# Sonny Barger **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 6, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305 "2005-07-06T16:44:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305/1 "2005-07-06T16:44:44Z")
The infamous Hell’s Angel has his own [website](http://sonnybarger.com/index3.html). I can’t imagine why this would surprise me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Surb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Surb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Surb)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305/2 "2005-07-06T17:24:55Z")
What? Sonny’s cool. Read his book. He never did anything wrong, it’s all their word against his. He’s been a **perfect** Angel. Ok, I realize he’s possibly :rolleyes: a criminal, but ya gotta give the guy some credit, he’s not boring and has balls the size of Toledo. Supposedly he’s mellowed and living right with the world. I wanted to go to his book signing in South Bend (I was invited by one of the Angels I met) but chickened out when none of my buddies would go with me. I didn’t want my ass kicked for riding a Goldwing. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305/3 "2005-07-06T18:30:25Z")
Shit. Everyone has their own website. I’d be more surprised if he didn’t have one. ---
**Author:** ![Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meaty_Beaty_Big_and_Bouncy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305/4 "2005-07-06T18:30:38Z")
> [@](#): > > I didn’t want my ass kicked for riding a Goldwing. I read somewhere that Barger said he believes that Honda motorcycles are more powerful and dependable than Harley-Davidsons and would have been a better choice for outlaws. Or the Angel you met might have been setting you up to take an ass-kickin **because** you ride a Goldwing. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305/5 "2005-07-07T00:20:02Z")
When I first moved to Phoenix I was riding around with a friend in Scottsdale and he pointed in the rearview and said, “See that guy on the motorcycle behind us? That’s Sonny Barger.” Having read a book about the Hell’s Angels a few years earlier, I knew exactly who he was, but couldn’t quite discern if that was really him or not. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305/6 "2005-07-07T07:53:42Z")
Yeah, his autobiography will make you laugh and cringe all at once, but it’s an interesting read. He’s definitely not a model citizen, as shown by the rap sheet he thoughtfully included as an appendix in the book. But it’s also true that bikers do get some unwarranted persecution just for being bikers. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonny-barger/311305/7 "2005-07-07T08:09:33Z")
> [@Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy](#): > > I read somewhere that Barger said he believes that Honda motorcycles are more powerful and dependable than Harley-Davidsons and would have been a better choice for outlaws. Or the Angel you met might have been setting you up to take an ass-kickin **because** you ride a Goldwing. Straight from “Hell’s Angel,” one of my favorite books: > [@Sonny Barger](#): > > “In terms of pure workmanship, personally I don’t like Harleys. I ride them because I’m in the club, and that’s the image, but if I could I would seriously consider riding a Honda ST1100 or a BMW. We really missed the boat not switching over to the Japanese models when they began building bigger bikes. I’ll usually say, fuck Harley-Davidson. You can buy an ST1100 and the motherfucker will do 110 miles per hour right from the factory all day long…while it’s probably too late to switch over now, it would have been a nice move, because Japanese bikes today are so much cheaper and better built. However, Japanese bikes don’t have as much personality.”