A Motorcycle Club (MC) is a group of enthusiasts bonded by a shared passion for riding, ranging from social/charity groups (like Firefighters' Red Knights) to traditional 3-piece patch clubs, including some classified by law enforcement as outlaw biker gangs (OMCs) involved in criminal activity, with a structured hierarchy (President, Sergeant-at-Arms) and a process for joining (prospecting/probation). They organize rides, events, and support causes, but differ greatly in their focus, from purely recreational riding to serious criminal enterprises.
Types of Motorcycle Clubs
Traditional/Social Clubs: Focus on riding, brotherhood, and community, often with a specific theme (e.g., military, profession).
Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs (OMCs): Often use 3-piece patches, have strict rules, and are associated with criminal elements (e.g., Hells Angels, Bandidos).
Sport Clubs: Focus on specific bike types (e.g., Harley Owners Group) or riding styles.
Key Aspects
Structure: Usually have ranks like President, Road Captain, Treasurer, with members earning patches.
Membership: Involves a probationary period (prospecting) before becoming a full "patched" member.
Activities: Group rides, charity work, social events, rallies, and sometimes “run” (organized rides).
Terminology: "Patched members," "prospects," "three-piece patch," "road captain," "Sarge".
Examples
Charity/Professional: Red Knights International MC (Firefighters).
Texas-Based: Sons of Texas MC (AMA affiliated), Paladins of Justice LE/M MC.
Outlaw: Bandidos MC, Outlaws MC (classified as criminal organizations). A motorcycle club is a group of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles. A motorcycle group can range as clubbed groups of different bikes or bikers who own same model of vehicle like the Harley Owners Group.
There are a great many brand clubs, i.e. clubs dedicated to a particular marque, including those sponsored by various manufacturers, modeled on the original brand club, the Harley Owners Group. There are also large national independent motorcycle clubs, for example, the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America, and the Dominar Owners Club (DOC), an exclusive motorcycle group for Bajaj Dominar bikes only. There are also specific clubs for women, such as the Women's International Motorcycle Association, and clubs for lesbians and gays, such as Dykes on Bikes.
Clubs catering for those interested in vintage machines such as the Vintage Motor Cycle Club are also popular as well as those centered on particular venues. Clubs catering for riders' rights such as the Motorcycle Action Group, and charities like The Royal British Legion Riders Branch and the Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity are also popular. Many affiliate with an umbrella organization, such as the British Motorcyclists Federation in the UK, or FEMA in Europe. Producing national and local branch club magazines and events are typical activities of such clubs.
Other organizations whose activities primarily involve motorcycles exist for specific purposes or social causes such as the Patriot Guard Riders, who provide funeral escorts for military veterans, and Rolling Thunder, which advocates for troops missing in action and prisoners of war. While neither of the latter two groups require a motorcycle for membership, they are motorcycling-oriented and much of their activity involves rides.
There are numerous religiously oriented clubs such as the Christian Motorcyclists Association, a biker ministry, charities such as Freewheelers EVS, which use motorcycles to provide an out-of-hours emergency medical courier service, and clubs which attract membership from specific groups, such as the Blue Knights Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club, for law enforcement personnel.
In the United Kingdom, two charities (the Institute of Advanced Motorists and RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders) have significant-sized motorcycle clubs with trained volunteers to promote roadcraft and help riders pass an advanced driving test. The abbreviations MC and MCC are both used to mean "motorcycle club" but have a special social meaning from the point of view of the outlaw or one percenter motorcycling subculture. MC is generally reserved for those clubs that are mutually recognized by other MC or outlaw motorcycle clubs. This is indicated by a motorcyclist wearing an MC patch, or a three-piece patch called colors, on the back of their jacket or riding vest. Outlaw or one percenter can mean merely that the club is not chartered under the auspices of the American Motorcyclist Association, implying a radical rejection of authority and embracing of the "biker" lifestyle as defined and popularized since the 1950s and represented by such media as Easyriders magazine, the work of painter David Mann and others. In many contexts the terms overlap with the usual meaning of "outlaw" because some of these clubs, or some of their members, are recognized by law enforcement agencies as taking part in organized crime.
Outside of the outlaw motorcyclist subculture, the words "motorcycle club" carry no pejorative meaning beyond the everyday English definition of the words – a club involving motorcycles, whose members come from every walk of life. Thus, there are clubs that are culturally and stylistically nothing like outlaw or one percenter clubs, and whose activities and goals not similar to them at all, but still use three-part patches or the initials MC in their name or insignia.
A NOMAD (Greek: νομάς, nomas, plural νομάδες, nomades; meaning one roaming about for pasture, pastoral tribe) is a member of a community of people who live in different locations, moving from one place to another. Among the various ways Nomads relate to their environment, one can distinguish the hunter-gatherer, the pastoral nomad owning livestock, or the "modern" peripatetic nomad. As of 1995, there were an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world. Nomadic hunting and gathering, following seasonally available wild plants and game, is by far the oldest human subsistence method. Pastoralists raise herds, driving them, and/or moving with them, in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover. Nomadism is also a lifestyle adapted to infertile regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand, where mobility is the most efficient strategy for exploiting scarce resources. Sometimes also described as "nomadic" are the various itinerant populations who move about in densely populated areas living not on natural resources, but by offering services (craft or trade) to the resident population. These groups are known as "peripatetic nomads".
