'Easy Rider' Town Welcomes Arizona Bikers
B E L L E M O N T, Ariz., Jan. 8, 2004 -- When Captain America and Billy try to rent a room at the Pine Breeze Inn in the movie Easy Rider, the outlaw bikers are turned away.
A man cracks the door, sees the men on their motorcycles andthen a glowing "NO" starts blinking in front of "VACANCY" onthe sign.
Captain America and Billy — played by Peter Fonda and DennisHopper — ride down Route 66 and sleep in the woods.
When the movie came out in 1969, bikers were disrespected andfeared. They represented trouble, rebellion and drugs. Not anymore.This tiny town west of Flagstaff even caters to bikers now.
The Pine Breeze Inn is boarded up, white paint peeling and grasscreeping up its sides. A rusted gas tank stands in front. And justfeet away, what's left of this portion of Route 66 — the fabledMother Road now largely bypassed by Interstate 40 — is cracked andovergrown with weeds.
Tribute to Harley
But instead of sending bikers away, the inn now invites them tocamp on the 2.5-acre property surrounding the fading building. Andjust down the road there is a Harley Davidson shop and a Route 66Roadhouse Bar and Grill, a tribute to everything Harley.
The table tops are glass-covered motorcycle wheels. There is aHarley Davidson jukebox. A motorcycle from World War II stands in amuseum-like room with a "Harley Parking Only" sign. The "NoVacancy" sign from "Easy Rider" hangs from the ceiling.
Bikers wearing leather chaps, skull bandanas, and Harleytank-tops and jackets periodically saunter in for drinks.
About eight years ago, Felix Mansene and his wife, Lori, builtthe roadhouse. Now it's frequently used for biker parties andcharity events.
About 20,000 riders passed by the roadhouse in August while onthe Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary Ride Home, Mansene said. Theypartied in a circus tent filled with bands, American Indiandancers, and vendors selling corn on the cob and beer. A Harley was raffled in December at the roadhouse to raise moneyfor local charities. Some years, the roadhouse hosts the ArizonaHog Rally.
Mansene, who recently shaved off his waist-length ponytail andnow has a bald head and dark-rimmed glasses, has been a biker for40 years.
Old Fear of Bikers
He said bikers are perceived much better now than they were inthe 1960s and 1970s, the period when Captain America and Billytried to stay in Bellemont while traveling from Los Angeles to NewOrleans for Mardi Gras.
"Before, when you rode, you weren't really looked at thatnicely," Mansene said.
When he owned a restaurant in Flagstaff, he parked his bike inthe alley so customers wouldn't be frightened away.
"Nobody else wanted to go in if there were bikers," Mansenesaid. John Whipp Jr. owns one of the few other establishments inBellemont — a bar named Junior's, where bikers still gather.
Whipp's dad bought the bar in 1945. Whipp took over theestablishment in 1956 and has been living in a back room of the barever since.
The decor hasn't changed much over the years. The walls areplastered with posters of women posing by motorcycles. A motorcyclecalendar hangs on the wall too, stuck on the year 1977. Thecountertop is lined with antique stools.
Whipp, who used to buy gas from the tank that still sits infront of the Pine Breeze Inn, said he hasn't had many problems withbikers.
"The only bad bikers are gang members," Whipp said referringto a melee in Laughlin, Nev., west of here in April 2002. Two HellsAngels and one Mongols motorcycle gang member were killed and atleast 12 were hurt in a brawl inside a casino 170 miles due west ofhere. Although certain gangs still have fairly grisly reputations,Joel Gabbard, who owns the Pine Breeze Inn, said bikers, ingeneral, have lost some of their bad-boy image.
The softening started a decade ago when riding became less abouttransportation and more about recreation, he said.
Now, most people who own bikes are middle-aged businessmen andwomen who have money to spare. Purchasing a Harley runs from about$9,000 to $35,000.
Focus on the Ride
A biker since high school, Gabbard is covered with Harley gear — belt buckle, shirt, jacket. His wife's name is painted on hismotorcycle's gas tank.
He said he rides to relax, unwind and free his mind of worries."A Harley Davidson will relieve all stress," said Gabbard.
Captain America and Billy wanted to taste freedom too. Butbecause of their biker stigma, they faced continuous opposition asthey journeyed across America.
Easy Rider changed the pop culture landscape. In the movie,the motorcycles represented rebellion, independence and thepopularity of psychedelic drugs. But it also was about resistanceto hippie communes and living off the land.
At the end of Easy Rider, while riding along the MississippiRiver, a shotgun-wielding bigot shoots Billy and Captain America.
Gabbard said some people still disapprove of his pastime, butnot as much as years ago. Today, bikers can focus on the ride.
"You can just kind of kick back — you and the machine,"Mansene said. "It's relaxing. It's comforting. It'suninterrupted." If You Go…
BELLEMONT, Ariz: Bellemont is about 12 miles west of Flagstaff.The Route 66 Roadhouse Bar & Grill (928-774-5080) and the GrandCanyon Harley Davidson shop (928-774-3896) are both on West Route66. The boarded-up Pine Breeze Inn is just east of the HarleyDavidson shop and the Route 66 Roadhouse Bar and Grill.