Danny Lyon and the Chicago Outlaws

Danny Lyon, Cal on the Springfield Run, 1966

Danny Lyon, Dayton, Ohio, 1966

Using a Rolleiflex, a Nikon reflex, and a seven-pound tape recorder, Danny Lyon documented and rode with the motorcycle club, the Chicago Outlaws. Using a photographer-as-participant approach, Lyon completely immersed himself in bike rider culture. He traveled throughout the Midwest from 1963 to 1967, taking the pictures published in The Bikeriders.  He used the tape recorder to interview his fellow bikers; the gritty transcripts appear in the pages of his book.

Lyon had this to say about his work with the Chicago Outlaws:

“If anything has guided this work beyond the facts of the worlds presented it is what I have come to believe is the spirit of the bikeriders: the spirit of the hand that twists open the throttle on the crackling engines of big bikes and rides them on racetracks or through traffic or, on occasion, into oblivion.”