Archive

Choppers, Road Hogs and Bikes: Vintage Photos of Motorcycles on the Road

Vroom

What do Evel Knievel, the pope, and Ronald Reagan have in common? Motorcycles! See vintage images of road trips past.

galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle12_puug3s
Columbia TriStar/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle13_nymge6

What do Evel Knievel, the pope, Ronald Reagan, and this cute dog have in common? Motorcycles! Check out these vintage images.

Bettmann/Corbis
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle13_wrj5ny

What do Evel Knievel, the pope, Ronald Reagan, and this cute dog have in common? Motorcycles! Check out these vintage images.

Bettmann/Corbis
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/141003-bikes-dylan_qrblwb

Bob Dylan behind the Cafe at Woodstock.

Douglas R. Gilbert/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/141003-bikes-eastwood_h3gmrm

Clint Eastwood rides a motorcycle in a scene from the1968's Coogan's Bluff.

Orion Pictures/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/141003-bikes-fonz_uiqozr

The Season 3 episode "Motorcyle," which aired in 1975, features the Happy Days gang on bikes.

ABC/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/141003-bikes-paul_b5igh8

Paul McCartney sits astride his motor bike in 1965.

Express Newspapers/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/141003-bike-asher_ri24hq

British actress Jane Asher, girlfriend of Paul McCartney, rides in 1965.

Stephan C Archetti/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle1_pspye8

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited Los Angeles and San Francisco in a motorcade guarded by a fleet of mean-looking choppers. Here he is pictured on his way to Hollywood to visit film studios, where he was given a warm welcome by a bevy of celebrities, including none other than Marilyn Monroe.

Dennis Stock/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle2_okvkfx

Bellbottoms flapping in the wind, a young man rides his chopper in Daytona Beach in April 1973.

Jonathan Blair/Corbis
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle3_w6sh5a

Stunt legend and professional daredevil Evel Knievel soared over a line of cars at the Continental Divide Raceways in Castle Rock, Colo., on July 30, 1972as always, in his signature red, white, and blue leather suit.

The Denver Post/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle4_ni2mjw

That's not Daft Punk Ronald Reagan is shaking hands withit's two motorcycle police officers in North Carolina, during the would-be president's first campaign.

Gilles Peress/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle5_gng115

In 1979, Pope John Paul II rolled into New York City on his way to the United Nations in a motorcade guarded by two lines of police officers on motorcycles.

Burt Glinn/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle6_j9a5lk

A couple takes a spin on a chopper on Route 48 in Dayton, Ohio in 1966.

Danny Lyon/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle7_zxhmra

A gang of motorcyclists stops at a bike-repair shop and diner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2000. That's a lot of leather.

Thomas Hoepker/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle8_drdpn4

Just like a page out of Awkward Family Photos, this family, snapped together in 1971, not only managed to squeeze all five members onto the same bikethey wore matching helmets as well.

Dennis Stock/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle9_hpv6sq

Hundreds of motorcyclists descend on Washington, D.C., on a Memorial Day weekend to parade in protest of the Vietnam War.

Philip Jones Griffiths/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle10_s40tp5

Two bikers await a trail ride in Sturgis, S.D., in August 2008.

Alex Webb/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle11_lekiad

A border-patrol agent drives a four-wheeler along a spotlit wall in Smuggler's Gulch, near San Diego.

Larry Towell/Magnum
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle12_vymtzi

Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, and Peter Fonda ride through the countryside on motorcycles in a still from the 1969 film Easy Rider, which Hopper directed.

Columbia TriStar/Getty
galleries/2013/09/01/choppers-road-hogs-and-bikes-vintage-photos-of-motorcycles-on-the-road/130828-motorcycle13_fzddxn

A man named Joe Camarei rides a motorcycle with his goggled and helmeted sidekick, Seymour, through the streets of Stroudsburg, Penn.

Bettmann/Corbis

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.