The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club

by Bill Hayes

Overview

Get an inside look at the real beginning of outlaw biker culture with this “raucous and heartfelt recounting of the early days of biker clubs” (Roadbike).  The story starts one weekend in 1947, at a motorcycle race in Hollister, California.  A few members of one club, the no-holds-barred “Boozefighters,” got a little juiced up and took their racing to the street.  Word of the fracas spread, and soon enough Life magazine was on hand to tell the world, with sensational (albeit posed) pictures of the outlaws. And then the “Hollister riot” made its way into the movies, immortalized in Marlon Brando’s “The Wild One.”

What was the reality behind the myth?  Through interviews with the surviving members of the Boozefighters, current member Bill Hayes and club historian Jim “JQ” Quattlebaum take readers right into the fray for a firsthand account of what happened in Hollister, and the formation of  the Boozefighters, where the outlaw biker culture truly began.  The book, “with its great stories and entertaining real-life characters” (MotorcycleUSA.com), is “mandatory reading for anyone interested in American motorcycling history “(Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly). 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616739911
Publisher:	Motorbooks
Publication date:	11/10/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	325,278
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Bill Hayes is one of those rare authors who abides by the age-old writing advice: "Write what you know." And for him, it works. His love for motorcycles--specifically the always-compelling biker culture--launched his writing success. His bestselling book, The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club, followed by American Biker (www.americanbikerthebook.com) and The One-Percenter Encyclopedia have all become classics within the genre. Hayes has served as the National Press and Publicity Officer for the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club (BFMC), continually striving to get the media to trade in their sensationalism for the truth.

Bill Hayes is one of those rare authors who abides by the age-old writing advice: "Write what you know." And for him, it works. His love for motorcycles--specifically the always-compelling biker culture--launched his writing success. His bestselling book, The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club, followed by American Biker (www.americanbikerthebook.com) and The One-Percenter Encyclopedia have all become classics within the genre. Hayes has served as the National Press and Publicity Officer for the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club (BFMC), continually striving to get the media to trade in their sensationalism for the truth.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

RoadBike, March 2006 (circ.: 55,997) “A raucous and heartfelt recounting of the early days of biker clubs.”  

“Hayes puts real human faces with, and lends authentic human voices to the legends, myths and lore of those early biker days … The narrative is helped along considerably by the many vintage photographs, most of them black-and-white snaps, that show clearly the youthful glint in the eyes of then-young-men. There is little tough-guy posturing in those old pictures. Most of the guys are smiling, happy to be alive and happy to be on their bikes … Frozen in time, they have no idea that they’re about to ride straight into the history books. And that’s what makes them so appealing and what makes The Original Wild Ones worth reading.”

Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, December 2007

“Mandatory reading for anyone interested in American motorcycling history.  Three-out-of-four cylinders; four-out-of-four if you enjoy ‘motorcycle lifestyle’ periodicals.  This is one delightful book.”

Editorial Reviews

"Hayes puts real human faces with, and lends authentic human voices to the legends, myths and lore of those early biker days . The narrative is helped along considerably by the many vintage photographs, most of them black-and-white snaps, that show clearly the youthful glint in the eyes of then-young-men. There is little tough-guy posturing in those old pictures. Most of the guys are smiling, happy to be alive and happy to be on their bikes . Frozen in time, they have no idea that they're about to ride straight into the history books. And that's what makes them so appealing and what makes The Original Wild Ones worth reading."

RoadBike, March 2006 (circ.: 55,997)
"A raucous and heartfelt recounting of the early days of biker clubs."

Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, December 2007

“Mandatory reading for anyone interested in American motorcycling history.Three-out-of-four cylinders; four-out-of-four if you enjoy ‘motorcycle lifestyle’ periodicals.This is one delightful book.”

From the Publisher