Hells Angels

[mcftw]

The ones to watch out for are the ones who haven't earned their patches- the ones who "have something to prove".

[shifu29]

We on this post are all men I think. So if you are a guy on a bike, question is, if you are asking questions, should you be asking questions? If the guy or group looks dangerous, are you willing to take the risk. With the group you are talking about, are you ready to go balls deep, all in? If not, then common sense should weigh in.

Personally, if I don't have my Wife on the back, and you are going slower, I don't care WTF you are, I'm passing.

Just as riding your bike, we all take risk, every curve has a risk, no different in dealing with people. Stay inside or just outside you comfort zone. If you are not willing to deal with the outcome of the decisions then throttle down.

My two cents. I'm off my soap box now.
Sonny

[krellheat]

Originally Posted by mcftw

The ones to watch out for are the ones who haven't earned their patches- the ones who "have something to prove".

Boyscouts? Brownies?

I was led under the impression, when I was young and ignorant, that the way to truly earn the HA jacket was to snuff the previous occupant. Now I am just ignorant. Is this still true today?

[Skyclad]

Originally Posted by krellheat

Boyscouts? Brownies?

I was led under the impression, when I was young and ignorant, that the way to truly earn the HA jacket was to snuff the previous occupant. Now I am just ignorant. Is this still true today?

Never was true. It would be hard to increase your numbers if the only way to join was to kill an existing member.

I do not know exactly what it takes to earn your colors for HA, but part of it is showing loyalty to the club and its members.

I am not going to try to say the Hell's Angles are a bunch of Boy Scouts or anything like that, but from experience in a hard core club, I will tell you that there is a lot of stuff that is blown out of proportion. Yes, bad shit does happen, but it is not as bad as the media would have you believe. Motorcycle clubs are about brotherhood and all that. The hard core clubs take that brotherhood to a higher level than most clubs. When you join one, you are basically saying that you are willing to lay your life on the line for one of your brothers, and you know they would do the same for you. The outlaw clubs have this same attitude.

When you here about a club ganging up on some poor shmuck, all you get is the "big terrible bikers" angle of the story. How often do you ever hear it from the biker's side? The reaction may be way out of proportion, but most incidents between biker clubs and civilians (for lack of better term) are started by a the non-biker.

[VFR_firefly]

Just pass them!

If you are having trouble with that then you need a better bike and/or more skill.

Dump that 30hp fake dirt bike for something a little more peppy on the road ;)

[Rapid_Roy]

We passed a big group leaving a hillclimb. They were doing 45 on a 55 mph highway, in the rain, with no protective gear. We were all on our beemers with rain suits on. As I passed the lead guy, a 300 lb man with a leather vest that may have buttoned long ago, he flipped me off. I felt bad for a second, but I realized I had a full tank and I would never see them again. They get no more respect than I give any other person, it's worked fine for me so far.

[krellheat]

News from a local Club in Ct regarding patches.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...09-24-08-31-52

Sep 24, 8:31 AM EDT

Motorcycle club murder case headed to trial

LITCHFIELD, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut judge has ruled that there's enough evidence to hold a trial for a 53-year-old man charged with killing the president of a Torrington motorcycle club in June.

Kevin Campbell of Watertown is charged with murder in the shooting death of 51-year-old Roland LaGasse of Torrington, who was president of the Forbidden Motor Cycle Club. Campbell, who was also in the club, has said he acted in self-defense and the gun accidentally fired.

Litchfield Superior Court Judge James Ginocchio heard testimony on Tuesday indicating that the shooting occurred during a dispute over whether to give a new member of the club his first-year patch.

One witness testified that Campbell deliberately shot LaGasse after LaGasse slapped Campbell's brother across the face.

[Exevious]

I like your AGATT guy on chopper!!

but the clueless quote???

Tell me you have teen daughters at home...and accidentally heard it!


It is a good quote... tho!

[garandman]

Originally Posted by Exevious

I like your AGATT guy on chopper!!

but the clueless quote???

Tell me you have teen daughters at home...and accidentally heard it!


It is a good quote... tho!

The statement was made by Mel, Cher's father, to a guy she was going out on a date with. My last Army commander used to keep a shotgun behind the door, plainly visible to his daughters' dates. So the tradition lives on, but my daughters aren't near dating age yet.


Mom also has a non-nonsense approach to life.



The chopper is the SolidWorks Corp. chopper made by Orange County Chopper, but not the subject of a TV show (which is rumored to cost $1 mil). We borrowed for a day. The bike is said to have cost around $100,000, and according to the marketing folks, has been worth every penny as a trade show exhibit. Say what you will about OCC, but the workmanship of their portable sculpture is extremely high quality. We took the ATGATT shot as a goof.

[Ursa Major]

Originally Posted by krellheat

I was led under the impression, when I was young and ignorant, that the way to truly earn the HA jacket was to snuff the previous occupant. Now I am just ignorant. Is this still true today?

Got to be tough if you wear an odd size.

[Exevious]

You know I hear people talk shit about OCC all the time...

I have always been pretty impressed with thier stuff.

They have started a high quality business that has the potential to last well beyond thier time.

All this crap about... 'they dont actually build.. they just assemble...'


WTF??

That 'one-off' stuff.. while cool.. will never be consistant...
And when the builder dies... so does the company.

[AzB]

Originally Posted by Exevious

You know I hear people talk shit about OCC all the time...

I have always been pretty impressed with thier stuff.

They have started a high quality business that has the potential to last well beyond thier time.

All this crap about... 'they dont actually build.. they just assemble...'

I've had the opportunity to work on a couple of OCC bikes.

Bike #1: Owner paid $66k for bike. Rode it for a couple weeks and had some minor problems with it. Called OCC many times and never got a person. Left many messages that were never returned. Finally brought the bike to me to fix. Rolled the bike into a corner of the shop until I could get a chance to look at it. Bike caught on fire just sitting there all by itself. Luckily, I was working on another bike nearby and got it put out before any real damage occured. The wiring was burned though, so I had to rewire the bike.

I found what caused the fire during the rewire. The bike was assembled with no fuses or circuit breakers whatsoever. None. And get this, the wiring was run in the frame to look extra bitchin'. Unfortunately, the holes drilled in the frame were never deburred or chamfered, creating some very sharp edges to rub on the wiring. And the wiring was not put in any kind of sleeve, so it was only protected by the wire insulation. Add in the paintshaker vibration of the motor, and you've got the recipe for disaster. The bill on his brand new $66k bike was quite high, as it needed a new battery, it needed to completely rewired, and I had to fix the other things that were wrong when it was sent out the door.

Bike #2: Paint problems, broken motor mount, more wiring problems, broken fasteners on rear fender. All caused by poor engineering and assembly. The motor was not shimmed at all, so the vibration broke the motor mount. The paint was applied over assembled part joints, so vibration caused cracking. The wiring was better than bike #1 above, but was still ridiculous.

I've worked on a lot of aftermarket bikes. My shop was the first Bourget dealer in Atlanta, and I worked at a shop that sold Swift, Ironhorse, Big Dog, Von Dutch, Big Bear, and many others. All aftermarket bikes have problems, mostly with electrical, but the OCC choppers were the worst. They were obviously assembled by people that didn't know or didn't care about the proper way to build a bike.

Sorry about the rant, but from what I've seen, OCC are total pieces of crap. Most of these aftermarket bikes aren't meant to be ridden, but thiers was the worst.

Az

[Exevious]

I was comparing more to the other 'famous-I gotta TV show' guys...

The ones cutting and welding thier own frames and exhaust.. etc
for every individual bike.. doing the whole thing from scratch by themselves.

My take is... why would you NOT outsource to the pros that focus strickly on that component??

Imagine the issues those all have after about 2K miles...

That is interesting feedback you have, tho...

[krellheat]

Originally Posted by Ursa Major

Got to be tough if you wear an odd size.

I'm sure there is a fat HA jacket that I can fit in.

[VFR_firefly]

Originally Posted by AzB

Sorry about the rant, but from what I've seen, OCC are total pieces of crap. Most of these aftermarket bikes aren't meant to be ridden, but thiers was the worst.

Az

I've seen the show on TV where a company builds bikes. Was it OCC? Maybe, I don't watch much TV and could care less about HD or chopper shit. But even if I were, I saw the way they slapped that crap together. I'm surprised they don't explode on their own as they roll out the door.