Let's Ride Book by Sonny Barger -Don't Buy Italian

[Greg Field]

I have a low opinion of these HA guys having lived near (behind) their NYC clubhouse. I was regularly awakened in the middle of the night by blood curling screams from inside that building and at some point they took over the building next to it and muscled the owner out until I guess he paid them off. Barger may have softened over the years but that doesn't change my opinion of the group, though I might change my mind if he comes out with a cookbook but that depends on the recipes.

And I rarely observed a single rider wearing the jacket as they seemed to always move in mass.

Same here. But now they have appeared to pick up a new farm tema, the Sons of Hell.

[LeakyLogic]

Having just purchased this book and getting to the portion about MG, I will not read it with the same enthusiasm as when I bought it or at all. Perhaps I'll put it in the bathroom.

[canuck750]

They are social misfits, looking for a place to belong.  No different than any other street gangs, or ISIS for that matter.  I need someone to replace mommy and daddy and tell me what to do...

Arrested development displayed in public. I find the patch thugs to be very sad individuals with no ability to define themselves on their own merit. There is nothing glamorous or admirable about an outlaw biker.

[Lannis]

Lannis, sorry you don't get Thompson , and for sure he was weird , but he did in fact ride quite a bit , and some of us can relate to him . Besides , it wasn't him bashing Eyetalian motorbikes , he liked them .

  Dusty

I DO "get" Thompson.   I don't like who he pretended to be, and much of it WAS pretense, regardless of how much he claimed to ride.

What you don't understand is that I "get" him, but I have an opinion of him and his writing which is different from yours.   It's called "diversity"; but there's not much "tolerance" for "diversity" sometimes, I see .... some people can understand differences of opinion only in terms of "you must not understand, then".

Lannis

[oldbike54]

I DO "get" Thompson.   I don't like who he pretended to be, and much of it WAS pretense, regardless of how much he claimed to ride.

What you don't understand is that I "get" him, but I have an opinion of him and his writing which is different from yours.   It's called "diversity"; but there's not much "tolerance" for "diversity" sometimes, I see .... some people can understand differences of opinion only in terms of "you must not understand, then".

Lannis

 Dunno , everything I ever read about the man written by other writers pretty much confirmed that he was the real deal . Probably crazier than even he claimed to be . Now, he certainly was not a role model , didn't claim to be .

 Oh , and asking someone to be tolerant of intolerance ... hmm , well that seems a bit odd , just sayin .

  Dusty

[LowRyter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vySsJJh54Ik

[Lannis]

 Oh , and asking someone to be tolerant of intolerance ... hmm , well that seems a bit odd , just sayin .

  Dusty

That's how you give YOURSELF a license to be intolerant of others' opinions, while maintaining the fiction of "tolerance" on your part.

Seen it over and over again.

Lannis

[oldbike54]

That's how you give YOURSELF a license to be intolerant of others' opinions, while maintaining the fiction of "tolerance" on your part.

Seen it over and over again.

Lannis

 Uh , sure Lannis , whatever you say .

  Dusty

[Tom]

If someone is scared off of an Italian motorcycle because of one person's opinion then they shouldn't buy an Italian motorcycle.  More for me to look at and buy. 

"Yep...hard to get parts for.  I have to work it.  Yeah, Honda Makes a better bike."  Of course, after a period of time they start to wonder when they see me still riding the same brand or the same model years later.

[Shorty]

Funny part is, during the years of Sonny's rise in the HA (late 60s and early 70s), Moto Guzzi offered road eating V7s, Ambos, Eldos, early Tonti bikes. OR you could buy a rickety Panhead, Shovel, or Sportster and a tattoo.  OR an Exxon Valdese Brit bike.  I wish I had heard of Moto Guzzi at a younger age.  I liked the workmanship that went into the better choppers, and I still have a soft spot for homemade bikes built from discards. But, even if the HA bikes were really well maintained, they had nothing on the Guzzis or BMWs of the day.

[Rough Edge racing]

Funny part is, during the years of Sonny's rise in the HA (late 60s and early 70s), Moto Guzzi offered road eating V7s, Ambos, Eldos, early Tonti bikes. OR you could buy a rickety Panhead, Shovel, or Sportster and a tattoo.  OR an Exxon Valdese Brit bike.  I wish I had heard of Moto Guzzi at a younger age.  I liked the workmanship that went into the better choppers, and I still have a soft spot for homemade bikes built from discards. But, even if the HA bikes were really well maintained, they had nothing on the Guzzis or BMWs of the day.

 A HD comparison to a BMW or Ambassador would be a stock Electra Glide not a chopped or bobbed  Harley. And back then a nicely tuned Big Twin a was fine machine for general use or long trips. And if your bike had problems there is no better machine to have a break down than a Harley 

[Lannis]

And back then a nicely tuned Big Twin a was fine machine for general use or long trips. And if your bike had problems there is no better machine to have a break down than a Harley 

Not just back then, either.   I had three stock Big twins, sort of "one from each era" - a '54 FLE Hydra-Glide 50th Anniversary, a '65 first-year Electra Glide, and an '84 last-of-the-Shovelheads with belt final drive and disk brakes.

From a maintenance, fixability, and cruisin' on the highway standpoint, you can't beat 'em.    You have to accommodate the brakes on the old ones, and don't lean too far or too fast on ANY of them, but I'd have another one in a minute.

Lannis