Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, directed by William Dear, is a 1982 time travel-influenced action film starring Fred Ward as Lyle Swann, a cross country dirt bike racer. The movie was written, scored, and produced by Michael Nesmith.
Lyle Swann (Fred Ward) is a well-known dirt bike racer who is in the desert competing in the Baja 1000, a multiclass vehicle cross-country race. Swann has a reputation for being a great rider but is plagued by technical problems from the high-tech gadgetry he incorporates into his Yamaha XT500 motorcycle thumper. When Swann accidentally goes far off course, he stumbles across a time travel experiment that utilizes "maser velocity acceleration" to send objects (in this case, a simian subject by the name of Ester G) back in time.
Swann rides through the field and gets sent back to November 5, 1877, The scientists soon realize what has happened, but Swann rides off moments before the system can return him to the present. Unaware of what has really happened to him, Swann rides off. While taking a swim break in a local spring, he runs into a gang of outlaws led by Porter Reese (Peter Coyote). Reese becomes obsessed with stealing Swann's "machine",
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