[Jason Momoa] Yeah!
Yee-he-he!
[motorcycle engine rumbling]
It's got goodies, bro.
It's good, man.
[tires screech]
-I'll take it. -[speaker] Hey, big man.
I'll take it. [laughs]
[♪ "Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica playing]
♪♪
♪ And the road becomes my bride ♪
♪ I have stripped of all but pride ♪
♪ So in her I do confide ♪
♪ Off the beaten path I reign ♪
♪ Rover, wanderer ♪
♪ Nomad, vagabond ♪
♪ Call me what you will ♪
♪♪
♪ Wherever I may roam ♪
[Jason] Keep going.
Sweet.
[indistinct chatter]
To me, this is the holy grail.
This is a massive--
kinda what kicked off Season Two for me.
This was the big dream.
I wanna do something that...
I guess we've talked about...
dreamed about, something that I've never done before,
but I wanna build a bike with you.
And the most special motor right now
is like the war models,
-the war bikes. -Right.
It's like '42, '42, '43, '44.
[Scotty Stopnik] '43 is impossible.
So, we found-- '43 is impossible.
Some bikes in Harley history are extremely hard to come by.
One example is the 1943 Knucklehead.
In '43, the thing people have to remember
is production of civilian Harley-Davidsons
dropped to incredibly low numbers,
a hundred and some bikes for a model a year,
because so much of the production at that time
was going for the, uh, military.
I want to-- my dream is to, like, take--
find those war bikes
all over the world and bring 'em back.
You two are, like, Japan's darlings.
-[laughter] -If there's anyone--
If there's two people that-- that Japan loves more,
it's Maxwell, dude, 4Q, and Cycle Zombies.
[Scotty] With Cycle Zombies, it's not like a thing where it's like,
"I've got these bikes in stock."
It's just I would build a bike and be like, "This bike's done."
And then somebody would hit us up.
And a lot of times it was a guy in Japan.
And I don't know why.
I think just doing--
putting a lot of time in over there.
Japanese motorcycle culture.
I mean, I learned stuff from, uh, their study
of American history in bikes.
I've learned a lot from Japanese builders.
They were smart enough at one point
to figure out that, you know, everyone wants a '36
'cause it's the first year.
But the rarest is '43 and '44,
which are the war years.
For me, it's the rarest of the rare.
And also just what could I do to stoke out?
I wanted to have a certain amount of my friends
that were gonna make these hand-built custom choppers
with the war bike models.
So they get to make their own personal different Warpigs.
[Scotty] The rarity of, like, that '43 bike
to be brought back here and brought to the museum,
it's a very, like, big honor, I think, for that to happen
and these bikes to go back to a place where it started at.
People in Japan have been buying Americana stuff
since before Americans even really cared
about, like, '50s stuff or vintage Levi's.
I mean, you know, people here were just moving on
to the newest next thing,
and I think that's how so many bikes
and stuff ended up over there.
It's not-- It's not like something they're just like,
"This is cool, I'm gonna get into it." Like...
I've had friends that literally pull, like,
a 15-year loan
-to buy this old bike. -Right.
It's not a trend for them, it's their life.
[Jason] It's their lifestyle.
They work so fuckin' hard to get that stuff over there.
I can't even imagine how intimidating that would be.
-You don't speak the language. -[Jason] Right.
You show up in America,
and you buy something that, like, we built in the mid '40s
during the gnarliest war ever.
Some people have a mixed emotion
of, like, selling bikes overseas, you know?
Get there-- It's like our history is just leaving here.
These old bikes, I mean, there's only a certain amount of 'em, right?
There really is.
I mean, they ride 'em a ton.
They take care of 'em. They, like, are so into it.
So, it's pretty cool to see that,
which that's what they're meant to do.
They're supposed to ride 'em, you know?
It's gonna be a sick journey.
Our first, like, across the seas.
And jumping in the pond.
I'm just like going to Japan and buying this bike?
That's not gonna happen. That doesn't happen.
Nobody goes to Japan and buys the bikes back, you know?
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[indistinct announcement on PA]
[speaker] Travel light, yo.
[Jason] Maxie!
[Max laughs]
Good day, baby.
[horn honking]
Japan's good, man.
Whoo!
♪♪
[motorcycle zooming]
[people chattering]
[indistinct chatter]
[rolling door rattling]
Whoa!
[speaker] I don't know.
[Jason] I'm not gonna lie to you.
[Jason whistles]
That's one of the prettiest--
That's one of the prettiest...
bikes I've ever seen.
What?
[Scotty] It was cool because Jay knows
a few people over there talking through Instagram and seeing stuff.
He was buying this '37 white--
It was like a ivory paint white Knucklehead.
And the dude gets out of his Porsche
and he's like-- he's like a buddy.
Like, I'm like, "Oh, what's up?" You know? He's like--
He like shows a photo, he's like, your dad,
he's sitting on the bike two years ago at Moon Eyes.
[engine thumping]
[Jason] Wow.
That '37 is probably the greatest stock bike
I've ever ridden in my life.
That thing is like... it is perfect.
That was, like, we just landed.
Even though it wasn't a World War II bike,
it was still like a holy grail piece that you're like--
To be able to see that, for all of us to be together,
like, nothing's really happened like that.
I mean, it was the appetizer to what was to come.
[engine roaring]
Dude, the coolest thing is, lookit...
all the little lights work in the dash.
You know, to find these old machines
and, like, the survivors
that are, like, built back in the day,
untouched and, like, just buried,
like, you really have to work hard to find these things
and build that relationship with that person.
You know, that guy that's had this bike for 50 years,
you know, like, you really kinda have to have,
in a sense, like skin in the game
and, like, be able to, like, check something out.
And this thing's, like, every piece just blends in.
You know what I mean? Like--
How's it run, man?
This thing's like a sewing machine.
[Jason] It is, man. It's insane.
Everything.
[speaks indistinctly, laughs]
-Smooth? -We were at-- No, dude.
This thing's unbelievable.
-Smooth one? -Step aside.
[Scotty laughs]
[engine roaring]
[indistinct chatter]
Japan is like a culture that, like, I feel, like,
the people over there really pay attention to what's going on
and I think they do pay attention
to, like, that kind of, like, timeless essence
of, like, something that's,
you know, it's not just like a quick hit.
When I saw this on eBay, I fell in love with it.
I didn't know where it went and then Yujin ended up with it
and now you're getting it.
Now I'm bringing it back. We're gonna bring it back.
We're gonna put it in the Harley Museum next to the '36.
The green and the white.
-Queen ivory right there, man. -Wow.
-He was saying it's baton. -[Jason] It's perfect.
Baton, yeah, baton.
Yeah. He's the fifth-- fifth baton.
He's passing the baton on to you.
-Sixth. -[Jason] I'm the sixth!
-Sixth. -It's my favorite number!
-[laughter] -Yeah, the sixth baton.
I dig it. I dig it.
The anxiety of meeting a collector, like,
in hopes of trying to let them let go of something
that is so dear to them that they've hunted
and they've looked their whole lives for it.
In some ways it's like an identification,
like, something that's just,
it's so important, it's so rare.
But be like, dude, I'm gonna put it here
and I'm gonna take it back to where it came from.
Yujin's house, baby.
We got the King Ivory.
Ooh-ooh! Queen Ivory. Actually it's a woman, right?
-Queen Ivory. -Queen Ivory.
-Ooh-hoo! -Silky.
-Silky's her name. -Yeah.
[Yujin Asano] You feeling good?
[Jason] I feel great. She's beautiful, man.
♪♪
Yee-he-he-he!
[bystander laughs]
[tools clattering]
[Eric Espinoza] My name is Eric Espinoza.
I own a apparel clothing company called UNIF Clothing.
♪♪
The number varies depending on who you ask,
but there's only about a hundred and change of these bikes
that were ever made.
A lot of 'em haven't survived over the years.
There's probably, I can count on two hands,
how many real ones that I've-- that I know of.
Most people don't even get to see one of these in person,
let alone ride one.
[Christopher Ripstein] The Knuckleheads of the era,
'43, '44,
you're talking less than
70, 80 Knuckleheads built the entire year.
So, to see one in person is unbelievably rare.
[Eric] It's just one of those things that, like,
no matter how much money you have,
it doesn't find you, a 1943 Knucklehead.
Someone could show up here and go,
"Hey, I want a 1943 Knucklehead."
And you're like, "Good luck." Like... [laughs] yeah.
♪♪
You know, 115, 130 escaped the Harley factory
in 1943 and then--
Yeah, here we are looking for 'em now.
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[Scotty] There were some bikes he really wanted over there.
The number one bike he wanted was this '43 original paint
that our friend Gak had from Hawgholic.
[Max Schaaf] The craziest part was what Jason wanted was not for sale.
That's a friend of mine's bike.
Basically, he's like, "Let's go there
and I'll try to charm him,"
which Jason is charming.
But, you know, you're buying a bike that's original paint
and one of 12 or one of 15.
[Kota Engaku speaking Japanese]
[Scotty] Kota from Roller Ripper Magazine,
he's like good buddies with Max.
You know, I've known Kota a while
and Kota's good friends with, you know, Gak.
[speaker] A lot different in photos.
[Jason] Ohh! Bro!
Going to Japan, I wanted to meet Gak.
To me, he's kind of like,
he's one of the-- the greatest in Japan,
and so being able to meet up with him,
and I had seen a lot of his bikes.
You see 'em in Roller, and I saw this '43,
and it was-- it kinda really sparked a lot of things.
-OP. -[Gaku Yokomizo] Yeah, OP.
There it is.
That's the fucking coolest bike I've ever seen.
Look at that thing.
Fuck! Wow!
I was shocked to see how Gak builds his bikes.
Like, it is a very, very small garage
with some of the best parts in the world,
but, like, very, very tiny space,
and he works on the floor.
♪♪
You know, you hear about something
and then you're gonna go to this barn
and you're gonna uncover it
and you hear the story about it.
There's this hunt, there's this anticipation.
We got on a plane with our friends
and we flew to Japan to get to this garage.
Well, first off, he doesn't really speak English that well
and I don't speak that well of Japanese.
I'm like...
♪♪
[Jason whistling]
[Scotty] That thing is beautiful.
Oh, man.
[Scotty] Good gas?
Gosh, that thing's so-- It's so cool.
[Jason] Fuck.
[Scotty] Gak's like, I've known Gak
probably 17 years or something like that.
Gak has slept in this house before,
like, 10 years ago,
and I, I didn't really understand Gak.
You know, it's, chopper builders are, uh,
some are glorified for the right reasons
and some are glorified for reasons I can't explain.
Gak is very involved in the history of choppers
and he's been collecting that stuff for,
I think, 30 years.
He has really good taste.
-[gasoline trickling] -[Gaku speaking Japanese]
[Scotty] Gak's big balls have already dented the top of it.
Yeah. Your... your balls dent this?
[Gaku] Hmm?
-Oh, my balls? -Yeah.
-Big-- Big dent. -Yeah, too big.
-Too big. -[laughter]
[Scotty] Me and Max, like, having these existing relationships
makes it, makes that transition a little smoother
and that sale where, you know, Jay's not like,
"Hey, man, here's the money. See you later.
I'm outta here," you know, which--
That's how it usually goes, but Jay's like,
"We're gonna ship this bike back to America.
"I want you to come I want you to ride the bike,
"like, you're gonna experience, like,
"riding cross-country to the Harley Museum
and this bike's gonna go in the museum."
'44.
[Jason grunts excitedly]
[Jason] Whoa!
It's got my tattoos on it, bro!
[Scotty laughs]
♪♪
Davenport? Hey, this is where I'm from, raised, Iowa.
I was raised in Iowa. Born in Hawaii, raised in Iowa.
Bro, Hawaiian tattoo from Iowa.
Fuck, that's cool.
[Kota speaking Japanese]
[Jason] Just being there, I wanted him to understand
how, like, much this meant to me,
what an honor it was.
Like, he wasn't-- He wasn't accepting any offers,
and Kota...
[inaudible]
...was, like, he helped seal everything
'cause he was really the translation
between, you know, me and Gak.
And I think Gak saw how much I appreciated everything.
[exhales sharply]
-Gak, maybe... -Mm-hmm?
...maybe you sell this to me?
-Mm-hmm. -Maybe?
-Yeah. [laughs] -Thank you.
Thank you.
-This... is... -Same.
-Same. Same, right? Ah. -[speaking Japanese]
-My head. -[speaking Japanese]
In the head. Same thing.
[speaking Japanese]
-Old style. Ch-ch-ch... -That's-- That's the reason
he sells it for you.
-He's gonna make it. -[speaking Japanese]
♪♪
[Jason laughing]
-Yeah. -[grunts in relief]
[grunts] Gak!
-[friends applauding] -[kisses]
[Scotty] In a sense, at first I think they were like,
oh, this guy just wants to come over here
and buy the stuff that we've, you know, we've bought.
And I was like, even telling Gak,
I'm like, "This guy's into it."
He's not just some collector guy
that puts 'em in a warehouse, you never see 'em.
[engine sputtering]
[engine roaring]
In my dreams. In my dreams.
Right here.
I'm riding these back to Harley.
So, every-- So, everyone can see it.
Do up. All the way.
They're the most beautiful I've ever seen.
[engine revving]
We're riding to-- We're riding to Harley-Davidson.
Milwaukee, we're coming!
[mallet thumping]
[David Polgreen] My name's David Polgreen.
Occupation for my day job
is, uh, I'm a lawyer
for a company called the World Poker Tour.
Alright.
-[indistinct chatter] -Yeah.
[David] This is a very rare bike.
It's the second rarest of all the Knucklehead years.
And in '44, they made less than 500 of them.
Eric and I got the two bikes in a pile
that we bought together about five years ago.
And he mentioned to Jason that I had a '44
and he just FaceTimed me, like, immediately, like--
♪♪
[Jason] I mean, I met Polgreen through Espinoza
and those guys, they-- they definitely,
you know, they hunt together
and find all these really rare parts.
It starts with the motorcycle
and then you just fall in love with these people
and you, like, become buddies with them.
It was presented that he had a, you know, a '43 and a '44.
It was like, "Dude, let's do this. Let's build it up."
♪♪
It's not about money at all for me.
Um, you know, I...
I never sell bikes like this.
I would never ordinarily sell a bike like this.
All the sick ideas I had for building a bike,
I wanted to use 'em on my own bikes.
That's why I've never done it. Like--
Jason's the only person I've ever actually built a bike for.
I'm super stoked that he's gonna have it
because, like, he'll appreciate it for what it is.
The idea that a bike that I worked on and put together
is gonna be in the museum is incredible, you know?
That's where the history of Harley is contained, you know?
So, um, it's no small thing to have a bike there.
[engine revving echoing]
[Jason] We had so many builders,
but I wanted to be able to give some of my cameras
to a couple of the builders to document it.
And so Max and Scotty were the ones
that I-- I wanted them capturing the whole build.
[Max] I was always into photography.
I built the pinhole camera as a kid.
It's one of my first loves.
Photography, like, I never thought I'd become a pro skater.
My plan was to become a photographer for skating.
I got my first couple paychecks from skating.
I had this kind of, like, bucket list
where I was like, "Man, Leica M6."
So I go to the camera store, I buy this Leica M6,
but I was so scared to take it anywhere
and shoot it in Oakland because I'm in Oakland.
And it's got that big red dot on the front of it.
I put tape over the dot, but I think most of all,
I was intimidated by the people I was around.
Then I meet Jason and he's, like, throwing 'em around.
Like, I mean, he tossed it-- tossed it across the table
and I was like, "That's punk."
Mine's locked away in a toolbox
inside of a safe inside of silk.
So, we're in Japan and he--
I hook him up with the bike through Gak
and he decides to hand me, uh, this 1958 M3.
Uh-- When he handed it to me, he said,
"Don't keep this one locked away in your toolbox."
And I don't, I ma-- I keep that promise.
I can't blame my equipment on my bad photograph.
It's on me.
You know, I got-- I got a really sick tool,
one of the best.
And, uh, I've seen a lot of people
take amazing photographs on really shitty cameras.
This is my favorite type of photography, really.
You know, it's like you're not trying to win
any awards or blow any minds.
You're just documenting a time,
that-- a special day
that you'll probably end up forgetting
'cause new memories will come through.
I just carry the camera with me all the time now
and, uh, I'm very mediocre at it but it's, uh--
I love that. Like, I... I'll never be the best welder,
I'll never be the best painter, I was never the best skater.
I love that about things where you're like...
there's always a place to reach to.
The lens has already started to brass,
the brass paint's coming through the black lens.
I started going down the rabbit hole of the Leica brassing
and all these famous photographers
that carried those things throughout their lives
and they would just,
the brass would come through the black paint so beautifully.
So then I said, "Well, shit, I'm gonna brass plate a bike
and paint it black and make it look like a Leica."
And that's-- that's how I presented it to Jason
and I got the loudest "bro" over the phone.
Bling, bling.
[Jason] We have the '42, the '43, the '44.
Those are some of the rarest motors that Harley made.
And we're taking those motors, those Knuckleheads,
give them these motors and they go like,
build your-- build this beautiful piece of art.
Here's, like, this idea that I have.
I know it's obnoxious, but it'll be good.
Man, you can get so lost in building these
because, you know, I'm a painter, too.
And this one's really inspiring me
because I'm working on all these different finishes.
It reminds me of one of my first bikes I built,
the 4Q bike, where I was on a budget
and I was just so excited.
I would wake up like 8:00 a.m. and go right into the garage
and just be there all day.
I mean, God!
-Dude. -[speaker] I think that'll be cool.
These fuckin' things, man, like--
[stammering]
It's super cliché what I'm about to say
but you'll hear a lot of people go,
"It takes one part and you get an idea to build a bike."
You know with anything you put so much into it you have to--
It changes, your love--
Your love relationship with it changes
and I've actually just-- this thing is built in my head
which feels so good.
The only color on the Leica is the red dot and I was like,
"Man, I kinda wanna do something with red,"
and so-- but I want it to be black on top
and have the red come through.
I'll have to go into the sun here.
So, that will wear,
that'll wear through with time, too.
♪♪
[electricity crackling]
It's pretty first-world
to pick any year Knucklehead.
It really is, like, it starts,
like, when it's like this, it starts so beautiful
and I just have to pay that,
you know, pay that respect.
♪♪
The one thing I'm learning on this build is parkerizing,
which is this chemical finish.
So, I'm putting most of the steel parts for this bike
into the parkerizing solution
to make them that black gunmetal finish.
This would be a hilarious photo
to send your 10-year-old self from your future.
Because you would have no idea if you were killing it
or not killing it or what the hell you were doing.
[drill whirring, liquid sloshing]
It's super cool to think
that it's like almost as protected as chrome, too.
Like, it's a, there's a layer on there
that will keep it from rusting
and give it this finish.
Yeah, that's neat.
I mean, Jason said, "Go nuts,"
so I'm, I'm going pretty...
pretty fuckin' nuts on this thing. [laughing]
I'm doing some things I haven't done before.
♪♪
[shutter clicking]
Jay and the crew linked me up with a guy at Leica.
I called him up, told him about this project.
I said, "My buddy Dayten cast some stuff,"
and, um, the guy went into the archives,
found some stuff, emailed it to me.
I've got a couple parts, like right here is a Linkert body
from like that same era of a bike.
[speaker] This stuff melts down really nice, too.
Brass, we can melt this down
and we're gonna see what they sent me here.
Um...
Yeah, nine-- "1942."
So what's cool is, like, this is
a '42 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead motor.
That's like the era of this, and this piece is literally,
these pieces were from early '40s Leica.
[speaker] Wow.
So we melt all this stuff down, we recast it
and do a few parts for this bike.
-Yeah. -And it lives on forever.
I used to shoot some film stuff way back and I loved it
because it was almost like correlating with bikes.
It's like the imperfect thing on that bike
is the thing that makes it so cool.
You know, you find a tank that's got a gash in it
and it's got this brazed-over mark.
It's like a scar, it's a memory, you know?
And it's like the process of the bike
and just snapping photos, and it's just--
it's so inspiring now,
I feel like going back...
all these memories and, like...
even that out-of-focus, imperfect thing,
it just reminds me of with a bike,
how it's like that mess up makes the bike better
and tells the story.
♪♪
-Let me see-- Oh, man. -[indistinct chatter]
-[laughs] -[speaker] Let's take a tour.
-Ohh! -Yeah, check out.
[Scotty] Taka's got a lot of bikes.
-[Taka laughs] -[Jason whistles]
[Scotty] Gosh, Taka, you just keep growing.
-It keeps growing. -Bro.
[Scotty] This wasn't here last time we were here.
[indistinct chatter]
[Jason] Oh, man!
Dude.
Ohh!
-Taka's number one. -Can I have a beer?
-Fuck! -[Scotty] It was really cool.
We got to go over to my buddy Taka's shop,
who I'm good friends with.
He's like, he really is the real deal.
One-- What year is this?
[Taka Yashiro] '45. It's '45.
-It's for sale? -[Taka] No.
Maybe?
-Maybe. -Maybe.
Maybe, yeah.
♪♪
Man. Dude.
Japan, Japan.
[Scotty] You know, Taka was really into storytelling
and like finding these old bikes
and like resurrecting 'em
and kinda like bringing 'em back to life
and finding new homes for 'em.
And that was a very similar thing.
That's where we-- we really kind of--
I feel like connected with was like, I mean, Cycle Zombies,
that's always, like, kind of, like, the story.
[Max] Humans are so weird.
Uh, sometimes we get these downloads
about certain people, like-- or bands or whatever,
like, "Oh, you shouldn't like that band.
That's not the original singer," right? You, you--
You go in jaded, and I hate that about us
and, you know, people in general.
Taka came in,
I heard about him, he came by here,
and I didn't know, like, is this guy cool,
is he uncool, should I like him?
And then you turn off your bullshit
and you realize you're looking at this human
that's so damn sweet.
And he came into this shop and he goes...
"Man, it feels really good in here."
And I kinda was like, "What do you mean?
Like, the temperature?" at first.
And he's like, "No, no, it feels really good in here.
This place is really magical," or whatever he said,
'cause sometimes I love that Japanese translation so much.
It's like so funky and real.
Bro. Hey. [laughs]
Scotty, Max, did you see this?
Where it's actually buried under the earth?
[Max] Yeah, I saw the video.
[Jason] Look at that thing, man.
[Scotty] It was next to the bus. They drug it out.
-[indistinct chatter] -[Scotty] Yeah.
[Jason] Could you imagine?
[Max] Anytime I've gone by his shop,
"Here's a bike to ride."
No questions asked.
He-- He opens his whole shop up
and half those bikes are his customers' bikes.
And they love and trust him enough
to let these Americans bop around on their bikes.
Wow. Right, who's that guy?
[Scotty laughing]
Japan-- Japan's finest.
Only white Japanese, white Japanese right there.
[Max] That dude is such a sweetheart.
I don't know a better word for him,
but, like, old soul, sweet person.
Just amazing.
But we're gonna try to get
-the originals, too. -[Taka] Oh.
-So... -[Scotty] That's why we're here.
-[Taka] Hmm. -But we wanna--
[Scotty] That's why we're here.
-We're here-- -[Scotty] What do you got?
-[laughter] -Trying to make it, but also--
[Scotty] Hey, hey, you always come to the shop, we sell you stuff.
Now, we-- Now, it's the tables have turned.
-[laughter] -Always, always.
I think that's one of the most beautiful things
is like being able to go to an artist's studio.
-Ooh-hoo-hoo! -You get to see that the world
that they surround themselves with
so they can feel comfortable,
so they can feel chaos, whatever it is.
It's equally as important to see Picasso's,
like, art space as it is seeing his painting, so...
[Scotty] Imagine jamming across the country.
-Yeah. Hmm. -[Scotty] You too.
-This guy rides. -[Jason] Good.
Now that's great.
Yeah, but, uh... I'll think about it, Jason.
-[Jason] Sounds good. -Yeah.
-[Jason] Sounds good. -We gotta go for a ride.
-[Jason] Let's go for a ride. -[laughs]
[engines revving]
♪♪
[Max] I traveled so much in skating with, like, 10 people.
I'm really used to being with a lot of people.
I'm used to that feeling when you all walk into a restaurant
and everyone's trying-- trying to figure out
what band you're in
or try to make sense of it.
I also am pretty quiet
and like to leave a pretty light footprint,
so I was a little worried about going over there
with Jason and, you know, everyone.
[Scotty] Max is a-- He's a recluse, man.
He's a black sheep.
Like, it's funny 'cause we're so different,
but we're-- we're into a lot of the same stuff, you know?
And we were just raised differently.
I like to live 350 miles from the Mecca
and I like to be left alone.
[Scotty] Seeing the stuff he was doing,
the way he was riding his bikes definitely influenced me.
He was, like, kind of that, like, hero dude.
I hate that word "hero," but, like,
he just, he was a cool dude, you know?
And, and I, I looked up to him.
♪♪
[engines rumbling]
♪♪
It was so cool because, like, I really understood Max
after this, you know?
I told him, I'm like, "Dude, like,
"I've looked up to you for a long time, you know?
And just the bikes you build, the way you, you operate."
[Max] That was one of the bigger takeaways
for me from that trip.
I'm a little bit of a outsider in this scene, uh, by design.
That doesn't mean I don't like you.
That doesn't mean I wanna be invited.
I wanna be invited to the party.
I just want to, you know,
then decide if I wanna go or not.
It's because of anxiety
and it's because of the way I was raised.
It has nothing to do with not appreciating someone
or not liking someone.
I, um, you know, I've-- I've learned that through Jason
and he's gotten me around people more.
One of the best parts of that trip was, like,
feeling like I belonged to something,
which I do belong to, but, like, you know,
being reminded of that, and it was great.
I mean, it was, it was an incredible, incredible trip.
♪♪
[Jason] I cannot believe--
I've never seen anything like that in my life.
I've never seen anything like that.
The rarest '36. Rarest '37.
To '43.
Oh, my God.
All black '43.
'44.
'45.
[sputtering exhale]
-[laughter] -Goddamn, man.
Ahh! Fuck!
[exhales sharply]
It's insane, man. I can't--
[laughs]
I can't believe it, man.
When we bring this to Harley
and see people's faces.
This is just like a snowball, man.
This started off so small
coming out of your mouth, your idea.
And just sitting here with all the bikes
and the friends, and, I mean, like,
how hard they've worked to find these things,
and someone's found 'em.
We've known Gak a long time,
and Taka, and, you know, everybody.
And it's like, to get to, like, connect the dots with you
and this and the bikes, it's like, that's...
I don't know, Max, right? That's like--
Yeah, first thing we said was, uh,
we have to respect these guys
because, uh, Gak, Taka, uh, I don't know,
just met Yujin last trip, but they're ahead of the curve.
You know, like, Gak knows more than us about this stuff.
Like, we-- we look up to him. He's an influence to us.
And when Jason came up with the idea, I was like,
"Well, this is an idea,
but ideas don't always come to fruition."
And then Gak wanted to play ball.
Yujin wanted to play ball.
You know, we have money in a Starbucks bag
and they're letting us ride these bikes and it went down.
It's-- It-it blew my mind and,
I mean, honestly, like, it brought Scotty and I closer.
I know Gak better now.
Yujin gave me my favorite helmet that I just have displayed.
And then, you know, with Taka, it was...
He's always open arms, you know.
It's-it's-it's so cool, man.
I didn't-- I never thought the idea would go this far.
[Jason] Thank you, everybody, for, for doing this
'cause it's just, uh...
since I was 19, I've been looking at these,
going like, "Oh, wow."
And I'm twenty-- I'm 45, so it's a long time to just--
I've never seen all this together.
And I'm really excited to bring it on home
and then just, uh, tell Harley thank you
and then tell all my friends to get everybody together
'cause I love partying, so...
-[Gaku] Long lost, Jason. -[Jason] Have a good party.
Yeah.
[♪ upbeat country music playing]
♪♪
[speaker] Yeah, go ahead and turn it off.
[indistinct chatter]
Wow!
Holy shit.
'44, '44, '42, '43, '43, '43,
'44, '44.
Holy shit.
Being able to see this lineup of the most rarest of the rare.
There's never been this many war bikes ever put together.
We got ourselves-- We got ourselves an army.
Polgreen, get over here.
Ohh, my God.
-It's hot. -Look at that, it's red.
♪♪
Dude, those bars are-- What are these bars?
[David] Number-- Flanders number 11.
These are the best-- That's amazing.
[David] It's for gorilla arms like you.
Jesus, bro, it's just beautiful.
All original paint.
[David] Yeah.
-It's bad. -It's bad!
Wow.
[♪ rockabilly music playing]
God, these fuckin' handlebars, man.
♪♪
Damn.
[♪ rockabilly music continues]
It's such a-- It's a fuckin'--
Oof!
[Eric] It's, it's a-- I mean, for like a '43,
it's the most simple
and the best, like, in my opinion,
this is like the best one.
This thing is sick.
[Jason] Just because it was all stripped down--
Just because it's just like the bare bones, you know?
Like, what you would get if you were lucky to get one.
[Jason] At that, that period in time.
Yeah.
[David] No pressure, Eric.
-No one's watching right now. -[Jason] It's only, like--
The show is only--
-The show's only 45 minutes. -[laughs]
Wait, are you guys filming this?
Yeah, we're filming.
[indistinct chatter]
[horn honks]
[Jason] You push the horn while you start it?
Like, you hold down the horn?
[Max] I think you might be below the factory recommended weight.
[Eric] Are you guys gonna show this on TV?
[Jason laughs]
[Eric] I just wanna say before I had to kick my bike 25 times,
it was-- it started right away.
First or second kick, every time.
[Max] Eric, should I Google how to start this thing?
It says, uh...
I think there's a YouTube video.
...fuckin' balls. Okay.
-One... -Son of a bitch.
Everybody who rides these bikes, they know there is that time
where you're just like, what are you doing?
And sometimes I think it's like, it's the universe saying,
"Just, just wait a minute before you get on this thing."
And then, you know, and then it works.
[engine revving]
[engine rumbling]
[engine stops]
[grunts]
[Jason] Ohh!
Look at those pipes!
What the fuck?
What the hell?
Holy shit.
That's a '42.
[Jason] Harley-Davidson.
Bloodbath, it's the bike's name.
[Jason] "No more war pigs have the power.
"Hand of God has struck the hour.
"Day of judgment, God is calling.
On their knees, war pigs crawling."
Really, the inspiration was like,
the guy went to war and he had a bike
and when he came back he was different
and he saw stuff that was different
and it changed him forever, man.
And really, like, going, digging deep into, like, inspiration...
seeing these dudes laying up against the wall
with their helmets and just literally stuff
carved into the helmets.
You know, a poem, a Bible.
This is the last page of the Bible, Revelations 22.
It was just, like, ripped off and wheatpasted on.
-These are flowers... -Wow.
...from maybe his lady back at home, you know.
My friend Dayten does some casting.
Dayten said you could come to the shop.
Leica sent me some pieces from--
early pieces from '40 to '42.
We melted those down and we melted down
two Harley Linkert carburetors and that's what that is.
Holy shit.
And that's what the shifter handle is.
That's what the handle is?
-Wow! -So that's literally--
Leica fuckin'--
-Parts from the war. -Leica kinda melted down.
[Jason] That bike was like a trench art.
He kind of did it like that where,
you know, missing his family or it's a certain song
and he would carve that into it.
But every detail of his is just,
was road worn, been with him in the trenches.
-Beautiful. -Yeah, man.
-It is beautiful. -Thank you, thank you, man.
Ooh! Hoo-hoo! [laughs]
I'm so pumped for-- take this shit to Milwaukee, man.
Everybody see this. It's gonna blow minds, dude.
Thank you. Yeah, man. I'm just stoked, like...
-I'm pumped to get-- -...you know, you brought the,
you brought the-- You brought the family together
and gave us this opportunity, man.
And, like, seriously, like,
the Leica stuff's been so cool to,
like, shoot photos and document this bike.
And just, it's been amazing.
-You know? -I got some surprises for you.
Hey. I don't know. Jason's got a surprise.
-It makes me nervous. -[both laughing]
-I love you, dude. It's amazing, man. -I love you too, man.
-Thanks. I appreciate it. -[grunts]
[Scotty] Building this-- building this bike,
it was a hard one just because, like,
I really wanted it to be something special
for what we went to Japan
and just pulling all this inspiration, you know?
And to have that, like, final product
and getting to rip it
and, like, really put some miles on it
and really break these bikes in, that's what it's about.
[engine rumbling, stops]
♪♪
[Jason] It was like the Christmas of all Christmases.
His is so elegant and, like, show bike, pristine.
See that frame's gold under there.
You know, our love for Leica is...
The first thing I did six months ago,
was to brass plate this frame.
And I want it-- I want this thing to, like, be a story.
You know, like, these pipes are gun glued.
They're gonna start to rust.
Tank is 70-year-old lacquer. Look, I spilled gas on it.
And look how sick that looks.
-Wow. -It matches the cap.
These lights are, I think, French,
off an old airplane, '40s.
But like, this is-- this-- you just opened the book.
And this thing's just gonna turn into something else.
I mean, we could check the frame.
We could carve something in the side of it right now.
But you see where it's breaking through here already?
-Oh, dude. -On the net. Right?
-Just like your Leica. -Yeah.
Just like that top
where you wind the Leica, you know that...
♪♪
You can see it just coming through.
I just didn't-- I didn't wanna fake it, man.
I just want-- I want it to happen when you have it.
I mean, and that's the way it should happen.
Yep. Yeah.
-It's so-- -1940's dog whistle.
[whistles]
And that little thing, little charm--
-What's this headlight? -Ah, it's the best.
I don't even wanna say it on camera
'cause I don't wanna--
[laughs]
It's yours and you have it.
[Jason] Man, I'm--
♪♪
Dude, this-- this bike is...
When this thing gets broken in, so this is gonna keep red
-and it's gonna go... -Oh, yeah.
So, this part's gonna go red
and that part's gonna go brass?
Frame will go brass
and then the seat, you know,
is that red burgundy oxblood with black over it,
just like the paint.
Tank, fender, and these are, you know,
that's old Harley stuff, so it's gonna do it.
It's already doing it.
Wow.
Yeah.
That is your best.
I think so, man. I mean, I--
I mean, it's like so simple and clean and complex too,
but, like, you know, the-- that perfect--
-It's subtle. -It is, but, man--
-It's subtle, man. -[Jason] They're just--
[Max] That's right on.
They're just beautiful.
So good.
-Love you, dude. -Love you too.
-Thank you, man. -Yeah, man.
I'm so glad you like it.
-[Jason] I love it. -Yeah.
[Jason] It's so... complex and simple.
[Max] Yep.
[grunts]
Damn, bro.
[Max] I'm really happy, man.
[laughs] I'm really stoked.
Like, I missed it so much the day it left.
I just couldn't wait to see it again.
♪♪
[Jason] When I first started out as an actor,
I mean, I only had one bike
and I had all these visions of people
I wanted to work with, and, like, I--
You'd see all these amazing bikes
and a lot of 'em would go to Japan, or...
The idea of, like, going to Japan,
being able to buy back these things that you love
and then being able to share that with everyone
and give it back to Harley
and let Harley put it up in the museum.
It starts as this crazy, wild idea
that you just don't know if you're gonna be able
to pull it off, and you know, it's kinda-- we're there.
♪♪
[♪ upbeat music playing]
[engines revving]
♪♪
[Max] There's this one quote on the way out here,
I opened this book that I'm reading,
it said, "There is a race of men that don't fit in,
"a race that can't stay still.
"So they break the hearts of kith and kin
and they roam the world at will."
And I was just like, "Man, that's the roamers,
that's it, like we can't sit still."
♪♪
[Scotty] The bikes were smoking and we just were ride--
ripping these bikes up dirt hills with rocks
and, like, a bit of survival mode, man.
And, like, you're like, how much money all these bikes cost?
I look at Jay and I'm all, I just go,
"Man, we ride 'em, we don't hide 'em."
And Jay goes, "We'll blow 'em up, we'll rebuild 'em, let's go."
And that's... that's what it's about, man.
It's about riding these things.
♪♪
[Max] Man, nobody else looks at you and goes,
"I love what you do.
Go hard. Do-- Do what you want."
Like, I've-- I've never had that person,
especially on this bike,
where he's like, "Hey, bro, it's your vision.
You're the artist. Do it."
And Jason's-- Jason gave us the popcorn trail,
you know, where he's like, "Come on, let's go."
Like, "Follow me or branch off and tell me about it."
♪♪
Yeah, he provides that.
He's the spark.
I feel so fortunate to have it.
Yeah, I'll be the gasoline for his spark any day.
Like, let's go.
♪♪
[speaking Japanese]
♪♪
[♪ uplifting music playing]
[Max] And there are those moments that just punch you.
And that second pass over the bridge
when we were all spread out and I looked at Jay
and I looked at Scotty, that was a punch, man.
You know, the best kind of punch.
Like, that-- that felt like it all zapped together
at one point.
I had the chills.
The bike felt perfect.
It was just a perfect moment.
[Scotty] You know, worked on this bike
and built it and ripping it around.
It was, like, I swear I had, like, a moment of, like,
kinda like pins and needles, goosebumps,
and, like, popped a tear, you know, because it's just,
it's a, it's a pretty, like, surreal kind of, like,
feeling to start from this, of this idea
and to be here doing it.
Everybody's ripping down the road.
[David] Diving into like a big group of, like,
HD enthusiasts was,
it was such a, it was a really cool experience.
Something I'll never forget.
♪♪
[crowd cheering]
Yeah!
-[cheering continues] -Hey, hey, hey!
What's up, bro?
[♪ delicate piano music playing]
[Christopher] The motorcycles that are downstairs
that Jason brought here,
uh, really for us as a company and as a culture,
they offer a window, uh, into our past.
What Jason has done to acquire these
is just absolutely incredible and remarkable.
It's something that is probably something only he can pull off.
You have to have a network of individuals and friends
that know a person who knows a guy
whose aunt had this motorcycle or whatever it might be
to have that reach that he has.
I think this could have only come together,
uh, thanks to him.
[Jason] Baby. Mwah. You're home.
[Bill Jackson] I mean, these bikes are about as rare as they get,
and for them to all be in one place at one time,
that's-- that's really one of the reasons
this place was built.
With Harley-Davidson, what you have to remember is,
the heritage is-- the motorcycles are our DNA.
[Max] This whole thing has this meaning
because it's where the machines were made.
Um, and it does matter, and it does mean something.
It's-- It's all just come together,
and it's feeling really powerful.
♪♪
[Kota speaking Japanese]
[Jason] It's just, uh,
probably one of the most prolific moments
I've had in doing anything with motorcycles
'cause I just brought such a diverse group of people together
from all over the world.
-[Gaku] Wow. -[Jason] Oh.
[Gaku] Yeah.
So cool.
Look at the paint. That...
[Jason] But this is everything I love.
This is everything that makes me nervous,
it makes me crazy, it makes me--
So it's like it's all my weirdness...
♪♪
...riding into Harley with all the best of the best bikes
and be able to put 'em in a museum,
it's like, that's the--
I got nothing left.
[laughs] That's as good as it gets.
And then at the same time having my son,
being able to have my son ride
and learn from some of the best of the best.
It's a special moment.
You know, it's a pinch-me moment with my son.
♪♪
[inaudible]
You think about the guys coming back from war
and what they would have done and added
and made their own little personal bits.
Your bike is totally different from Scotty's,
which looks like a fuckin', you know, some trench art
to Max's is fuckin' beautiful and sexy.
Whereas then to, like, your Matisse and Picasso,
like, Rembrandt, everyone has their own style
and be able to fuckin'--
to be able to do that and do the stocks.
They're like-- I'm excited for--
I'm pulling for everybody to see it today, man.
-So-- -[speaker] What a vision.
Thank you, everybody.
[Max] Yeah!
[applause]
Thank you for making our dream come true.
[♪ gentle music playing]
[speaking Japanese]
[♪ gentle music continues]
♪♪
[♪ slow orchestral music playing]