on the same platform!
I think more than the badboy image most older riders today do so because they always wanted to but for one reason or another couldnt do it as a young person,ie family,college,the list goes on! Im glad they are riding and I could care less!
As for the picture,staged or not that looks like fun was happening and someone saw an opp and took it,Ill bet the guys in the photo still laugh about it today!! Tell me any of you have never done anything simular...if you havent ...start living!
The one thing Ive always liked about my MC if I didnt like what was going on Id just go else where!
More than any picture the one thing I think that opened up MCs to soooo many people was that little button on the handlebars....yes the electric start button!!!!!!

[Paps]

I smell to much of me in you Bro !! You said my mouth full !!! I do wish to add this though.. socialtal rebellion steered me along as well. Didn't like all I saw. I'll make my statement ! I did just that ! 1% ??? All I knew then, as well as I know now, Is.........friend is friend and foe is foe ! Hollywood can do what they wished. I know how it was and how it is ! Funny thing ??? The friends are here !! The foe fears to tread ! Paps

[schmittm]

60 years ago today!, is that possible????

In 1967 that picture was only 20 years old and I was only 17 years old, and I wanted to be just like the guy in the picture. I was having a lot of trouble looking tough on a '48 Cushman, somehow it just didn't fit the mold. I saved up all my pennies, 2500 of them and bought my first Harley, a '49 servi-car, but that really didn't work either. I wish I still had both of them today.

Happy 4th of July everyone

mike

[portagepan]

When I started riding in the mid 60's, Harley already had an image. Slow, unreliable, basically good for TT (tavern to tavern) riding. My friends and me were into the "sport" of riding. I suppose it was a little wild. Harley's "glory days" had certainly passed. You can name many titles they won in that time, but it was because of some of the most talented, dedicated people ever involved in motorcyling, and not the bikes themselves. What do I ride today? Four Harleys (one at a time) of course. And I love 'em. Go figure. One thing, you can't lump the 1%'ers in a group, because just like the rest of us, there are all kinds. And the truth is, a lot of them have day jobs. And I think this nostalgia thing is like the 60's: If you can remember them, you weren't there! There is a difference between living in the past, and enjoying it.
Mike

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by AFJ

I think that the "importance of the Hollister incident" has been much overplayed, particularly by motorcyclists.

AFJ

I agree.

Books, films, and popular opinion make it sound as if there was no motorcycle "problem" before this bozo surrounded by beer bottles posing on a ratty knucklehead made it into "Life" magazine.

Nothing could be farther from the truth and we who love old bikes should all know that.

Putting a noisy, stinking, and powerful gasoline engine into a clean quiet and exercise-giving BICYCLE was by itself a devient, dangerous, decadent, and anti-social act. If the motorcycle were invented today I doubt that it would be allowed on public byways.

Early motorcycles were FAR more outrageous, dangerous, and hated than the modern outlaw type could possibly dream of or hope to aspire to.

Single speed, no clutch, direct drive, poor brakes, low power on hills, non-existent or un-enforced laws and no cop that could catch them anyway made the early motorcyclist a true menace. He couldn't easily stop so he didn't stop or yield or care as he threaded his way thru traffic, children, animals, and farm wagons over the most excretable roads imaginable trying to gain his speed thrill. He rushed hills full blast and frightened horses and townsfolk with his cut-out wide open. Motordromes were dubbed "murderdromes" for good reason as my new avatar from 1913 fully attests.

The modern outlaw type (real or wannabe) would have to break every law in the book to achieve what came naturally to early motorcyclists on a daily basis. This "bad boy" image followed the motorcycle into the 1920s and beyond and Harley-Davidson fought it tooth and nail right into the 1950s and 60s until finally they wised up, listened to the marketing types, and now embrace it as if Milwaukee had invented the motorcycle "death's head" persona altho that is the opposite of the truth.

That overblown "Life" photo is just one small item in a very LONG tradition of outrageous behavior and social backlash going all the way back to the beginning of this infernal device and to Mr. Pennington himself and his wonderfully named "Motor Cycle."

Thus, there is no need for the modern "biker" to pretend or play the role because it comes with the territory anyway no matter what he or she rides.

[AFJ]

Originally posted by HarleyCreation


I agree.

Books, films, and popular opinion make it sound as if there was no motorcycle "problem" before this bozo surrounded by beer bottles posing on a ratty knucklehead made it into "Life" magazine.

Nothing could be farther from the truth and we who love old bikes should all know that.

Putting a noisy, stinking, and powerful gasoline engine into a clean quiet and exercise-giving BICYCLE was by itself a devient, dangerous, decadent, and anti-social act. If the motorcycle were invented today I doubt that it would be allowed on public byways.

Early motorcycles were FAR more outrageous, dangerous, and hated than the modern outlaw type could possibly dream of or hope to aspire to.

Single speed, no clutch, direct drive, poor brakes, low power on hills, non-existent or un-enforced laws and no cop that could catch them anyway made the early motorcyclist a true menace. He couldn't easily stop so he didn't stop or yield or care as he threaded his way thru traffic, children, animals, and farm wagons over the most excretable roads imaginable trying to gain his speed thrill. He rushed hills full blast and frightened horses and townsfolk with his cut-out wide open. Motordromes were dubbed "murderdromes" for good reason as my new avatar from 1913 fully attests.

The modern outlaw type (real or wannabe) would have to break every law in the book to achieve what came naturally to early motorcyclists on a daily basis. This "bad boy" image followed the motorcycle into the 1920s and beyond and Harley-Davidson fought it tooth and nail right into the 1950s and 60s until finally they wised up, listened to the marketing types, and now embrace it as if Milwaukee had invented the motorcycle "death's head" persona altho that is the opposite of the truth.

That overblown "Life" photo is just one small item in a very LONG tradition of outrageous behavior and social backlash going all the way back to the beginning of this infernal device and to Mr. Pennington himself and his wonderfully named "Motor Cycle."

Thus, there is no need for the modern "biker" to pretend or play the role because it comes with the territory anyway no matter what he or she rides.

Robert Fulton Jr., in his 1937 book "One Man Caravan" points out that in his 1933-34 travels by motorcycle from England, across Europe, the middle East (Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan Iraq), India, Kashmir, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Mayaya, Indonesia, China and Japan he was treated as a person, an honoured guest, simply with an unusual and curious means of travel. Poor as many of them were, they shared their homes and food with him. When he got to the United States, his home country he recorded, "And my own people looked with a jaundiced eye on a man riding a motorcycle in dust and mud-stained clothes. I was just another bum."

And after 40,000 miles riding around the world, the only time any person touched his motorcycle without permission was when it was stolen from him in Texas on his way home to New York from San Francisco. Luckily the police recovered his Douglas motorcycle in Amarillo and he was able to complete his journey.

AFJ

[T. Cotten]

And today is the sixtieth anniversary of the Roswell incident.

One look at the Discovery Channel and its obvious that it affected motorcycling as well!

....Cotten

[schmittm]

Cotten, I never made that connection until you brought it up just now.

Front fenders and other parts mysteriously missing from motorcycles in Hollister, and then UFO's reported in Roswell, coincidence???

What is that behind him on the back fender in the "Life" photo, some sort of probe???

signed, curious in Arkansas

[AdminGuy]

Good points raised, or facts brought to light. Almost forgot about the "please use your cut-out in town". Many newspaper articles and articles in The Motorcyclist about this.

Ahhhhh... were a menis to society. Oh well... it's just so much fun! I can't help it.