Soul On Bikes, The East Bay Dragons MC book.

I just done bought this book about The East Bay Dragons from Oakland, CA. They were/are an all black MC club founded in '59. They started off as a car club, so I guess this is kinda car related.
I'm gonna be alone this weekend, the family's in Miami, so I'm gonna read this book.
It's about damn time this story was told.
I'll give you my review next week.
The pictures are amazing.

 

I picked up this book yesterday at Barnes & Nobles and flipped through it...the pictures are pretty damn cool.

Let us know if the read is as good as the pics.

 

Here's an excerpt, I'm on page 45 already.


"I found a two-year-old '55 Ford with a Continental Kit on the back. we called it the Fifth Wheel. My '55 rode the streets as the sharpest, cleanest car of the lot, painted black with three deuces under the hood and a Thunderbird engine roaring inside. When we'd race the streetys in that baby, we would win by a length."


Toby Gene Levingston, author, founder and sole President of The East Bay Dragons MC.

I guess I can be a bad*** via the exploits of real bad***es.

 

Hey folks, this book, up to this point, is as much about cars as it is bikes.
I never knew car clubs were actually dangerous at one time.
But then again I was never a black teenager living in Oakland in the '50s.

 

Nads, don't ever forget we're "****IN HOODLUMS". It was pretty serious ****, I saw them in 62, San Jose, was scarey. If ya saw them today, same thing.........OLDBEET

 

No way, fer' real Old beet?
I'd love to know more.
I've seen some Atlanta Outkasts before, they're pretty damn scary too.
I saw some black dudes on Ninjas and **** in MidTown Manhattan a few years back, and these *******s had balls of steel.

 

Nads, they blocked the intersections as they rode thru town. But with the cops lookin the other way. I was a "lame" kid then, the locals said "don't even look at um". Was the same when the H A was around. Serious......OLDBEET

 

See that's why we need old codgers like old beet. We need you guys like we need air in our lungs. Perspective.
The stories you old coots tell us remind us of what this ****'s all about.
Without danger we're all a bunch of puds.
I guess you can say the ricers that are out there killing each other street racing aren't all that different from what you guys were. But where's the romance?
A tin can winding out to 9000rpm can't hold a candle to American inches throbbing at 5000.

Thanks for the tale, brief as it was, I wish I coulda seen it with my own two eyes.

 

Thank You......OLDBEET

 

talk about black biker clubs, here's some vintage pics from the Devils outta LA
http://home.earthlink.net/~hhorowitz/devil/

 

When I first started 'striping in the '70's, I used to work on bikes for Chicago's "Ghetto Riders M.C.". All Brother's club. Wild MoFo's.

Christian: Cool pic! Now we're talkin'.

 

i see memebers of the dragons all the time- their clubhouse is still on East 14th in east oakland.
one of the only clubs to NOT be "incorporated" in to the other famous club from oakland- wonder why???????

 

hey beet, you ever go to the "box shop" in oakland?

 

Tommy The Greek used to do all the pinstriping on their bikes.
I'm almost done with the book, I stayed up until 3.a.m reading it. It's truly worth buying because the car slant is in there even if you're not into bikes.
BTW, Christian that photo's in the book.

 

In the 70s I lived in Oakland for a while, our hangout shop was TT Motors over in Berkeley.
A dude from the Dragons would stop by once in a while ridin a beautifully taken care of Harley Duo Glide...with a very professionally installed Honda 750 motor in it.
His answer to the question contained the words "old slow smelly leaky unreliable"
An interestin cat, used to run into him at Black & White Liquor when I was gettin my Jim Beam to put cough syrup and acid in. (this was a long time ago)
Can't wait to check the book.
That Irma is a fetchin piece, eh hombres?

 

Always tried to stay out of Oakland..........OLDBEET