'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!

Subject: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 02:08 PM

Just heard on the news that after several "Biker gang negotiations" (only two bars were blown up) The "Hell's Angels" are now the official "Bikers of Choice" in Ontario.

Now I don't mind Catspaw gettin' mad at me for likin' Andy Kauffman, or even a scuffle with the "Conservative Cavalry" (see thread of same name) but I'll be damned if I'll make jokes about the "Angels", 'cause I saw the Altamount film.

Anyone here ever been a "Biker"? I have a Raleigh ten-speed.

Rick

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Ribbit
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 02:19 PM

Here in the states the bikers are in very much in danger of being overrun and supplanted by the new wave terror of " The Scooters."
Thom

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 02:27 PM

It's no joke, Rick. Rape is a mandatory initiation rite for Hell's Angels; people should be warned not to go near them.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: GUEST,Steve Latimer
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 02:54 PM

Rick,

Apparently they've been in Canada for a quite a while. They are half of the problem that they have been having in the Quebec Biker Wars, the Rock Machine are the ones that they have been warring with. I think that they've been on the West Coast for quite some time too.

I know that the Durham Police have been carefully monitoring their movements out this way as they seem to think that they will make Durham their base as it is handy to both Toronto and Montreal.

Well, there goes the Neighbourhood.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Homeless
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 03:33 PM

Yes, Rick. For a while a few years back I rode a '66 Sportster ("the last of the shakers") and frequented places in which there were a large number of bikers. I was on speaking terms with about half the local chapter of the Hell's Angels. Went to a couple large parties where members of over a dozen different motorcycle clubs from all over the southeast attended. In all that time I never saw any violence.

Yeah, bikers have a bad reputation, and there are some of them that are really rough. But "bikers" are just like any other group out there - there are a few "good" ones, a few "bad" ones, and whole lot that aren't one way or the other. A basic rule of thumb is don't go out of your way to make trouble for them and they'll leave you alone.

An good book to read, if you can find it, is called "Three can keep a secret if two are dead." It's a history of the HA, with chapters about the other big three in the states. However, only about half of it is true - it was written by someone involved in law enforcement, so some of what is written is stretched, twisted, or fabricated. It does go into what happened at Altamont, and causes and effects of that. Interesting read.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Barry Finn
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 03:47 PM

There's a world of difference between a club & a gang. Barry

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 03:59 PM

Many years ago, I packed up my bike and headed for the Gypsy Tour up in Gilford, NH. This even started in 1908 and draws motorcyclists from around the US. This particular year, 10,000 bikes showed up even though there was talk that a group of Hells Angels were on their way from California to participate. The rumor had even made the front page of The Nashua (NH) Telegraph.

Ten thousand motorcyles. It is hard to imagine how much, how many that is. When you consider that many of these bikes were "2-up" and that there were a lot of people who came in cars, this was a big event.

Rainmaker and I joined the northward bound stream of motorcycles. The density of bikes on the road increased rapidly as we got closer to Gilford as the secondary roads fed their bikers into the main stream.

Only those most unfamiliar with motorcycles and their riders would have confused Rainmaker and I with the so-called "One Percenters", the small number of bikers who cause problems, we were riding BMWs. Although there were few BMWs in the flow, most of the riders looked like people out to have a good, perhaps rowdy, time but not people to be afraid of. And in fact, in the preceding fifty-seven years, there had never been any real trouble. The Gypsy Tour was considered a family event.

One of the features of the Gypsy Tour is a series of races by professional motorcylists at a well known track in the area. I can't remember the name but International automobile road races are held there and the best drivers in the world have raced on this two and a half mile or so track.

Rainmaker and I found a good place to watch the races from, at a curve. We took a lot of photos, talked with some of the people around us, and generally enjoyed the companionship, excitement, noise, but especially the sheer number of motorcycles. Everywhere you looked there were bikes parked. There were bikes from Utah, Alaska, Georgia. There were stock bikes fresh from the showroom, antique bikes, custom bikes. There were bikes there that I had never seen before like a Vincent and an Ariel square four.

Later in the afternoon, when the races were finished, ten thousand morotcycles started up. The air turned gray blue and the ground shook. Slowly, the bikes formed into a procession and headed out of the parking lots onto the little New Hampshire highway. I had no idea where we were going, it was as though we were migrating, traveling on instinct towards a hazy goal.

From inside this huge pack, I was swept up in a sense of the great power of the assembled bikes combines with the huge number of people. We were together. It was a spiritual feeling although I must admit it did not appeal to the better part of my spirit.

During the races, Rainmaker and I had gone to the far side of the track where the sidelines weren't as crowded which was why we were towards the back of the river of loud and polished steel flowing towards what turned out to be Weirs Beach.

Weirs Beach is a small summer town on the shores of Lake Winnepasaukee and generally attracts family vacationers to the quiet amusement park that is (was?) the main feature of the town. By the time Rainmaker and I got to the Main Street, it was lined three deep on each side with bikes all pointed towards the center of the street. The riders were standing near their bikes and they too, were pointed streetward - watching, waiting for something to happen. The existence of this large audience assured that something would.

First, the exhibitionists appeared. They did wheelies, handstands, rode with a partner standing on their shoulders, etc. However, soon it started to get ugly. You didn't need to be an expert in crowd behavior to feel it starting. A car tried to get through Main Street and it was surrounded by bikers who pushed and shook it. The very pale driver and the young lady he was with rolled up their windows, prayed, and kept moving, slowly, until they had made it through the gantlet.

I told Rainmaekr that it was time to get out of town. There was going to be trouble. He agreed but not with as much urgency as I felt. In order to get him to agree, I had to compromise and say we each would get a slice of pizza from a vendor first.

Near the vendor, a young summer cop was facing off a Hell's Angel. A group had formed around them and was chanting, "Get him. Get him." They were urging the Angel to use the heavy chain he was dangling threateningly from his hand. The untrained and inexperienced cop had his hand on his holstered gun but the snap was off.

Rainmaker and I realized at that instant that this place was about to blow and we left immediately.

That is all the first hand information I have about that day in Weirs Beach, the rest I learned from newspapers broadcasts and magazines.

Moments after we left, the crowd exploded. It went on a rampage turning over automobiles with people inside, and burning buildings. The amusement park was particularly hard hit. The few police available sealed off the roads in and out of town, effectively trapping those who wanted to get out.

The rioting went on for hours. The National Guard was called out and when they unloaded from their trucks they were met by a phalanx of television reporters from Boston. Under the direction of the reporters, the Guard formed up and marched down Main Street, firing their shotguns into the rows of motorcycles spattering pellets everywhere endangering the well being of themselves and of the terrified bystanders who wanted nothing more than to be able to get their bikes out of the middle of this and to get away. However, it made good pictures and the images led off the evening news.

The cooperation of the National Guard in the shooting incident which investigation later showed to have been needless caused a small scandal for a while but the images of the town burning left a deep imprint on New England consciousness.

It's an odd coincidence that yesterday I bought, for Rainmaker, a copy of the Life Magazine that came out the follwing week with the story, "Motocyclists Burn Weirs Beach, NH".

Sourdough

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Barry Finn
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 04:47 PM

Hi Sourdough, never knew that (somewhere around the second weekend in June) had a name other than Motocycle Weekend (more like Beach Blanket Biker). It still goes on, when we lived down just down (about 5 miles) the road from the N.H. International Raceway (in Loudon) we'd pack up a leave the farm for the weekend not that it was dangerous it was just a pain to have to deal with the overwhelming biker behavior. Those were the bad years, it's watched & monitored so closely now that's it's again becoming a family event (oldest cycle race in the U.S.) & the 1%er's are losing their grip & it's them that are being weeded out. The Weir's Beach party is still a bit shaky though but it's been improving, a far cry from it's bad self of the past. The local gang/club here are called the Grey Ghosts former riders that have grown a bit older & are sober. These I'd say are rare. IMHO a gang is an illigal group of violent/deadly exploiters these just happen to enjoy what they do on 2 wheels instead of 2 feet. Barry

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 04:48 PM

There's a world of difference between a club & a gang. Barry I can't see it - there are things calling themslevs clubs that are as vicious as any gang, and things calling themselves gangs that are totally innocuous or beneficial. It's all a question of what sort of image you are after. (That's just me being pedantic - no comments about the HA's...)

Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels is great reading.

And here's a link to the man hinself, out in Colorado. His link to his local National Anthem, Sots and Sinners, doesn't work for me - but it's a great song, worth digging up.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Peter T.
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 04:59 PM

Boy, Rick, I thought you had a history of serenading the scum of Canada.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 06:02 PM

Ooooo... Sourdough, if your intent was to show how benign and sadly misunderstood HA and the people who gravitate to them really are, you failed.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 06:08 PM

Well, what I meant to tell was how easily two innocents can find themselves caught up in the middle of a mess not of their own making.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 06:20 PM

True- I understand that. But the excitement of the noise, the perceived camaraderie, the POWER, are a very large part of getting into it in the first place, nicht wahr?

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't think of disputing your right to do it- just stay out of my neighborhood. Few things are as frightening to me as the mood underlying the need to make tremendously invasive noise. From there it has no direction to go but worse...

Ebbie

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 06:23 PM

Hey, bikers are OK. I used to date a very nice one. The leather is to protect from asphalt, the chains are to lock up your bike, since, unlike cars, they can be carried off.

HA, tho, is something else again entirely, which Sourdough has amply described.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: GUEST,Steve Latimer
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 06:30 PM

I was recently in Montreal visiting a friend of mine whose fiance is a pretty high profile lawyer there. We talked a lot about the biker wars plaguing Montreal. It seems that the Montreal chapter was pretty much eliminated (read murdered) a few years ago by the U.S. Angels because they were too radical, were too into drugs and violence. Most of them "sleep with the fishes". It is their survivors who will be running the Angels in Ontario.

Also keep in mind that I don't know who the Angels have joined up with in order to become the Bikers of choice in Ontario, but whoever it is already have a number of natural enemies in Ontario who probably aren't to willing to give up their portion of the drug and prostitution money that is keeping them going already.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 06:47 PM

Boy, I sure wasn't clear! I was trying to make the point, as much as there was a point, to the recollection of a memorable day. If ther was a goal beyoind story telling it is that it is very easy to get caught up in something. I could have no idea that being in that group, feeling the camraderie, of being among thousands of people who share an experience, a pleasure in two wheeling, that I was also tapping into a power that could go badly wrong. Riding towards WEirs Beach, I did not know what was going to happen in the next hour, I was living in that moment. Perhaps there is a metaphor here for giving up responsibility for choosing a destination.

So that leaves me with the questions:

Should I not have enjoyed the feeling I had on the ride to town?

Should I avoid large groups of motorcyclists?

Should I avoid large sporting events where riots have been known to break out, perhaps for some of the same reasons?

or should I learn a lesson that the I am susceptible to the same emotions that are brought out in large groups. Although in my case I did not go amok, I can see how some people can be tempted into giving up their inhibitions.

I didn't set out to write about learning a lesson but perhaps that is there, too. I think that if there are any attitudes there it is because that is how I feel and so I probably expressed them, or tried to, when I wrote about the incident.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Mooh
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 06:49 PM

Two years ago, while playing with a Neil Young tribute band (notice I didn't call it a "cover" band, see related thread), I discovered that Neil Young was very popular among the biker crowd. Many gigs were frequented by bikers who seemed to behave very well and largely kept to themselves wherever we played. These folks were often very complimentary, and sometimes drinks would appear for the band with little more than a raised glass across the room as acknowledgement of our thanks.

Eventually the band was invited to play an outdoor barbeque for what seemed like a thousand bikers who brought toys for a children's charity, offered free bike rides and free bicycle repairs for kids. All in all, a good time was had by all. It didn't appear like most of these folks were locals, and their comings and goings in large groups (with the police watching from a distance) must have been quite a sight here in small town Ontario. I assumed that many of the bikers were recovering or reformed from one lifestyle choice or another, but they all very much looked the part of the cliche biker gang member.

I don't have any idea as to their individual or group histories, but as an audience they were much more respectful than many a yuppie crowd I've experienced.

I wonder if these particular bikers regret their connection or association with the kind who blow things up? Or, are they the same folks? Either way, bikers aren't the problem as much as drugs and prostitution and whatever other business may be involved. I don't mean to defend them, but there are other examples of business without ethics.

All the same, I hate the thought of the advance of criminal activity in any form, especially (literally or figuratively) in my back yard.

Still walking, Mooh.

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:09 PM

Sourdough old friend, maybe I can help you out here.....probably not, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Whether there is a world of difference between a clib and a gang is a kind of rhetoric and we need to define some terms. I'd have used a different term from the gitgo and say there IS a difference between a "biker" and an "outlaw." What Sourdough was getting at I think is that as a biker, we sometimes wind up in the same place as outlaws and can easily get caught up in the bad action that sometimes takes place. People who ride motorcycles (bikes) are often lumped into a group, even in this day and age by the average citizen and their detest for whatever they think they know about "those guys on them big motorcycles" blinds them to the fact that some of us are just in love with bikes as a mode of transportation or as an outlet for adrenalin. There's a world of difference in the machinery we use and in the way we look at it, but like other things, its easier to see the guy on the bike in the only terms we know.

Let's see where this goes and maybe we have to talk some more. I do recommend the good doctor's book. Its some kinda' fun reading!

Spaw

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Amergin
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:12 PM

And don't forget all those leather bedecked lawyers and executives going out for a wild weekend on their honda scooters.....

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:16 PM

Amergin:

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Amergin
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:18 PM

Yes?

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:34 PM

Sourdough, I came across as unduly harsh. It's true that I detest LOUD bikes traveling in groups- or singly for that matter. The operative word here is 'LOUD'. If bikers would muffle their exhausts and just purr through the countryside, I would love it. I like wind whipping through my hair as well as the next one. And it certainly is more maneuverable and in-touch with earth than a car is. But that's just not going to happen- because the NOISE itself is a rush.

The Goldwingers I've seen seem to be a different breed of cat.

But put unbelievable NOISE, the in-your-face mentality that likes that kind of impact on other people, the heightened pulses, the mixed crowd that is drawn to that kind of thng and the reputation - read that as 'expectations'- and I'm going to stay as absolutely far from it as I can.

I realize there are women bikers, too, even here in this town- and those too I stay away from. The fantasies going through those LOUD bikers' minds, male or female, I need no part of.

Rant OFF...

Ebbie

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:41 PM

Now that I have your attention, Amergin, :-)>

As a practicing biker with four decades of riding experience, the lawyers, brokers, etc on their bikes, the resurrection of the Harley and turning it into what is for many people an article of apparel, is one of the most interesting motorcycle trends of the last decade. Those big bikes, the "dressers" cost somewhere close to $20,000, now, I think. A good helmet costs 2-400 dollars. When you add accessories such as leathers, boots, shatterproof glasses, gloves, electric vest, etc. you push up the price considerably. In order to have that sort of disposable income, one of this new breed needs to be fairly advanced in (usually) his career. However, one of the attractions for many people is the chance to enter into a new, for them, lifestyle which is one of anti-establishment, "my bike is my life world". Many of these people travel to bike events such as the famous Sturgis Rally, with their bikes on trailers. They enjoy the macho image of the outlaw without having anything in common with htem. Now, I am not saying that they should act like outlaws, just that it seems silly for them to try to take on that coloration.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:42 PM

Ebbie:

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 07:55 PM

Sorry to shout, Ebbie, I don't kow why my computer is hiccupping.

While I don't rant about it, I really do appreciate quiet bikes and BMWs are certainly quiet. I think serious long-distance riders do. I have spent several 24-hr stretches riding 1,000 miles or more in a day. I can't even begin to think of what riding through the desert the desert night listening to the roar of an engine and knowing that it was reaching out in a swath for miles and miles, waking animals and birds in what would add up to be thousands of square miles as well as giving me a headache.

On the other hand, the more ethereal feeling of cutting through the night straddling a beam of light, is a whole different experience.

Sourdough

---

Hiccups deleted. --JoeClone

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 08:16 PM

Ebbie, there are riders and there are riders. I find noise a pain myself. I used to ride all the time, all year round and I love the feeling that a bike brings. Sourdough refers to "riding a beam of light" and that's certainly one of the sensations. Truthfully, I don't "get" a lot of enthusiasts. I think we're a varied lot to say the least. There are folks like Sourdough that I understand and folks like the ones who trailer to Sturgis that I don't. I've never had the outlaw mentality any more that I've had the leather biker bar type mentality. And frankly, I'm not big on the "dresser" tourers either......especially the ones with trailers. Geeziz, some of those thing take you 5 minutes to walk around! I passed a group of extremely well dressed riders on cafe racer sport bikes last summer and wondered how much they actually ride and have they ever really pushed the machine to their capabilities, let alone its capabilities.

I'm happy riding down to the store for a pop, or riding several hundred miles for a visit or thousands on trips. I like making the occasional "profficiency run" on some favorite stretches of road just to air out my mind a bit. Its sad that bikes have the reputation they still seem to have, because there is something for almost every type of person out there, including the dilettantes and outlaws.

Spaw

Subject: RE: 'Hell's Angels' now in Canada. Yikes!
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 09:57 PM

Catspaw49: Rainamaker, who rode BMW opposed twins, had a line for the cafe-racers who would ivite him to drag for beers. They'd taunt him with, "Race you to the next stoplight for a beer." RM would answer, "No way! But I will race you to Mexico City for $10,000 and we leave now!" Tha shut them up. They knew they didn't stand a chance.

Sourdough