Although my dad had stopped biking long before I came on the scene, there were enough photos of him and my uncles sitting on their engines to make me a sucker for shows like Sons of Anarchy and books like Under and Alone. Biking and Brotherhood has been on my interest list for a while, but watching Bikeriders recently and then spotting this on KU sold it. Biking is a straightforward memoir by Dave Spurgeon as to how he took up riding, then became an early member of a Toledo-based MC that was later absorbed into a national organization on par with the Hells Angels. Spurgeon’s career as an outlaw biker ended when he was arrested for numerous charges, including possession of an narcotic with intent to sell, and has something of a twist ending.

Biking and Brotherhood, as a memoir, is an interesting collage of gearhead talk, reminiscences of long drives, party goings-on, and tense altercations with other motorcycle gangs. Although Spurgeon’s life was saturated with petty crime — fights, drug use, more traffic and firearm expenses than one can shake a fist at — he never goes in-depth into outright criminal behavior the MC gets involved in, besides admitting that a lot of brothers (especially in other chapters) engaged in drug dealing on the side. This is largely stories of hanging with the boys, drinking and snorting cocaine to excess, getting in fights, and sometimes having adventures like nearly dying in the Everglades because of a failing airboat. Still, something had to be going on, since when he’s arrested at age 38 he has multiple vehicles, $40,000 in cash (in 1989), and what sounds like more guns than my local shop — and while he was evidently a superb bike mechanic, he doesn’t evidence any kind of steady work, either in text or by the fact that he was able to take off for weeks at a time to head for bike rallies or wait in Florida for the weather in Ohio to stop sucking.

As a memoir, this was fun reading despite its repetition and my growing sense that there were things on on that Spurgeon doesn’t talk about, more to the life beyond rides and late nights and gleeful bar brawls. Perhaps that hopes to Spurgeon’s new life as an evangelist, as he embraced Christianity: accounts of 1%er life like Under and Alone have made it obvious that some MCs get up to some savage, often disturbing things, though admittedly the experiences are over a decade apart. I most enjoyed reading about Spurgeon’s obsession with his machines (he did a lot of his own fabrication and “chopping”, not content to ride a prebuilt) and the close ties he shared with his fellow easy riders.

Related:
Under and Alone: the True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America’s Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, William Queen
The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers, Daniel Wolf. I’m glad I went back and re-read this review, because the study delves deeply into feelings and thoughts that Spurgeon hints at here, but couldn’t express.