Harley-Davidson: The cult motorcycle on screen

A television series with a story that takes up the never-ending battle between the good guys and the bad guys. As the series is all about biker gangs, it's to be expected that motorcycles abound in it. Almost without exception, the members of the gang Sons of Anarchy, all clad in black, drive Harley Davidson Dynas. But some of them also have Fat Boys and Street Glides in their garage.

The 1969 road movie immediately achieved cult status. To this day, motorcycle fans venerate the two beefed-up Harleys driven by desperados Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda across Dixieland. Fonda's bike "Captain America" achieved its own particular cult status. An imitation of it sold at an auction for more than one million euros making it the world's most expensive motorcycle.

Motorcycles just aren't all the same. That's clearly explained in a short dialogue in Quentin Tarrantino's masterwork. Butch (Bruce Willis) is in an extreme hurry and wants to rescue his girlfriend. When she asks him how he came into the possession of the bike, he impatiently answers: "It's not a motorcycle, baby. It's a Chopper."

In this action film, Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson play two bikers who try to bail out a friend with 2.5 million dollars. They attack a money transporter, but instead of looting a load of dough, they steal drugs. On their two Harleys, they're always a bit faster than their angry pursuers. The movie achieved cult status, especially because of the "performance" of the Harleys.

"I need your clothes, your boots and your bike," says the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to a biker in a honky-tonk bar. Following a short fight, the Terminator, clad in a leather outfit and sunglasses, mounts the bike — a Harley Davidson Fat Boy. On the picture above, Schwarzenegger proudly presents the cult motorcycle during the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.