Are the Hell’s Angels still numerous in rank and riding regularly, or have their numbers thinned out due to fewer people willing to make the commitment?
My impression is that most riders today are recreational cyclists who put on their decorative gear a few times a week on nice days and maybe participate in some runs every year, and fewer people are interested in living to ride. Has the motorcycle become another item of conspicuous consumption enveloped by Yuppie culture, or are the outlaws still thriving?
I met Sonny Barger a few years back. We used him to promote our new guitar product and his book.
I had an interesting chat with him for about half an hour, during which time he carefully explained his views about black people and homosexuals. I thought it best not to argue given that he was surrounded by four very large, leather clad Hell’s Angels.
In retrospect, I don’t think much would have happened had I said something. He’s a fairly nasty piece of work but I expect it’s more bark than bite.
Anyway, in answer to the OP, they still exist and, curiously, are more active in the UK than anywhere else (according to him). I think that they still have that annual meet at Longleat (or some other stately home).
It’s my understanding that they have an outer personna and an inner personna. You ain’t gonna find out about the inner personna unless you patch with them. You will find that they’re still outlaws, but the original members have mellowed. They are shrewd businessmen and have gobs of money.
Sonny’s bite is worse than his bark, from everything I’ve read. He’s done time for blowing up the Outlaw’s clubhouse. He is NOT a nice guy, although he sometimes appears that way on tv.
I used to have a Triumph (which similarly to the Triumph of God could be heard all over the land), and to get it fixed I used to use a satanic mechanic from the Wessex HAs.
Well, they had a shoot-out at Harrah’s in Laughlin a couple of years back. It was with a rival gang called the Mongols who my dealer (cards not drugs) described as “a bunch of LA pussys who rode in on a bus towing their bikes.” :eek:
I think the mystique of the Angels comes from their existence on the borderlines of life; the rest of us want to imagine that they are basically stand-up guys who booze it up and get rowdy, but will respect you if you respect them. The fascination lies in how much of this view still holds up the more you learn about them.
And the answer to that is “not much”, based on this and other threads.
The thing I don’t get, though, is this: why and when did the Angels, and the other big “outlaw” clubs, get to be violent criminals? I don’t see how just riding around on bikes–even if you “live to ride”–necessarily leads to that. I think the answer may be that early prominent club leaders, including Barger, had definite violent tendencies, and left a permanent stamp on the Hells Angels, and the other large clubs as well.
Many years ago, I had a casual friend who owned a Harley repair shop in Santa Cruz, CA. He employed a mechanic who built some really great choppers and who had ties to the Oakland HAs. The shop got to be kind of HA hangout, whenever they graced Santa Cruz with their presence. It cost the guy some business, but he never even thought about asking them not to come by. He once said that when they did stop by, he hoped for the best and expected total destruction.
