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Lauchs, Mark (2020) A global survey of outlaw motorcycle gang formation. Deviant Behavior, 41(12), pp. 1524-1539.
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Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs are receiving increased attention by academics around the world. However, the field is in need of global data on how, when, where and why clubs form before any generalised conclusions can be drawn. This paper begins this process by attempting to identify every club that has formed in the world by location and date. 18 months of searching online through websites and social media identified 5072 separate clubs, which were then grouped by region and date. This data shows different trends of club formation in different regions. The data shows Western Nations formed clubs much earlier than other regions, but that Scandinavia, South America and East Asia are continuing to form new clubs at an increasing rate. Despite the USA being the country of origin of the culture, it only has 18% of all clubs. This paper concludes with suggestions for future research questions illuminated by the data, that try to explain the popularity of the culture and the environmental circumstances that lead to club formation.
Keywords: outlaw motorcycle gangs, motorcycle culture
It is time for researchers to take a fresh approach to Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. The clubs receive international attention from policing agencies as purveyors of organized crime (ACC 2013, ACIC 2018, BKA 2018, Byrne 2015, PJCACC 2009), and academic attention as potential criminal organisations (Barker 2007, Barker and Human 2009, Barker 2011, Barker 2012, Barker 2017, Blokland, Soudijn and van der Leest 2017a, Blokland, van Hout, van der Leest et al. 2017b, Lauchs, Bain and Bell 2015, Lauchs 2018, Quinn and Forsyth 2012). While these approaches presume criminal involvement by these groups, very few authors have tested this presumption (Bain and Lauchs 2016, Blokland et al. 2017a, Blokland et al. 2017b, Lauchs 2018) and these still presume criminality as a starting point. In other words, researchers are addressing the outlaw biker issue without first asking fundamental questions about their existence, activity and purpose. They are rarely looking at the clubs through a non-criminological lens (Bain 2018).
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There have been a few studies of these clubs as a social phenomenon (Bain and Lauchs 2016, Quinn and Forsyth 2007, Quinn and Forsyth 2011a, Quinn 1983, Quinn 1987, Wood 2003), and almost always from the USA. They fall on the far end of a scale of commitment to motorcycle clubs, with the most stringent rules and obligations. They distinguish themselves from other clubs by the use of the ‘MC’ abbreviation for motorcycle club. To acknowledge this distinction, MC will be used in this article rather than the normal abbreviation of ‘OMCG’. The clubs’ origins and the motivations of those who join are little explored by academics other than in Australia (Lauchs 2017, Veno and Gannon 2009) and New Zealand (Gilbert 2013). As good as these studies are, they cannot explain the rise of clubs in other nations and at other times (Lauchs et al. 2015). This study only looks at self-identified MC; clubs that knowingly take on the mantle of the hardest, hyper-masculine biker identity. It is these clubs who have territorial conflict, usually exercised through public violence, as a core part of their identity, and have shown a tendency over time to participate in organized crime.
The first question to ask in a thorough study is where the clubs are and how many exist? Some police agencies attempt to list every MC, or at least the most criminally active clubs, in their jurisdiction (ACIC 2018). However, most agencies only discuss the major clubs as identified by central policing agencies and have not publicly stated if they have lists of all clubs (BKA 2018, Europol 2010). Some jurisdictions, such as those in South East Asia, are dealing with a recent growth in the phenomenon and have not produced public reports on the issue. Consequently, there is no official international measurement of MC. To date there has been no academic attempt to produce such data other than Gilbert’s work in New Zealand (Gilbert 2013). In popular culture press, Hayes (2018) has produced two editions of The One Percenter Encyclopedia, which, as will be demonstrated below, while a valiant effort, is significantly incomplete. Thus there are two fundamental research areas missing: the motivations for men to join the clubs and the measurement of how the clubs have spread across the world. This paper will address the latter, because the identification of the clubs around the world is necessary before qualitative data can be gathered on motivations. In addition, the information for the former question is contained within the MCs’ websites and social media.
We do not know the size of the MC phenomenon or how it has spread around the world. Knowing how, where and when MC have formed will help researchers and government
2 agencies understand local and international trends. These trends will provide insight not only into these quantitative questions, but help with the qualitative issues of why they are popular, who is attracted to them and if there is any cultural variation in the reasons for their formation or their operation. Finally this data is necessary in order to test the presumptions that MC clubs are universally criminal organisations.
Background
MC are a quintessentially American cultural phenomenon. They arose from a mixture of returned servicemen seeking the brotherhood and risk taking of World War II, and are a subset of the counter-culture of the 1960s (Barger, Zimmerman and Zimmerman 2001, Thompson 1967, Watson 1980). The fetish of the movement is the Harley-Davidson motorcycle – an icon of consumerism and masculinity (Alt 1982). As such, MC culture is a contra-culture (Wood 2003); it is not a manifestation of roles within the dominant culture but a rejection of that culture. MC members prioritise the club over all other aspects of their lives, including their family (Veno and Gannon 2009, Wethern and Colnett 2008).
Many men and women first experienced motorcycles and learnt to ride during World War II and, later, those from Korea and Vietnam (Schembri 2008). In the USA, the Harley Davidson, the most common motorcycle used by the US military, became a symbol of hyper- masculinity encompassing the danger of the powerful machine with the expertise of riding and the clubs became foci of brotherhood and sisterhood (Schembri 2008:391). The riders kept their strong bonds from the war, with their experiences making them “brothers-in-arms” (Barger et al. 2001, Danner and Silverman 1986, Reynolds 1967). Then as is the case now, the clubs attracted men who felt alienated from the safe and compliant lifestyle of mainstream society. Drinking and celebration as a coping mechanism with the dangers of war, was built into their relationships. After World War II PTSD and other feelings of malaise were eased by joining the clubs. Their mundane jobs meant they sought some excitement in their down time (Dulaney 2005). Motorcycles provided the excitement and were more affordable due to the economic boom after the war. This theory is clearly only related to the USA and has never been tested elsewhere.
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The media invented the reprehensible biker culture through its coverage of a racing event held in Hollister, California, in 1947. There were no MC at this time but a raucous event became a beat-up story in the US national media. Part of the mythology of biker history is that the event led to the AMA saying 99% of motorcyclists were good, decent and law-abiding (Dulaney 2005). This story led to the making of The Wild One which codified the outlaw biker attitude. The McCook Outlaws, from Illinois, was formed in 1936 and still exists as the Outlaws MC. According to their website, the Outlaws’ current patch was influenced by Marlon Brando’s character in The Wild One (Outlaws MC 2018).
But the MC were splinter clubs like the Booze Fighters, Pissed Off Bastards, Satan’s Sinners and Market Street Commandos, who originated the traditional culture of ‘drinking, fighting and riding motorcycles’. These clubs did not have strict organization nor a uniform, but they revelled in their minority status, and soon identified themselves as outlaws or ‘1%ers’; the few unconcerned by society’s rules. “So it was that the birth of outlaw motorcycle clubs was the result of a siege that never took place and the expatriation from an organisation to which they never belonged, and not much notice was taken outside the biker subculture.” (Dulaney 2005:1) While Hollister only received US attention, The Wild One inspired men across the world.
The Hells Angels codified the MC culture. Under the leadership of the Ralph ‘Sonny’ Barger, the Hells Angels embedded the military structure of the groups and became highly organised, and some high-profile incidents involving the club brought them national and international notoriety (Barger et al. 2001, Wethern and Colnett 2008). Further, the continued exaggeration of the culture and creation of a specific Other through the exploitation movies (Osgerby 2003, Perlman 2007) and books (McIntyre and Nette 2017) of the 1960s and 1970s, attracted men around the Western World and led to independent, indigenous club formation. The Hells Angels model became the basis of clubs across the world. This appeal to men regardless of the dominant culture of their nation, to embrace a uniform culture implies some attraction to generic male desire, even more than simply the desire to reject their local culture.
The experience of motorcycling community was different in other nations. Early British clubs were mainstream, multi-gender and made up of members of the upper middle-class (Potter 2005). Even at this early stage, clubs focused on freedom and individuality. “Attending a motorcycle rally demonstrates what Campbell refers to as “Modern hedonism”, expressing individuals’ need to indulge in the possibility of being the controller of their own destiny,
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“their own despot”.” (Potter 2005:4) Just over 100 clubs were based on localities and they would use patches for identification and have club names, including more modern names such as the Pirates, Panthers, Owls or Rudge (Potter 2005). While more extreme clubs may have existed, they did not have a trigger moment like Hollister. Cars became more affordable in the 1950s and motorcycles lost their glamour. They became associated with young working-class “ton-up boys” (McDonald-Walker 2007) on their bikes known as ‘café racers’, who raced between cafes at over 100mph.
By the 1960s there was societal concern about the Rockers. Even though young riders like these were about 5% of riders they held the public image of motorcyclists and led to a negative media campaign. This happened at a time when people were buying TVs so the image spread, and was enforced in the 1970s by road accidents involving motorcycles (McDonald-Walker 2007). At the same time, the Australians and New Zealanders, in the normal reflection of British fashion, developed Bodgies, an antipodean version of the Rocker (Stratton 1984), but they would start forming outlaw clubs earlier than most other regions. In 1960, a young American with links to the Hells Angels formed a chapter of the group in Auckland New Zealand (Gilbert 2013). It was just the fourth chapter of the group and the first outside of California. In 1966, three members of the Auckland Angels arrived in Australia, where they helped establish a chapter in Sydney in 1968, although that was not officially recognised and inaugurated until 1975. By this time, New Zealand and Australia were home to numerous outlaw clubs that had been formed by rebellious young men (Gilbert 2013, Veno and Gannon 2009). Patched clubs also formed in Northern Ireland (Ballard 1997).
In Germany, bikers were known as Halb-starke, and in Sweden skinnknutte, who were not characterised as deviant; just young men participating in a noisy, deadly hobby (McDonald- Walker 2007). The different popular media image may have delayed the arrival of MC in Europe. For example, the Swedish movie ‘Farlig kurva’ (Dangerous Curve) which came out at the same time as The Wild One, showed bikers as normal young men with the occasional deviant who could still be brought back into the fold. There was no nihilistic theme of angry, lost youths. The bad boys of Sweden were the Raggaren, who were like Teddy Boys or Rockers but drove large American cars. They stole the Swedish media attention from bikers (McDonald-Walker 2007). However, studies of the history of the biker phenomenon reflect the US-centric history of the clubs. Most researchers are from the United States and there are
5 few from other nations, and these are from the Anglo-West including Australia (Veno and Gannon 2009), Canada and New Zealand (Gilbert 2013).
In summary, many Western nations saw young men become attracted to speed and saloon culture. How that played out historically depended on the nature of local popular culture and the availability and affordability of motorcycles and cars. In the Anglo-West the motorcycle was relegated out of the mainstream as car ownership became ubiquitous and socially acceptable. While this is an area in need of more research, it appears that culture began to reflect fiction as the outsiders embraced their deviant characterisation and refined it into the MC culture. As has been noted, the Germans and Swedes took a different path and did not take up the MC culture to long after its establishment in the English speaking nations.
The MC Model As mentioned earlier, the Hells Angels can be classed as the originators of the MC model. The “war babies” born during WWII like Sonny Barger, started to take over the Hells Angels in the 1950s (Wood 2003:342). Barger and others craved the organisation they saw in the military order and wanted to recreate it. He converted club meetings into mandatory structured events. Officers were elected. There were 24 club rules including fines for swearing or fighting at meetings. He also started the prospect system. In 1966 they formed a listed company with 500 shares of stock. Also, he made the ‘one in all in’ rule that ensured the club came before any external or individual concerns (Barger et al. 2001, Wethern and Colnett 2008).
Based on the Hells Angels model, an MC is an organisation with the following characteristics: It is exclusively male and is misogynistic (Quinn and Forsyth 2011a, Quinn 1987). Members should ride large motorcycles, especially Harley Davidsons, and usually have them “chopped” or customised. Clubs have a hierarchical structure and a written constitution. They follow the regional hierarchical method of allocating chapters (branches) to subgroups within the club (UNODC 2002). However, most clubs are democratic at the chapter level. Members are required to show strict discipline and obedience to club rules and senior members. Members must go through a preliminary process before being allowed to become a member. Usually this takes two stages:
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o Hang around phase – where the individual can socialise and ride with members but cannot wear the club colours or be involved in club business. o Prospect phase – where the individual is sponsored for trial membership for a duration sometimes taking years. They endure extensive hazing and must meet the demands of any full member. If they pass this phase they may become a fully patched member (Menginie and Oban 2011). The members reject mainstream society insofar as the club, their fellow members and the club’s interests come before all other obligations including family (Montgomery 1976, Watson 1980). As Dulaney (2005:11) explains: “…the demands of the organization are superior to the needs of the individual, which includes the individual’s family and occupation”. The business of the club is no one else’s business and members must keep strict confidence. MC have a three-patch set of colours: a top rocker with the club name, a middle patch with the club logo and a bottom rocker with the geographic location of the chapter to which the member belongs. Any club can have a patch but MC reserve the right to use the three patch. Clubs that do not defend it are forced to remove the patch (Cavasos 2009, Wethern and Colnett 2008). The club colours are the pre-eminent symbol of the club and must be treated with respect by all members, associates and members of the public. Insulting club colours is a direct personal insult to every member. Usually, MC claim territory over which they exercise exclusive control. This point is important and will be discussed in more detail below.
This model was entrenched when the series of Biker Exploitation Movies which ran from 1965 to 1972. Rubin notes the ennui of the films attracted the Left-Out Generation, men like Barger, born during or just before World War II. They lacked the group identity of the younger Baby Boomers, were not interested in the flamboyant, politically active style of the hippies, and identified with the biker culture. They were non-college educated and they supported the Vietnam War; they are the people who went to Altamont not Woodstock (Rubin 1994). It is not surprising that the period of the cycle of Biker movies matches the period of the rise of anti-war sentiments in the US. Biker films happen in “left behind”, lower-class white communities of America, who saw them at drive-ins (Rubin 1994).
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In Australia, for instance, the primary focus of bikers was the movie Stone (Harbutt 1974). Like the American movies, it was taken up by the drive-in attending white working class. Members of Australian MC were the children of the WWII generation with some having served in Vietnam or possibly Korea. The movie held such a powerful hold on Australian motorcycle culture that the documentary Stone Forever (1999) attracted 30,000 riders for a run north of Sydney (Vieth 2008).
It is important to differentiate MC from other clubs. They are not ‘weekend warrior’ social clubs of riders whose primary purpose is to meet regularly for the purpose of enjoying the hobby (Thompson 2008), who are designated Social Motorcycle Clubs (SMC). Motorcycle clubs who are more serious than SMC, are usually exclusively male, but who do not require members to give priority to the club designate themselves as MCC rather than MC. Both of these clubs will have a patch but SMC do not require it be worn and MCC do not have top and bottom rockers. Side Patch Clubs, usually still designated MCC, fall between MCC and Outlaw MC, and are a British phenomenon. They take themselves and their rules more seriously than an MCC, but either do not want to take the next step to become as serious as an MC, or they do want to become one but the existing MC in the region will not accept them. This UK classification is interpreted broadly; Caldarium MCC and the Coffin Scratchers MCC call themselves side patch clubs (Bikers are Welcome 2018) and appear to be MCC; the Lionhearts MCC are a side patch club that allows male and female members (Pirates MCC 2018); and the Saxons MCC claim to be a Side Patch Club but are also a recognised support club of the Outlaws MC (Saxons Brotherhood 2017). There are even more variations with Switzerland have Pirate Motorcycle Clubs (PMC) who are hold a similar position to Side Patch Clubs (Rebels MC Switzerland 2016).
There are also clubs who appear to be MC but have restricted membership based on a person’s career including: Law Enforcement Motorcycle Clubs (LEMC) or broader first responders as Public Service clubs (PSMC) (Spetsnaz LEMC 2015). While theoretically MC are formed by military veterans, most veterans of wars after Vietnam form their own clubs and many use the term Veterans Motorcycle Clubs (VMC) or Military Motorcycle Club (MMC). There are also pseudo-biker clubs in Australia; gangs who take on the appearance and colours of an MC but who are actually street gangs or criminal gangs. The most famous of these are Notorious and Brothers 4 Life (Lauchs 2017).
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MC members reinforced their deviance through appearance (tattoos and uniforms) and behaviour such as violence, drunkenness and various levels of debauchery (Barger et al. 2001); what Quinn and Koch call saloon society (Quinn and Koch 2003). The ‘traditional’ bikers keep the original culture alive but they are increasingly opposed by members who want to use the club to facilitate organized criminal activities; the group known as ‘radicals’ (Quinn and Forsyth 2011b:217). The cultures are not mutually exclusive and there is a lot of overlap. Conservatives like the money and use it to defend the club. Radicals point out that if they club falls, then the conservative culture dies with it.
The War Mentality (Quinn and Forsyth 2011b), the need to violently battle other clubs for territory and glory, is core to the MC ideals. The constant battles lead to changes in alliances and interests between clubs, but the changing politics is rarely recorded for public consumption. The emotional intensity of the war mentality is very attractive to members by providing purpose, identity and reinforcing brotherhood. Psychopathy and related disorders certainly occur among 1%ers but the dynamics that fuel criminal behaviour lie largely in the [interactions] of small, socially isolated groups of dedicated offenders intoxicated by the intense emotions of war in the context of sect- like loyalty to their tribe-club. (Quinn and Forsyth 2011b:227) However, these rivalries are artificial and mutually pursued ‘pissing competitions’ (Veno and Gannon 2009) having no value or social purpose beyond club prestige. It could be argued that by taking the MC name a club is professing their willingness to participate in the cultural violence of that milieu and making themselves a legitimate target for such violence from other clubs. Violence is rarely targeted at members of the public or ‘civilians’, but at other MC or other hyper-masculine groups seeking conflict such as the police, the military and football teams (Campbell and Campbell 2010).
Despite the concentration by police on organized crime by MC, violence based on the conservative war mentality accounts for most crime by members. Nonetheless, there are members of MC who are very active in organised crime (Barker 2007, Barker and Human 2009, Barker 2011, Lauchs et al. 2015, Lauchs 2018). The biggest influence the counterculture had on the Hells Angels in the 1960s, was to enlighten them into how much money they could make selling drugs (Wethern and Colnett 2008, Wood 2003). In the 1970s and 80s Barger and others pushed the traditional bikers out of the club in favour of entrepreneurs, or radicals
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(Wethern and Colnett 2008, Wood 2003). The history of clubs in Australia and the US have shown that clubs start off as brotherhoods of like-minded members, who commit very little if any crime. Overtime they run into, or even seek out, the territory of other clubs and this leads to violence (Campbell & Campbell 2010). The academic consensus of study is that MC are not criminal organisations themselves, but they contain participants in organised criminal networks. The club is a facilitator of the criminal activity but no one, either legally or academically, as been able to show that any club, as opposed to a chapter. Regardless of whether it is organized crime related, it appears members of MC are more likely to participate in crime once they join a club (Blokland et al. 2017b).
Methodology This paper only examines the formation of clubs in their region of origin. It does not include clubs that form in one region and later set up chapters in another region. It does not record when clubs cease to exist as this information is rarely recorded in any accessible way. The boundaries of the group were that they must: be identify themselves as an MC; and have a three-patch set of colours.
The knowledge of the MC designation, as opposed to SMC, MCC, etc., and the above- mentioned enforcement of the qualification for wearing a three-patch colours, meant that it is extremely unlikely that a club would accidentally appear as an outlaw club, and, if they did, that other local MC would not intercede to stop them taking on this mantle (Campbell and Campbell 2010, Cavasos 2009). However, some clubs formed before 1970 did not follow this system but are still recognised as MC. For example, the Vagos, formed in 1965, do not use the three-patch system but are known as one of the most notorious clubs in the world with chapters in many nations (http://vagosmcworld.com/).
Clubs were only recorded once, thus the largest club in the world, the Hells Angels, appears as one US club. Where clubs such as the Hells Angels and Bandidos form support clubs with different names, the latter are recorded as separate clubs to their parent club. Thus, the Diablos are recorded separate to the Bandidos. The initial list was built off three sources:
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An Australian blog lists the names of MC clubs in Australia from the 1960s to the present (Australian Harley Riders 2012). This list had no links and was only used as a guide. Most of the 242 clubs listed have closed and could not be verified by other online sources; The www.onepercenterbikers.com, which has 96 clubs listed. This was a good source as links were provided to clubs and most statements were referenced; and The One Percenter Encyclopaedia (Hayes 2018), which has at least double that number. This book proved very unreliable as no sources were used for the information provided and later research found many inaccuracies about the clubs mentioned.
This paper uses a snowball sampling method of discovering MC, relying heavily on the clubs’ internet presence. There are no complete databases of MC and not all clubs have an online presence. An initial search was simpler ‘
Finally, the researcher set up a daily Google media alert for “outlaw motorcycle gang” for twelve months from June 2017 to March 2019. These daily stories frequently mentioned clubs that were not found through other methods. The nature of the search term meant that clubs mentioned were invariably discussed in relation to inter-club violence or some other form of crime. Some clubs were mentioned as having multiple chapters and criminal involvement, but otherwise had no online presence. Saturation was reached when no new club names appeared after a four-week period. Any clubs that did not have at least two reliable sources, usually their own website and an image of their patch from another source, were removed from the study, including some clubs mentioned in Hayes (2018). If a club had three patches and did not display an MC or 1% badge, such as the Black Electors MC in
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Germany, they were not included unless there was other evidence on their site to prove otherwise, such as calling themselves an MG (motorcycle group) or RC (riding club).
There are numerous instances of clubs forming independently with the same name: there are three Gladiator MCs around the world with no affiliation; and two Warlocks MC formed in the USA independently of one another. Some clubs meet another club with the same name and combined. Caution was taken to not include fictional cubs like the Grim Bastards MC or Mayans MC from Sons of Anarchy, or clubs that are online computer games clubs in Grand Theft Auto like the Devils Outcasts. Although, some clubs were included that have the same name as fictional clubs, for example, the Calaveras MC are a gang from Sons of Anarchy, but there is a Spanish MC called the Calaveros, and The Four Horsemen MC are a real club in California but this is also the name of a fictional club in a series of ‘bad boy’ romance novels.
The year of origin, when available, was provided by the club on their own websites. The clubs with origin dates were then collated into regions by the decades they formed. Note that the tables are based on the year clubs formed and do not list the number of clubs in existence at any particular time.
Given the size of the study it was no possible to list clubs by individual nations, and were collected into regions. The regions are: Australia and New Zealand; East Asia includes China, Korea, Japan and South-East Asia; Eastern Europe includes the old Eastern Bloc (other than East Germany), the former Soviet States and the Balkans; Latin and South America; The Middle East which includes and North Africa; North America including Canada and the USA; and Scandinavia; South Africa – which is separate because of its distance to the next African clubs all of which are on the Mediterranean; Western Europe includes the UK and the continental nations that were not in the Eastern Bloc.
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The Pacific Islands and South & Central Asia had two and one club respectively and were excluded.
There were no ethical issues associated with this study. All information used is public, no clubs are identified by name in a manner that denigrates their members, and the finalised data is de-identified, aggregation of large datasets. No guarantee is given that every club in existence is in this study, but rather many months of searches and verification were taken to ensure as many as possible have been discovered.
Findings This paper seeks to discover how many MC are in the world, as well as where and when they formed. This study found 5072 distinct MC formed since 1920. The earliest clubs formed were in the USA. Two clubs The Yonkers and Queensboro motorcycle clubs claim to have been formed in 1903 and 1910 respectively. However, the Yonkers are a registered American Motorcycle Association club (Yonkers Motorcycle Club n.d.), and the Queensboro Motorcycle Club do not have an MC patch or describe themselves anywhere as an MC. Thus they have been left out of this study. The earliest clubs in this study are Mid-West, established 1923, and Mount Baker established in 1925. Both are listed as MC by Hayes (Hayes 2018). Thus all tables used in this study begin in the 1920s. No regions outside North America record MC club formation before the 1940s and these are in Australia and New Zealand.
Latin and South America, Scandinavia and Western Europe all saw their first MC form in the 1960s. East Asia and Eastern Europe had clubs form in the 1970s, while the Middle East and North Africa saw no clubs until the new millennia. Table 1 lists the total number of clubs identified, and the number for each region that years of origin could be found.
Table 1. (here)
Of these clubs, North America, the original location of the MC culture, only contains 18% of all clubs formed. The same number of clubs have been formed in Latin and South America (18%), and more in Western Europe (20%) and Scandinavia (25%).
Figure 1. (here)
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The data shows that there are three distinct trends in club formation. As can be seen in Figure 1, the world trend shows strong growth from the 1960s and 1970s in Australia and New Zealand, North America and Western Europe. The 1980s saw very little growth except in Scandinavia and Western Europe. But the most significant factor is the growth beginning in the 1990s in East Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin and South America, and the Middle East and North Africa. These trends can be further illuminated by looking at the median years or club formation in each region.
Table 2. (here)
Table 2 further supports the clear trend of two distinct histories of club formation. Australia and New Zealand, North America and, to a lesser extent, Western Europe, are the old world of club formation. They will have had different cultural drivers for the spread of MCs than the other regions who have most of their growth after 2000.
Figure 2. (here)
The Auckland Rebels formed in New Zealand in 1949 (Gilbert 2013). The first Australian MC formed in the 1960s and was either the Bad Blood (Campbell and Campbell 2010) of the Gladiators (Veno and Gannon 2009). Canada’s first MC was the Black Hawks in 1938. As can be seen in Figure 2, Australia and New Zealand established saw 83% of clubs form before the 1980s, with 76% being formed in the 1960s and 1970s. The USA, on the other hand, while seeing growth decline after the 1960s, still had strong new club formation and a spike in the 2000s. North America accounted for 138 (73%) of the 189 clubs formed prior to 1970, but only 18% of those in total at the end of the research period. The region experienced a resurgence in interest in club formation in the new millennia, however, of the eleven new clubs formed in Canada since 2000, at least eight were formed by the Hells Angels as support clubs. Other clubs such as the Bandidos and Outlaws have also been busy forming support club networks. It is not clear from the research at this stage what proportion of recent club formation in any region can be attributed to this effect.
The MC culture did not attract very many new clubs in the 1980s in either Australia and New Zealand, or North America. The historical evidence needed to determine the causes for the
14 downturn has not been collected, so it is not possible to determine reasons for the downturn. Similarly, it is not possible to establish why clubs continued to form in Western Europe during this same period.
Western Europe followed a different trajectory. It shared the growth seen in the antipodes during the 1960s and 1970s, but kept growing. It then faced a downturn in the 2000s when North America was turning around. The Blue Angels in Scotland, formed in 1963, may be the oldest MC in Europe. The oldest on the Continent was the Silent Skulls in Belgium in 1965. Interestingly, many of the earliest clubs on the Continent also were formed at American military bases, such as the Iron Horses (1966) and the Knight Riders (1969) in Germany, and later allowed locals to join. These locals kept the club going after the servicemen returned home. While other clubs, like the Road Spirits, folded as the US servicemen were stationed out of the area (Biker News n.d.).
However, the most important story for Europe is the formation of clubs in Germany. This nation has 61% of all locally formed clubs in Western Europe. As can be seen in Figure 3, Germany dominates club formation to the extent that it is reasonable to say that the history of Western European MC formation is the history of Germany club formation. Germany had an early peak in club formation in the 1970s, while the other nations peaked a decade later and saw their largest growth in the 2010s. The biker culture is very strong in Germany and has seen the formation of major international clubs such as Gremium and Trust.
Figure 3. (here)
Turning to the clubs that have median dates in the early millennia, we find three different stories. The clubs in southern Africa are entirely within South Africa. This nation initially saw a rise matching that of the other Commonwealth nations of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. South African clubs were all formed from the white population and there do not appear to be black MC despite a significant increase in SMC (Duguid 2003, Tucker 2018). The oldest club in Africa was the Satan Saints formed in South Africa in 1968. Hayes (2018) claims it was the Nomads in 1966, but their website shows they are an SMC, with no patch system, female members and bikes from all nations, despite calling themselves an MC (Nomads Motorcycle Club 2013). Unlike Australia and New Zealand, the South Africans saw a continued increase in club formation from the 1990s. This may relate to the end of
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Apartheid, however, as has been noted, there are no non-white MC in the nation, despite a long history of African-American (Black Motorcycle Clubs n.d.) and First Nations clubs (Redrum MC n.d.) in the US.
Figure 4. (here)
The earlies Eastern European club was the Road Runners formed in Poland in 1978 from military veterans. It may be this latter fact that allowed it to exist under the Soviet system. The first club in Scandinavia was either the Stromsunds or Bengalos in Sweden in the late 1960s. However, it would be fair to say that neither would be regarded as MC until many years later. Similarly, the much larger No Name MC which formed in Denmark in 1972, acknowledges that they were initially a touring club “but as the years has gone by the club has developed to the biker club it is today” (No Name MC nd). Eastern Europe, unsurprisingly, saw a massive growth in clubs in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. Like the West, it has less, but still reasonably strong growth into the new millennium, with a decline in new clubs in the last decade. This fall could be a result of saturation of the market place, remembering that the fall does not indicate a reduction in the total number of clubs, but just a fall in the number being created. Conversely, Scandinavia is still on a strong growth trajectory. It is not clear what could have driven the strong growth so much later than other Western nations. As was noted above, Sweden traditionally saw deviant youth drive cars rather than motorcycles. The late surge in club formation may be a generational shift away from the car for either social or economic reasons.
Figure 5 shows that the growth of the clubs with the most recent median club formation years. All three regions have median years in the current decade. In fact, 13 clubs have formed in South America in the first four months 2019.
Figure 5. (here)
The first club in East Asia was AllBad Company formed in Thailand in 1970. They are mixed ethnicity with the older members being of European decent, and may have been formed by expats. It has not been possible to determine the first MC created by locals in East Asia, but the clubs formed since 2000 appear to have entirely local membership (Bain and Lauchs 2017). The strong growth in the region is only occurring in the four democracies of
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Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The other major democracies of Korea, Japan and Taiwan have a much smaller MC presence. There were no MC found in the more authoritarian nations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
The first club in the Middle East was the Anatolian Tigers in 2003, made up entirely of Turkish locals. Turkey is one of the strongest regions for club growth in the Middle East with half of all locally formed MC in the region. This may be driven by the close links with Turkish migrants in Germany.
Latin and South America is the fastest growing region in recent years. The first club, Zapata, formed in Brazil in the 1960s, and Mexico followed with the Barbenegra in 1975. These nations have continued to be the focus on club formation, even in the 2000s, with over 520 of the 906 clubs in the region.
Discussion The MC culture has spread to almost every region of the world. It is uniform in iconography, structure and practice. However, there are significant differences in the timing and size of club formation. No research has been conducted on the causes of club formation, so this paper can only speculate on the reasons why clubs would form so differently around the world. One would assume that all Western nations would have uniform club formation, were exposed to American popular culture, and the sources of MC culture, at the same time. They also shared in the economic growth leading up to the 1970s.
Conversely, the delayed growth in East Asia and the Middle East could be the result of the lack of economic opportunity to be able to afford motorcycles and the absence of suitable roads on which to ride the bikes. Potential members need to be able to afford a motorcycle; and specifically the outlaw biker’s fetish, the Harley-Davidson. A used bike will cost approximately US$10,000 and a new bike could easily exceed US$20,000. Given this is a luxury expense, there are many nations were this is still unfordable, except for the wealthier minority. Thus economic growth and consequent income growth appear to be a pre-requisite for a person to enter the biker community, whether as a social rider or MC member.
Social clubs also exist before MC in all regions. While this paper has not studied the data on the time period between social motorcycle usage and MC formation, there tends to be a delay
17 in all regions. This may be the reason why clubs do not exist in India which, nonetheless, has extensive motorcycle social clubs riding the locally made Royal Enfields (Lamba 2015). The South East Asian nations’ economies grew significantly in the 1990s with the economic benefits flowing to the new middle class in that and the following decade. This is reflected in the figures with continual strong growth in club formation since 2000.
People also needed a cultural impetus to trigger MC formation rather than just SMCs. In the Middle East and East Asia, early research indicates that most of the clubs formed prior to 2000 were established by US or European expatriates. It may be that the American presence crossed the language barriers in both regions allowing the locals to be introduced to the OMCG lifestyle and clubs to share the Hells Angels model. This cultural transfer may also be driven by the arrival of clubs from overseas setting an example of the culture for the locals. A minority of clubs, especially older clubs, create chapters in new territory in their own nation and overseas, in the further pursuit of glory via the warfare mentality, such as the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Rebels and Outlaws.
Popular culture can also play a role in inspiring clubs to form. As noted earlier, The Wild One which inspired many to ride and set the first example of the deviant biker. However, the bulk of clubs in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand began in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period which correlates with the Biker Exploitation Movies timeline of 1965-74 (Perlman 2007). The movies also had some influence in Europe with the Toros MC in Germany specifically referring to the movies in their club history (Petersen 2018). Australia appears to be the only nation which produced their own biker exploitation movie, Stone, discussed above which only had a local impact.
The findings show little correlation with club formation and the Mad Max series of movies from 1979 to 1985, which were fantasy representations of bikers and, technically, these dystopian movies did not depict MC. Any influence should show up in the 1980s and should have their biggest inspiration in the Anglo speaking world. However, these nations, other than the UK, all show drops in club formation in that decade. The Sons of Anarchy program, which ran from 2008-2014, does correlate with the 21st century club boom, and was blamed for new club formation in Canada (Berman 2018). If this was going to have an influence then the figures should show an increase in the 2010s, which is true for all but English speaking nations. In fact, the greatest increase in this period appears online, with over 170 virtual MC
18 appearing in the Grand Theft Auto world following the release of the Bikers patch in 2016 (Porter 2016). Many of these clubs names and patches directly reference this television series.
War and repression also would limit the ability of clubs to form. There is no room for the luxury and recreation of motorcycle clubs during a war. Also, deviant groups like MC are usually repressed in police states. The latter can evidenced by the delay in club formation in the Eastern Bloc until after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of the clubs whose formation dates we have, only six of the 101 clubs in Eastern Europe were formed before 1990. Iran does not have any clubs because of it being a police state and also because locals were banned from riding bikes over 250cc following their use in assassinations after the Revolution (Bikesales 2015).
One other potential cause could be the gradual emancipation of women. MC are reactionary organisations. The male members seek old, if not ancient, values of masculine supremacy, honour, violence and subordination of women. If a man lived in a culture that retained these values, there would be little imperative to join an MC. The desire to ride a large motorcycle could be fulfilled by joining an SMC. Thus the answer may not lie in the desire to camaraderie or motorcycle fetishes alone.
Conclusion This paper is the first to try and measure how many MC have formed, where they have formed and, where possible, when formation took place. It identified trends in club formation finding significant differences in the history of trends in club formation. English speaking nations were the first to embrace MC culture with the primary years of club formation being in the 1960s and 1970s, with Western Europe, effectively a decade behind. There was a lull in club formation in most of the world in the 1980s. Then, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Eastern Europe embraced OMCG culture with a boom in club formation. However, the most significant growth has occurred since the 1990s in Scandinavia, Latin & South America and East Asia.
It is reasonable to assume that a purely American club formula would not be popular in all cultures. While motorcycling may have universal appeal, the formation of exclusively male clubs following the structural, operational, fashion and proactively deviant guidelines of the Hells Angels model should clash with cultures such as the Confucian based social models of
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East Asia, and politically should be unpopular in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. But this paper has shown that the opposite is true. The MC model has universal appeal and the constraints on replication appear to relate to other political, economic and structural factors that, once removed, result in a rapid process of club formation.
This paper does not claim to have found every OMCG that has existed in the past or exists today. However, the numbers constantly change as clubs form and fold, and it is believed that the over 5000 clubs found is sufficient to provide a representative sample of the history of club formation upon which some conclusions can be drawn. Further, the conclusions drawn from the findings must be treated with caution as they are speculative and await more detailed research.
The key areas for future research include: More detailed analysis of data in a fractal manner to determine variation in formation within the regions and nations. Data can be collected on environmental factors that may correlate with club formation including, economic growth, political freedom and road infrastructure. Club social media and websites provide the opportunity for analysis of club histories in each region where some explain the timing and reason for the club’s establishment. They also allow analysis of the uniformity of iconography, structure and operation. It would be very interesting to see if the existing deviant motorcycle cultures, such as bosozoku (Osaki 2016) biker culture in Japan, has limited OMCG formation (Bain and Lauchs 2017). Research is also needed of popular culture and online discussions within the MC world which may also expose the extent of reactionary desire for a return to male hegemony (Connell 1995).
Finally, the MC, while largely uniform, is not standing still. Are there new cultural phenomenon in OMCGs such as the rise of the Nikie Bikies and pseudo-MC in Australia (Lauchs 2017) and the Rocker Fighting Clubs in Germany (Boeselager 2016). The field of OMCG research is still very young and offers many opportunities for exploration.
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Acknowledgements. I would like to thank Prof John Scott, Queensland University of Technology, and Dr Andy Bain, Mt Union College, for their valuable input in preparing this paper.
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Table 1. Proportion of clubs with origin year by region Total Local % of total Origin Year Region Clubs clubs Known Australia and NZ 266 5% 66 East Asia 322 6% 151 Eastern Europe 240 5% 101 Latin and South America 906 18% 553 Middle East and North 79 2% 38 Africa North America 922 18% 385 Scandinavia 1243 25% 204 South Africa 61 1% 33 Western Europe 1033 20% 626 5072 100% 2157
Table 2: Median Year of Club Formation by Region
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Median Year of Club Region Formation Australia and New Zealand 1970 North America 1978 Western Europe 1991 South Africa 2000 Eastern Europe 2002 World 2004 Scandinavia 2005 East Asia 2011 Middle East and North Africa 2013 Latin & South America 2014
Figure 1: World Club Development 450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
ANZ East Asia East Eur Latin & Sth Am Middle East Nth Am Scand Sth Africa West Eur
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Figure 2: Early Adopters of MC Culture 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
ANZ Nth Am West Eur
Figure 3: Germany and Western Europe 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Germany West Eur Other
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Figure 4: Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and South Africa 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Sth Africa East Eur Scand
Figure 5: Middle East & North Africa, East Asia and Latin & South America 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Middle East East Asia Latin & Sth Am
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