The State That Built American Motorcycle Culture _ And Never Got The Credit
Fastest Way
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→ The 2026 Motorcycle Buyer's Bible: [https://payhip.com/b/6GfTr]
The Captain America chopper from Easy Rider was designed by a Black civil rights activist named Cliff Vaughs and built by Ben Hardy in South Central Los Angeles. Both men were written out of the credits. The bikes that launched the 1970s chopper boom were built twenty minutes from downtown LA, by men the motorcycle press refused to cover.
Arlen Ness — who defined the visual language of the American custom motorcycle for fifty years — started with bowling tournament money and a home garage in San Leandro. His first catalog was typed by his wife Beverly. He never left the Bay Area.
Tobie Gene Levingston founded the East Bay Dragons in Oakland in 1959, the first all-Black motorcycle club in the Bay Area. The Harley dealerships in Oakland would not sell to Black customers. The founding members bought their bikes used, from garages and under houses, and rebuilt them by hand.
This is what 1970s California motorcycle culture actually looked like — not the mythology, not the marketing, not the movie poster. The garages. The roads. The men who built it.
Drop a comment: if you rode in California in the 1970s, tell me your city, your bike, and the road you still think about. The best stories appear in the Ohio episode.
Next in series: What Motorcycle Culture Really Looked Like In 1970s Ohio: COMING SOON
00:00 — The Garage In San Leandro
02:30 — The Geography Of Freedom
06:00 — Easy Rider And The Men Who Actually Built It
07:00 — The Bible + Drop Your Stories
08:30 — Arlen Ness And The Invention Of A Visual Language
13:00 — The Machines — What California Riders Actually Rode
17:30 — CHiPs And The Kawasaki
21:00 — The PCH, The Mojave, And What It Actually Felt Like
24:00 — On Any Sunday
26:00 — What California Was Building Toward
28:30 — What Was Lost And What Remains
30:00 — The Close + Bible + Ohio Preview
buymeacoffee.com/fastestway.1
Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS
20 Comments
and a combination standard / jockey shift setup with a left handed throttle. Could park it anywhere at idle and not worry about some turd or joker jumping on it and taking off before I could readjust their world.
Favourite local rides were the Angeles Forrest Hwy over the mountains to Lancaster. Liked riding along Hwy 395 past the Desert to the Eastern Sierra lakes, and up to Twin Lakes near Bridgeport to camp and fish with friends. Good memories back then, but life moved on to other things and adventures. 🙂
The State That Built American Motorcycle Culture _ And Never Got The Credit
Fastest Way
50,323 views
→ The 2026 Motorcycle Buyer's Bible: [https://payhip.com/b/6GfTr]
The Captain America chopper from Easy Rider was designed by a Black civil rights activist named Cliff Vaughs and built by Ben Hardy in South Central Los Angeles. Both men were written out of the credits. The bikes that launched the 1970s chopper boom were built twenty minutes from downtown LA, by men the motorcycle press refused to cover.
Arlen Ness — who defined the visual language of the American custom motorcycle for fifty years — started with bowling tournament money and a home garage in San Leandro. His first catalog was typed by his wife Beverly. He never left the Bay Area.
Tobie Gene Levingston founded the East Bay Dragons in Oakland in 1959, the first all-Black motorcycle club in the Bay Area. The Harley dealerships in Oakland would not sell to Black customers. The founding members bought their bikes used, from garages and under houses, and rebuilt them by hand.
This is what 1970s California motorcycle culture actually looked like — not the mythology, not the marketing, not the movie poster. The garages. The roads. The men who built it.
Drop a comment: if you rode in California in the 1970s, tell me your city, your bike, and the road you still think about. The best stories appear in the Ohio episode.
Next in series: What Motorcycle Culture Really Looked Like In 1970s Ohio: COMING SOON
00:00 — The Garage In San Leandro
02:30 — The Geography Of Freedom
06:00 — Easy Rider And The Men Who Actually Built It
07:00 — The Bible + Drop Your Stories
08:30 — Arlen Ness And The Invention Of A Visual Language
13:00 — The Machines — What California Riders Actually Rode
17:30 — CHiPs And The Kawasaki
21:00 — The PCH, The Mojave, And What It Actually Felt Like
24:00 — On Any Sunday
26:00 — What California Was Building Toward
28:30 — What Was Lost And What Remains
30:00 — The Close + Bible + Ohio Preview
buymeacoffee.com/fastestway.1
Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS