ape hangers/arm pit ventilators,whatever,they are ugly

 

I thought they were made for a basketball player. Along with forward controls.

 

Ape hangers were used to pull yourself off the seat when going over bumps on a rigid.I'm not sure thats the original reason for them but that was a main reason alot of guys used them.
I know a few guys that used to make ape hangers out of the bottom rail from a shopping cart.

Whatever the reason........ape hangers rule!!

 

I thought they started putting ape hangers on to dry your clothes in the campgrounds at Sturgis?????? The piano wire story, while intriguing, is not believed by me, believe they got that from the bumper posts on jeeps in WWII, which were mounted for that exact reason. Driving around in Germany with the windshield downon a jeep was an invitation to lose your head (in a bad way).

 

The following was taken from http://www.abate.org/aboutus/history/
I think this is where your apes came from ...

"because the bigger threat, aside from the original federal helmet mandates, was that the U.S. DOT was investigating ways to restrict modified or customized “choppers” which they deemed unsafe, especially due to extended forks. The 60’s fad of ridiculously high sissy bars also came about because the government started requiring “grab bars” for passenger safety. Bikers of those days began flaunting the law by building them as long and as garishly as they could get away with."

 

I'd personally like to find even one account of someone beheading a whole biker gang with piano wire!

Apehangers were invented back when there were nothing but rigids. They enabled riders to lift themselves up when going over rough terrain so they wouldn't destroy their backs.

 

You're trying to tell me that there were no apehangers on motorcycles before the early 60s??????

 

Didn't Peter Fonda invent them for his movie, Easy Rider? How could he have done the movie if he hadn't put apes on his ride, even though they were low compared to what's out there today. If I was worried about somebody stringing wire I'd just follow a semi.

 

Well that is how legands get started. I used mine to hide my drugs in when I crossed the border. Small threaded plug in the bottom. The German Army was good for that during the War. String wire between two trees across the road and when you rode by that was it. The Americans finally got wise and welded a vertical bar on the Jeep infront to brake the wire. Dont know if they did it to bikes or not. Most were used for dispatch behind the lines and usually were in safe country.

William

 

arm pit ventilators started coming around in the early 60's