It is curious as information changes over time. For many years it was thought that the film Easy Rider only two units of the Harley-Davidson Captain America were made. One of the most famous in the world and almost all are able to recognize at a glance bikes. But you see where a few days ago that has auctioned a Harley-Davidson Captain America for 1.35 million dollars (1.63 if the costs of the auction are included) and was an original bike. What happened with the first story? Let's see.
The first story said that Peter Fonda was commissioned to build two identical bikes based on other bikes that were purchased at an auction of the LAPD. These two bikes were used in the filming. One of them was destroyed to film the final scenes of the film (the bike crashes and just burning) while the other was stolen from the garage of the house of Peter Fonda few years later and was never recovered. Hence, the bikes have been in exhibitions such as The Art of the Motorcycle organized by the Guggenheim few years ago was only a replica. And so is explained in the catalog of that exhibition.
Of course, nobody is bitter sweet, and if you are able to sell a bike for that kind of money you remove high and low for that bike is considered as an original and not a copy. After a thorough investigation conducted prior to the auction, and giving full information on The Paul D'Orleans Vintagent, it seems that once were made four not two Captain America. And these were not produced by the actor but by a couple of workshops dedicated to the transformations. Always according to this story, one of those four bikes was partially destroyed in the filming and Dan Haggerty (member of the film crew at the time) picked up the pieces and put them at home. The rest (three motorcycles) went to the garage of Peter Fonda and there were all stolen.
So, where does this bike has just been auctioned? The only plausible answer is that this bike was made from the remains that were saved from the rough and burned motorcycle during the filming of the movie. Estamoto until recently was it exhibited in the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa, where he was purchased by Michael Eisenberg in early 2014, but Mr. Eisenberg to realize that the bike had in his possession was a single piece decided to remove auction so that people could go to see it in a museum and step raise funds for Humane Association of America and the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa. What happens is that no one has said who the buyer or where it will end the bike exposed. Curious story with funny ending that reminds us that an object over the years may end up being pure junk or a unique piece of collection, and the deference between either end is only separated by a thin line.
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