Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Scary biker are not always scary

Hi folks.
This is a good one for me. On the way in to work this morning I was 2 cars behind a "loud bike". I saw a car swerve to the left, then the car infront of me did the same. I saw the bike wiggling and slowing down. Being a concerned biker, I slowed with him and pulled off the road as he did. Before getting out of my car, I saw his back tire was flat. Then I saw him. He was scary looking. The colors on his back confirmed he was a 1% memeber (will not tell you which one). Still...I felt I should at least ask if he needed assistance or a cell to make a call. When I approached him...he was &&^%($# cursing. I asked him if he needs anything. He looked at me and with a soft voice, said..."thank you, can you call for road side assistance". I told him I would and that I also have an air pump. Before we called for help, we put air in his "FAT BOY". He asked me to follow him to the next station (1/2 mile up the road) with my hazard lights on. We made it to the station a few minutes later and his tire was nearly flat again. He was very thankfull for my help and offered to pay me. Of course I declined. I explained to him that I also ride. His first bike was a Bonnie. Turns out, this scary biker is a retired Marine Sargeant from Vietnam. While I don'recommend doing what I did, I am glad it happened. He is employed with a big chemical engineering firm as a Information Technology Specialist for over 10 years. What he did tell me was that if he were riding with his "buddies", I probably shouldn't have stoppped. Anyway, he had a nail in his tire. So, to everyone out there...check your tires.

Ron

He is a human just like everyone else. When your atypical 1% er is in need of help and not with his cronies he is bound to be just like everyone else.

Put these clowns together and their mentality then runs to one of "danger close"

their gangland mentality clicks in hard when they are amongst their fellows.

If he had been with his own kind he would not have needed your assistance anyway.

What is a 1% member?

This is pretty close

"Motorcycle clubs are often perceived as criminal organizations or, at best, gangs of hoodlums or thugs by traditional society. This perception has been fueled by the movies, popular culture, and highly publicized isolated incidents, the earliest of which was a brawl in Hollister, California in 1947 between members of the Boozefighters MC (motto: a drinking club with a motorcycle problem) and the Pissed Off Bast&rds MC (precursor to the Hells Angels). The press asked the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) to comment, and their response was that 99% of motorcyclists were law-abiding citizens, and the last one percent were outlaws. Thus was born the term, "one percenter".

Loosely defined.....

a 1 % er is typically that one percent of all motorcyclists that is defined as giving the rest of us a bad name. As determined from the original "Hollister" incident in July of 1947. As a result the AMA stated that it is only 1 percent of motorcyclists that act in a manner that gives the sport of motorcycling a bad name. The clubs at the time embraced that and began calling themselves one percenters. That title is considered a badge of respect to them. Today your atypical one percent motorcycle clubs like the Hecks Angels and the Outlaws aand the Vagos or Mongols and the Bandidos et al all embrace themselves as being ONE percenters.

These clubs are more often than not viewed by law enforcement personnell as being "prison bait" They are revered by some as being part of "Americana" but indeed if one looks closely enough and does enough research we find it is best to steer clear of them. They do have a long history of felony fallouts with both federal and local law enforcement agencies nationwide and in some cases internationally. With the range of offenses covering everything from weapons distribution to drugs and rape and your atypical gangland activity. You name it from time to time one percenters seem to be associated with it.

Taken as individuals many are I am sure fine human beings its just that for whatever reason many one percenter clubs seem to have a record of criminal activity that is less than what the rest of us would ever aspire to.

This may be a bit OT. But right now I am reading a book titled "Hell's Angels Taking Care of Business" written by Yves Lavigne. If you haven't read it yet I suggest you do. Very insightfull, tells it as it is, and breaks down a lot of the urban myths. Explains the whole 1% & FTW thing....

Great Read!

This was a good read too

http://www.amazon.com/Hells-Angels-Hunter-S-Thompson/dp/0345410084

Hunter Thompson rides with the Hells Angels.
Imagine the possibilities.

Although his writing style was quite a bit more tame when he wrote this than in later years.

theres a guy at the company I work for that's a 1% club member, he keeps it very quiet. I wont call him a friend just somone that works where I do (500 or so people).I come in contact with him about once a month. Maybe 2 or 3 other people there know.

Only reason I know is cuz I ran into him at a bike event, he was with a couple of his "bro's" and flying colors.
When i spotted him he gave me this look that said "pretend you dont know me". So I did.

About 3 days later, he comes up to my machine and says something like "I'd appreciate it if you would not tell anyone" I said "tell anyone what?". He just started laughin and that was that.

point is most of these guys are relativy normal people one on one. Only when with the pack do they become obnoxious and or dangerous.

I understand the 1% thing, etc, but my question is why can't we "know them"? Are they not supposed to associate with ANYONE outside of their club EVER? Or just not while they are there? I mean what if this dude is your neighbor and you say hi when you pick up the paper in the morning and one of his buddies rides by? Honestly I'm just curious, not trying to make some weird social implication, just curious. Whenever I am in a "situation" I err on the side of caution.

I've never had a problem w/a 1%er. When I was in the music biz,
and any of these guys were involved, the first thing I'd do
was to make friends with the biggest one. Then, my back would
be covered for the rest of the night. It worked out well.

Uncle Charlie

who knows.... and 1% bikers are not the only group that acts different towards outsiders when with the buds.

And I think I do understand why the guy wants to keep it quiet at work. Might not be a good career move to show up in uniform.

The problem is if you mess with one of them you're messin with ALL of them, which keeps me steering clear of them. I have noticed Angels, & Outlaws and a couple of others selling T shirts at local bike meets. Boy have things changed

Oh I understand the work thing, but what about the bike meet thing? Like if they are selling T shirts, what's so bad about saying hi to a co-worker? Ya know? That's all... Dont get it

I understand the messing with them thing too, but I'm not about to mess with anyone. I mean offering to help a guy with a flat is hardly messing with someone...

hhaha that's true. But ya know it's a common theme in these 1% stories, the whole disassociation with society thing, AKA "acting cool for your friends".

Theres another "true story" book out that I need to pick up that details the saga of a former University of Arizona football player that managed to get inside the Hells Angels basically by faking a murder thereby greasing the skids toward becoming a full patch HA.

Sonny Barger had always said no one would ever infiltrate the Angels but this guy did it.

This UA football player got in close I guess with the Mesa Az chapter of AZ HA. The book tells the story of how the Mesa chapter had a woman they had some prospects pick up for some fun one night who then reputedly treated the members disrespectfully and was then subsequently taken into the desert by a couple of prospects and "eliminated" in a rather gruesome manner.

I remember seeing the hardcover in a bookstore lately but the title escapes me at the moment.

The rules of social interaction that these "hard core" types follow is in its most basic form the same code of honor and conduct that most criminal gangs adhere to.

"Honor Amongst Thieves" so to speak.

Rules as to how they address one another and show deference to one another...and the key of course is the willingness to go as far as one need... up to and including in some cases committing murder as a rite of passage. (documented truth)

The crips do it and so do the bloods and every other criminal organization in these US and elsewhere. They love to swear they are just a nice bunch of bikers having a little fun.

Read some the true stories about what transpires when some honest citizen messes up and knowingly or UNKNOWINGLY disrepects these whackos....its like an episode of "Sopranos"....

Its this basic neanderthalian code of honor they find so needed that I and every other honest intelligent member of society finds maddening and lacking in core responsibility.

After all do most honest god fearing motorcycle clubs need to have a yearly "Yuma Prison Run" for a reason?

LOL.

No comment other than the Hollister thing is only part of it. And that was blown way out of preportion and the famous photo was staged.

I've always thought of those "clubs" simply as motorcycle riding criminal gangs, regardless of how they like to portray themselves.

I just saw something on CNN about that guy Viking is talking about. Thats a bunch of BS what they are doing to that guy. Just hung his a$$ out to dry.

I think that one was a deep cover ATF agent in the Banditos. But the name of the book escapes me, too, even though it's been discussed here a number of times.

All I can say, Hells Angles bought me drinks at the airport when I was heading home, after returning from a trip to Viet Nam on my ship. I made three trips over there. Many of the rest of our fair citizens were calling us names.

Dave

I am not sure if its still this way but my uncle is a Hells Angel. If you were a pledge you have to give up the title to your bike to the club. If you blow it or pis them off they can take it and give you a Sporty or something. Plus they have access to your "Old Lady". Screw that! I'm NO ONES B!tch! I do however like the FTW thing. It was a "Old School Punk" thing.

Simmer, I'm sure if you are doing something they agree with they are a great bunch of guys, it's the unknowingly "disrespecting" thing that gets me. And there are no clear lines as to what disrespecting is...

Here's an interesting blurb on the mentality of the OMG member....copied and pasted

Don't even think about trying to challenge Angels, say those who attempted
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

Privacy protected to the point of violence

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - A knot of burly bikers speeds across the television screen with a herky-jerky hyperactivity, like so many Keystone Kops scrambling across a grainy black and white backdrop.

"Here it is," J.D. Hays says, rewinding the videotape. "Here's where the pummeling begins."

It is, to be sure, one of the most vicious and efficient butt-kickings ever captured on film. The fellow on the receiving end is big - 6 feet, 4 inches, to be exact - and yet beneath the swarm of fists and boots he seems a pint-sized rag-doll.

Hays is police chief in Steamboat Springs, and he's reviewing one of the half-dozen bar fights that kept his department busy the weekend in 1996 when the Hells Angels came to town. This is the only one captured on a bar security camera.

The first punch is thrown, the big local guy drops, is set upon in a frenzy of violence. Fists and boots connect with his head, ribs and groin. Somebody rips a pay phone off the wall and crashes it into his skull. In seven swift seconds, he's reduced from brawny bartender to unconscious victim, thrown bodily out the back door. In another three seconds, the room goes back to normal, high-fives all around, tables turned upright, spilled beers salvaged.

Ten seconds. It's very, very fast and very, very effective. Somebody has been practicing.

"I tried to strike up a conversation," recalls J.J. Johnson, the bartender who found himself lying outside the bar. "But he didn't want to talk."

Johnson had asked a Hells Angel where he was from, but was waved away.

"Are you shooing me away?" he'd asked.

"Yeah, I don't want to talk to you," the Angel replied.

Later, Johnson was laughing with a friend when the same Hells Angel walked by.

"Are you laughing at me?"

Johnson couldn't help himself. He pulled the trigger.

"Yeah."

And the pummeling began.

"It was like going through a gantlet of blows," he remembers. "I figure I took at least 75 blows."

While he admits he baited the biker, he insists he didn't deserve the beating he took.

"I wouldn't say it was an unprovoked attack," he says, "but it was my town. I was in my bar, and I just couldn't swallow my pride. I couldn't let them just take over."

Looking back, he recommends a cooler head when the Angels are in town.

"Practice abstinence for a while," he says. "Stay out of the bars. Go on vacation."

Kent Morrison offers the same advice. He took his beating after infiltrating the Hells Angels' lair in the dead of night.

How to handle a visit from the Angels? "That's simple," Morrison says. "Go home and stay there until they leave town. ... Have a weekend in the country. Go visit your mother."

Morrison is a former member of the Army's special forces, trained in reconnaissance. After a few too many drinks, he decided to take a shot at penetrating the Hells Angels' "compound," a motel they'd surrounded with perimeter guards and rooftop sentries.

"Nobody even thought of going in," he says. "The cops were petrified. The place was a fortress, heavily patrolled, but I got in."

Perhaps he should've stayed out.

Dressed in camouflage, he slipped past the bikers, settled into a lawn chair next to a huge tattooed Angel, and struck up a conversation.

"The last words I remember saying were, 'Don't you want to know how I got in?' "

His advice, now that his jaw has healed: "Don't try to interact. These are guys who value their privacy to the point of violence."

Daniel Sowerby also learned that lesson the hard way. The transplant from New Zealand doesn't really know why he took his beating, but he admits he's a bit of a "smart ******," and that might have had something to do with it.

Like Morrison and Johnson before him, Sowerby had been tipping back a few drinks when he found trouble in the guise of a Angel.

"I'm not too sure what happened," he says. "I got kicked out of the bar because I was just being myself, I guess."

He had been trying to hold down his territory in the face of a biker invasion, and the bartender thought it better that he retreat.

Once outside, a Hells Angel stomped up and asked if he were the guy who had just been "86'd." Sowerby was talking to a friend, and didn't want to be interrupted.

Like Johnson, he came up with the wrong answer.

"Yes."

"Then five of them approached me and it was all over," Sowerby remembers. "I was on the ground in my own blood looking at my teeth."

He had been knocked cold before he knew what hit him and was bleeding from a knife wound to the butt. His friend, an innocent bystander who was pulled into the fray, eventually needed $5,000 in plastic surgery to rebuild his face.

"I'm notorious for being a smart mouth," Sowerby says. "They just took it upon themselves to be tough guys."

And, as with most encounters with the Hells Angels, there was little thought of pressing charges:

"Yeah, officer, it was four or five guys with huge leather jackets and beards. Right."

And anyway, he says, "The only difference between the cops and the Hells Angels is that one's legal and one's not."

Police Chief Hays believes there's more difference than Sowerby cares to acknowledge.

"If you just totally left them (the Hells Angels) alone, did not talk to them, there was no problem," Hays says. But if you engaged the bikers, came up with the wrong answer, he says, then "it was always five or six or eight Hells Angels pummeling some poor schmuck."

There is a difference between that and a run-in with police, Hays says: "Sure, some of the locals brought it on, but if somebody snickered at me, I wouldn't stomp him into the ground."

So I'm guessin' a little talk with these people about the inherent dangers of methamphetamines wouldn't be in my best interests then, right?!

Nah....I dont think so Dwight...lessen you want to buy some...then I bet some of em anyways could hook ya up.

Nah! No thanks Kev. If I ever EVER sink so low as to need illict drugs for the purpose of self-medication("'cuz Mommy and/or Daddy never loved me enough when I was a kid") I hear there's a toothless gent who goes by the name of Slim in BARSTOW CALIFORNIA who will supply all of my needs!

Barstow is a hoppin place now aint it? I got 86ed from a local bar in that vicinity along with some of my military buds at the time back in ....ewww 1979.

Fortunately for us there were no Hells Angels around to worry bout.

Oh yeah! Barstow! "The Garden Spot of the Mojave."

(you sound like you could use the old W.C.Fields' line about Philadelphia here...."Ah yeeessss! Barstow! I spent a week there one night!"

Hey Dwight! Go to Kooks Corner in the OC. There is plenty of Angels there you could get in a fight with.

Hey! I've been to Cook's Corner a few times Shane, and for some strange reason I've just never felt that I could get any meaningful dialogue goin' with too many people there.

Go figure!

And THIS BTW, just doesn't pertain to just that "one-percent" element EITHER!

There's just as many dentists that ride up on that "particular Brand"(I THINK we all know which brand I'm talkin' about here) who couldn't carry on a decent conversation about the wide variety and history of motorcycling in general as those "enlightened gentleman" who wear "colors"!

Many years ago one of my sailors honked at some "Bikers" who didn't move when the light turned green. Apparently they took offence and decided to walk back to his car and teach him a lesson. He took out a .45 and chambered a round. At that point the big bad dudes decided to get back on their bikes. About 15 minutes later he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol and arrested for threatening several “motorists.” It took over a year and a few thousand in lawyer fees to clear it up. They were members of some gang of badass bikers but called the police and whined when a young sailor refused to be intimidated. Personally, I wish he’d shot them. He probably would have had a lot less trouble and me a lot less paperwork.

Wow that's almost comical! The law doesn't apply to me unless it is convenient... Riiiight. Sounds like Jr High bullying to me.