There's Always A Motorcycle: The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant
https://youtu.be/mxeuSilb3xY
There’s Always A Motorcycle: Not all films are Biker Flicks… But a hell of a lot have motorcycles in them!
THE INCREDIBLE 2-HEADED TRANSPLANT (1971)
Run Time: 1:28:00
Producer: Mutual General
Director: Anthony M. Lanza
Writer: James Gordon, Lawrence, Ross Massbaum
Key Cast: Bruce Dern, Pat Priest, Casey Kasem
FILM MAKERS
Last week we brought you the drive-in cult classic The Thing With Two Heads (1972). A film that snuck into the archive with one epic chase scene and fantastic poster art. But why a motorcycle reference at all? Well, it turns out that the film was a remake of one from a year earlier. The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971) has a similar premise. Stick a bad guy's head on a nice guy's body and see what happens. Minus the racial commentary.
Also not a motorcycle movie, but one that's dripping in biker cinema heritage. It was directed by Anthony M. Lanza, who directed the gritty trash classic The Glory Stompers (1967) four years earlier. A film known for giving Dennis hopper his first biker flick roll. The mad scientist obsessed with his secret two headed experiments is played by Bruce Dern, who has more Biker Flick credits to his name than just about anyone else. Even Casey Kasem (who plays Ken) once co-starred with Dern, as his brother in The Cycle Savages (1969).
With all this biker cinema pedigree, the film just HAD to have a motorcycle in the film, and it did not disappoint. While on their rampage, The 2-Headed Transplant encounters a biker gang who's whips, chains and sweet choppers are no match for the terrifying monster. And so, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant joins finds it's own way into the Vintagent archive.
During a 1978 interview on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Bruce Dern revealed he was not paid for his role in the film. He was issued a check for $1,700 during filming, and when he went to the bank to cash his check, the check bounced. When he returned to the set on the next day scheduled for filming, the set had already been shut down. The film was shot in only six days and released shortly there after.
"Uproarious nonsense, looking very much like a piece of low budget Fifties horror and performed with very little finesse, but quite watchable none the less." David McGillivray, The Monthly Film Bulletin
SUMMARY
This brain wants to LOVE... This brain wants to KILL!
Dr. Roger Girard (Bruce Dern) is a wealthy scientist experimenting with head transplantation. His caretaker has a son named Danny (John Bloom) who is an extremely strong full-grown man, but he has the mind of a child due to brain damage sustained in a mine accident. In an unusual turn of events, Manuel Cass (Albert Cole), a recently escaped mental patient and serial killer, has murdered Dr. Girard's caretaker and is seriously injured himself. Given an unprecedented chance to use human subjects – a mortally wounded psychotic and a disabled man with little chance of surviving on his own, neither of whom he thinks will be missed – Dr. Girard transplants Cass's head onto Danny's body to prove that his techniques can be applied to human beings. The new creature, with one head of a murderer and the other with the mental capacity of an eight-year-old attached to an extremely powerful body, escapes and wreaks havoc, committing multiple murders. After the creature kidnaps Linda Girard (Pat Priest), Dr. Girard, Dr. Max (Berry Kroeger), and Dr. Anderson (Casey Kasem) pursue it to an abandoned mine. Anderson rescues Linda, but Dr. Girard, Max, and the creature die in a mine cave-in
RELATED MEDIA
Read all about the remake The Thing With Two Heads (1972)
Watch the FULL FILM for Free!
There's Always A Motorcycle: The Thing With Two Heads
https://youtu.be/ry9_7KVE9ds
There’s Always A Motorcycle: Not all films are Biker Flicks… But a hell of a lot have motorcycles in them!
THE THING WITH TWO HEADS (1972)
Run Time: 1:31:00
Producer: American International Pictures (AIP), Saber Productions
Director: Lee Frost
Writer: Lee Frost, Wes Bishop, James Gordon White
Key Cast: Roosevelt Grier, Ray Milland, Don Marshall
FILM MAKERS
They transplanted a WHITE BIGOT'S HEAD onto a SOUL BROTHER'S BODY!
This classic blaxploitation film was produced by B Movie powerhouse AIP and Directed by Lee Frost. A legend of exploitation cinema, Frost's versatile credits are a mile long as he cranked out sleazy drive-in titles for decades. Nudie cuties, campy horror comedies, shocking Nazispoitation, mondo shock documentaries, and even the surprisingly decent biker flick Chrome and Hot Leather (1971). Frost and writing partner Wes Bishop also wrote the screenplay for the fantastic Peter Fonda & Warren Oates satanic dirt track horror romp classic Race With The Devil (1975), a film that Frost was hired to direct. Unfortunately, The studio wanted a major action hit similar to Peter Fonda’s previous movie Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, and lost confidence that Frost could deliver after only a few days of filming. Underwhelmed by the early footage, he was fired and replaced with Jack Starrett.
This film has been on the list for years, having screened at my own campy movie night Cine Meccanica almost two decades ago, but it never made it to The Vintagent Film Archive until we created 'There's Always A Motorcycle'. This collection gives home to the films that are embedded in the collective two wheeled mind, but really aren't biker flicks at all. While it promoted a provocative poster image of the two headed monster crashing into frame on a dirt track bike to draw audiences in, there are no motorcycles in the film other than a lengthy chase scene to outrun the cops. Which is totally worth it!
But why a motorcycle scene at all you may ask? perhaps it's a forgotten homage to the forgotten original film of which The Thing With Two Heads was a remake. The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971) starring Bruce Dern, a man with more biker flick credits to his name than just about anyone else in the business. This film too will finally be roaring its way into The Vintagent Film Archive's 'There's Always A Motorcycle' collection. Stay tuned!
SUMMARY
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Doctors are forced to transplant the head of terminally ill, arthritic racist surgeon Maxwell Kirshner onto the body of African American Death Row inmate Jack Moss because there is no other donor.
*Variety called the film "slickly imaginative." Roger Ebert gave the film one star out of four, noting how lurid promotional material warned viewers the film was so shocking they risked heart attacks or strokes, but "The only first aid they really need is hot coffee for the patrons who doze off." The Los Angeles Times called the film "every bit as preposterous as it sounds. It is also utterly hilarious, and any picture that can point up the absurdity and cruelty of racial prejudice with such incessant laughter deserves respect. Indeed, this American International release is a well-calculated, competently made exploitation picture that offers lots of fun."
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM on Youtube
The Vintagent Classics: Burst City
https://youtu.be/M4RjqvFOHXw
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
BURST CITY (1982)
Run Time: 1:55:00
Producer: Dynamite Production, Toei Central Films
Director: Gakuryū Ishii
Writer: Jūgatsu Toi
Key Cast: Takanori Jinnai, Shinya Ohe, Yuto Iseta
FILM MAKERS
Released in 1982, Burst City is a Japanese dystopian punk rock musical / action film directed by Gakuryū Ishii. Created in the middle of the punk movement in Japan, many musicians took on leading acting roles as well as performing songs in the film. Ishii wanted to feature bands from all three of the major punk hubs in Japan: The Stalin were from Tokyo, Machizo Machida was from Kansai, and The Roosters and the Rockers were from Kyushu. In punk rock fashion, the cast and crew lived on the post-apocalyptic set that they built, for the duration of the shoot.
To give the film a fresh, revolutionary feel, Ishii experimented with many different techniques. The editing style is extremely fast and chaotic, and some scenes combine a mix of undercranked shots and regular speed shots with striking results. Musical numbers and scenes of performers getting ready backstage are shot in a documentary style. The backgrounds are populated with thousands of extras in eccentric costumes and hairstyles, all captured in grainy 16mm film.
The Burst City original soundtrack was released by SEE SAW on March 5, 1982. Listen HERE.
Ishii blazed onto the scene with his first film Crazy Thunder Road (1980), an independent punk rock motorcycle flick filmed while at university. It launched his career, and Burst City was the follow up made as a proper studio production. Both titles became defining films of the subculture and attitude of the punk rock community of Japan at the time.
SUMMARY
Set in a barren, futuristic Tokyo of highways and wastelands, a rowdy group of punk bands and their fans gather to protest slow, boring, Japanese living.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch The FULL FILM on Youtube
Nuclear Punks Run Amok! Made when he was barely out of film school at Nihon University, 25-year-old Gakuryu Ishii’s first studio-produced feature, Burst City (1982), issued a fresh lob of spit to the face of Japan’s struggling film industry... Read more at Metrograph.
The Vintagent Classics: Crazy Thunder Road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJx03jiDBtA&t=136s
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
CRAZY THUNDER ROAD aka KURUIZAKI THUNDER ROAD (1980)
Run Time: 1:37:00
A Film By: Gakuryū Ishii (then known as Sogo Ishii)
Key Cast: Tatsuo Yamada, Masamitsu Ohike, Kôji Nanjô
FILM MAKERS
Crazy Thunder Road is hailed as Japan’s Mad Max. Directed by Gakuryū Ishii (then known as Sogo Ishii) who is to many, the godfather of Japanese cyberpunk cinema. Sogo Ishii’s high-octane, loud-and-proud breakthrough hit was one of the country’s great success stories. Shot on 16mm and made on equipment borrowed from the university where Ishii was studying at the time, Crazy Thunder Road not only got him kicked out of school and up to his neck in debt, it also launched his professional filmmaking career when the film was bought by Toei Studios, restruck on 35mm and released nationwide. Like all of Ishii's best films, it is as much a document of an era and its subcultures (the supporting cast are mostly real bikers and rock musicians) as a rip-roaring work of fiction.
Gakuryū Ishii's films are notoriously hard to find, but in 2022, Third Window Films released the film on Blu-Ray, along with several other Ishii titles.. This is the first video release (in any format) outside of Japan of Sogo Ishii’s punk classic, featuring a new restoration supervised by the director alongside many new and exclusive extras! Depending on your region in the world, you can stream the film or purchase a Blu-Ray copy directly through Third Window Film's website.
While there was no official soundtrack released for the film, it is so good that it's worth mentioning. The majority of the chaotic, high energy score was composed and performed by Shigeru Izumiya, who also appeared as an actor playing the role of Takeshi, the leader of a right-wing, militia-style nationalist group that clashed with the film's biker gangs.
The soundtrack is filled out with tracks by Panta & Hal, a new wave band fronted by Hal (Haruo Nakamura), a pioneer of Japanese rock and roll and co-founder and lead singer of the radical rock band Zunō Keisatsu (Brain Police). It also includes tracks by legendary Japanese punk and rock band The MODS, including the song 'Urusai' and several instrumental tracks. The entire soundtrack can be found pieced together online with the exception of The MODS' instrumentals. Listen here:
Soundtrack #1: Shigeru Izumiya
Soundtrack #2: Shigeru Izumiya, Panta & Hal, The MODS
SUMMARY
Ken, a gang leader dreaming of a quiet life with his girlfriend Noriko, and Jin, Ken’s maverick successor, who isn’t about to let yakuza kingpins or right-wing nutjobs tell him what to do or whom to kill. Jin’s violent individualism in a world where even outlaws follow the bosses’ orders references the doomed anti-establishment heroes of Kinji Fukasaku, but Crazy Thunder Road points toward a new style of genre filmmaking-fast-paced, quick-witted and brilliantly stylized.
RELATED MEDIA
Select Regions: Rent Online direct from Third Window Films.
In The US: Buy the Blu-Ray direct from Third Window Films.
The Vintagent Ads: Belstaff Ride On
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT75kh0W7Nw
The Vintagent Ads: The campaigns that sold us.
BELSTAFF: RIDE ON (2014)
Run Time: 1:27
Producer: Belstaff
Director: Trey Laird
Cinematographer: Peter Lindbergh
Key Cast: David Beckham, Andreea Diaconu
FILM MAKERS
90 years of speed and style
To celebrate the company's 90th anniversary, Belstaff embarked on a campaign spotlighting the brand's rich heritage and its deep connection to the motorcycle culture that has inspired generations of adventurers.This 2014 campaign, featuring David Beckham, captured by legendary photographer Peter Lindbergh and creatively directed by Trey Laird, served as the centerpiece of a broader strategy, which encompassed events, publications, multiple films, a documentary collaboration, and a special capsule collection in partnership with David.
A limited edition coffee-table book of photography by Peter Lindberg was released, titled Off Road. Copies are rare, but there is one for sale on Ebay UK!
SUMMARY
Inspired by classic road trip and biker films like Easy Rider, the film highlights the gritty, noisy, and free-spirited nature of riding motorcycles while dressed in signature Belstaff leather jackets and waxed cotton gear. It features renowned footballer and avid motorcyclist David Beckham and model Andreea Diaconu zipping through fields on a motorcycle. The serene beauty of the English Countryside is offset by the Grit, Noise & Exuberance of friends with a shared thirst for Adventure.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Selects: The stuntmen, Loreley And The Superpowers
https://vimeo.com/1066531165
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
THE STUNTMEN, LORELEY AND THE SUPERPOWERS (2025)
Run Time: 2:19
A Film By: Didier Canaux
Key Cast: Loreley, Werdyn, Kristofe Werdyn, The troupe
FILM MAKERS
This short film goes along with the film Wall Of Death Gypsy (2023) which The Vintagent featured earlier this month. With only a few women working, riding and/or performing today in the Wall Of Death tradition, this film provides a brief snapshot into the life of a traveling performer that few get to see. Enjoy!
SUMMARY
Experience the thrill of a lifetime with the fearless gypsy stunt riders of the Wall of Death.
Each year, when spring comes around, the Werdyn family gets ready to go on tour. They are as excited as they are stressed due to the inherent danger of their trade. And the truth is they never know if this is going to be their last… But then again, when you perform in a show called the Wall of Death Gypsy, you expect as much. Somewhere in the South of France, Kristofe, their leader, gets them ready for a truly unforgettable journey that will push the limits of fear and bravery.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Trailers: Wall Of Death Gypsy (2023)
Didier Canaux
Wall Of Death Gypsy
The Vintagent Trailers: Still Riding On
https://youtu.be/-BY4XXbrzxo
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
STILL RIDING ON (2026)
Run Time: 26:00
A Film By: Shoji Kurokawa
Key Cast: Jeffrey Carver Jr., Fumihisa Matsueda
FILM MAKERS
Shoji Kurokawa is a Japanese filmmaker and video producer based in Brooklyn, New York.
He began his career in Japan in 2004 and has spent more than 20 years working across commercials, music videos, television programs, documentaries, and narrative productions. His work combines documentary storytelling with a strong visual approach developed through years of commercial and branded content production. After relocating to New York in 2020, Shoji has focused on creating stories that connect people, cultures, and communities. His work often explores personal passion, identity, and the relationships between individuals and the worlds they inhabit.
Still Riding On is his first independently produced short documentary film.
*In NYC? Catch the premier this Saturday, August 15th, 9pm at COTRA. 451 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Free admission!
SUMMARY
In March 2026, American professional flat track racer Jeffrey Carver Jr. and New York–based Japanese motorcycle mechanic Fumihisa Matsueda travel to Oarai, Japan, to compete in the SUNBEACH SANDFLATS.
After narrowly missing victory the previous year, Matsueda returns determined to settle unfinished business. To prepare for the race, he acquires a rare Trackmaster-framed BSA and rebuilds it specifically for the event. Alongside Carver, the two riders chase redemption on the sands of Oarai.
As race day approaches, months of preparation, mechanical challenges, and personal determination lead both competitors through qualifying and toward the main event. But just as their long-awaited chance arrives, an unexpected turn of events changes everything.
Still Riding On is a documentary about passion, perseverance, and the enduring bond between riders united by their love of motorcycles.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Trailers: Wall Of Death Gypsy
https://vimeo.com/430700877
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
WALL OF DEATH GYPSY (TV 2023)
Run Time: 1:10:00
Producer: Empreinte Digitale, Joachim Landau & Isabelle Dagnac
Director: Didier Canaux
Writer: Aurore Aubin & Didier Canaux
Key Cast: Kristofe Werdyn, The troupe
FILM MAKERS
In the south of France, the tale of a gypsy family who's job is to ride the Wall of death. A truly unforgettable journey.
The documentary directed by Didier Canaux, originally broadcast on France 2's 25 nuances de doc series, follows Kristofe Werdyn and his traveling mechanical circus troupe in the southwest of France. The film explores the lives of modern-day "punks" and free spirits who operate the cylindrical wooden motodrome. Known as the Mur de la mort in France, this classic fairground attraction sees motorcyclists defy gravity by riding horizontally along a vertical wall, performing feats that require immense courage and perfect balance.
Though the film aired on French TV in 2023, it is not currently available to rent or buy. The Vintagent is currently in talks with the film's distributor to try to bring this film to our readers. Stay tuned!
SUMMARY
Experience the thrill of a lifetime with the fearless gypsy stunt riders of the Wall of Death.
Each year, when spring comes around, the Werdyn family gets ready to go on tour. They are as excited as they are stressed due to the inherent danger of their trade. And the truth is they never know if this is going to be their last… But then again, when you perform in a show called the Wall of Death Gypsy, you expect as much. Somewhere in the South of France, Kristofe, their leader, gets them ready for a truly unforgettable journey that will push the limits of fear and bravery.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Selects: The Enthusiast Girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F3OXzKDzFk&time_continue=963&source_ve_path=MjE0Mjgz&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Farchivemoto.com%2F
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
THE ENTHUSIAST GIRL (2026)
Run Time: 16:16
A Film By: Archive Moto
Key Cast: Vivian Bales
FILM MAKERS
Archive Moto Is An Ongoing Research And Publishing Project Dedicated To Rediscovering America's Rich History Of Motorcycle Culture, One Story At A Time.
SUMMARY
The minute I got that single, I knew I had the keys to the entire United States.
The Enthusiast Girl, Miss Vivian Bales, Harley-Davidson’s eternally lovely, fearless, and unwavering first lady was a pioneer American adventurer who defied the conventions of the Roaring Twenties and defined for herself and a century of riders since what it meant to be a woman and motorcyclist.The minute I got that single, I knew I had the keys to the entire United States.
In the Summer of 1929, Bales clocked over 5,000 miles alone on a Harley-Davidson Model D, the first in Milwaukee’s famed “45” lineage. Without as much as a single flat tire, Bales and her trusty Model D triumphed, both over the miles that lay behind her as well as the conventions that girls simply shouldn’t ride motorcycles. Throughout her 78-day, 5,000+ mile adventure covering 14 states, the White House in Washington D.C., and a bit Canada, Bales blazed a trail for all future female motorcyclists to become a good will ambassador for enthusiasts everywhere. She had shaken the hands of more mayors than she could count, met the President of the United States, the founders of the company she had chased her dream onboard, and charmed the hearts of thousands along the way.
Like so many of America’s pioneering women, Vivian Bales never set out to become a symbol, she didn’t ride for sponsors or followers; she paid her own way, trusted her own hands, driven to see what waited beyond the horizon. A product of the Roaring Twenties, she was America in motion: determined, unafraid, and beautifully unwilling to wait for permission. She was equal parts brazenness and poise, and for that her story lives on, having inspired countless enthusiasts to follow their hearts into the winds of adventure. Moreover, Bales remains an icon for female motorcyclists the world over, having exemplified the spirit of freedom and equality at a time of wonted subjugation. Vivian Bales was more than a cover girl, or a novelty, she was an American trailblazer and a motorcyclist in every sense, living life on her own terms with grit and grace. - Archive Moto: The Enthusiast Girl
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Ads: Two Moto Italia Icons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZcZ5a1SJWc
The Vintagent Ads: The campaigns that sold us.
TWO MOTO ITALIA ICONS: HEADING TO MECUM MONTEREY 2026 (2026)
Run Time: 6:36
A Film By: Mecum Auctions
Key Cast: John Goldman, Paul d'Orléans
FILM MAKERS
In this interview, Mecum Auctions sat down with avid motorcycle collector and San Francisco architect John Goldman to discuss his passion for art deco design and how it led to his love of Italian motorcycles.
SUMMARY
This 1951 Mondial 125 Bialbero Grand Prix and 1939 Miller-Balsamo 200 Carenata, both amongst the last known survivors of their kind, are headed to Mecum Monterey August 13-15, 2026.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: Chelsea Bridge Boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZa0fVkYgmY
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
Chelsea Bridge Boys (1965)
Run Time: 30:16
Producer: Sveriges Television (SVT)
Director: Peter Davis, Staffan Lamm
Key Cast: Chelsea Bridge Boys
FILM MAKERS
Chelsea Bridge Boys is a 30-minute documentary directed by Peter Davis for Swedish Television. It offers a candid, slice-of-life look into the mid-1960s London subculture of Rockers, working-class youth gangs known for their love of rock 'n' roll and custom motorcycles, who meet at a tea-kiosk on Chelsea Bridge.
During a career spanning over 50 years, Peter Davis produced and directed more than 70 films on social and political issues, and worked on many others. His documentaries have been shown worldwide, and gained many awards. Much of his work has been on apartheid South Africa. He has documented subjects in Europe and the United States, Africa and the Middle East, and Latin America. See more of his films HERE.
SUMMARY
The Chelsea Bridge Boys were a London Rocker gang. Centered around a popular tea kiosk near the Chelsea Bridge, they were known for their studded leather jackets, rebellious attitude, and love of 1950s rock and roll. The film Chelsea Bridge Boys offered an authentic, cool look at the youths who made transport cafes and the bridge their starting and finishing points for street races and cruising, where the rockers would frequently attempt to "do the ton".
RELATED MEDIA
Read: Just for Kicks: A Rocker's Tale of London in the 60s, by Geoff Boxell (a Chelsea Bridge Boy)
The Vintagent: Hooligans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBEz1iGflsY
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
HOOLIGANS: THE ARCH RACING PROJECT WITH KEANU REEVES & GARD HOLLINGER (TV 2026)
Run Time: TBD
Producer: V10 Entertainment, Samsung TV Plus
Director: Brian Skope
Key Cast: Keanu Reeves, Gard Hollinger, ARCH Racing Team
FILM MAKERS
'Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project with Keanu Reeves & Gard Hollinger' mini series is the first original docuseries by Samsung TV Plus and will debut Sunday, July 12 at 9PM ET in the US on Samsung TV Network (STN), the service’s flagship channel, with new episodes premiering every Sunday through August 16.
Samsung TV Plus also recently launched the MotoAmericaTV Channel, a 24/7 destination featuring more than 200 hours of North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series, including coverage of the Super Hooligan National Championship. Additionally, the channel offers fans premium race content, including live event streams, full race replays, select practice sessions and qualifiers, rare behind-the-scenes footage, a deep library of archival videos, and wall-to-wall coverage of the 2026–2027 season. Fans can catch the upcoming Ridge Motorsports Park race June 26 – June 28 on MotoAmericaTV as well as STN. - Samsung TV Plus
SUMMARY
Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project chronicles Reeves and Hollinger, founders of ARCH Motorcycle, as they shift gears from building world-class machines to competing in the high-stakes world of professional racing in MotoAmerica, America’s premier motorcycle road racing series, where they line up against the best in the Super Hooligan National Championship. With the same precision, craftsmanship and relentless drive that define their brand, the ARCH team sets out to prove they can hold their own against the giants of motorsports.
The high-octane docuseries offers an inside look at the lean, scrappy and dynamic team behind ARCH as they punch above their weight in a sport where innovation, teamwork and determination are pushed to the limit. From the garage to the grid, Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project captures the ambition and adrenaline behind an underdog racing story fueled by passion, performance and the pursuit of excellence.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: Satan's Choice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQAVAgsuDDU
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
SATAN'S CHOICE (1966)
Run Time: 28:00
Producer: The National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Director: Donald Shebib
Key Cast: Howard Doyle Berry, Lorne Campbell, Bernie Guindon
FILM MAKERS
Director Donald Shebib is most well known for his 1970 film 'Goin' Down The Road' which, despite the small production budget, is generally regarded as one of the best and most influential Canadian films of all time and has received considerable critical acclaim for its writing, directing and acting. It tells the story of two young men who decide to leave the Maritimes, where jobs and fulfilling lives are hard to find, for the excitement and perceived riches of Toronto. Donald Shebib passed away in late 2023, leaving behind a legacy that shaped the landscape of Canadian cinema.
*Shebib is now known to a new generation as the father of famed Drake producer Noah "40" Shebib. Drake sampled a snippet of dialogue from Satan's Choice on his track "Lose You".
SUMMARY
Made for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), Satan's Choice is a rare "inside" view of a motorcycle club in Toronto. The names they adopt (Satan's Choice is only one) are as individual as their special ethics and views of life, all freely expressed in this film. A second Satan's Choice short film was made in 1967 with the same title, also made for NFB. This TV short followed the club's evolving story and focused heavily on a criminal trial involving several of the members featured in the first film, though I have yet to track it down. Stay tuned!
RELATED MEDIA
Watch more Canadian cinema for free at NFB
Watch the full Film 'Goin' Down The Road' for free on Youtube.
The Vintagent Selects: Tom Fugle 8mm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TRDO85Ty3s
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
TOM FUGLE 8MM Part 1 of 4 (2017)
Run Time: 37:39
A Film By: Outlaw Archive
8mm Footage: Tom Fugle
Key Cast: El Forastero MC
FILM MAKERS
Based in Los Angeles, Outlaw Archive locates, obtains, preserves, documents, and catalogues artifacts related to California’s outlaw motorcycle clubs from the 1950s through the 1970s, and California street gangs from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Outlaw Archive, controls the world’s largest collection of early American outlaw motorcycle club materials in existence, which is housed in a Class II bank vault inside of a remodeled 5,000 sq/ft warehouse in Downtown Los Angeles. The collection includes tens of thousands of original photographs, personal letters, club meeting minutes, original “colors” (jackets and patches), historical newspaper clippings, and hours of interviews with former members of outlaw motorcycle clubs. The entire collection – over 80,000 pieces and growing -has been catalogued by two former UCLA archivists.
Outlaw Archive taps into a fundamentally American desire to live one’s life with a fierce and determined freedom. Outlaw bikers of the mid-twentieth century represented the last gasp of the American West, the last of a dying breed of men and women who sought adventure, love, family, and freedom.
@Outlaw Archive enjoys a rabid fan base of 197k followers on its Instagram page, including tastemakers, influencers, artists, and celebrities from all over the world. The archive and its founders Bo Bushnell & Paul Zuckerman have been featured in the LA Times, SF Chronicle, Vice.com, USA Today, The Boston Globe, Daily Mail, NY Daily News, The Vintagent, andStereogum.com.
Outlaw Archive’s content and marketing opportunities cater to both coasts and America’s heartland, as well as to dedicated fan bases on six continents. It also embraces a true 4-quadrant demographic, inviting men and women, young and old, from multiple socioeconomic statuses, to participate and engage with a growing and passionate community.
Follow the Outlaw Archive Youtube channel for parts 2 through 4 of Tom Fugle 8mm.
SUMMARY
Tom Fugle's 8mm film footage offers a rare and endlessly compelling window into the Midwestern chopper culture of the 1960s. These films stand as a remarkable visual record of the era, capturing the El Forastero Motorcycle Club during a period of restless movement and transformation. Through images of customized motorcycles, roadside gatherings, parking lots, and street corners, Fugle documented a distinctly American subculture that would leave a lasting mark on the nation's social history. His films provide an intimate and authentic account of a world that has often been overlooked, misunderstood, or entirely absent from mainstream historical narratives.
Fugle's life and work represent a journey into the heart of a vibrant yet often conflicted subculture undergoing profound social and cultural change. His footage not only chronicles the evolution of outlaw motorcycle clubs during the 1960s but does so with a visual sensibility that elevates these films beyond mere documentation. While the material may at first resemble traditional home movies, closer examination reveals compositions rich with personal perspective, emotional depth, and a keen awareness of the people and communities before his lens.
The resulting images transcend simple historical record. They capture the spirit, identity, and aspirations of a uniquely American movement at a pivotal moment in its development. As both historical documents and works of visual storytelling, Tom Fugle's films represent an invaluable contribution to the preservation of American cultural history. They offer future generations a rare opportunity to witness a formative chapter in the evolution of motorcycle culture and stand as an enduring part of our collective social memory.
In 2017, we painstakingly compiled and restored this footage, commissioned an original musical score, and released a highly limited edition of Tom Fugle's Fck Off DVDs. Those releases quickly disappeared into private collections, remaining largely inaccessible to the wider public. Now, nearly a decade later, we are finally opening the vault and presenting this extraordinary body of work to a broader audience. For the first time, Tom Fugle's remarkable visual chronicle of the El Forastero Motorcycle Club and the Midwestern chopper scene will be made widely available as a four-part series, allowing viewers to experience an important and often overlooked chapter of American cultural history through the eyes of someone who lived it. - Outlaw Archive
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The Vintagent Ads: Honda City Motocompo Madness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq6JL1lhLIw
The Vintagent Ads: The campaigns that sold us.
HONDA MOTOCOMPO MADNESS (1981)
Run Time: 0:30
Producer: Honda Global
Director: Dentsu
Key Cast: Madness
FILM MAKERS
The Honda City and Motocompo ad campaign of the early 1980s is one of automotive history’s most iconic and brilliantly eccentric marketing blitzes. Launched by Honda Global in Japan, the campaign was designed to promote the “tallboy” Honda City and its revolutionary trunk-dwelling folding scooter, the Motocompo. The advertisements focused on urban mobility, showing drivers navigating traffic and parking their cars, then easily unfolding the 49cc scooter from the back of the hatchback to cruise through the city.
The English ska band Madness was prominently featured in the commercials, bringing an upbeat, quirky, and energetic vibe that matched the quirky design of the vehicles. The tune? In The City, of course. The wildly successful campaign was orchestrated by Japanese advertising executives at Dentsu, the largest advertising agency in Japan.
SUMMARY
1981 Honda Motocompo NCZ 50
Honda is tremendous successful at selling small and smaller motorcycles around the world. Their ‘Cub’ series has been around 60 years and has sold in the tens of Millions, and their design team branched out many times to use the indestructible motor in a variety of chassis configurations. But the Motocompo NCZ 50 has nothing to do with the cub, or any of Honda’s scooters, although it does share a 2-stroke engine with other Honda products.
The Motocompo was sold as an integral accessory to the Honda City microcar in 1981, a ‘trunk bike’ designed to fold up neatly into a suitcase-sized box so it could easily be stowed in a special compartment of the City’s rear hatch. The idea, one presumes, is to drive the City near to areas where no cars can travel, then use the Motocompo to reach further into the urban web.
The City’s luggage compartment was designed specifically for the Motocompo. The tiny motorcycle’s handlebars, seat, and footpegs fold into the scooter’s rectangular plastic bodywork, into cleverly designed recesses and hand-carry recesses. While Honda projected sales of 8000 Citys and 10,000 Motocompos per month (both were Japanese Domestic Market only), it was the City that reached these sales targets, but over 3 years ‘only’ 53,369 Motocompos were sold. The end of Motocompo production was 1983, and an average of 3000/month were built. Hardly a failure, but neither was the Motocompo greeted with a firestorm of approval.
Nevertheless, the design of the Motocompo is ingenous, and perhaps the only real inheritor of the ‘Motosacoche’ concept, being truly a ‘moto in(to) a suitcase’! The design is impeccably 1980s, with its flush, integrated head- and taillamps, retractable everything, and terrific graphics. Best of all, the City/Motocompo advertising campaign was launched with the British ska band Madness providing entertainment and music for the ad. It, too, is a highlight of 1980s design! - Excerpt taken from Two-Wheeled Icons of the 1980's, by Paul d'Orleans, The Vintagent, 2018
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Need one? Keep an eye on Bring A Trailer!
The Vintagent Selects: Not The NC 500. A BIG Scottish Small Bike Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nQ_Uzr9e9M
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
NOT THE NC 500. A BIG SCOTTISH SMALL BIKE ADVENTURE (2024)
Run Time: 40:33
A Film By: Greg Villalobos
Editor: Alex Philpott
Key Cast: Clive Barber, Davy Myers, Greg Villalobos, Noel Thom, Wil Linssen, Rupert Jordon
FILM MAKERS
Greg Villalobos is a veteran motorcycle film maker. His quirky adventure films include The Coast To Coast Trial(2013), The Weekend Pass (2016), The Green Lane Relay(2016), Malle Moto: The Forgotten Dakar Story (2017), and Hunt For The Wild: The Trans Euro Trail Adventure (2018), The Secret Cabin (2021)
SUMMARY
You can't ride off road in Scotland. Can you? Most adventure riders hit the North Coast 500 with their big adventure touring bikes. So what would happen if you rode small trail bikes 1000 miles to the tip of the Outer Hebrides? Would it be the off road adventure they were looking for? Or just a huge pain in the a*se?
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The Vintagent Selects: Le Mans - Racing Beyond Limits
https://vimeo.com/1054428981
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
LE MANS - RACING BEYOND LIMITS (2025)
Run Time: 20:21
A Film By: Elena Rosberg
Key Cast: Jakob Lorenz, Alex Innocenti, Stephane Paulus, Emiliano Malogoli, Martin Horky
FILM MAKERS
Austrian filmmaker Elena Rosberg presents a compelling look into a lesser-known part of motorsport with her new documentary Le Mans, Racing Beyond Limits, now available worldwide on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Google TV.
SUMMARY
Elena Rosberg’s directorial debut, Le Mans, Racing Beyond Limits, documents a race day at the European Motorcycle Championship for Riders with Disabilities held at the iconic Le Mans circuit in France. This championship brings together athletes with physical disabilities competing at a high-performance level. Rosberg offers a rare insight into a community who share a strong drive to race - regardless of physical limitations. Her portrayal is raw and unfiltered—but also a tribute to the riders, their resilience, courage, and spirit. Le Mans, Racing beyond Limits is currently the only film to cover this unique competition and its participants in such detail.
RELATED MEDIA
Read an Interview with Elena Rosberg at Ability Magazine
The Vintagent Selects: Sixth Street Specials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O7SoxnL0Fo
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
SIXTH STREET SPECIALS (2026)
Run Time: 3:57
A Film By: Ezekiel Victor
Editor: Antonio Polito, Hunter McCary
Key Cast: Hugh Mackie, Joshua Mackenzie, Fumi Matsueda, Oliver Meechan, Darryl Jakubowski
FILM MAKERS
Ezekiel Victor is a filmmaker from Asheville, currently splitting his time between there and Brooklyn. His Uncle used to own the motel and gas station at Deals Gap so some of my oldest memories are seeing bikes race up the hill at the entrance of the Dragon. His second birthday party was even motorcycle themed, giving motorcycles a very personal place in his heart.
We posted the film trailer back in 2024 and are thrilled to finally post the full film that premiered online today, on the Triumph Heritage blog. Enjoy!
SUMMARY
Tucked away on East 6th Street since the mid‑80s, Sixth Street Specials has long been one of the East Village’s most beloved motorcycle repair shop for fans of classic British motorcycles.
The shop built its reputation around deep mechanical know‑how and a genuine love for Triumph motorcycles. Rather than operating as a retail store, it has always focused on what it does best: repairing, restoring, and occasionally customising vintage bikes.
The shop opened in 1986 by Hugh Mackie, a Scottsman who moved to New York in the early ’80s and quickly immersed himself in the city’s motorcycle culture. Mackie favored craftsmanship over flash, keeping the storefront understated and letting the work speak for itself. Over time, Sixth Street Specials became a symbol of the East Village’s earlier, grittier era, as many similar garages were pushed out or relocated to Brooklyn. Read more about the shop on the Triumph Heritage blog.
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Filmmaker website
Sixth STreet Specials IG @sixthstreetspecialsinc
