Ben Hardy is the man behind the most of the Easy Rider bike construction. The man responsible for co-ordinating the bike building effort is Cliff Vaughs (BlackMan). Cliff worked with Fonda to get the right people to do the job on the bikes. For instance, Ben Hardy (brother Ben) added his thing by gathering all of the parts neccesary for the job.

Ben and Cliff retained the early cradle frame (48-56) and took it to Buchanan’s frame shop for a rake of 45 degrees. The neck was cut off and repositioned so that the forks make an angel with a vertical line of 45 degrees. The glide forks had to be lengthened 12 inches to compensate for the wild rake.

Ben Hardy's Shop at 1168 E. Florence in Los Angeles Stock glide risers are bolted to the '57 top triple tree and fitted with a set of A.E.E. triple trees which in turn have dogbones mounted on them and a set of 13" highriser bars. Fonda and Vaughs told Dean Lanza (the Dean of bike painters) to make the bike look like Capt. America's Shield... and it does !!

These are the creations of Ben Hardy & Cliff Vaughn little or no credit has been given to them. The Famous Captain America Bike & The Billy Bike, true works of Art! These are the Old School Chopper Builders....