10 More Outlaw Biker Facts

Becoming a fully patched member of any MC is a long, arduous process. In the Hells Angels you’re first a ‘hang around’ then an ‘associate’ before you’re even allowed to ‘prospect’ for full membership.

The 2015 Waco Shootout began when members of The Bandidos and The Cossacks met for a scheduled meeting about bikers’ rights outside the Twin Peaks restaurant. It escalated from a fight over parking spot and resulted in nine dead with multiple casualties.

Biker gangs make up just 2.5 percent of the 1.4 million gang members in the USA yet the FBI consider them a far greater threat to society than street or prison gangs.

A bikers’ back patch is worn on a ‘cut’ and usually split into four main components, the top rocker bears the name of the club, the centre patch the colours/insignia and the bottom rocker identifies the biker’s territory; the MC patch stands for Motor Cycle Club.

Many clubs were born out WWII and Vietnam and attract a proportion of veterans. This is reflected in a military-like structure with strictly enforced rules. Arguably one percenter numbers are increasing with a new influx of recruits returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dr Hunter S. Thompson, whose biography of the Hells Angels raised more than a few eyebrows, was later played by Johnny Depp in the film adaptation of his book ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’

At the Stones in the Park Concert in 1969 the Hells Angels were asked by the Rolling Stones to look after the stage and equipment, the event passed off peacefully; according to the police, the Hells Angels were drinking nothing stronger than tea.

The numbers 13 and 18 are significant to bikers. The 13th letter in the alphabet is ‘M’ standing for ‘Motorcycle’, Marijuana or more recently ‘Meth’. The 1st and the 8th letters are for ‘Hells Angels’.

The last biker-gang related death in the UK took place in August 2007 when Hells Angel Gerry Torbin was shot in the head riding back from the Bulldog Bash, seven members of the Outlaws were tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 2000 Harley Davidson, after spending tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, officially dropped its US Patent Office application to have the iconic ‘potato potato’ sound trademarked.