What is a biker? (a real one)

by Snow Vandemore

If you have to ask (what is a real biker,) then you wouldn't understand. But I'm feeling generous today, so I'll make an effort to enlighten the other 99% of motorcycle riders why they are not - and will never be - bikers.

Bikers' roots extend back to World War II. After coming home, some American GIs found themselves missing the heightened emotions, danger and close brotherhood they had experienced in wartime. The motorcycle became their mecca, their symbol of freedom and power around which they could re-band and recapture the excitement they believed to be sorely lacking in civilian life.

If you have to ask (what is a real biker,) then you wouldn't understand. But I'm feeling generous today, so I'll make an effort to enlighten the other 99% of motorcycle riders why they are not - and will never be - bikers.

Bikers' roots extend back to World War II. After coming home, some American GIs found themselves missing the heightened emotions, danger and close brotherhood they had experienced in wartime. The motorcycle became their mecca, their symbol of freedom and power around which they could re-band and recapture the excitement they believed to be sorely lacking in civilian life.

Dubbed the Hollister Riot, the media sensationalized the drinking, wild riding and general lawlessness that led to the arrests of some 50 individuals. In an attempt to soften the tabloid description of the event, the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) stated that "the trouble was caused by the one per cent deviant that tarnishes the public image of both motorcycles and motorcyclists." This statement was the genesis of the title "one-percenter" used to describe the "outlaw" or "one-percenter" clubs.

Flash forward to the present. From the late 1990's through 2005, the popularity of riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles seemed endless. Playing dress-up in biker clothes was all the rage, but now seems to be on a sharp decline. RUBs (Rich Urban Bikers) are feeling the pinch of the poor economy and maintaining a wannabe desperado lifestyle has become too damn expensive. It was fun while it lasted, but the shine is off the apple and it's time to move on to another entertaining mid-life distraction.

Therein lies the definition of a real biker. They ride every day, rain or shine - 24/7/365. If something breaks, they know how to fix it. Riding is never an inconvenience, it's what they do, it's who they are. Denim, leather and boots are not only for the weekend - their life is constructed around it. They are a slave to nothing, but a mistress that is the open road and a growling shovel head motor.

"One-percenter" is not just a white and red diamond patch on a dusty leather jacket - it's an emblem that demands respect. Just as the back patch, it was earned through discipline, unfailing loyalty and defending the brotherhood. If you give respect, you get respect. Make no mistake, this is no game for part-time thrill-seekers.

Only about a dozen or so bona fide one-percenter clubs still survive. It will be a sad day when there are no more. Because that will be the end of an American icon.

Source: http://www.helium.com/items/370102-what-is-a-biker-a-real-one

The hard-drinking, hard-riding, hard-fisted phenomenon of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was kick-started not on America's highways, but in the world's deadly and bleeding fields of war.

The Angels have grown, in the past 50 years, to include three dozen chapters in the United States, a presence in 15 countries and a worldwide membership estimated in the thousands.

But before all that, before roving bands of unwashed malcontents began riding the wild West astride iron horses like so many gun-slinging outlaws, before they tore open America's fabric and sewed themselves into the tapestry of mainstream culture, before they bathed and broke out as businessmen, before all that, their name belonged to other Angels.

"Hells Angels" was a name long favored by mercenaries and soldiers, warriors and troops who risked all for principle, belief, freedom and individual rights - including the right to ride big Harley-Davidson hogs. The history of today's Hells Angels is obscured by the hazy exhaust of half a century of Harleys, and no one can see through quite to the beginning.

But many believe the original Angels were members of the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division, an elite group of paratroopers trained to rain death on the enemy from above, drifting in behind the lines of battle.

They called themselves the Hells Angels because they flew on silk wings into hell itself, bringing a brutal hope for peace with 20 pounds of TNT strapped to each leg. The nickname was a badge of honor, a mark of invincibility, a wartime emblem indicating the toughest of the tough. It was a totem to ward off the worst.

Not surprisingly, a handful of those original Hells Angels - along with many other returning soldiers who had awakened to the nightmare of war - found it difficult to settle into the half-sleep of the American Dream. After living on the edge so long, they found only a depressing fatalism and monotony in jobs, family, mortgages, college, suburbia and cookie-cutter houses with white-picket fences.

And so they rode. Motorcycles were cheap in the mid-1940s, sold as military surplus, and they offered a certain wild peacetime freedom not unlike the wartime skies of Europe. Soon, individuals gathered into groups, sharing weekends when they rode hard and partied harder.

But when Monday came, not everyone went home. Some stayed, turning the weekend motorcycle club into a surrogate family of full-time brothers.

Two of the first such fraternities were the Pissed Off Bastards and the Booze Fighters, groups that established early the notoriety of the outlaw biker image. In 1947, at an American Motorcycle Association convention in the drowsy town of Hollister, Calif., the Pissed Off Bastards rode in drunk, wild and destructive, landing as if behind enemy lines with a belly full of TNT. The local sheriff later described the scene as "just one hell of a mess."

Quick to control the public relations' damage, the AMA denounced the Bastards, saying it was unfortunate that 1 percent of motorcyclists should ruin it for the law-abiding 99 percent. To this day, the 1 percent insignia remains a badge of honor, worn with pride by those who define themselves as not part of that milquetoast 99 percent majority who ride whining Hondas back and forth to the office.

But in the months following Hollister, internal tension among the Bastards and Booze Fighters was mounting, and in 1948 Bastard Otto Friedli broke from the club, splintering the group to create the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Fontana, Calif.

The Legend of the Ride Bell

Many years ago, on a cold December night, a crusty old biker was returning from a trip to Mexico with his saddlebags filled with toys and other assorted trinkets for the kids at a group home near where he worked.

As he rode along that night thinking how lucky he had been in life, having a loving riding partner that understood his need to roam the highways and to his trusty old pan that hadn’t let him down once in the many years they had shared the road together.

Well about 40 miles north of the border, in the high desert, lurked a small group of notorious little critters known as road gremlins. You know, the ones who always leave little obstacles like, one shoe, boards, and pieces of old tires on the road, and also dig those dreaded potholes for bikers to run over and crash, thus giving the road gremlins a chance to rejoice over their acts of evil.

Well, as the lone wolf of a biker rounded a curve that moonlit night, the gremlins ambushed him, causing him to crash to the asphalt and skid before coming to a stop next to one of his saddlebags that had broken free. As he lay there, unable to move, the road gremlins made their way towards him. Well, this biker, not being one to give up, started throwing things at the gremlins as they approached him. Finally, with nothing else to throw but a bell, he started ringing it in hopes to scare off the dirty little gremlins.

About a half a mile away, camped in the desert, were two bikers sitting around the campfire talking about their day’s ride, and the freedom of the wind blowing in their faces as they rode across this vast country. In the stillness of the night air they heard what sounded to them like church bells ringing, and upon investigating, found the old biker lying along the roadside with the gremlins about to get him. Needless to say, being part of the biker brotherhood, they preceded to ward off the gremlins until the last ran off into the night.

Being grateful to the two bikers, the old road dog offered to pay them for their help, but as all true bikers do, they refused to accept any type of payment from him. Not being one to let a good deed go unnoticed, the old biker cut two pieces of leather from his saddlebags tassels and tied a bell to each one. He then placed them on each of the biker’s motorcycles, as near to the ground as possible. The tired, old road warrior then told the two travelers that with those bells placed on their bikes, they would be protected from the road gremlins and that if ever in trouble, just ring the bell and a fellow biker will come to their aid.

So, whenever you see a biker with a bell, you know that he has been blessed with the most important thing in life—friendship from a fellow biker.
 

The Purpose of the Ride Bell (non-brass bell)

Many of us have heard the story about Evil Road Spirits. They are little gremlins that live on your bike. They love to ride, and they’re also responsible for most of your bike’s problems. Sometimes your turn signals refuse to work; your battery goes dead, the clutch needs adjustment, or any of several hundred things that can go wrong. These problems are caused by Evil Road Spirits.

Evil Road Spirits can’t live in the presence of the bell, because they get trapped in the hollow of the bell. Among other things, their hearing is supersensitive, so the constant ringing of the bell and the confined space drives them insane. They lose their grip and eventually fall to the roadway. Have you ever wondered how potholes are formed? The bell has served its purpose.

If you pick up a Legend Bell of your own, the magic will work, but if your bell is given to you, the power is doubled, and you know that somewhere you have a special friend helping to look after you.

So, if you have a friend who doesn’t have a bell, why not give them one? It’s a nice feeling for the recipient to know you care. The bell, plus a good preventive maintenance program by the bikes owner, will help eliminate Evil Road Spirits.
 

Polishing the Bell (a brass ride bell)

It has been a tradition among some of us for a long time to attach a brass bell to our left swing arm, to remember our brothers and sisters who have gone down riding.

It’s a small thing, but the reason a brass bell is chosen is that, as we ride, it gets dirty and tarnished. Every time we get down to wash and polish it, we are reminded of friends lost, and our thoughts turn to the meaning of being in the wind.

As we ride and hear the bell ring, we know that our brothers and sisters are riding with us, and how easy it would be to join them with a single mistake.

And maybe, just maybe, the next time a situation comes up; they will be there to help us...as long as we remember them by polishing the bell.
 

The history of Harley's being called "Hogs"

1920: Leslie "Red" Parkhurst breaks 23 speed records on a Harley-Davidson 61 cubic inch racing motorcycle. Also, the "hog" association starts when the racing team's mascot, a pig, is carried on a victory lap after each race won by the team.

Racer Ray Weishaar with pig mascot

Source: http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/H-D_History/history_1920s.jsp?locale=en_US

Origin of "Hog" nickname

Beginning in 1920, a team of farm boys, including Ray Weishaar, who became known as the "hog boys," consistently won races. The group had a hog, or pig as their mascot. Following a win, they would put the pig (a real one) on their Harley and take a victory lap. In 1983, the Motor Company formed a club for owners of its product taking advantage of the long-standing nickname by turning "hog" into the acronym H.O.G., for Harley Owners Group. Harley-Davidson attempted to trademark "hog", but lost a case against an independent Harley-Davidson specialist, The Hog Farm of West Seneca, NY, in 1999 when the appellate panel ruled that "hog" had become a generic term for large motorcycles and was therefore unprotectable as a trademark.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley-Davidson

What is a 1%er

Members of motorcycle clubs are often viewed in a negative light by traditional society. This perception has been fueled by the movies, popular culture, and highly publicized incidents. One of the earliest and most notorious of these occurred in Hollister, California in 1947 and is now dubbed the Hollister riot. Whether or not an actual riot occurred is debatable, but there was a motorcycle rally in Hollister from July 4 to July 6 of that year that was attended by about 4000 people. Several newspaper articles were written that, according to some attendees, sensationalized the event and Life magazine ran an article and a staged photograph of an intoxicated subject on a motorcycle parked in a bar. The film The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando, was inspired by the event, and it became the first in a series of movies that depicted bikers and members of motorcycle clubs in this stereotypical manner. The press asked the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) to comment on the Hollister incident 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".

During the 1940s and 1950s, at rallies and gatherings sponsored by the AMA, prizes were awarded for nicest club uniform, prettiest motorcycle, and so forth. Some clubs, however, rejected the clean-cut image and adopted the "one-percenter" moniker, even going so far as to create a diamond shaped 1% patch to wear on their vests as a badge of honor. One-percenter clubs point out that the term "one-percenter" simply means that they are committed to "biking and brotherhood", where riding is not just a weekend activity, but a way of living. These clubs assert that local and national law enforcement agencies have co-opted the term to paint them as criminals.

Sonny Barger and others went even further than wearing the rhombus-shaped patch on their colors and had the symbol tattooed on their upper bodies. In his autobiography, Mr. Barger recalls how, early on (1950's), there was an informal agreement amongst the one-percenters, regardless of gang affiliation, with certain guidelines such as "no stealing" (from each other), no "rat-packing" (on fellow one-percenters) and so forth. However, Sonny and his fellow members soon quit the "one-percenters club" because, as he describes it in his book, they felt that the other self-described one-percenters were not of equal status to the Hells Angels, and since a Hells Angel's primary allegiance needed to be to his fellow Angels, there was no need or desire for any such further affiliation with this self-described group.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25er