Cycles South (1971)

January 11, 2025 1:46 PM

Three young men decide to break the monotony in their lives by climbing on their motorcycles, pointing them south and heading wherever fate takes them. Ostensibly a documentary from 1971. Not officially available AFAIK. Low quality viewability in several parts on Youtube.
posted by 2N2222 (1 comment total)

This was streaming for a while on Netflix at least 10 years ago when I found out about the existence of this movie, and was blown away. If I had to characterize it, I'd say it's like a mix of On Any Sunday (1971) and Easy Rider (1969). If you like either of those, I think you'd probably dig this.

Very much a "young, carefree guys decide to ride from Colorado to Panama on their crappy motorcycles", a remarkable voyage for anyone, it has with a very 1971 sensibility that's both delightful and icky to modern eyes. While a documentary, they seem to have an overall story to follow, feeling almost like a work of fiction. Very low budget, even with a good streaming connection, it looked like it was made with modest means.

AFAIK, there's no official availability of this movie. It's been in pieces on youtube for a long time. I think there was a DVD about 10 years ago, but it seemed to disappear quickly.
posted by 2N2222 at 2:14 PM on January 11