I became obsessed with motorcycles at an early age, taking a six hundred mile cross-country tour to Cornwall as soon as I’d bought a moped at sixteen, working as a London dispatch rider, and then building my first chopper in my (upstairs) university bedroom and have been fascinated by what I’ve seen over the years of the ‘club life.’ Whatever you think about outlaw biker clubs, there’s no denying it’s a serious lifestyle choice involving real commitment and having serious consequences, but it wasn’t a subject being addressed with serious fiction. So I set out to explore this world and what it would mean to be involved.
As a young kid suddenly fascinated by bikes,
reading this for the first time was a truly formative experience for me and Hunter
S Thompson’s 1966 classic has to be the starting point for anyone wanting to
read about outlaw bikers. If you’re at all interested in reading about outlaw
bikers you will have read this already, and if you haven’t, well don’t do
anything else until you have.
From the father of ‘gonzo journalism’ this is
the story of Thompson’s close association with the 1960’s Californian Hell's Angels
which helped spread their reputation worldwide. A truly wild ride that has had
a life-changing effect on me for one.
From the father of 'gonzo journalism', Hunter S. Thompson's research for Hell's Angels involved more than a year of close association with the outlaws who burned a path through 1960s America, resulting in a masterpiece of underground reportage published in Penguin Modern Classics.
'A phalanx of motorcycles cam roaring over the hill from the west ... the noise was like a landslide, or a wing of bombers passing over. Even knowing the Angels I couldn't quite handle what I was seeing.'
Huge bikes, filthy denim and an aura of barely contained violence; the Hell's Angels could paralyse whole towns with…
I found this telling of the Shedden massacre
of eight Bandidos at the hands of a mix of club mates and deranged wannabes,
including a one-time failed police officer who was looking to reinvent himself
as an outlaw biker player, very affecting, reading as it does like an almost
Shakespearian real-life tragedy.
Edwards, along with Jerry Langton one of the
key chroniclers of the Canadian outlaw biker scene, tells the stories of the
dead men, introducing a group ranging from established bikers to probationers,
loners to family men, and petty criminals to ordinary working stiffs; laying
out how they all came to be facing their death one after another in a Nazi
fantasist’s barn.
On the morning of April 8, 2006, residents of the hamlet of Shedden, Ontario, woke up to the news that the bloodied bodies of eight bikers from the Bandidos gang had been found dead on a local farm. The massacre made headlines around the world, and the shocking news brought a grim light to an otherwise quiet corner of the province. Six Bandidos would eventually be convicted of the first-degree murder of their biker brothers.
Like other outlaw bikers, Bandidos portray themselves as motorcycle enthusiasts who are systematically misunderstood and abused by the police, as well as feared by the…
One of my reasons for starting to write about the UK outlaw biker scene in particular was that no one else seemed to be treating it seriously. That all changed when Tony Thompson, a highly respected journalist with a track record of highly readable and successful books on the UK gangland and crime scene produced this.
This book is the biography of ex-Outlaws MC member Daniel "Snake Dog" Boone, but through it, Thompson tells the wider story of the development of the UK outlaw biker scene since the eighties and how it has been affected by international biker politics, up to and including the 2007 murder of Gerry Tobin. Thoroughly recommended and essential reading for anyone interested in the club scene in England. I’ve said that if this had come out before my first biker book, the chances are I’d have never finished writing it.
An outlaw motorcycle club is a band of brothers like no other. Hidden away from mainstream society behind multiple layers of secrecy, mythology and a sophisticated campaign of misinformation that portrays them as nothing more than loveable rogues, the brutal truth about the biker world has long escaped public scrutiny. In reality, today's outlaw bikers are at the epicentre of a violent underworld subculture, enforced by a ruthless code of silence, and control a global criminal empire worth millions. Spanning the UK, Europe, America, Canada and Australia, OUTLAWS is a compelling, shocking and chilling story of how bikers are born…
When I’m reading about the biker scene what
I’m looking for is the reality that underlies the public image and stereotypes.
Jerry Langton doesn’t come across as a big fan of bikers but he’s well
connected enough to speak to senior players and he’s a professional writer, so
what he has to say is very readable, and to me, informative.
Through telling the extraordinary story of
five foot four Walter "Nurget" Stadnick’s rise to criminally visionary national
president of the Hell's Angels this book
provides one of the best overviews of the development of the outlaw biker world
in Canada, the Canadian biker wars, and the involvement of biker clubs in Canada
in organised crime (although as a niggle it’s crying out for a map).
One man’s improbable rise to power in one of the world’s most violent criminal organizations. Fallen Angel sheds light on how the enigmatic and dangerous Hells Angels gained momentum to dominate organized crime in Canada.
The books I’m recommending have all been key sources of insight in differing ways into the realities of the club worlds and cultures. This is a definite recommendation as one of the best “informed outsider’s” overviews I found.
It’s something of a rarity in the outlaw book world being a book by what seems to be a very well-informed and connected outsider (although I understand there has also been criticism of the content) which strives and manages to present a view that seems both balanced and nuanced. I like it because it doesn’t whitewash, nor does it condemn, instead it tries to show and explain.
Australia has a strong bikie culture that draws on a long tradition of ‘mateship’ and this book gives a glimpse behind the scenes of the rules and rituals of club membership, as well as the history of clubs in Australia.
"If it's a good ride, there's nothing like it...you and the machine become one...It gets to the point on the edge of a hard ride where there is a balance between taking your machine further and a fear of dying. Managing that space is real freedom". Riding like there's no tomorrow on the open road, the wind in your face, handling a powerful and responsive machine - you can't get that sort of freedom in a car. Bikies consider themselves "the last free people in society", unconstrained by the regulations that rule ordinary citizens. And they guard their privacy jealously.…
Damage’s club has had an offer it can’t refuse, to patch over to join The Brethren MC. But as the bikes rumble and roar across the wild Northern fells, what does this mean for Damage and his brothers? What choices will they have to make as they ride through the wind? What bloody oil-stained history might it reawaken? And why are The Brethren making this offer?
Loyalty to his club and his brothers has been Damage’s life and route to wealth, but what happens when business becomes serious and brother starts killing brother? Get Carter meets Sons of Anarchy in this gritty British crime thriller. From being in a gang to becoming a gangster, Heavy Duty People is the book that invented Biker Noir.
The Valor of Valhalla series by Martin Kearns is a pulse-pounding dark urban fantasy trilogy that fuses the raw power of Norse mythology with the grit of modern warfare. Set in a world where ancient gods and mythical creatures clash with secret military organizations and rogue heroes, the series follows a band of unseeming heroes who are bound to an ancient prophecy. As they navigate a dangerous web of deceit, sacrifice, and violent combat, they must confront not only their own demons but also the growing threat of Ragnarök—the Norse apocalypse.
At its heart, The Valor of Valhalla blends high-stakes…
In a battle between two ancient evils, can one naïve young man become the last hope against powerful creatures of legend?
David Dolan thinks he's already got the world figured out. But when a collapsed bridge plunges him into the icy Hudson, he's pulled deep into the deadly realm that exists between life and death. And with his earthly form trapped in a coma, he's vulnerable to the horde of demons hell-bent on his utter destruction.
Traversing the road to the afterlife, David seeks the wisdom and skills he needs to fight the demonic forces reigning havoc on his allies…
