In an interview with Condé Nast Traveler, Momoa spoke about where his passion for motorcycles has taken him in life, and how it played into the filming of “On the Roam.”
“I was 19 years old and I was working on Baywatch Hawaii and not making much money,” Momoa explains. “I was living at my father’s house and I drove his car and saved up to get a Harley-Davidson. I still have it and it features in my film, Road to Paloma. I’ve driven it to the Midwest from the West Coast, but I haven’t been across America on it. One of my dreams is to ride from Alaska to Patagonia, but I haven’t had that much time off to be able to do that! I’m also not sure my bike would make it anyway. I’d like to do the Cannonball Race one day, too.”
Momoa’s love of Harleys carries over into the show’s first episode, where he and his artisan friends restore two Harley bikes.
“My favorite color is pink and I wanted a pink 1936 Knucklehead Harley — you’ll see me finally getting on it once it’s been brought back to life by [rider and racer] Buzz Kanter. We also worked with a 1927 Harley, which is so rare. It had less than 800 miles on it and all its original parts. It had vegetable oil in the tank to preserve it, which made it smoke when we first fired it up.”