Mention the word motorcycle and images leap to mind ranging from leather-clad gang members with nothing but criminal intent to the rebellious, but honest soul who is simply misunderstood and trying to find his way through life. Generally speaking, these stereotypes aren’t born from personal experiences, but more from what the public has seen on both the big and small screen.

The writers and producers in the entertainment industry grew up with the same images and stereotypes as the rest of us, so essentially what we see on TV comes from how they feel about motorcycles and the people who ride them. So how has the motorcycle faired at the hands of the entertainment industry?

All about the image

The image of the biker has been shaped and reshaped by Hollywood over the decades, being born on the big screen with the sensationalized ‘The Wild Ones’ starring Marlon Brando. The movie established the bad-boy biker stereotype which stayed with mainstream America, thanks in no small part to continuous stream of motorcycle gang B-movies that followed. That is until Dennis Hopper's 'Easyrider' presented a more introspective, philosophical rider to the general public in the late sixties.

How the movies shaped the popular opinion of the motorcyclist is covered with more detail in Clutch and Chrome’s 'The Outlaw Biker'. The focus of this article is a closer look at the entertainment industry’s fickleness and sometimes success of courting the motorcycle for a leading role in the television series.

Just as the movies used the motorcycle as a prop for an easy way to establish who a character is, television has always been quick to do the same. Looking for a group of men who are obviously up to no good, terrorizing a town which needs to be saved by the leading man, put them on motorcycles. Television show writers who require an ‘instant-bad boy’ the popular teenage star shouldn’t be dating, mention he’s a biker, add an unshaven appearance and put him in the appropriate leathers.

But what about television’s efforts to make the motorcycle part of the show itself? The first most notable time a bike was made an intricate part of the story was so much of a success one has to wonder why we didn’t grow up with every leading television character riding.

Started with a man in tights

It’s not clear why the writers decided Batman needed a motorcycle in the hugely popular 1960’s cult classic, but evidently he did. The Batcycle only appeared once in the first series and it didn’t seem to make that much of impression on the audience. This could be because the initial motorcycle was a standard 1959 Harley Davidson with a side car, featuring a simple paint job of high gloss black, detailed with red pinstripes to match the color scheme of it's four-wheeled cousin. Apart from the windshields, the motorcycle didn’t have any of the stylized, sweeping flourishes that helped the Batmobile become such an icon.

Fast forward to 1966 and while filming the first Batman television movie the producers decided to buy a new Batcycle created by Dan Dempski, a mechanic who worked for the famous custom car designer George Barris.

That last name might be familiar to anyone who remembers the kustom kar designs and craze from the sixties and seventies with Mr. Barris playing a large part in the amazing fabrications. With some justification, he styled himself as King of the Kustomizers, having designed signature vehicles for TV series such as The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters, Mannix, and Knight Rider.

The ‘new’ batcycle was built from a stock 1966 Yamaha Catalina 250 and featured aerodynamic fairings and fins which were not only more inline with the Batmobile but perfectly at home in the outlandish 1960’s. The gimmick of Robin’s sidecar being detachable so impressed the powers that be, it was written into the story and yet another facet to the Batman TV series was imprinted into the minds of the youthful viewing audience.

It’s interesting to note that America’s favorite superhero who could defeat any villain that dared to threaten the citizens of Gotham rode around on a 250cc motorcycle. Although this was a common size for motorcycle engines at the time, it certainly seems small compared to today’s powerhouses that have standard engine sizes as large as 1800cc.

By 1967 the show had aired for two seasons when it was decided to introduce Batgirl into the series. She too would have her own batcycle and although designed inhouse by the studio’s themselves, it had the same exaggerated features and trimmings suited for the era. Staying with Yamaha, the motorcycle was built from a stock YDS–5E boasting the then cutting-edge technological advance of an electric starter.

The actress who played batgirl, Yvonne Craig, was a superhero in her own right, not only riding a personally owned motorcycle to the set daily but managing her on-screen persona's uncomfortable batcycle. Although the customized motorcycle had more power than she was used to the technicians had removed the shocks to make room for the purple ‘batwings’ which needed to be attached.