5 Responses to “Riding on the Edge: A Motorcycle Outlaw’s Tale”

• By Ronald D. Lindsay on Sep 3, 2010

  A insider look at the German outlaw motorcycle club. Another spinoff of grade B motorcycle movies and Hells Angels MC wannabes! From HAMC Supporter
  Rating: 4 / 5
• By The Dutchman on Sep 3, 2010

  This book had me riveted from beginning to end. I was raised in the Philly Suburbs but my Grandparents were Pennsylvania German/Lutheran, from Lehigh County, PA, right next to Berks County, where a lot of the action in this story takes place. By chance I now live in Lancaster County and have been all over Berks and Lancaster Counties in the last 15 years. It all rings true geographically. The Pagoda on top of Mt Penn overlooking Reading. The Oley Valley in Berks, where the old people still speak the Pennsylvania German dialect, and they’re not even Amish. The trip to Columbia from Reading-down US 222 into Lancaster, then west on Orange Street; follow your nose, and you end up in Columbia at the Susquehanna River. The island in the Susquehanna south of Columbia near Washington Borough where the Pagan’s rendezvoused. My friends at work told me they used to party on that island back in the day. The diner in Lancaster where the author tuned up the “three wiseacres” who were harassing the prospect Lancaster Chapter. I think it might have been Lump’s Diner, now the Neptune at Prince and Liberty. I could go on and on.

  At first the idea of young men of Mennonite/Pennsylvania German lineage becoming outlaw motorcyclists seemed insane, but then it made perfect sense: there’s always a certain number of teenagers who eventually rampage against a super devout upbringing. Just one more thing that rings true in this book.

  The author seems to have the dual credentials necessary to write a book of this sort: you have to have lived the life, and you have to have the required writing ability to translate that to the page. Much as I can tell, John Hall has both.

  On the other hand, you pick up a book like this. How are you supposed to then determine its authenticity? If you were reading a history of the 87th Congressional Congress, it would be relatively easy to get the applicable minutes of what was presented on the Congressional floor back then. Not so with obtaining the minutes of an Outlaw MC Club meeting! Some of these bar brawls the author said he got in could conceivably be fact-checked if you wanted to spend the time. But you can’t fact-check, like, conversations carried on by a group of bikers sitting around a half keg of Horlacher’s in somebody’s basement in 1968.

  In the end it’s a personal thing. It all comes down to whether you find the book believable. If you think it’s made up garbage, that’s cool, but you should give reasons. Ditto for if you believe it.

  Rating: 4 / 5
• By Crazy A on Sep 3, 2010

  This is a good book. A good read that keeps you reading. As a testament, notice how many reviewers–after reading this book—claim to be ‘ex’ club members or have had (always) unspecified ties with the people and/or clubs discussed in the book. Of course none of them ACTUALLY did, but still, as they say, imitation is the sincerest flattery. The book covers action, adventure, romance, success, failure, etc. in a self effacing way that other egocentric ‘we’re-not-the-bad-guys’ authors (Barger, Winterhalder) would never have the humility to touch with a ten foot pole . I’m sure that some events described in the book might be up for ‘factual’ interpretation, but that’s the way it is with all memoirs. The people in the book are presented so vividly that the lack of photos is a true injustice to their memories (of which this book might be the only public acknowledgement). I say read it.
  Rating: 4 / 5
• By Wayne Beckham on Sep 3, 2010

  I think I’ve read just about every book written about OMC’s (Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs.) The books tend to fall into two genres: memoirs from aging 1%’ers (Sonny Barger’s Hell’s Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and Ruben ‘Doc’ Cavazo’s Honor Few, Fear None) and cops who managed to infiltrate the hyper-paranoid world of outlaw bikers (Jay Dobyns’ No Angel and Billy McQueen’s Under and Alone)

  What strikes me in all of these (theoretically) true accounts is how proud the bikers are of their lifestyle beyond the social norms and how the cops admit that they’re envious of the freedom that these outlaws demand.

  John Hall’s book is somewhere in between. It’s a recount of his life in the 1960′s when, as a young twenty-something, he rode with the east-coast Pagans, eventualy rising to rank of Chapter President of the Long Island Pagans. In between riding with the Pagans and writing this book, he spent “time in the state pen, as well as Penn State, where he taught history, American studies, rhetoric and mathematics.” John’s obviously not your average outaw biker.

  The bulk of the story is set in the 60′s when OMC’s were a gathering of guys who liked to ride motorcycles, drink beer, engage in the occasional fisticuffs, and bed the women who found their anti-social antics a turn-on.

  John has a great way with words and he paints a vivid mental image of what he’s describing. He also acknowledges how times have changed: “Today there are probably hundreds of normal middle-class Long Island kids who would s*** if they found out that back when grandma was their age, she used to h*** Pagans on the cellar floor in East Meadows.”

  John’s book is set in the time before OMC’s (allegedly) became a major criminal enterprise. Growing up in Fontana, I spent a lot of time in the company of Hells Angels, who were friends of my Dad. John’s book captures that feeling that they were just guys who chose to live a different way.
  Rating: 5 / 5
• By B. Roberts on Sep 3, 2010

  Growing up in the middle of the 60′s scene as the daughter of Jim “Flash 1%er” Miteff, an old school Outlaw, I was very impressed by this book. I could see in my mind what he was writing about. What more can we ask for from a writer? As someone who has published a book of vintage photographs of The Outlaws from my dad’s personal collection I would have to agree with another reviewer that writing a book without regard for the club involved shows a certain lack of respect for that club. But, with that said, I still hope to see more books from this writer for sure.
  Rating: 5 / 5

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