EAGLE RIDERS - Established in 1994, a three-piece- patch motorcycle club soaring through Estonia.
ESTABLISHED: 1950s
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Oakland, California
FOUNDER(S): Tobie Gene Levingston
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Northern California
CENTER COLORS: Red, Gold, and Green
CENTER PATCH: A green dragon
CLAIM TO FAME: One of the earliest Black motorcycle clubs, featured in Levington’s Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set
EAST BAY DRAGONS - Established in the 1950s in Oakland, California, by Tobie Gene Levingston. The Dragons began as a car club, evolving into “the nation’s most elite exclusively black motorcycle club.”
In 2003, Tobie Gene wrote Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set. The book is more than just data on the Dragons, it’s a social commentary that comes from a perspective that other biker culture chroniclers of the time just don’t have:
We were already up and running strong by the time the Black Panthers came around during the 1960s to lobby for our support. They had moved into offices just a couple of blocks from our clubhouse. Black Panthers co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and chief of staff David Hilliard came in and ate in Joe’s restaurant. . .To a lot of Dragons, the Black Panthers, their legacy, and their programs represented a bold, strong presence in the Black community. Many of the Black Panther party leaders came around the clubhouse to rally support for their causes, and we were invited to come down and represent ourselves at their functions.
EAST COAST RIDERS - A club reportedly absorbed into Nova Scotia’s Bacchus MC.
ESTABLISHED: 1962
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Sioux City, Iowa
FOUNDER(S): Two guys who were turned down from starting a Satans Slaves chapter in Iowa
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Midwest, U.S.
CENTER COLORS: Purple and Gold
CENTER PATCH: Big ape hangers with the 1%er diamond in the middle
CLAIM TO FAME: Among their ranks was Easyrider magazine’s Dave Mann, the most renowned biker artist of all time
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: Affiliated with Galloping Goose MC
EL FORASTERO - Established in 1962 in Sioux City, Iowa, by “Tiny and Fugle”—two guys who had apparently asked the Satans Slaves for permission to start an SS chapter in Iowa. That idea wasn’t exactly warmed up to by the Slaves, so El Forastero MC (the outsiders/the strangers) was born. They are a one percent motorcycle club and made the law enforcement map listing in Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota.
Besides their early 1960s founding, the other factor that makes the EFMC one of our “classic” clubs is that they had among their brotherhood the Normal Rockwell of the biker world, Dave Mann. Mann became a founding member of the El Forastero Kansas City chapter and the legend has it that it was Tiny and Fugle who prompted Dave to focus his art more on bikes and less on pin-up chicks and hot rods. It proved to be damn good advice!
EMPTIES - They fully made it onto the law enforcement map in Idaho. They also had a commemorative fortieth anniversary “rock” carved for the club, courtesy of Pocatello Cycle. The precision graphics on the rock feature a noose around an empty bottle of Coors. Now, I don’t know if that’s because they don’t like Coors or if it’s because they do and just don’t like seeing an empty bottle.
ESTABLISHED: 1993
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Czecho-Moravian Highlands, Czech Republic
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Czech Republic
CENTER PATCH: Eagle with a bomb in his talons
CLAIM TO FAME: A crew member from the Enola Gay, the infamous B-29 bomber that dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, was from the founding area
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: They support Hells Angels, Bohemia
ENOLA GAY - Established in 1993, a three-piece- patch club in Czech Republic with a very unique historical tie-in. The club was named, of course, after the famous WWII B-29 bomber that dropped its package on Hiroshima. One of the crew members, Joseph Stiborik, was from the Czech Republic, from the town of Nove Mesto na Morave, where the motorcycle club is based. The club is also an HAMC (Hells Angel Motorcycle Club) supporter.
EOD - Okay, you can have a blast with this club. The EODMC is a club out of Florida for veterans of explosive ordinance disposal! They are a “traditional motorcycle club” with the hangaround-prospect-member sequence. They do not accept law enforcement, they do wear a three-piece patch, and they do differentiate between themselves and a riding club with a similar name also for EOD vets.
ESTABLISHED: Unknown
PLACE OF ORIGIN: New Zealand
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Christchurch and Greymouth, New Zealand
CLAIM TO FAME: Monetarily liquidated by the IRD in 2005
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: Part of a New Zealand federation of clubs known as “the A-Team,” along with the Outcasts MC, the Forty-Fives MC, the Southern Vikings MC, Satan’s Slaves MC, Sinn Fein MC, and the Lost Breed MC
EPITAPH RIDERS - Another of the clubs on all of the “lists” in New Zealand. The Epitaph Riders are based in Christchurch and Greymouth. They are one of the few clubs to suffer severe financial hardships as a result of some lengthy legal entanglements. Trouble with the IRD (the Kiwi equivalent of America’s evil IRS) culminated in the gang being sold to an ex-member for $1 in 1999, and finally liquidated in 2005.
A stark reminder of, as a local calls it, “a testament to the darker side of Christchurch history,” is the abandoned ERMC clubhouse in the middle of Addington. It’s a bit creepy and I’m sure filled with ghosts in leather.
The Epitaph Riders are also a part of a federation of clubs known as “the A-Team,” along with the Outcasts MC, the Forty-Fives MC, the Southern Vikings MC, Satan’s Slaves MC, Sinn Fein MC, and the Lost Breed MC.
ESCORPIONES - “The Scorpions,” a three-piece patch motorcycle club stinging in Pais Vasco (Basque Country), Spain.
ESCUDEROS - Another of the loud-piped packs of German Bandidos support clubs.
EVEL ROWDIES - Established in 1980. A three-piece-patch club in Switzerland and, yes, they do spell their name like the King of the Snake River, rather than bad guys.
ESTABLISHED: A few years back
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Sweden (“down in the suburbs where we all used to raise some hell”)
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Sweden
CENTER COLORS: Red and Blue
CENTER PATCH: A tribal horned “death head”
MOTTO: Ten tigers are always stronger than a hundred lambs
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: “Evil Crew MC is not bound to any motorcycle brand and does not support anyone but ourselves.”
EVIL CREW - A one percent motorcycle club in Sweden with some sharp philosophies and statements: “Ten tigers are always stronger than a hundred lambs. . .Evil Crew MC is not bound to any motorcycle brand and does not support anyone but ourselves. . .Because this is what it means to be a 1%er, which we pride ourselves in being. . . . A 1%er is always free, never supporting anyone, never being told what to do by others, and always loyal to his colors. No one chooses Evil Crew; they choose you.”
EVIL LOYALTY - A Bandidos support club in Denmark.
EVOLUTION - A club evolving in upstate New York, founded by “six men that have lived and enjoyed the life of brotherhood.”
EXILES AND EXILE RIDERS - Another mix of clubs with the same/similar names:
Exiles MC made the map in Maine.
Then there is a three-piece patch club in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
But then we have the Exile Riders in California with a three-piece-patch cut that looks as “outlaw” and as one percent as anything I’ve ever seen. They actually do discuss the reason for the three-piece patch—that it represents something that is earned, not merely given. But. . .all that said. . .they are a law enforcement motorcycle club!
EXTERMINATORS - Established in 1984, this three-piece-patch motorcycle club is out of Denmark. They do have a very cool buzzard for a center patch.
EYE OF RA - WOW! While certainly not an outlaw club, this organization has “connections” to the one percent world by actually being featured on the weird Last Combat website—a site that apparently features video games (or something like that) of motorcycle club vs. motorcycle club (kind of like sports video games pitting one team against another). Eye of Ra is matched up in battles with the Boozefighters, the Outlaws, the Warlocks, the Pagans, the Jewish Motorcyclist Alliance, the Moped Army, and more! The club itself is located in South Wales.
FARAONS - Established in 2003 in Slovakia, these Pharaohs are HAMC supporters.
FAT MEXICAN SUPPORT CLUB - Based in Australia, it’s kind of obvious that this a Bandidos support club, taking its name from its affectionate and accepted referral to the Bandidos center patch (it’s also the title of Alex Caine’s The Fat Mexican: The Bloody Rise of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, an enigmatic book that was really more about one specific incident—Canada’s so-called “Shedden Massacre”—than an overall examination of the Bandidos’ growth into motorcycle club prominence).
FEW GOOD MEN - An HAMC support club out of New York.
ESTABLISHED: Unknown
PLACE OF ORIGIN: New Zealand
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Tauranga, Rotorua, Waihi, and Matamata, New Zealand
CLAIM TO FAME: Takes its name from a common idiom seen on patches throughout the motorcycle culture—often ascribed to mean that the wearer has killed for his club
FILTHY FEW - Taking its name from a phrase that has been around the motorcycle club world for a long time (Filthy Few is a patch “idiom” often thought to mean that the wearer has committed murder for a specific cause of his club), this New Zealand motorcycle club is located in Tauranga, Rotorua, Waihi, and Matamata. In April 2010, New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty Times reported that the club had been “shut down” during a police raid of the club’s bar, which was deemed illegal by authorities.
Alcohol harm prevention officer for the Western Bay of Plenty, Sergeant Nigel McGlone said the laying of such charges was unusual, but that illegal bars would not be ignored either: “It doesn’t matter whether you are a club, a gang, a school PTA running fundraising quiz nights, or whatever—the rules are the same for everyone.”
Hmmm. . .if you say so. . .
FINAL DAWN - A full-on one percent motorcycle club out of Austria.
ESTABLISHED: 1969
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Adelaide, South Australia
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Australia
CLUB COLORS: Black and White
CENTER PATCH: Court jester Bung from the Wizard of Id comic strip, to which the club name refers
CLAIM TO FAME: An oft-listed top club in the crowded Australian “bikie” scene
FINKS - Established in 1969 in Adelaide, South Australia. It’s another of the many Australian motorcycle clubs to make this list. The Finks got their name from the Wizard of Id comic strip and the peasants’ loud and frequent proclamations that “The King is a fink!” Their colours are that of Bung, the jester in the strip.
In February 2011, The West Australian reported on a less-than-Law & Order kind of court scene involving members of the Finks:
As West Australian Chief Justice Wayne Martin sentenced four Finks bikie members to jail for maintaining their code of silence out of fear of retribution, he was told he had “no idea about the streets”.
The motorcycle gang members had refused to answer questions or to be sworn in at a secret Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) hearing into organised crime last year.
The Finks members Tristan Allbeury, Stephen Silvestro, Troy Crispin Smith and Clovis Chikonga had been called in relation to a brawl between them and rival gang the Coffin Cheaters.
The brawl had broken out at the Perth Motorplex on October 3 and left Silvestro and Smith with injuries.
All four men had kept quiet during the CCC hearing and were charged with contempt of court for refusing to be sworn in to give evidence.
Allbeury was subsequently charged with insulting Commissioner Len Roberts-Smith by refusing to answer 18 separate questions before telling him to “f*** off” and “get f****d”.
FIRESTARTERS - A three-piece patch club out of Slovenia. Their center patch is the Rune Gebo (the Big X), which symbolizes the greatest gift to a devoted warrior: devotion and passion.
ESTABLISHED: 1968
PLACE OF ORIGIN: New Haven, Connecticut (in the garage of Leroy “King Dragon” Bolden)
FOUNDER(S): Leroy “King Dragon” Bolden and others
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: International
CLUB COLORS: Red and Gold
CENTER PATCH: A flaming knight!
MOTTO: Born to wander
CLAIM TO FAME: Fully racially integrated club
FLAMING KNIGHTS - Established in 1968 in New Haven, Connecticut, the Flaming Knights Motorcycle Club started in the garage of Leroy Bolden, a.k.a. “King Dragon.” The motorcycle club is an integrated three-piece-patch international club.
FLYING HORSES - Established in 1973, this one percent diamond-patch club out of Germany is in “K-town” (Kaiserslautern, but called K-Town by the 50,000 NATO and American military personnel stationed there): “The Flying Horses 1% Motorcycle Club K-Town is no supporter club for anybody!”
FLYIN’ IRON - Made the law enforcement map in New Hampshire. In 2009, one of their members appeared on New Hampshire’s Most Wanted list for a failure to appear. He was considered “Armed and Dangerous.” Special sections of his mug shots feature some pretty nice tattoos!
FLYING WHEELS, FLY-IN WHEELS - Established in 1977, the Flying Wheels MC Association was founded in Georgsmarienhütte OT Holzhausen and is the biggest club in the Osnabrück region of Germany. A three-piece-patch club, but they don’t consider themselves one percenters.
The Fly-In Wheels MC was established in Flint, Michigan, “over five decades ago” and this national club made the law enforcement map in Florida. In 2006, a member was under indictment in Michigan for narcotics and firearms violations—the indictment refers, of course, to the club as a gang but the club does officially say that they are not a one percent club.
ESTABLISHED: Pre-1960s
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Flint, Michigan
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Michigan, Colorado, Florida, and Pennsylvania
CLUB COLORS: Blue and White
CENTER PATCH: A winged motorcycle wheel
CLAIM TO FAME: Club claims to not be “1%” but made the law enforcement list of “OMGs” in Florida
FLYING WHEELS - There is a Flying Wheels riding club established in 1965 by moped riders out of Arizona. They didn’t make the law enforcement map anywhere.
FORAJIDOS - A major diamond-patch one percent club throughout Spain.
FORBIDDEN - This motorcycle club made the law enforcement map in the crowded house that is Connecticut. They also made some dismal news reports in 2008 when their “P” was shot and killed.
The Associated Press would report:
Kevin Campbell of Watertown is charged with murder in the shooting death of 51-year-old Roland LaGasse of Torrington, who was president of the Forbidden Motor Cycle Club. Campbell, who was also in the club, has said he acted in self-defense and the gun accidentally fired.
Litchfield Superior Court Judge James Ginocchio heard testimony on Tuesday indicating that the shooting occurred during a dispute over whether to give a new member of the club his first-year patch.
One witness testified that Campbell deliberately shot LaGasse after LaGasse slapped Campbell’s brother across the face.
FORBIDDEN ONES - Established in 1992, this motorcycle club is out of New York.
FORBIDDEN WHEELS - A long-running motorcycle club out of Michigan that slid into a sad side note in the early 1980s with a trial that saw their “P,” Paul Allen Dye, convicted of a double murder. The Detroit Free Press would report:
A Detroit district judge Thursday called for a grand jury probe of a motorcycle club whose president has been charged in the slaying of two women inside the club’s headquarters.
Tried by a jury for the third time, petitioner Paul Allen Dye was convicted in the Recorders Court in Detroit, Michigan, on two counts of murder and one count of possession of a firearm during commission of a felony. His defense in each of his three trials was that the crimes were committed by one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, who was present at the scene of the crime.
As of 2009, Dye was still fighting to have his sentence commuted.
FORTRESS - This HAMC support club is based in Poland. There’s also a Fortress MC in Russia.
FORTY FIVE - One of the clubs on the many “lists” in New Zealand. This Auckland-based motorcycle club is also a part of the “A-Team” federation, along with The Epitaph Riders, the Outcasts MC, the Southern Vikings MC, Satan’s Slaves MC, Sinn Fein MC, and the Lost Breed MC.
FOUR HORSEMEN - In Norway, this is a support club for the HAMC.
There is also a long-lived club, the 4 Horse Men—a primarily Black motorcycle club—with chapters in Pasadena and San Diego, California.
FOURTH REICH - There are at least three Fourth Reichs:
There was one Fourth Reich in Salt Lake in the late 1960s. Some old members have been trying to dig up a reunion lately.
And then there’s Michigan, where the Fourth Reich became another of those not-so-good newsmakers when, in 2006, Sherry L. Priemer was convicted of manslaughter (though not first-degree murder as originally charged) for killing Gregory (Sigmund) Getty, “a veteran of two tours in Vietnam and a member of the Madison Heights–based Fourth Reich Motorcycle Club,” by shooting him in the back of the head.
New South Wales, Australia, is the “bikie” home of our third Fourth Reich, another commanding Australian motorcycle club, with chapters in Albion Park and Wollengong.
FREEDOM SEEKERS - Established in 1969, this motorcycle club is from the Tennessee Hills.
FREE EAGLES - Established in 1975, this three-piece-patch motorcycle club from Germany didn’t just come together based on their love of bikes and the lifestyle—the founding members were also part of a Doors fan club.
FREE MEN, FREEMEN - There are a few unrestrained Free Men roaming the globe:
One is a three-piece-patch Free Men, established in 1979, in Germany.
There is a Freemen three-piece-patch club out of Russia—a “hangaround club to the 81 world.”
And a Freemen MC in Minnesota.
ESTABLISHED: 1968
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Eugene, Oregon
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Throughout Oregon and one in Washington
CLUB COLORS: Blue and White
CENTER PATCH: An ankh—the ancient Egyptian symbol of eternal life
CLAIM TO FAME: Considered one of Oregon’s “big five,” alongside the Vagos, Brother Speed, Gypsy Jokers, and the Outsiders, and listed in one source’s “Top Ten of America’s most notorious biker gangs”
FREE SOULS - Established in 1968, in Eugene, Oregon, this motorcycle club made the law enforcement map in the Beaver State as well as Washington. They are considered one of Oregon’s “big five,” alongside the Vagos, Brother Speed, Gypsy Jokers, and the Outsiders.
FREE SPIRITS - Another of those clubs that gave up the one percenter patch. This New Jersey club dates back to the 1960s but was forced to “disband due to many members’ arrests and to general disorder. That club and all ties to the 1% world ended totally & completely.”
Today, they are an AMA-sanctioned club.
There are other riding clubs around with the Free Spirits name and an all-female club in Michigan.
ESTABLISHED: 1970s
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Hagen, Germany
FOUNDER(S): “A few young guys who rode their motorbikes and celebrated”
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: 20-plus chapters throughout Germany
CLUB COLORS: Red and Black
CENTER PATCH: Winged skull with riding cap accompanied by crossbones
MOTTO: E.F.I.F.: Einmal Freeway Immer Freeway (Once Freeway Always Freeway)
FREEWAY RIDERS - Established “thirty-five years ago” in Hagen, Germany, by “a few young guys who rode their motorbikes and celebrated.” A thundering, straight-ahead, diamond-patch one percent club with chapters throughout Germany and roots that go back “to the time of jean jackets, long hair, and sideburns.”
FREEWHEELERS - Two heavy-duty—and free-wheeling—motorcycle clubs share this name:
One was established in 1968 in the western suburbs of Chicago. In a scene reminiscent of the HAMC discovering early on that two groups had taken the name, two presidents of two Freewheelers in Illinois discovered each other at a bike show and—again, like the HAMC—formed a bond and merged the clubs. Members of one of those factions later became Hell’s Henchmen. Other members eventually became Devil’s Ushers. Hell’s Henchmen eventually all patched over to the HAMC. The ties remained strong among all the clubs and members and the Freewheelers kept ties to the HAMC.
ESTABLISHED: 1968
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Chicago, Illinois
FOUNDER(S): A group of riders “who had been running together for some time”
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Illinois
CENTER PATCH: A freewheelin’ Grim Reaper
CLAIM TO FAME: Their interwoven history to the Devil’s Ushers, Hell’s Henchmen, and Hells Angels
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: Ties to the Hells Angels
Established in 1979 in Waterford City, Ireland, the Freewheelers there would become huge in the European biker world. Beginning with twelve members, the Freewheelers MC “were the first of the 1% clubs to build and ride customised Harley-Davidson motorcycles now considered the norm for 1% clubs worldwide.”
The club is responsible for The South East Custom and Classic Bike Show—an event that began in 1987 and still runs to this day in Tramore Racecourse, County Waterford.
ESTABLISHED: 1979
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Waterford City, Ireland
FOUNDER(S): Twelve original members
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Ireland
CENTER PATCH: A winged freewheeling skull
CLAIM TO FAME: First one percent club to build and ride customized Harleys
Lenny is the “P” of the Freewheelers, Ireland:
All in all, we walk a fine line but have had no interference up until now.
Freewheelers MC was founded in Waterford City, Ireland in 1979. It was one of the first homegrown Irish one percenter clubs to exist in Ireland in the 1970s. From the outset we were destined for the long haul. We still have five original members from the twelve who started in ’79, including our two founding members, John Blue O’ Shea, and Claudio Clau Giani.
The Brotherhood that is Freewheelers MC is as strong now as it was at the beginning and it is a true bond. It is what we have lived for. It is what we would die for. It is what has made us what we are, true one percenter’s, true brothers, which is something that can be lost if numbers become the game, which is all too often the case.
Our policy from day one was to keep Ireland free of international politics, which for the most part, thirty-two years later, we have achieved. Our alliance with the other three true Irish one percent clubs has been and is a major part of this policy, and it is an alliance that we intend to nurture into the future.
After thirty years I still get the Buzz. I still get the rush of being out there with my bros. It’s what it is all about: Harleys, freedom, brothers, and the wild times that this mix creates.
My advice to all is to be true to the one percent lifestyle! Live it, love it, protect it!
—Lenny 1%er, President, Freewheelers MC Ireland. F.F.F.F.
FUCKING FREAKS - Established in 1987 in North Tavastia, Finland. (And no, I don’t know if they have an FFFFFF patch!)
FUGARWE TRIBE - This club made the law enforcement map in Illinois. It’s a notable motorcycle club for their name (from the old Indian—I’m sorry, Native American—joke, “Where the Fugarwe?”) and their longevity. Established in 1948 as the Road Kings, in 1955 they became the Fugarwe Tribe.
FULL OF ENERGY - A three-piece-patch club out of the Czech Republic that really demonstrates the universal struggles it takes for a motorcycle club to become established—politically and protocol-wise. This club began with roots in 1991; they nearly ran out of energy and took a three-year pause from 2000 to 2003, and then refilled themselves with energy, and eventually became a full club in 2005.
ESTABLISHED: 1949–1950
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Los Angeles, California
FOUNDER(S): Dick Hershberg, one of thirteen original members
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Nationwide, U.S.
CLUB COLORS: Purple and Gold
CENTER PATCH: The famous “running finger” designed into a patch by renowned So-Cal artist John Altoon
CLAIM TO FAME: They’re a “classic club” with long roots, featured in a Gangland episode “Beware the Goose!”
GALLOPING GOOSE - With roots that go back to the early 1940s, the GG are “pioneers and classic” in the club world. And they’re another of the clubs whose name gets bastardized a lot—it is singular: Galloping Goose. That’s mainly because the name came from a motorcycle called the “Galloping Goose” owned by a guy named Dick Hershberg. The famous “running finger” in their patch was painted on the bike’s tank. They’re another of those post-WWII good ol’ boy groups that got together by hanging out in the still-relaxing classy ambience of a Los Angeles bar—theirs was the Pullman, near downtown’s Union Station. The group came together as a formal club in “1949 or 1950” with thirteen original members.
Their patch, which began as a combination of the tank painting and drawings on a cocktail napkin, has an even more L.A./Hollywood connection, in that its final design was the creation of the famous So-Cal artist John Altoon—an eccentric painter described by art historians as having an “outsized personality and reckless intensity.”
The Galloping Goose MC made the law enforcement map in Cali, of course, and they were the subject of the Gangland episode “Beware the Goose!”
GERONIMO - Long-lived three-piece patch club in Hungary that evolved from that country’s Angels MC—they are closely allied with HAMC.
There is also a Geronimo MC in Germany with a completely different patch.
GHOST ANGELS - Established in 1976, a three-piece-patch club out of Maxhutte, Germany.
ESTABLISHED: 1982
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Santa Cruz Mountains, California
FOUNDER(S): “Lompico Lyle”
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Northern California
CLUB COLORS: White on Black
CENTER PATCH: Rider storming from the mouth of a skull-shaped mountain
MOTTO: Mi Vida Loca and Qué Viva Los Tamales!
CLAIM TO FAME: Known for their “truck surfing” and “tamale passing”; featured in the 2000 documentary American Biker
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: Monterey Bay Confederation of Clubs
GHOST MOUNTAIN RIDERS - Established in 1985, “on a ridge high in the Santa Cruz Mountains” of Northern California, the Ghost Mountain Riders made the western edge of the law enforcement map and were featured in several segments in the seminal film documentary American Biker in the mid-2000s.
They also have some pretty solid lore about their club; a few million tales from the road; and some definite ideas about the meaning of one percenter. Felicia Morgan—a badass and brazen biker-photojournalist whose hard-butt riding habits are right up there with Gypsy Raoul and Easyrider’s late Roving Editor George “Rip” Rose—had a long sit-down with the founder of the Ghost Mountain Riders, “Lompico Lyle,” GMRMC Nomad President Tony “Loco,” and other brothers of the GMRMC:
Lyle: The name Ghost Mountain Riders was actually created in 1979, but the GMRMC as a club officially began in 1985. It started with three guys sitting up on a ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near Loch Lomond.
We heard a long time ago that there’s an old Indian burial ground up there, and that’s what our club is based on. We figure we’re up there riding with ghosts, the people who were here before us.
The way it happened was that we were sitting around one evening up under the redwood trees. The Indians used to live up there along with the grizzly bears and all that stuff, in kind of an idyllic existence, ’til Whitey came up and raped the land and took out a lot of the trees. Now a lot of redwoods are protected through selective logging and other things, so we’re enjoying second- and third-growth redwoods, which have captured a lot of the atmosphere of the way things were.
Anyway, we’re enjoying a quiet winter’s evening, sitting up there around a campfire behind my house. Me and my buddy—we’re smoking some, drinking some—and we get to tripping out: “Wow, we’re up here with the ghosts of the Indians past. . .they used to be here!”
“Yeah, we’re hanging around with ghosts!”
“We’re on a ghostly mountain. We ride our motorcycles on this mountain. Yeah, we’re ghost mountain riders!”
Yeah, it started with something stupid like that. Ghost Mountain was never the real name of the place—it’s our name for it. But after a while a T-shirt was made, and the T-shirt thing kind of caught on with several of the guys who lived up there.
Now most of the people who live there have started calling it Ghost Mountain.
GHOST RIDERS, GHOSTRIDERS - There are a lot of Ghost Riders in the skies of the biker world:
One Ghost Riders was established in 1971 in Tennessee—and made the law enforcement map there!
Then there’s the Ghostriders, an AMA club in Northern California.
Established in 1961 is a Ghostriders in Texas, and they are very vehement that they were the first with the Ghostrider spirit—and name: “Nobody tells us nothin’!” They made the map listing down there!
We have a Ghost Riders three-piece-patch sport bike club in Phuket, Thailand, and yet another sport bike herd, the Ghost Ryderz Extreme Motorcycle Club from New York and into the south.
Ghost Riders MC haunts Malaysia and there are Ghost Riders out of Singapore
Man, it’s spooky to think about there being so many Ghost Riders!
GHOST’S - Established in 1989, these Euro-specters are a three-piece-patch club in Hungary.
ESTABLISHED: 1963
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Australia
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Australia
CLAIM TO FAME: Author Arthur Veno credits them with kicking off the one percenter motorcycle club movement in Australia
GLADIATORS - Legend has it that the Gladiators MC, established in 1963, was Australia’s original one percenter motorcycle club. In June 2005, one of the Gladiators got into a bit of a bind for possessing weapons. . .of the type never seen in the Coliseum. The Daily Examiner explained:
A Gladiators Motorcycle Club member was yesterday found guilty of possessing unregistered and prohibited firearms.
A jury found Steven Gardiner, 48, of Kungala, guilty on the charge of possessing one semi-automatic, sawn-off shotgun and four Chinese-made rifles.
The firearms were found in a police search of a storage unit at Hi-Tech Self Storage in Toormina on November 20, 2002. Gardiner, who was the president of the Grafton chapter of the Gladiators at the time, had taken out the lease on the storage unit in his name in October 1999, but in court claimed it had been used by many members of the motorcycle club.
He told the court he had no knowledge of the firearms and suspected he had been set up by a disgruntled member of the bike club or by the police.
The Crown asserted the unit was intended for Gardiner’s personal use and under the Firearms Act he was required to prove he did not know, or could not reasonably be expected to know, the firearms were there.
The jury found Gardiner not guilty of six charges of possessing prohibited weapons.
Gardiner is being held in custody and will be sentenced in the Coffs Harbour District Court today.
There is also a three-piece-patch Gladiators motorcycle club out of Karbach, Bavaria.
GOLDEN DRAKES - Established in “early 1975,” this three-piece-patch motorcycle club was formed in Italy and later expanded into Germany. They have support clubs and reportedly absorbed the Crawling Death MC.
GRAVE DIGGER, GRAVE DIGGERS - Time to exhume some of the clubs that have undertaken to use the Gravedigger name:
I’m sorry, I know I said that there would be no mentions of fictitious clubs, but since we already mentioned the Crucifiers from The Cannonball Run, we need to mention the Grave Diggers MC featured in the 1974 nearly Emmy-winning feature, Stone.
The trailer itself was downright terrifying: “Members of the Grave Diggers Motorcycle Club are being knocked off one by one, and someone needs to find out why!”
Stone was touted as director Sandy Harbutt’s “timeless Australian cult film about a bunch of renegades riding Kawasaki 900s.”
Okay, now back to the real world. There is a living Grave Diggers MC, established in 1980 in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany, and a Grave Digger MC nearby in the Netherlands.
ESTABLISHED: 1994
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Shreveport, Louisiana
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: Louisiana
CLUB COLORS: Gray and Blue
CENTER PATCH: A skull in a Confederate Civil War hat, in front of a Confederate flag
CLAIM TO FAME: Based on the Confederate Raiders, key innovators of guerilla warfare tactics during the Civil War
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: A Bandidos support club
GRAY GHOSTS - Established in 1994 in Shreveport, Louisiana, this motorcycle club is based on “the Confederate Raiders under the command of Colonel John Singleton Moseby. Moseby’s Raiders, as they were often called, were key innovators in the tactics of guerilla warfare during the Civil War.”
The Gray Ghosts are a Bandidos support club and they made the law enforcement map in Louisiana.
GREASY DOGS - Yet another motorcycle club that has made all the lists in New Zealand. In March 2011 the Bay of Plenty Times reported on a big rumble Down Under:
Nine members of the Greasy Dogs motorcycle gang have been fined $500 each following a standoff with rival gang the Filthy Few last month. . . . Police were alerted to tensions between the two gangs about 11.30 am on February 5 after Filthy Few members wearing gang patches rode motorcycles into Matapihi—an area known to be occupied by Greasy Dogs. . . . About 3 pm, about 20 Greasy Dogs members travelled to the Filthy Few gang pad at Birch Ave. An altercation followed between the two groups, during which police say some of the Filthy Few armed themselves with weapons including hammers, a spade and a baseball bat. When police arrived, the Greasy Dogs members began dispersing but 13 were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly.
GREAT SPIRITS - A three-piece-patch club from Japan. They have a really non-PC center patch with a Chief Wahoo–type character with a bloody hatchet!
GREEN MACHINE - A major club in its own right in Southern California and recognized as the main support club for the Vagos.
ESTABLISHED: 1972
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Mannheim, Germany
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: 110 full and prospect chapters, in Austria, Spain, Venezuela, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Thailand, Serbia, Turkey, Chile, and in the Canary Islands
CLUB COLORS: Black and White
CENTER PATCH: Rising sun and a clenched fist stretching up through the clouds
CLAIM TO FAME: Largest motorcycle club in Germany and leading worldwide motorcycle club
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: “We support nobody—but lots support us!”
GREMIUM - Established in 1972 in Mannheim, Germany, this is one of the big dogs in the European motorcycle club landscape. Gremium’s Markus7 gives us their history from the “inside”:
GREMIUM MC
by Marcus7
Press Agent, GMC NRW
In 1972, the Gremium MC was founded in Mannheim, Germany. Today, our club is the biggest MC in Germany and one of the leading MCs in the worldwide biker scene.
Our back patch shows a rising sun and a clenched fist that stretches itself into the sky through the clouds. We changed our colors slightly in 2004, because the patch also had a Celtic Cross that could have been mistaken for the Christian Cross in the Muslim states of the former Yugoslavia. Since then, all members ride under the lettering of their own country and under the Iron Cross between the letters. The only exception to this rule is given to our Polish brothers, because the Iron Cross is not welcome in Poland.
After its foundation, the Gremium MC grew fast and strong like no other MC with German roots. With almost two thousand members and double that number of supporters and friends in Europe, America, Asia, and all over the world, we represent a certain power. The members are organized in more than 110 full and prospect chapters, nationally and internationally. Our brothers are present in Austria, Spain, Venezuela, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Thailand, Serbia, Turkey, Chile, and the Canary Islands. In spite of the immense distances, our club brothers maintain strong relationships to each other and very special friendships.
In 1978, we organized the so-called “Presidents Rally” with the Bones MC, to be a meeting of the German motorcycle clubs, held on the Friesenheimer Insel in Mannheim. In the years 1983, 1986, and 1995, we organized this event on our own.
We organize several annual runs. The biggest runs are the Euro Run (all European and non-European countries are invited) and the NRW Run, which is carried out by the chapters that belong to the German county of Nordrhein-Westfalen. These two events are visited on average by one to four thousand brothers, family members, and friends of the Gremium MC.
Unfortunately, these events are always accompanied by a large police detachment.
Both photos courtesy of Gremium MC
ESTABLISHED: 1958
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Alberta, Canada
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: None
CLAIM TO FAME: Were one of the “big four” in Alberta
CLUB ASSOCIATIONS: Patched over to Hells Angels in 1997
GRIM REAPERS - I know you’re dying to know how many Grim Reapers MCs there are. A few have crooked their fingers at us from the shadows:
Established in 1965, the Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club was established in Louisville, Kentucky, and has expanded into other states. They made the law enforcement map in the Bluegrass State, Illinois, and Tennessee.
In Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the GRMC was established in 1958, growing to be a “dominant club” in the 1970s and 1980s. Reportedly, “along with the Rebels, the Warlords, and King’s Crew, they were once a “big four” in Alberta prior to 1997. In 1997, they became part of the Hells Angels in a patch-over ceremony held in Red Deer, Alberta.”
There is also a Grim Reapers MCC in the UK.
GRINGO’S, GRINGOS - Established in 1988, the Gringo’s MC began in the town of Terhagen, Belgium. There are two other chapters, a nomad chapter and a chapter five thousand miles away in Denver, Colorado.
There is a Gringos MC, Germany—another of the Deutsch Bandidos support clubs.
And there are Gringos in the Netherlands.
GUERRILLEROS - And another of the Harley-hordes of Bandidos support clubs in Germany.
ESTABLISHED: 1932
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Marysville, Tennessee
FOUNDER(S): Lee Simerly
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: U.S., Germany, and Mexico
CLUB COLORS: They wear signature gold-colored cuts
CENTER PATCH: A pickle riding a motorcycle (after being called “the sour pickles of society”)
CLAIM TO FAME: One of the oldest “pioneer clubs” in the world
GYPSY - Established in 1932 in Marysville, Tennessee, by Lee Simerly—making this “pioneer” club one of the more unique in the MC world. With their gold cuts and their “pickle” patch, they really are unlike anyone else out there! The pickle patch itself is one of the first “let’s turn this around on ’em” kinds of statements we see in the biker culture. Much like the one percenter label came to be embraced, the Gypsy center patch of a crazed pickle on a bike was in response to the club being called “the sour pickles of society” by members of that other 99%, long before that little socio-mathematical equation came our way. Their powerhouse really is in Texas but they are in many states and into Germany and Mexico.
GYPSY MOTORCYCLE CLUB—OUTLAW OR FAMILY CLUB?
By Gypsy Raoul
Gypsy history summaries from as early as 1979 suggest that we were once an “outlaw” club, but we reorganized to become an American Motorcycle Association (AMA) or “family” club.
I don’t believe that the Gypsy MC was ever an “outlaw” club in the sense that many clubs are portrayed today—those referred to by law enforcement as OMGs. There was a time, however, when Gypsy member’s behavior and attitudes leaned far more toward “outlaw” than we do now. The club’s transition from a rough-and-tumble, hard-ridin’, hard partyin’ club to our current family orientation didn’t happen overnight; it took a number of years to complete.
When the club was started in 1932, the word “outlaw” was not widely recognized in motorcyclist’s vernacular. It was when those non–AMA-sanctioned events—the “Outlaw Gypsy Tours”—were organized during the post-WWII era that the term was solidified as virtually synonymous with “1%er.”
The Gypsy MC (no relationship to AMA Gypsy Tours, Jackpine Gypsies, or Gypsy Jokers MC) was chartered as a motorcycle club by the AMA as early as 1968, only a couple of years after “Papa Jack”—the son of founder Lee Simerly—established the club in Texas; in fact, Papa Jack, “Blue,” and several other early members competed in AMA flat track races in the late ’60s and early ’70s. The club has maintained an AMA charter ever since, and has never been banned from membership.
As the club grew through the ’60s and ’70s, some clubs, who became known as 1%ers, distanced themselves (through their behavior) from traditional motorcycle clubs. They created the “bikes, booze, and broads” biker lifestyle and adopted outrageous acts like wearing German helmets, swastikas, and various colored “wings.” As time went by, these clubs evolved from this generally harmless antisocial behavior to at least a perceived criminal behavior.
While starting out with the same “bikes, booze, and broads” approach as the early 1%ers, the Gypsy MC maintained the philosophy of having fun instead of creating a business from club activities. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Gypsys included women as patch members, although many were more “associates” than full members. Associate membership for women became a formal membership status in the late 1970s and continued until 2001. Throughout the ’70s, members’ motorcycles ran the gamut from Harleys to British and German bikes, and also included the very popular four-cylinder Hondas.
In the early days in Corpus Christi, the Gyspys rode and hung out with the dominant 1% Texas motorcycle club. The clubs coexisted and many of the members became close friends. However, periodic skirmishes between members of the two clubs were not uncommon. Leadership of both clubs inevitably worked hard to contain these incidents and prevent them from spreading. In those days, the Gypsy MC was just a “good-ole-boys” motorcycle club; members rode their motorcycles, camped at roadside parks, and hosted parties for members, families, and friends. But the majority of our members prepared for the worst; they began riding in groups and many carried weapons wherever they went. This is when Papa Jack recognized that being labeled “outlaw” or 1% would put us in a continual conflict with other 1% clubs.
Jack struggled to lead the club, mostly by example, to maintain diplomatic relations with all clubs and law enforcement throughout the 1970s. But it wasn’t until 1979, following Jack’s marriage to Jaynie Phillips, that a leadership decision was made to make a concerted effort to change our image—to become a “family” club. Many members feel that it was Jaynie’s influence that led Jack to force this change.
In June 1979, Papa Jack called a meeting of his chapter (the Black Rockers) and the other Gypsy chapter presidents to decide the future of the Gypsy MC. Minutes of this meeting indicate that the direction of the club—either outlaw or AMA—was decided by a vote. The forty-to-four outcome was in favor of AMA or family. Jack made a strong statement to the members, especially the leaders, that changes were expected. The meeting minutes stated that colors must be clean, and that International Officers would attend runs in “full uniform” and conduct themselves in a manner becoming a leader. Patches and pins worn on the outside of club colors were limited, and restrictions were placed on wearing outlaw or obscene patches.
Ever since that meeting, the Gypsy MC has held steadfast to establishing the club’s “family lifestyle.” Immediate change is seldom possible; after all, the club had over fifteen years of culture to overcome and many members would have preferred to keep the status quo. But over the years, the Gypsy MC has continued to move closer and closer to a true family club—although we still wear a three-piece-patch, which is the traditional trademark of an “outlaw” motorcycle club.
Papa Jack’s philosophy for influencing the culture of the Gypsy Motorcycle Club was based on priorities: Family first, then Job, and then the Club. It’s this philosophy that has gone a long way towards making the Gypsy Motorcycle Club what it is today.
GYPSY ACES - A Galloping Goose MC support club out of Leavenworth, Kansas.
ESTABLISHED: April 1, 1956 (April Fool’s Day)
PLACE OF ORIGIN: San Francisco, California
FOUNDER(S): Unknown
CHAPTER LOCATIONS: U.S. Pacific Northwest, Australia, Germany, Norway, and South Africa
CLUB COLORS: Black and White
CENTER PATCH: A smiling skull
CLAIM TO FAME: Always on the “lists” of top motorcycle clubs
GYPSY JOKERS - Established on April Fool’s Day, 1956. A true “classic” club that began in San Francisco, was allegedly run out of ’Frisco by the Angels, and settled in the Pacific Northwest in 1967. Expansion took them into Australia, Germany, Norway, and South Africa. They make the “lists” in Australia and they made the law enforcement map in Oregon and Washington.
