The Ultimate American Folk Art Movement

The golden age of the Chopper reached its peak in 1969, with the release of Dennis Hopper’s cult classic Easy Rider. The bikes used in the movie, says Paul d’Orleans, author of The Chopper: The Real Story, “did more to popularize choppers around the world than any other film or any other motorcycle… suddenly people were building choppers in Czechoslovakia, or Russia, or China, or Japan.”

The mean-looking machines, with their shimmering chrome and aggressively guttural engines, were a pure product of “the ultimate American folk art movement.” Choppers emerged, d’Orleans writes in his introduction, from “a culturally explosive mashup of particularly American traits; the cowboy/outlaw, free of family, property, or history, free to explore endless highways, free to express one’s individuality through dress and choice of transport.” Read more >