All Bikers Are Hells Angels: Difference between revisions

[[File:Wet_Wild_Hells_Angels_20070121_800_05Wet Wild Hells Angels 20070121 800 05.jpg|frame]]

{{quote|''When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets.''|'''Official motto of the Hells Angels'''}}

The classic outlaw biker is a big, burly, grizzled man wearing a leather jacket and riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. (The real Hells Angels ''exclusively'' ride Harley -- owningHarley—owning one is a prerequisite for membership.) Outlaw bikers almost always belong to a biker gang. Members of biker gangs wear the colors of their gang: a vest over their jacket that displays their gang name, insignia, and area of operation. Most gangs also have a system of patches that indicate members' various accomplishments and duties. White supremacist beliefs and symbols, while fairly common, are not ubiquitous. Female outlaw bikers are called "mamas" and tend to occupy a second class position. Bikers live for wild parties and extremely hard drinking. They support their nomadic lifestyle with the drug trade. Classic weapons of an outlaw biker include clubs, chains, and knives. Many real-world bikers carry large maglights because legally they are not considered weapons. The best way to piss off a biker is to wear your own "colors" displaying another gang's turf as your home city. The ultimate crime, however, is [[Motorcycle Dominoes|knocking over their motorcycles]].

Contrary to public perception, most bikers are normal, law-abiding citizens. Many people who ride traditional "cruiser" motorcycles are actually older professionals with a fair amount of money. Buying and upkeeping a quality motorcycle is beyond the price range of most true outlaw bikers, who generally lack a steady income. The American Motorcycle Association famously insisted that only one percent of motorcycle riders are troublemakers. Outlaw bikers [[Appropriated Appellation|quickly adopted the phrase "one percenter"]] as a badge of honor, choosing to see themselves as members of an exclusive elite.

It didn't take long for the outlaw biker trope to be exported to other countries. Currently the Hells Angels boast membership across 27 countries, though additional regional variants on the outlaw biker do exist. In The Sixties, British "Rocker" gangs made headlines for their violent clashes with the scooter-riding Mods, but quickly faded away. Modern European bikers tend fit closer to the "sportbike punks" style and are usually dangerous only to themselves. Japanese "Bosozoku" gangs mostly just enjoy making a lot of noise.

* Ken Nakajima?'s dad from ''[[You're Under Arrest]]'' is a biker to the bone and tends to hang out with large groups of other bikers (much closer to the American version than the Japanese one). But he rides a Ducati.

* 80% of the enemies [[Fist of the North Star|Kenshiro]] faces fall into this trope. With the added bonus of being, on average, at least [[Giant Mook|ten feet tall]]. The series was partially based on ''[[Mad Max]]''.

* ''[[Akira]]'' features two violent outlaw biker gangs: Kaneda's gang of delinquents and the [[Evil Clown|Clowns]]. The [[Crapsack World|general suckiness]] of the world justifies the trope somewhat. Due to being set in Japan, they are based on Bouzoku gangs more than the actual Hells Angels.

* Averted... oddly, in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]''. When the Devil Bats are on their [[Training Fromfrom Hell|Death March across America,]] Sena gets separated and meets up with a thuggish trio of bikers. Turns out the trio are actually middle-aged adults who love Asian dramas and take a liking to Sena because he reminds them of a certain Korean film, and are more than glad to take them to where (they think) he needs to be.

== Comicbooks[[Comic Books]] ==

* In ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] Part II'', Hill Valley's alternate timeline of "Hell Valley" is partly characterized as a [[Crapsack World]] by its infestation with outlaw bikers and trigger-happy gangs.

* There's not a Harley in sight, but otherwise the Australian cult classic ''[http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=lloTd45PFPg Stone]'' totally embodies the trope. A fair amount of the extras were genuine Hells Angels and one of the film's brawls was very, very real.

* In ''[[Made]]'', Puffy Daddy's character is a drug kingpin in New York who has a gang of black bikers under his command.

* The Satan's Helpers in ''[[Pee Wee-wee's Big Adventure]]''. Pee-wee accidentally knocks over the entire gang's motorcycles like dominoes. They plan to "stomp him, tattoo him, hang him, and then kill him," until he wins them over with his Big Shoe Dance and makes friends.

{{quote| '''Edward:''' [looking around the restaurant] Money. Sex. Money. Sex. Money. Sex. [looks at heavily tattooed biker] Cat.}}

* In an episode of the [[Disney Channel]] original series ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'', P.J. and Bob meet a gruff biker couple who threaten to gut them like fish when they try to steal their motorcycles. Subverted when the man starts bawling like a baby when Bob explains that they need the bikes to get to the hospital for the delivery of his newest child.

* In the ''[[Shadowrun]]'' game's version of the future, Combat Biker is a professional team sport with a continent-wide following. It resembles capture-the-flag, but played on motorcycles, in an arena chock full of obstacles and half-pipes ... and with weapons. Many top-scoring players are recruited from violent biker gangs, and bring their brutal street-tactics to the field.

== Videogames[[Video Games]] ==

* In the Lucas Arts adventure game ''[[Full Throttle]]'', the bikers mostly follow the Hells Angels variety, showing a great deal of disregard for traffic laws and personal property, and the main character is a wanted man. The Cavefish, however, are a bizarre subterranean biker cult riding crotch-rockets.

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]: [[Grand Theft Auto IV: theThe Lost Andand Damned|The Lost and Damned]]'' follows a One Percenter outlaw gang that Niko interacts with during the main storyline. Mostly played straight, but the game does show some of the wannabes. Also true to the trope, Johnny meets and befriends a black biker who prefers crotch rockets, and the two trade insults about their choice of ride.

* The Vulture in ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' features two variants on this; in ''Starcraft'' the Vulture pilots were young, obnoxious punks with delinquent trappings, while in ''Starcraft II'' they were replaced with older, [[Danger Deadpan|more laid-back]] bikers; still trouble. They also give a nod with the "Hel's Angels", a [[Stealth Pun|group of Viking pilots]] who are [[Space Pirate|pirates]] and [[Hired Guns|mercenaries]].

{{quote| '''Marge:''' Do you have to be so messy?<br />

* Subverted in ''Biker Mice from Mars'', while the titular mice do ride motorcycles and perform crazy stunts on them, they are the heroes of the show and are shown obeying the 'Rules of the Road'... most of the time.

* In an episode of ''[[South Park]]'', bikers are depicted as attention-whores who make as much noise as possible to get people to notice them, going as far as to imitate engine noise with their mouths when they're not riding motorcycles. The episode encourages people to stop using the word "fag" as a derogatory term for gay people, and start using it as a derogatory term for bikers. To their faces.

* ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' features an entire biker gang of [[Villainous Harlequin|Villainous Harlequins]]s named The Rodeo Clowns.

** [[Ewan McGregor]] and [[Charley Boorman]] are easily Hollywood's most famous bikers, and both used their lengthy trips to support UNICEF's work in Asia and Africa.

* [[Truth in Television]] to the degree that outlaw motorcycle gangs do in fact exist and have spread across the world. Outlaw gangs are often highly active in the drug trade, well-armed, and very violent. Some of the more infamous incidents involving biker gangs include:

** Incidents in the Scandinavian gang-war between Hells Angels and their rival Bandidos have included RPG'sRPGs being fired at rival houses.