![]() Davidson married a Sportster front end to an FL frame and designed a fiberglass rear “boat-tail” fender. The bike was painted “Sparkling America” red, white and blue (perhaps as a tip of the hat to Easy Rider). The Super Glide marked the beginning of factory custom motorcycles by Harley and shows that the Motor Company was watching what custom bike builders were up to and trying to give consumers what they wanted. At the same time the Super Glide hit the streets, two biking friends from Minnesota that moved to southern California were poised to change two-wheeled history. Gearheads Mil Blair and Joe Teresi teamed up with magazine editor Lou Kimzey to produce a lifestyle-driven magazine that would appeal to bikers. Lou had been riding choppers since they were called bobbers and motorcycle clubs had names like the 13 Rebels, Galloping Gooses, and Deuces Wild. Lou had been an editor of drag racing and men’s magazines, creating such titles as Drag Racing, Drag Strip, and Big Bike. The two-wheeled-trio wanted their new magazine to be completely different than any motorcycle magazine on the planet and succeeded with the irreverent and madcap format which became Easyriders magazine. In the early ’70s, Joe Teresi had already logged over 100,000 miles on choppers and was known as a custom bike builder in his own right. Joe was the technical editor on Big Bike and along with bike builder and parts fabricator Mil Blair, designed many aftermarket parts for people who wanted to build a chopper of their own. Mil was also into cameras and acted as Easyriders first photo editor. Along with these three Paisanos (hence the company’s name Paisano Publications), Don Pfeil signed on as editor-at-large and produced editorials capturing the passion of the chopper experience. Other early staff members included copy editor Frank Harding, and Louis Bosque along with assorted office cats and dogs. Joe Teresi told me that motorcycle magazines of that time showcased bikes but not the people who built or rode them. His idea was to do a magazine that captured the people behind the custom bikes as well as the wild lifestyle that surrounded them. ![]() ![]() It would turn out to be a winning combination of custom motorcycles and real bikers, seen by the public for the first time in a magazine devoted to the biker lifestyle. In June of 1971, Easyriders magazine was unleashed on an unsuspecting public. Just as Fonda and Hopper’s film Easy Rider acted as a microcosm of the hippie and biker culture, so Easyriders focused this crazy and rebellious lifestyle and defined it. The first issue didn’t offer a biker chick on the cover, just a wild chop job. ![]()
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