Going his way

"I've had this puppy up to 189," Fonda said, not so much boasting as marveling at his own stupidity during a rest stop at Coldwater Canyon Park. "I never want to do that again. One road rut, and I would have been toast."

That was two years ago, during a break from filming the biker movie "Ghost Rider," opening Friday. In the Marvel comic turned film, starring Nicolas Cage as a stunt rider who makes a deal with the devil, Fonda doesn't ride. But he does play the ultimate badass, Mephistopheles, a part he probably wouldn't have been offered if not for "Easy Rider."

A few decades and more than a dozen motorcycles later, Fonda is still riding bikes and still riding on "Easy Rider's" mega-million-dollar success. In addition to "Ghost Rider," he's starring in three other films due out this year.

"I never stopped working, thanks to 'Easy Rider,' " said Fonda, who was game for a ride on Mulholland Drive.

Mulholland is Fonda's favorite route in the city, even though it's around this stretch of road where he had his "most foolish" accident. It was 1964, when Fonda, wearing nothing but a bathing suit and loafers, rode his Triumph over a speed bump and through a corner where he said a car was sloppily taking a turn. The result: a torn-up back and a hipbone poking through the skin.

"If you've never dropped a bike, you haven't been riding," said Fonda, who, three decades later, collided with a deer that confirmed a major lesson: Gear up.

If I hadn't been meeting Fonda for a ride, I wouldn't have known it was him on the MV, not only because of the bike but also because he was so well armored. His red Sidi riding boots and color-coordinated jacket were topped with a full-face helmet. On the back of his hat: a sticker telling Osama bin Laden exactly what he can do with himself.

Peeling off his helmet at the top of Coldwater Canyon, Fonda quickly replaced it with a black baseball cap that read "AFI 100 Years, 100 Movies" above the brim. AFI listed "Easy Rider" among its top 100 films of the last century, and the name of the movie was embroidered on the back of Fonda's cap.