Story time: a buddy of mine’s daughter answered an ad selling a camping trailer. She asked her dad to go check it out and see if it was worth buying. My buddy goes to the address and it turned out to be the H.A. clubhouse. He was like “nope” and drove right past. Told his daughter that he looked the trailer over and didn’t think she should buy it. She calls him up later and says she decided to go ahead and get it, could he please go pick it up for her? So he goes back over to the clubhouse, meets the gentleman selling the trailer who tells him “Your daughter is something else - she walked right up here with a wad of cash in her pocket like no big deal” and how impressed he was with her and they had a chuckle about how cool she is.
So yeah, there’s a clubhouse around here. They’ve been in this area for a number of years, used to have an old schoolhouse as their clubhouse but that was sold and now it looks like a pleasant home.
They are not gone. Not the Angels or any of the rest. They just keep low profile these days.
When I raced in the now defunct AHDRA,there were plenty of HA’s participating. All in Top Fuel and ProFuel, the two fastest (read badass) classes. Chicago Joe and Ron Houneit were two notables. With crew and posse they were well represented. Fun to party with, but don’t get stupid.
No HA chapters in Oregon, but Seattle has a chapter and I believe one in Spokane. BC has several chapters and they are vey active in Eastern Canada. Portland/Vancouver(WA) has Brother Speed, Outlaws, Banditos and rumors of Mongols. An Outlaw member was found not guilty in the 1979 killing of a Portland Police officer.
Canada and Australia have been cracking down and that’s where the most headlines come from lately. Jst because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they are gone.
In the DFW area it’s mainly Booze Fighters. (my cousin is President of one of the local chapters… something the family is not all that proud of.)
Don’t think I’ve seen any HA colors here.
Over the last 25 years I’ve been to a few (perhaps 4 or 5) gatherings, always invited by my cousin. Sometimes at a bar and others at someones house. They are fun to party with and for the most part they’re not interested in messing with you.
But, to echo what other posters have said…
1.) Be respectful (I don’t mean be a suckup… just be respectful, especially if you have a difference of opinion on some matter.)
2.) Never think you’re part of the club, because you’re not.
I did have a somewhat funny incident about 20 years ago. It was the night of a big PPV fight and the wife and I are sitting on the couch watching TV when we hear a MC pull into the driveway followed shortly by the doorbell. I open the door to find a good sized guy in typical club gear. He smiles and says something about being here for the fight. I tell him he’s got the wrong address and he thinks I’m kidding. Still smiling he says ‘c’mon man’ and takes a step inside. I stiffed arm him in the chest and pushed him back out and repeated you’ve got the wrong address. He became very apologetic and was clearly embarrassed. I figured he was looking for a neighbor that lived at the end of the street so I pointed him that direction. He got on his bike and drove away. : phew :
Sometimes that Marge is one smart lady.
Two things to add in:
Quite a few years back I was at a black-powder shoot/buckskin rendezvous when a fair number (35+ bikes) of patch-holding bikers from another state rode in late in the day. It was a bigger name club most folks would put down as “outlaws” — at least they popped up on FBI reports of such things. The guy running the Dog-soldier Lodge (camp police) knew I was a rider and worked in a shop so he chased me down to get my opinion. I told him it was probably a safe situation as long as both sides showed some common sense and respect since most of the guys had Old Ladies or Mamas along. My experience was that a war party don’t pack the ladies behind. Things were friendly; they were good guests and some of the guys let them try some rounds at our games. Then their officers approached a couple of ours with a problem; they were on their way home from a bigger national motorcycle event and had booked a campground — that decided simply not to honor the reservation when they found out is was a “gang”. A couple other campgrounds and motels had turned them away as well. Was there any chance we could let them pitch their tents on our property? That ball got dropped right in my lap. :smack:
I got all the various officers together (ours and theirs) and said basically three things.
The bikers get their own area off by where we allowed “modern” campers when needed.
If anyone had any dope or anything else clearly illegal, it stay out of sight. Some of our people are real-life police officers trying to enjoy their free time. They didn’t need to see anything they didn’t want to see.
All the officers let everyone involved know ---- these (both theirs and ours) are different worlds. Be respectful of that fact.
Everything went terrific with some visiting back and forth to our camp. And the bikers appreciated being welcomed and bailed out enough that they made (well the ladies did most of the work) breakfast for the entire camp the next morning before they hit that last leg home. I think it made good memories all around.
Second thing: I have been able to attend a couple of the Bean Blossom BikerFests in Indiana. Not a lot of patch-holders but some ------ and some from clubs that don’t really get along well with each other. With the thousands of drunk/stoned/other people and everything else I have never seen a fight there or so much as a push. Their security team makes it very clear that any sign of violence will be dealt with NOW and for sure. End of discussion. No exceptions. State HOG (Harley Owners Group) things I’ve attended have had more violence than Bean Blossom. Heck – I’ve been at more violent church picnics. In the motorcycle world, patches don’t matter when it comes down to potential problems; what makes the difference is the skill and dedication of the organizers. Great people on that and peace and happiness will result every time.
Kopek, that’s some great stories. And yes, it’s amazing what can happen when people can be of different situations but like minds.
FWIW I’ve known a few “outlaw” bikers in my time. Sometimes the biggest toughest looking guys have the kindest hearts … that being said, I try to treat everyone with respect and I didn’t push and I didn’t ask questions. “Live and let live” can go a long way.
There’s no doubt there’s bad actors in every walk of life, but most people just want to do their thing and not be hassled and not hassle anyone else neither.
There’s some in Denver Metro…and a lot of people that like to play dress up. My general take is to live and let live, and the rare ones with a 1% patch…give them a wide berth because nothing fun could POSSIBLY come from finding out of it’s an earned patch or not. They either have a reputation, or want to build a reputation, and man, I’ve just got better things to do.
Most of my experience on the road has been positive. They’re on bike’s, I’m on a bike, it’s all good. Some folks, you can tell, this is their life and they spent all they could on it. They’re deaf, look like raisins, and have been friendly.
I must be going to the wrong places, because the gals that hang out on the motorcycle covers and centerfolds don’t seem to be where I’m at.
Being respectful keeps coming up. What common things would an HA member consider disrespectful? Does the HA have a wider conception of what is considered disrespectful?
I was at some restaurant/truck stop in AL when I saw a fellow wearing a Booze Fighters tee shirt there with his family. Wife, kids, parents, etc. Surprised me as I never thought the BFs went that far East. Remember those newspaper,magazine stories about the M/C club taking over that town in CA? Before Brando was the Wild One? Those were the Booze Fighters and the photographers helped them post for those photos.
I asked an Angel that once. He replied that if I needed to ask, I was never going to get one. As a group they are protective of their secrets, and as part of my plan to hopefully die of old age I just went with that.
I’m not touching the respect issue except to say that if you treat an Angel the same way a smart person treats an on-duty cop who just pulled them over, you’ll be fine. Don’t be a suck up, just be polite and be aware that this person is taking absolutely none of your shit.
