Hot Rod 1995 September
Did you ever see the movie Harley-Davidson and the Marlboro Man? That's OK. Hardly anyone else did either. Mediocre acting and tepid writing aside, the movie did have one bright point : Mickey Rourke's character was seen throughout the flick straddling this way-cool custom Harley.This story actually started when Rourke told Bartels Studio Rentals' Gene Thomason that he wanted to build a new bike, but with a point of view more closely in line with his personality.
He wanted it brutally fast but "roachy lookin'." Rourke penciled a sketch on a cocktail napkin and told Thomason to go for it. That bike ended up as a 98-inch fire-breather that looks just like the bike shown here. When the movie came around, Rourke knew the bike would be perfect for it, but the radical motor wouldn't take too kindly to the repetitive, low-speed grind of filming, so Bartels built a duplicate with a closer-to-stock Evo mill. That's the bike shown here, the one that was actually in the movie.Other than some Bartels porting and speed parts and a ratty set of pipes (they're one-offs, so don't call), the motor is a stock 80-incher. The frame, however, was raked “’til it looked right” and fitted with stock Wide Glide triple trees and lower legs. The rear shocks were replaced with 111/2-inch solid rods that lower the bike 2 inches and make the ride really unpleasant over bumps, especially with the poor excuse for a seat. A sheetmetal rear fender and seat combo looks great and gets the bike really low (1/2 inch of clearance between the tire and the fender), but the unpadded seat is Velcro-ed to the sheetmetal, so Rourke’s posterior must feel great after 100 miles. The tanks are five-gallon Softail units that were welded together, and the tank mural is Rourke’s own design.
Hot Rod Bikes Feature Editor Howard Kelly got to put some miles on the movie mover and reports that it was completely impractical and more uncomfortable than you can imagine, but it was “totally, totally cool! No matter where I went, thumbs-up were shown. At traffic lights people would ask if it was the bike from the movie, and in two parking lots people tried to buy it from me. I set off car alarms as I went down streets, my neighbors complained and I laughed the whole time".