Any conversation about African Americans' contribution to motorcycling will most likely focus on contemporary celebrities Ricky Gadson or James "Bubba" Stewart or even Michael Jordan.

A Philly native, Gadson is an AMA Dragbike superstar who became the first factory-sponsored motorcycle drag racer in 1998. Along with winning eight national championships he is the first black rider to compete in South Africa. At just 23 years young, Stewart is Motocross' first black megastar and is continuing his meteoric rise in 2009, winning five of this season's first six AMA Supercross events. NBA legend Michael Jordan entered the world of motorcycle racing in 2004, forming Michael Jordan Motor Sports and launching an AMA Superbike team.

Gadson, Stewart and Jordan deserve the attention; their involvement in motorcycling will no doubt inspire young black riders for years to come. But just as deserving of the spotlight are African Americans Bessie Stringfield, Ben Hardy and Cliff Vaughs.

If you're thinking, "Who?" you're not alone. These folks are legends, too, but you'll have to look a little further back in history to find them.

Bessie Stringfield was born in 1911 in Jamaica and was brought to this country as a child. She got her first bike, an Indian, at just 16 and promptly taught herself to ride.

In the 1930s and '40s, with racial prejudice a very real and dangerous threat, Stringfield made eight "gypsy tours" across the United States, always on Harleys and sometimes sleeping on her bike in gas station parking lots when she was denied lodging at roadside motels. She traveled fearlessly through the Deep South at a time when few blacks moved freely, saying she drew courage from her faith and "The Man Upstairs."

Stringfield continued to break barriers, working as the only female civilian motorcycle dispatch rider in World War II, carrying documents long distances to and from military bases in the U.S. In the '50s she moved to Florida, founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club and, dressed as a man, entered -- and won -- a flat track race. In later years she was known as the Motorcycle Queen of Miami.

After enjoying more than six decades in the saddle, Bessie Stringfield died at the age of 82.

You're probably familiar with a little film called "Easy Rider," but you may not be as familiar with the contributions African Americans Ben Hardy and Cliff Vaughs made to the film.

When Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper were looking for custom choppers for the movie they turned to bike builder Hardy, of Los Angeles, who created Fonda's ride for the movie "Wild Angels," and Vaughs, who facilitated the builds.

Harley-Davidson refused to provide bikes for the film, so Hardy and Vaughs used old police bikes as the foundation for the most famous motorcycles in the world. Peter Fonda designed most of his bike, Captain America, but the design for Hopper's Billy Bike was all Ben Hardy. Vaughs went on to produce and direct a delightfully cheesy motorcycle safety video, 1973's "Not So Easy" with Peter Fonda and Evel Knievel, but while "Easy Rider" may be the most famous motorcycle movie ever made, Ben Hardy and Cliff Vaughs never achieved the same level of fame.

In a 1984 interview, Hardy was asked why he hadn't become a household name in the 1970s as other chopper builders rose to stardom. Hardy simply responded, "I got the wrong complexion."