March 23, 2023 Black Motorcycle Builders

Honoring the African-American bike builders

There are so many well-known bike builders in the industry. They leave their mark in their styling and engineering. Many are now legends. Here are the stories of some African-American bike builders who have also left their name in bike building history.

Ben Hardy

It’s one of the most iconic and famous bikes around – the “Captain America” bike from the movie “Easy Rider.”

Clifford Vaughs was a bike designer and Ben Hardy was a bike builder. Together they came up with a the red, white and blue, panhead, hardtail chopper that is captured in so many movie photos with Peter Fonda behind the handlebars. Hardy also built the “Billy” bike, driven by Dennis Hopper, that also appeared in the movie. The “Captain America” bike was painted by Dean Lanza and Fonda specified that the tank resemble the shield belonging to the comic book character Captain America, hence the name of the bike.

For 25 years Vaughs and Hardy remained unknown and uncredited as they were not accepted or welcomed in the motorcycle world because of their color. Their names don’t even appear in the credits of the movie.

Hardy’s motorcycle shop, Ben Hardy’s Motorcycle Service, was located in Los Angeles. He died in 1994.

~

Sugar Bear

Legendary bike builder Sugar Bear is known for the Sugar Bear Springer. His shop opened in 1971 in Los Angeles with the intent to produce street worthy choppers.

His business relied heavily on word of mouth and he was unable to gain notoriety in bike magazines because of his race. In the past few years, he has started to receive the recognition.

Sugar Bear built his bikes with the belief that all were meant to have scrapes, chips, burnt pipes, style and “smiles-per-miles.” At the time most Springers were tubing, the Sugar Bear Springer was built out of solid steel and the triple tree was offset for greater turning radius. Sugar Bear Springers were available in lengths up to 40 inches over stock. He also designed bearing cups for iron head Sportsters so the same forks for big twins could be bolted directly onto the Sportster's smaller fame neck without any modifications. The same cups are still in production today.

Hardy and Sugar Bear’s names may not have been heard before but they have certainly left a mark in bike building history.


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