Dennis Hopper, From His grave, Is Telling You. “That Ain’t The Captain America’ bike.”

easyriderVeteran actor Michael Madsen, a pal of Dennis Hopper that he met while making the Quentin Tarantino-produced biker movie ‘Hell Ride, was so outraged when he read the LA Times story about the sale for 1.35 million (1.62 million with auction fees) of the reportedly authentic Captain America motorcycle used in the “Easy Rider” movie, that he called the newspaper to voice his concern. Madsen, who is an avid motorcycle rider, said to journalist Charles Fleming who reported on the auction of Captain America that Hopper told him many stories of the making of “Easy Rider.” Indeed, Madsen had told Hopper he was interested in acquiring the “Billy bike,” the motorcycle that Hopper was riding in the movie. From Romania where he is filming, he told the journalist: “I heard the voice of Dennis Hopper. From his grave he is telling you “That ain’t the Captain America’ bike.”. Madsen added “Everyone wants to believe that’s the bike. They’re willing to pay $1+ million to imagine that’s the bike. That’s kind of nostalgic and nice, but the truth is, it isn’t.”

32 Responses to “Dennis Hopper, From His grave, Is Telling You. “That Ain’t The Captain America’ bike.””


  1. 1 P. Hamilton Oct 21st, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    Ha, ha. I can see the buyer calling his lawyer to sue the auction house and the seller.

  2. 2 Bruce Reynard Oct 21st, 2014 at 2:21 pm

    Does Michael Madsen heard from Dennis Hopper about the 2 Captain America bikes used in the movie? What happened to them? Or is it a secret and the bike(s) may one day re-appear.

  3. 3 JohnyLetGo Oct 21st, 2014 at 2:22 pm

    Full refund!

  4. 4 Keller Oct 21st, 2014 at 2:24 pm

    Now is the time to call a forensic expert in motorcycles. Does it exist?

  5. 5 Brad Schaeffer Oct 21st, 2014 at 2:27 pm

    Let’s just decide that the Captain America bikes no more exist, then we can all sleep at night.

  6. 6 SK Oct 21st, 2014 at 2:59 pm

    How is he all the sudden an authority on the matter? Because Hopper was his buddy? Hell I doubt Hopper even remembered the sixties, I’m sure there wasn’t one minute that entire decade where he was sober.

    And how are Grizzly Waddams and Fonda also an authority on who built what bike? All they have to do is smile and sign some feel good papers. This whole thing reeks of cheap lies and dirty money. It’d be best to send Cliff Vaughs the money since he seems like the only one who doesn’t give a shit about his fifteen minutes of fame or the movie–the man has never seen it but helped produce it!

  7. 7 BobS Oct 21st, 2014 at 3:26 pm

    Hey I met Dennis in a bar in LA once and he told me it was real so that settles it right? Lol. Regardless of truth, a reality has been created. This one bike has been traced back to the movie and for all intensive purposes is the real one. Even if it actually isn’t and the real one is under a blanket in a barn somewhere, the authenticity of it that could no longer be traced back to the movie like this one can, so that potential truth is irrelevant. There’s one remaining Captain America believed to be authentic and it just sold at auction for 1.3 mil.

  8. 8 18bravo Oct 21st, 2014 at 4:09 pm

    Elsewhere in the real news: IS makes gains in Iraq (there’s a wasted year of my life) US continues to waste billions in unaccounteed for dollars in Afghansitan (another wasted year of my life) and Kim Jong Un may have broken his foot.

  9. 9 fuji Oct 21st, 2014 at 5:01 pm

    I thought the real bike had been destroyed or stolen.

  10. 10 nicker Oct 21st, 2014 at 8:18 pm

    At this point, why should anyone actually care about “the real bike” or the fool who bought it….. ???

    -nicker-.

  11. 11 Panman Oct 21st, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    We’ll here we go again! I will make this simple, there were 4 bikes built for the movie. Two Captain bikes and two Billy bikes, they were built by 2 black men in a black bike shop in Watts CA. According to Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, who I have heard both tell this story, that at the end of the filming for Easy Rider the main Captain bike that Fonda rode through the entire movie and both Billy Bikes along with 10 or 11 other bikes from the movie were stolen from a storage unit in Simi Valley CA. Never to be seen again. The only remaking bike bike was the Captain stunt bike. This was the bike that the stunt people rode during the movie and also a backup for the 1st bike. It is the bike that was used in the last part of the movie that was blown up. When the movie wrapped up, the bike was given to Dan Haggerty AKA Grizzley Adams who had small parts in the movie. It has been known for over 40 years that Haggerty had the only bike from the movie. He did restore it and had it for many years. Here is where the problem begins, Haggerty recently admitted that he sold and authenticated 2 of the bikes, so this is why no one knows which bike is the one from the movie. Haggerty knows but he’s not talking, it should be interesting.

  12. 12 domino Oct 21st, 2014 at 10:40 pm

    Everyone who has ever spoken to me from the grave has always been dead on!!

    Domino Dave

  13. 13 James just another crazy Kiwi Oct 22nd, 2014 at 2:54 am

    Get the Wee Gee board out and we can have a séance………………
    Congress needs to question Haggerty under oath so this can be cleared up once and for all.
    This is more important than world peace (sorry Girls )
    The most important Motorcycle in the world and we don’t know if it authentic.
    That’s like saying the Mona Lisa is a photo copy ( Who cares if it is )

    Pretty weird that the country that bought us so much technology has not got this one sorted.

    Call up Scotland Yard.

    Sorry folks been hammering the Wine for days had a miss hap or at least lost the miss hap……………

  14. 14 TJ Martin Oct 22nd, 2014 at 8:17 am

    Fact is .. the provenance of the bike is in serious question in anyone’s mind with a modicum of discernment . Why ? Because all the so called evidence is the most perfect example of Circular Logic ever to be seen in a collectable : all of it coming from one solitary individual with absolutely no 3rd party validation/verification . e.g. ‘ It is what I say it is – I say it is because I owned and restored it – So therefore it is – Because I say that it is ‘ ( to be repeated multiple times until everyone believes it .. or at least until it can be sold at an inflated and unrealistic price )

    Fact is as well … Hopper said till the end of his days that all the ” Easy Rider ” bikes were either lost , stolen [ and never recovered ] or destroyed . Fact is … right up until a few years ago Fonda was saying the same … suddenly out of the blue changing his tune for reasons I will not discuss here .

    But … the only fact that matters right now in most peoples minds is ; It is – Because he/we say it is – And if we say it enough times and in multiple venues – It is – Because we say it is 😉

    e.g. Circular Logic 101

  15. 15 Jay Horton's Private Shop Oct 22nd, 2014 at 8:21 am

    ….more bubble gun card collector obsessions! Later Jay

  16. 16 Woody's Oct 22nd, 2014 at 9:20 am

    Amen, TJ. BTW, I’ve still got those two Titanic’s ships bells for sale, can get more if/as needed 😉

  17. 17 Rodent Oct 22nd, 2014 at 10:14 am

    Now one wonders if the auction was a sham event with unknown buyer. Did anybody actually witness an auction? One wonders?

  18. 18 X H-D Rider Oct 22nd, 2014 at 10:25 am

    I was in a bar in Minnesota that had the easy rider bike in it. So how can they say they sold the real one when I saw it the real one in this bar. Think the bar was called Fat Boys

  19. 19 rebel Oct 22nd, 2014 at 12:25 pm

    if it were me i would have sold and authenticated the two bikes while saving the “real” original for my heirs in a sealed basement room unknown by any one else, so that no one now alive can find the truth, sort of like the Kennedy coverup.

  20. 20 BCin SoCal Oct 22nd, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    The bike is as real as all the Elvis impersonators, which one is the real Elvis hiding out as himself. Over the years, I have seen at least a half dozen Captain America bike at different events. Some were good copies, some terrible . So this buyer now has A Captain America bike, like many others. I remember when not too long after the movie, it was reported that the bikes had been stolen. Go figure …..

  21. 21 chop Oct 22nd, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    That’s it, I am thinking of selling the 2 dirt bikes used at the start of the movie, they have to be worth something. When I bought them the guy through in the pickup truck to sweeten the deal. On the way home I stopped on the side of the road to take a pee and YES YOU GUESSED IT still lying there was Fondas watch. Can someone give my the Auction House details.

  22. 22 Sturgis resident Oct 22nd, 2014 at 2:29 pm

    Am I the only person who has seen the “Captain America Panhead” in the window on mainstreet in Sturgis? It’s been there for quite a while & I’m sure it’s a clone, but up close it sure looks spot on to me. Just saying……*

  23. 23 takehikes Oct 22nd, 2014 at 3:11 pm

    pretty easy to do…get a Panhead and the Paughco catalog and get to work…you can have a Captain America bike in no time.
    Now that I think of it I have an Easy Rider tank on the wall in my garage….can be yours for only $10k (no paint) …..

  24. 24 Blackmax Oct 22nd, 2014 at 4:59 pm

    Once again….
    Hey, you know what ???
    If the guy has the $$$ to lay out for this & he’s happy with it, what do we care ?????
    I would not have done it & from the gist of the article a lot of you would not have done it.
    But it’s not our $$$ it’s his!!!! I
    f you’re happy about it, more power to ya, dude !!!!

  25. 25 skinny denny Oct 23rd, 2014 at 4:56 pm

    Obviously the guy has more money than brains.

  26. 26 Motorcycle Delivery Oct 23rd, 2014 at 5:01 pm

    If he’s got $1 million + to spend on a motorcycle, then its for “his” collection… no doubt he’ll be spitting if it isn’t the real thing…. $1 million + really!!!!

  27. 27 GUNK Oct 23rd, 2014 at 10:04 pm

    Well I was in Oregon this summer havin’ a beer with THE REAL ELVIS and after We got wasted He told Me. Him and Haggertty sold 1 with a legit frame # &the other with legit eng. #.Then I bought an autographed deep fried peanut butter and ketchup chocolate glazed doughnut off Him He used in Las Vegas shows. Only paid 1.2 Mill.
    Killer deal eh!

  28. 28 B. D. Howard Oct 24th, 2014 at 10:41 am

    Maybe we should go to Lompoc or San Quentin (or wherever he is being caged) and ask Phil Specter his opinion on whether this bike is authentic?

    Makes as much sense as asking Fonda or anyone else that’s still alive.

    Sounds like Grizzly A. made three replicas of the C.A. bike, one of them using the frame from the burnt wreckage of the one bike from the movie that still exists, and separated three wealthy ‘collectors’ from obscene amounts of their cash by passing them off as collectible ‘originals’.

    That’s one way to fund a lifestyle that one’s career didn’t.

  29. 29 The Vintagent Oct 27th, 2014 at 11:12 am

    That the LA Times published this story originally is bizarre, but perhaps they’re under the National Enquirer umbrella now?

    Let’s recap: this is a ‘news’ story about an actor who worked with Hopper once on a film, who claims to know all about a situation which happened when he was 11 years old, and was urged on by the ghost of Hopper to spout his opinion…that’s solid stuff right there.

    To respond to Keller’s question: yes a forensic investigator was hired. As I mentioned before, somebody did their homework, and was satisfied enough to shell out cash for this machine, for better or worse. There were several bidders. I have no financial interest in this deal, but have done my own research into the situation, out of journalistic curiosity.

    Dan Haggerty owned the remains of the ‘B’ Captain America bike for something like 40 years. He stated to the Chicago Tribune in 1999 that he had the original frame sitting in his house still, after building a replica from ‘some’ original parts. That replica was commissioned by Gary Graham, a promoter, who paraded it to state fairs in the South, and sold raffle tickets to ‘win the machine’…but he kept the money, sold the bike, and disappeared. That machine is now owned by Gordon Grainger. It was displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago in 1999 and labeled a ‘replica’ in the Art of the Motorcycle exhibit; museums tend to do their homework too. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune wrote a story about the replica, quoting Haggerty and others. Grainger never objected to the ‘replica’ label in the exhibit, nor to the news story (which was not dictated by a ghost). Grainger later had Dan Haggerty sign an ‘authenticity’ document for his replica, which has created a lot of confusion.

    Haggerty built other replicas of Captain America, none of which he’s authenticated…although it would make a hilarious biker version of ‘The Producers’ if he had. Regardless, Haggerty has consistently stated that the original Captain America frame was in the bike just sold.

    As the recent auction bike was built from the salvaged frame of the ‘B’ Captain America, there’s a justifiable claim to being the ‘real’ bike, as this is an acceptable standard of authenticity in the collectible motorcycle and car worlds. People build ‘authentic’ vintage Bugattis all the time from a chassis, and they sell for a whole lot more than Captain America. But of course, what we have at best here is the real/repaired frame, with a lot of replica parts hung around it.

    The notion of giving proceeds to Cliff Vaughs is an interesting one indeed, but Peter Fonda claims to have sketched out the Captain America concept. God forbid he should give credit where due, to Cliff and Ben Hardy and even Larry Marcus, the guy who actually assembled the ‘B’ Captain America bike, all of whom were building and riding choppers for years before Easy Rider or even the Wild Angels. Read more on the back story of the Easy Rider bikes in ‘The Chopper: the Real Story’…

  30. 30 Dave Oct 27th, 2014 at 10:52 pm

    My friend Bubba’s ex-wife’s second cousin knew the fiancé of the bartender that once served drinks to a well known psychic, who had just had communication from the other side with Hopper and she confirms that Hopper told her that the bike being sold was not the original.

    She’s been interviewed and I think the real story is scheduled to appear in the National Enquirer in a couple of weeks.

  31. 31 Eric Maurer Oct 28th, 2014 at 3:19 pm

    dumb! Who would pay 1M for anything custom made without real proof of authenticity.

  32. 32 Gary Graham Dec 29th, 2014 at 11:55 pm

    Bullshit , come on guys the only reason i sold the bike was that haggerty owed me a lot of money and he got up in front of the entire crowd ande testified that it was the bike that Fonda was shot off of the end of the movie. Whats amazing to me is that no ones been arrested for fraud. But i guess everyone is afraid of hasbeen movie stars but let me tell you i m not so kiss my ass fonda and haggerty lying bastards. …. KARMA IS HEADED YOUR WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Cyril Huze