![]() ![]() The only place people talked like that was in the over-active imagination of some white-bread Hollywood screenwriter. People definitely did NOT say “daddy-o” in the ’60’s or in any other decade. It’s the ’60’s ticket for long-distance cruisin’, daddy-o. Oh, and by the way - how about that “bubble” face shield? Yeaaah, Baby! Remember them? If so, now you’re really showing your age! If that’s so, then this is as authentic as it gets! I believe the Easy Rider helmet is hand-painted either that, or they sure did a good job with the decals, because I can see remnants of the tape masking lines here and there. The paint on the Easy Rider version and the metalflake versions I handled at the show looks flawless. I even threw together a quick video with some cool music that to me is emblematic of the era, just to give you a feel for what they did. Some of you may have read my report on the company’s mind-bending helmet display at the 2009 Powersports Dealer Expo. Show this helmet to anyone over.ah…let’s say 50? And they’ll instantly know what it is. What I can say is that the helmet you’re looking at - well, not this exact helmet obviously, but the graphics - are about as iconic as you can get. Why the American flag? Well, the answer to that one would probably take a PhD dissertation in the politics, culture and sociology of the ’60’s, and this is about fun, remember? So we’re not going there. Somewhere along the line, the American flag became a subject of artistic choice. You’d buy a white helmet at Kresge’s, bring it home and, since you were both a rebel and a non-conformist, break out a coupla’ cans of Testors spray paint and go to town. Any color you want, as long as it’s black, white, or Fulmer’s outrageously beefy deep-fleck metalflake. You’re looking at what passed for motorcycle head protection in the 1960’s. Some - many - of you probably don’t even remember a time before disk brakes or tubeless tires or leaded gas (ahhh, the aroma!).īelieve it or not, when helmets looked like…the Fulmer V2. 40 years was - an eternity that never entered my consciousness, not in the very least.īut that was then and this is now, as they say. You’re kidding me, right? Believe me, in 1969 I couldn’t even imagine the planet would still be there 40 years later. Of course, being an impressionable youth from New York, it left me with two thoughts: first, how quickly could I buy a bike and hit the open road and second, I’ll be taking the northern route, thank you.Īnd here we are, in the blink of an eye, and it’s…2009? ![]() I saw it live, for real, in “the movies”, as we used to call it, when it first came out. Or to Woodstock.Īll cemented in our consciousness, by the way, with the 1969 classic “Easy Rider”. Throw the bedroll over the sissy bar, slip on the 1940’s leather bomber jacket fresh out of the thrift store and take off across the country. Spaghetti-thin tires, cardboard brakes and handling to frighten the Devil himself made it all so much…was the word “fun”?īut it’s that innocence that makes it seem all so romantic. Motorcycling back in the ’60’s (that’s as far back as I dare admit) was fun and innocent, but don’t let anyone tell you it wasn’t dangerous. I guess I’m showing my age, but those rose-colored glasses courtesy of Father Time have given me a probably unreasonably mellow remembrance of things past. You may find this hard to believe, but writing about the latest in collar snap technology, new fabrics for waist adjusters and debating the merits of Hydratex vs. Does it get any more retro than this? Pictures speak louder than words! ![]()
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