06/02/2026
During the filming of Big Jake in 1970, the Mexican landscape created a problem.
The terrain was vast.
The heat was relentless.
And moving equipment across miles of rough desert was slow work.
To help crews travel between locations, production relied on lightweight Honda motorcycles that could reach places trucks struggled to access. Among them were Honda SL350s, rugged dual-purpose bikes built for dirt, dust, and punishment.
At first, the sight amused John Wayne.
Wayne had spent decades becoming cinema’s ultimate cowboy. Horses were part of his mythology. Motorcycles were not.
When he saw the bikes buzzing around the set, he reportedly joked that cowboys were not supposed to ride machines like that.
Then curiosity took over.
One afternoon between scenes, Wayne climbed aboard one of the motorcycles and headed out across the desert. Crew members watched as the biggest Western star in the world disappeared into a cloud of dust.
When he returned, the grin gave everything away.
The motorcycle had won him over.
What makes the story charming is how perfectly it captures the real John Wayne beneath the legend. Audiences often imagined him as permanently attached to horses, saddles, and frontier traditions. Yet Wayne was also fascinated by machinery, boats, airplanes, and anything that combined power with practicality.
The Honda fit that description perfectly.
By the end of production, Wayne reportedly liked the motorcycle enough to acquire one of his own. Back in California, the bike became an unexpected addition to the life of a man most people associated exclusively with the Old West.
And there is something fitting about that image.
Because John Wayne spent much of his career representing tradition, yet he never completely stopped being curious about new experiences.
Even after hundreds of Westerns, thousands of horseback scenes, and decades as Hollywood’s greatest cowboy, it took one ride across a dusty movie set to remind him that adventure did not always need four legs.
Sometimes it came with two wheels and a Honda badge.
