Remember Easyriders Magazine September 1984
It was 30 years ago that September issue #135 of Easyriders Magazine came out in the USA. On the cover from September 1984 it starts right away with “Rowdy In The Rain” .
Yes, there was a time when you were someone if you had leather pants with which you could cruise on your Harley , but despite the best greasing, they eventually got so full of water in the rain that you really got wet ass could talk. Brown's Plating Service advertises on the first inside cover, it's hard to believe, but the shop is still there today!
A specialist company that has still had the same address in the USA since 1968. It is a family business in which most of the employees have been there for just as long, you can talk about a very large family.
In the early seventies they dedicated themselves to chrome plating and refining parts during the chopper era , and today they are still very successful in what they do.
In 2013 I was able to photograph a bike with refined parts from Brown's Plating in Florida, overall a very nice job. But this is about Easyriders issue #135, but it's still great that you can find such an impressive company history on page two.
“Now YOU Can Be A Motorcycle Mechanic…”
is the next headline, this is the call to see what you have to do to become a real professional screwdriver in the USA in 1984. You will be trained to earn money with screwdrivers, just send the postcard and then you can start The training apparently even takes place at home, you are trained in a short time and can then make a real profit. I'll send the postcard and see if this school still exists, they'll be amazed.
MEXIGALI RIDE
Things ain't always what they seem, not even when the situation appears to be a simple case of black and white.
Dan
“I ride a lot” says Dan. That’s right, he drives 450 miles north on his Panhead to have breakfast. Dan Huntsinger rode the 1984 Mexigali, a 1955 Panhead that was rebuilt by Cycle Delight in Denver in 1979.
The price of the bike was not a bargain in 1984 at $10,000. But he removed the coal properly, what's the point of leaving the planer in the garage? With the springer fork and the front wheel that took some getting used to, this was a typical chopper from the period, but you really have to like the front wheel.
The Biker and the Baby (by Jerry Childress)
A story that's quite nice, but I'm more excited about the picture of the story, the biker is holding a baby in his arms, the picture was drawn by Arvidson in '84, there was no Photoshop back then, or anything like that, the effort required for a story like that is remarkable.
TOP PRORITY
He makes do with the time he has. The common riding season is packed into a tight five months, May through September. I can hear it now, the wail from the hardcores, “I ride all fuckin` year!” Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I walked a mile for a camel.
These are the stories that were written about a cool bike, it's just a small excerpt, but often they let the pictures do the talking and brought a story from the biker's life.
Donnie Smith's bike from Minneapolis was impressive. Eagle MC England installed an SU Turbo Rivera in the bike in 1975, 74cu were enough.
The farms and cultivations looked very eye-catching, the color combination of red, silver and gold shows some exclusivity. Donnie Smith also wanted to show that his business was going well, so an extraordinary bike was needed.
FORTY FOR THE ROAD
Now what can that mean? It's about boobs, that's why it says “Entertainment for Adult Bikers” on the cover, which is quite a statement!
Pugs of all kinds, there was probably a special contest, something like that would probably no longer be possible in the USA today, a lot has changed. But in 1984 they brought them out, they weren't squeamish at the time, the best thing about it, everything was real!
UNREAL AT ANY SPEED | ARLEN NESS
What a great bike, an elaborate candy purple paint “mural and striping” by Horst, which is de rigueur today, was definitely something special in the 80s, the paint is exceptional!
The entire bike caused a lot of attention in its time, eye-catching intake funnels suggest that the machine needs a lot of fresh air for its low compression turbo so that the turbine can build up pressure properly.
The exhaust gases will be fired along the shortest route, which is what you want to see when the Arlen Ness machine travels over sandy ground, which will cause a touch of desert storm.
The XLCH engine is from 1966 and the bike was rebuilt in 1983 by Arlen Ness / Ken Puccio. The owner at the time was Dave Kerwood of Dunsmuir, California.
DAVID MAN
He is an integral part of the scene, David Mann still very popular today, his pictures go around the world, in the September 1984 issue there was a poster of him in the middle of the issue, the Easyriders imprint and his logo, that's a Picture for the wall.
The special thing is that David Mann died in September 2004 at the age of 64. Since 1972 he has been regularly featured in the center with a poster in EASYRIDERS magazine, all of which are now cult.
If you consider that Easyriders had a very high status at the time, especially in the USA, he could have imagined something about it.
But that's generally different in the USA than here. Artists from this area are real stars there, but here that's hardly conceivable. The prices that are paid in the USA for a picture by a renowned artist from the scene are enormous , with us they would starve, no matter how great we think the pictures are.
FAMILY AFFAIR by Tom Benson
Today we watch Sons of Anarchy on television, at that time they were the short stories in the magazines that told about biker parties in the saloon, also with elaborate graphics, they were probably the perfect short literature for the biker in the quiet place . Because you don't need any longer to read them, habits will certainly have formed.
HEIN GERICKE
And finally, who would have expected it, there is a large advertisement by Hein Gericke on the back cover of the 1984 edition! And in fact, the company has been on the scene since 1970.
By browsing through this issue you can see that in 1970 we really had a very important point in the chopper era; a lot of things started there and are still going today!
There are a few more photos, I think the little insight into the #135 Easyriders issue is something different, the magazines are also still available to buy, whether old or new! And that's just as well!!!
Image rights belong to the respective authors, Wolf, Pete Chiodo, Easyriders, Arvidson, Kim Peterson, Rip, Deanna Curtis, Oak View, David Mann, Dutty Daggan.
