NA KUA ANA - One of that small “Ocean’s Eleven” of motorcycle clubs to make it onto the law enforcement map in the Hawaiian Islands.
NEW ATTITUDES - A national clean and sober three-piece-patch motorcycle club that did make it onto the law enforcement map in Michigan. Also “Outlaws M/C Affiliated.”
NEW BREED - Established in 1970, a three-piece patch motorcycle club in Rochester, New York. A “classic” club that talks about the good ol’ days “when you pulled up to a hotel or restaurant and they would close or call the cops.”
NEW BREED is also a clean and sober motorcycle club out of Missouri.
NEW ZEALAND NOMADS - Another of the clubs from “The Gangs in New Zealand” list. Reportedly they “split” from Black Power in 1977.
NIGHT RIDERS - Established in 1975, a three-piece-patch club with chapters throughout Germany.
NIGHT WOLVES - Established in 1983, a massive motorcycle club with chapters in Russia, Latvia, and beyond. This club was established right in the middle of Soviet oppression of the lifestyle. At that same time, illegal rock concerts began that the government regarded as “anti-Soviet,” with mass fights following most of the events. On one side was the militia, “directed by the System,” on the other side were the bikers protecting the musicians—the Night Wolves were there.
NISKA - A Scandinavian club that was right smack dab in the middle of the Great Nordic Biker wars.
NOMADEN - Established in 1983, our first Nomaden MC is a three-piece-patch club out of Germany. And then there is a U.S. Nomaden MC that made the law enforcement map in Arizona.
NOMADS - The name “nomad” has some very cutting meanings within the motorcycle club culture. A nomad in any club is often considered an “enforcer”—one who has the time, energy, and desire to be constantly mobile, checking things out throughout the family. Making sure everything is cool. It’s one of those names—one of those words and/or phrases, like Filthy Few—that can be a club name or a very specific designation.
In terms of a name, there are a few Nomads:
In Australia, among the scooter-stew that is the crazed collection of Down Under clubs, the Nomads may not be the biggest but they do command a presence.
Established in 1983, there is a Nomads MC in Germany (with a totally different patch than the Nomadens, also founded in Germany the same year).
There is an Asian Nomad MC in Thailand and Norway.
Established in 1966 in South Africa, there is a club that is “the largest and longest established motorcycle club in Cape Town, if not the Republic. . . . the past and present members have reason to be proud of the Club’s record, and hopefully the ‘Winged Boot’ will continue as the symbol of all that Nomads has stood for in the past—for yet another 44 years—and beyond.”
NO NAME - Established in 1972 in Gladsaxe, Denmark, under the celebrated name Satan’s Slaves. “We changed the name to NNMC as a contrast to all the other clubs with colorful names.”
This really is a big club with chapters throughout Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Poland, along with support clubs.
NORSEMEN - More Viking influence sails into clubs.
One is a motorcycle club in Northern California.
There is a long, long-lived racing club of that name out of Minnesota that was founded back when Kennedy was president.
The Norsemen Motorcycle Club in Drammen, Norway, is a “hangaround” club for the Red and White.
NO SPEED LIMIT - Another of the Scandinavian MCs caught up in the complexity that was the Great Nordic Biker Wars of the 1990s.
NOTORIOUS - We just finished the Nomads part of this list but we can add one more piece. First off, Notorious is an MC based in Sydney, Australia. They’re an MC, but not all members ride motorcycles. Their patch is a “turbaned skull brandishing twin pistols with ‘Original Gangster’ beneath it, with the motto ‘Only the dead see the end of war.’”
They are considered by law enforcement to be “one of Australia’s most dangerous gangs” and have had a scuffle or two with the Angels and the Bandidos.
Here’s where Australia’s Nomads come in: Notorious was established in 2007 “by senior members and associates of the Nomads after their Parramatta Nomads branch was disbanded.”
According to police, Notorious members are “sometimes called ‘Nike bikies,’ for wearing expensive sneakers, fashionable t-shirts, being clean shaven, and listening to RnB, Hip Hop, and Rap music, in contrast to the traditional bikie image of dirty jackets, leather boots, and beards.” Police have also named “John Ibrahim, a celebrity Nightclub entrepreneur, and his three brothers Sam, Fadi, and Michael Ibrahim as senior members of Notorious. Allan Sarkis has been named as the president of Notorious but Police believe Sam Ibrahim formed the gang and is the driving force behind it. Ibrahim denies creating Notorious but admits knowing its members.”
NUGGETS - Established in 1962, the Nuggets are indeed a “classic” club. They were founded at the Nugget Bar in Buena Park, California. Their patch (originally worn on a serape) is a beer-drinking rabbit on a motorcycle and it was representative, in a festively graphic way, of the “three things Nuggets like to do—fuck like a rabbit, drink beer & ride motorcycles.” In the early 1970s, North Iowa and Grants Pass, Oregon, chapters were started.
The club has always been known for its’ ability to throw a party! Its “beer truck” became more than legendary.
They express certain laments about the changing times: “Now the ‘new generation’ biker is among us. New clubs starting every day; women clubs, Christian clubs, sober clubs, military clubs, union clubs, cop clubs, hell. . .there might even be a gay cop club. . . . but the Nuggets still maintain the same values and traditions they had when the club was started.”
They are just celebrating their forty-seventh anniversary!
NUMBER THREE - A three-piece-patch club out of Austria. Their diamond patch carries a “#3.”
OAKLAND PANTHERS - While not exactly an everyday name in the motorcycle club world, this club has a mark in history that is carved in deep. It was the first motorcycle club that Sonny Barger joined. And more than that, the lack of a true brotherhood among the “bunch of kids” in the Oakland Panthers proved to be the fire that would help temper this entire lifestyle into the hard house that it is. Sonny wanted much more from any club that he was in—and he got it.
ODIN’S WARRIORS - Australia’s Odin’s Warriors MC is another piece in the huge puzzle that is the “Island Continent’s” biker culture. Besides making most of the “lists” of “gangs in Australia,” the club had to do battle in court in 2010 to try and save their clubhouse and property from demolition for the $8.2 billion Cross River Rail project.
The trial, once again, brought up a separate litigious issue in Australia—the government’s enactment of laws designed to outlaw motorcycle clubs altogether.
OLD BONE - A club created to preserve the legacy of Bones MC, Germany, after it merged with the Hells Angels.
OLD COYOTES - Established in 2002 in Finland. Members’ rides are limited to Harley-Davidson and Triumph.
OLD SCHOOL RIDERS - The term “old school” may not be up there in the biker leather-lexicon like Nomads and Filthy Few, but it does apply to the vintage elements of a lot of our “classic” clubs. Ironically, a couple of clubs that have taken that historical handle for a name are not quite in that seasoned sector.
There is an Old School Riders MC in Chicago.
And then there is the Old School Riders in Southern California. We all know that from time to time this lifestyle has produced its share of issues and even some hard violence at times, but in June 2009 at a charity event being held by the Old School Riders a real head-shaker occurred. The Pasadena Star-News saw it like this:
Detectives tried to make sense Sunday of a pizza parlor shooting that left three men dead & seven people wounded during a charity fund-raiser. The names of those killed were not released Sunday evening pending notification of family members, coroner’s officials said. Two of the dead men were cousins. The attack occurred about 6:45 p.m. on Saturday in front of Falcone’s Pizza. . . . Officials believe the Old School Riders MC was holding a charity event in the eatery’s parking lot when a male Hispanic adult opened fire. . . . About a dozen children were present when the shooting occurred, Sheehy said. “It was very lucky no kids were hit”. . . he Old School Riders has no gang affiliation, & Falcone’s Pizza is not a gang hangout. . . . [Old School Riders] described its members as “ordinary people who enjoy the freedom of riding”. . . “We are just friends & family who gather together & ride.”
OLD SHARPERS - The Melnä un Sudraba (Black and Silver), established in 2002, is a three-piece-patch one percent motorcycle club in Kevaka, Latvia.
OMERTA - Another of the German support clubs for the Red and Gold.
OSHKOSH ACES - Established in 1928 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at National Cycle—an Oshkosh Harley-Davidson dealership—by Clarence Robl and Carl Reigh. One of our “pioneer” clubs, the Aces had a bit of a lull in “activity” between the late 1950s and 2000, when it enjoyed a resurgence, restart, and regrouping by four friends, one of whom found an early period club shirt at a rummage sale. They managed to find one of the originals and even though he has aged just a little, “he still rides with the best.”
OUTCAST - Established in 1969 in Detroit, Michigan—a “classic” club. This “all Black male” motorcycle club made the law enforcement map in Michigan and Illinois. They have a very somber mission statement: “This Motorcycle Club was founded by strong black men who actively participated and served their communities during the riots that had taken place during the Civil Rights Movement. Like many other historically black organizations, our founding members realized the importance for men of African descent to be able to stand together and unite as one. For this we take great pride and we offer no apologies.”
The club made the law enforcement map in Michigan and Wisconsin and has other chapters nationally.
OUTCASTS - Established in 1989, the Outcasts in France were founded by three former members of the Alabama Riders MC Bordeaux.
There was also a UK Outcasts club that was patched over to the Outlaws MC many years ago.
And there is a New Zealand Outcasts MC in Hamilton.
OUTLAWS - Established in 1935 as the McCook Outlaws Motorcycle Club in McCook, Illinois, near Chicago. They are the oldest of the Big Four, Big Five, “top ten,” or any other list that anyone may stick them on. And they have their own lists—like a list of the influence they have had on the biker world. Their back patch alone—a design of a skull and crossed pistons—was inspired in the 1950s by Brando’s leather in The Wild One and is one of the purest biker images seen in this lifestyle. They designed the AMA parody patch, a similar design to the AMA’s logo but with a hand flipping the bird and the letters “AOA” (American Outlaws Association) instead of “AMA.”
In 1963, they became “the first true 1%er club east of the Mississippi” by becoming “an official member of the 1%er Brotherhood of Clubs.”
For one of the big dogs, they have been a bit like the Pagans in that their media exposure has not been near what the Red and White or the Red and Gold has been. There haven’t been the shelves and shelves of infiltration books and exposés. But the main media that has touched the Outlaws has all been good. There have been four books of vintage and contemporary photographs, three of which have not only chronicled the Outlaws specifically, but have really served as an overall time capsule for the “classic” era in the lifestyle—the 1960s.
Danny Lyon’s The Bikeriders, with photos that would make James Dean look like a square and period text that’s even hipper, is a gold—I mean, black and white—mine of the way it was. It’s an exercise in “FTW” long before that patch and axiom were diluted by a bit too much mainstream exposure. First published in 1968 and re-released in 2003, this book may actually scare some people. This stuff is so, so real.
Michael H. Upright’s 1999 release, One Percent, pays homage to Lyon’s laying of a groundwork and seems to take up where he left off—several decades and a few generations later.
Beverly Roberts’ collections of her Outlaws father’s photos from the 1960s are right up there with Lyon’s as pure treasures of this lifestyle’s history. Her Portraits of American Bikers book series, using the original large-format negatives from the brilliant work of Jim “Flash” Miteff, are more of the “good” media enjoyed by the Outlaws and examples of what can be done by simply showing the truth—without having to build media projects on entrapment operations and disgruntled, pissed-off ex-club members.
OUTSIDER(S) - We’re going to bring some of the clubs with the Outsiders name inside where we can take a quick look at their histories:
First are the Outsiders up in the Pacific Northwest. A “classic” club, established in 1968. They made it onto the law enforcement map in Oregon and Washington.
They, too, have become a club very active in bikers’ rights politics. Outsider “Double D” was instrumental in getting the state of Washington to enact an anti-profiling law that just may protect us from those all-too-familiar you-must-be-doing-something-wrong-because-you’re-bearded-and-in-leather-and-on-a-Harley hits.
Their serape-style cuts set them a bit outside the norm, too!
Second is a huge international club, established 1973. This diamond-patch, full 1% Outsider MC stretches from Austria to Germany to the Philippines to Thailand.
There’s an Outsiders MC in Pennsylvania.
And an Outsiders MC, “official support club for the 81,” in Holland.
OVERKILL - With its place in the history of the Great Nordic Biker Wars, Overkill was also a player in the foundation of the Black Heads MC when, in 1991, seven former Overkill members began the BHMC. There is also a three-piece-patch motorcycle club out of Brazil with the Overkill name, established in 2009.
OVERNUKE - A Scandinavian motorcycle club highly involved in the Great Nordic Biker Wars.
OZARK RIDERS - Established in 2001 in Arkansas, this Bandidos support club made the law enforcement map in the Natural State.
PACOTEROS - The Pacoteros MC is a Bandidos support club out of New Mexico. They made it onto the law enforcement map in the land of Enchantment!
PAGANS - The nuts and bolts of the Pagans is that they were established in 1959 by Lou Dobkins in Prince George’s County, Maryland. And they have been one of the Big Five (and the Big Four before that) for as long as there have been lists. The chrome washers behind the nuts and bolts see the Pagans as the most low-profile of the major-leaguers. Their expanse—and expansion—is minimal, especially internationally where they are the only one of the Big Five without an outside-the-U.S. presence. Their denim cuts (without a traditional bottom territory rocker, but with a center patch of the Norse fire-giant, Surtr or “Surt”) are seen up and down the East Coast.
Thirty-two years ago, the Pagans, rode into Ohio. My friend who prefers to remain anonymous (“for a number of reasons,” according to him and his sometimes well-founded paranoia). It’s his story, and stories like it, that are just never forgotten. They’re the tales-over-a-beer that anyone who has been riding any amount of time has. Especially anyone who has ridden with a club:
I was heading to Youngstown, Ohio, for a brother’s wake with about ninety Pagans. Being the Road Captain, I was told to “get to Youngstown and give a call for directions.” It was seven a.m. when we rolled in, and it had been a long night! We made three hundred miles, stopping to pick up five chapters on the way.
We pulled off the highway for gas and I made the call. “Fat Cat” asked, of course, where we were. I told him I was at a phone booth (there were no cells in those days, for all of you too young to remember that!) near the Boron gas station, at exit such-and-such. There was silence on the other end. Finally he asked if there was a three-story building across the street.
Gypsy Raoul
“Does it have twelve-foot walls and barbed wire all around?” he inquired further.
“Yes. . .”
“I guess you don’t know that that’s the Outlaws’ clubhouse. . .”
At the same time, we both said, “We need to get the hell outta here!”
He gave me some real quick directions and it turned out we were only about thirty miles from where we needed to be. I ran back to the gas station screaming that we had only thirty miles to go. . .we can make it! Let’s go! We’re late!
When we showed up, Fat Cat came up to me and asked, “Well?”
I told him we got out fast and I was sure phones were ringing all over Ohio. We agreed to keep this little issue between us, and we’ve done just that—until now! That was thirty-two years ago when there was a disagreement or two going on between the clubs!
Other than Gangland’s hit on the Pagans in their 2009 “Devil’s Fire” episode, the main media reach into Pagan’s history has been John Hall’s 2008 book Riding On the Edge: A Motorcycle Outlaw’s Tale. Like the vintage photo books centered on the Outlaws that make a statement far beyond that of just one club, Hall’s book is a look into so many parts of this culture, not just the Pagans—again in the never-dull 1960s.
PAN HANDLERS - Established in 1978, the Pan Handlers are just one of five motorcycle clubs to make the law enforcement map in Alaska! They sponsor a big toy run every year (a toy run in Alaska. . .in December?).
PARA DICE RIDERS - Another of the clubs shuffled into the long history of motorcycle clubs—and their conflicts—in Canada. Reportedly, the club was absorbed by the Hells Angels in 2001.
This club has a lineage that includes being integral to the establishment of the Outlaws MC Midlands in 1992, as nine former members and one prospect became the Outlaws Leicester chapter.
There is also a Pariah Nomad MC, established in 2004 in Texas.
PATRIOT LEGION - A three-piece-patch club out of Tartu, Estonia.
PATRIOTS - Established in 1995 (with the permission of a club with the same name in Australia). This is a serious motorcycle club for “veteran and current members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces MC throughout the UK.” The club does not allow law enforcement officers, as opposed to a U.S. club with the same name out of the Midwest that does allow them.
PAWNEES - “The White and Black,” a monster three-piece-patch motorcycle club throughout Spain and beyond.
PEACEMAKERS - There are a few motorcycle clubs keeping the peace out there.
One is a three-piece-patch motorcycle club out of Northern California in the Hayward area (or “Nickel and Dime, CA” as they call it).
There’s a family club out of Rochester, New York.
And a club out of Tennessee.
PECKERWOODS - A familiar motorcycle club throughout the San Diego area that made the law enforcement map in California.
PHANTOM LORDS - An East Coast motorcycle club that made it onto the law enforcement map in Massachusetts and Connecticuit. Back in 2003 there was another law enforcement hurdle they had to deal with. The Outsider News reported:
It’s a bad time to be a biker in a motorcycle club.
The Phantom Lords in Enfield are temporarily out of a clubhouse. The Nordic Lords were pushed out of Manchester because of a zoning violation. The Hartford Hells Angels had to move their spring party from Suffield to East Hartford and then finally held it in East Windsor.
And the Viet Nam Vets Motorcycle Club in South Windsor, which state law enforcement officers agree has no criminal element to it, has been ordered to cease its clubhouse activities.
As the spring and summer riding season commences, state and local law enforcement agencies are sharing information and making it difficult for these clubs to operate.
Members of some of the state’s 20 or so small clubs are crying foul, arguing that law enforcement is erring on the side of enforcement, leaving the law behind.
What’s worse, they say, is that while they’re used to what they call “nuisance stops” by police, they’re not used to being hounded by building and zoning officials.
PHANTOMS - Began as a car club in the 1950s, switching to a 1%, diamond-patch motorcycle club in 1962; a “classic” club from the 1960s that has “survived the bad times, along with the good times and will continue to do so.”
There are two Phantoms in the shadows.
One is a Bandidos support motorcycle club throughout Texas.
Another is a three-piece-patch club out of Russia.
There have also been other clubs using the name “Phantoms” as seen in the vintage cut above.
PIRATES - Established in 2003, this is a full-on diamond-patch 1% club out of Slovakia.
PIT BULLS - Established in 1994, this is a three-piece-patch club taking bites out of the Czech Republic.
PISTOLEROS - This Bandidos support club made the law enforcement map in Mississippi and Alabama.
(There are three Pistoleros, Bandidos support clubs in France, and there is a law enforcement motorcycle club, Los Pistoleros, established in 1972, in Texas.)
P.O.B.O.B. - The Pissed-Off Bastards of Bloomington (Southern California) is one of our “pioneer” clubs that’s always mentioned right along with the Market Street Commandos and the Boozefighters as having been in Hollister in 1947 at the “birth of the American Biker.” And beyond that, their “pioneer” rank intensifies in that they are the recognized roots of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. As the club disbanded, former members of the P.O.B.O.B.s—Arvid Olsen, Otto Friedl, and others—went on to form the HAMC in 1948. Now known as the Pissed-Off Bastards of Berdoo, the club has chapters in Southern California and Northern Nevada.
POPEYES - Another of those clubs in the mix of the maelstrom that was the club shuffles in the formative years of Canada’s motorcycle club growth. Reportedly, the Popeyes were the club that essentially became the HAMC Quebec.
POTFAT - Established in 1998 in Gevgelija County, Macedonia. Their first “P” was Lazar. Potfat is “the first backpatch club and the only MC in Macedonia.”
At the beginning, there were two chapters in Potfat MC, one in Skopje, and one in Gevgelija. Today, Skopje is the city that most of the members are from, and stays as a hometown of Potfat.
PRAIRIE RATTLERS - A Sons of Silence support club based out of Williston, North Dakota.
PREDADORES - A Bandidos support club in Thailand.
PREDATORS - We’ve tracked down at least three Predators MCs.
There is a diamond-patch 1% club in Sedgemoor in the UK.
There are Predators in Norway.
And there is a “Predators Motorcycle Association” in Alabama.
PRIVATEERS - Established in 2001, a one percent motorcycle club out of the Caribbean with a great center patch—Cap’n Jack Sparrow meets Captain America.
PROMETHEUS - Established in 1985 in North Dakota. This motorcycle club turns a curve when it comes to the usual types of charities most motorcycle clubs support—this club chose not to support the standard causes against disease and for those less fortunate. No. Prometheus supports charities that focus on animal protection.
PROSCRITOS - A three-piece-patch, diamond-patch 1% motorcycle club out of Spain. Supporters of Forajidos MC.
PSYCHO MENTAL SLUTS - Okay, we’re going to mention one more all-female motorcycle club. These babes are out of the UK and they have a couple of compelling mottos: “My liver is evil, I must kill it” and “P.M.S.F.T.W.” (Psycho Mental Sluts Fuck The World).