Since I mentioned the famous stars and stripes bike.
February 15th 2007
GOING HIS OWN WAY - Tag along on an L.A. road trip with the original biker iconoclast, Peter Fonda.
By Susan Carpenter
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
susan.carpenter@latimes.com NEARLY four decades after riding his Captain America chopper to fame, Peter Fonda is still bucking trends. Two-wheeling through Coldwater Canyon during a recent late-morning ride, Hollywood's iconic biker wasn't showboating on the Harley-Davidson cruiser one would expect but zipping around on an MV Agusta F4-1000 sportbike that could smoke pretty much anything else on the road.
"I've had this puppy up to 189," Fonda said, not so much boasting as marveling at his own stupidity during a rest stop at Coldwater Canyon Park. "I never want to do that again. One road rut, and I would have been toast."
http://www.mvagustausa.com/web-mvagusta/news/0207_LATimes.htmlThat was two years ago, during a break from filming the biker movie "Ghost Rider," opening Friday. In the Marvel comic turned film, starring Nicolas Cage as a stunt rider who makes a deal with the devil, Fonda doesn't ride. But he does play the ultimate badass, Mephistopheles, a part he probably wouldn't have been offered if not for "Easy Rider."
A few decades and more than a dozen motorcycles later, Fonda is still riding bikes and still riding on "Easy Rider's" mega-million-dollar success. In addition to "Ghost Rider," he's starring in three other films due out this year.
If I hadn't been meeting Fonda for a ride, I wouldn't have known it was him on the MV, not only because of the bike but also because he was so well armored. His red Sidi riding boots and color-coordinated jacket were topped with a full-face helmet. On the back of his hat: a sticker telling Osama bin Laden exactly what he can do with himself.
It was his frosty relationship with his dad that prompted him to take up two wheels. "My father didn't want me to. It was like, in your face," Fonda said. "As soon as I could, I bought a Harley."
He was 18 when he purchased a used Sportster with winnings from blackjack.
"That was the beginning. Loved it. Never have stopped," said Fonda, who in the years since has owned a BMW R 27, multiple Triumphs, a Bultaco, a Montesa, a Ducati, 1977 and 1978 model BMW R 1200 RSes, two Harley-Davidson Fatboys, a Harley-Davidson Road King and, now, the MV Agusta.
His current fave is a 2005 MV Agusta F4-1000. "It's a hell of a motorcycle. I love it a lot. It goes faster, and I don't have the [wide-set] handlebars, dealing with traffic in L.A. … Going up and down the canyons, it's like you're attached to a rubber band that nobody else is attached to."
