[Jeff Higgins]

By way of a little background, a "1%er" is a member of a motorcycle "club" (the rest of us call them motorcycle "gangs") such as the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws, Pagans, etc. Notoriously violent schit-head ass holes who live in their own childish little world, complete with their own rules. Rules that, apparently, under some circumstances, they expect the rest of us to know...

One of their "rules" concerns passing a group of them when they are out riding. Apparently doing so is an act of "disrespect". If we would like to pass one of these groups, I'm told that we are to pull up behind the last guy in line and await his "approval" to do so. If we do not know that (how in the hell would we?), and pass them without "permission", we could find ourselves in a bit of hot water with their "club".

This is almost a non-issue in my area, owing to our lack of such "clubs". Oh, they are here alright, but in my 47 years of plying our local backroads I can honestly say that this has never come up for me.

This only comes up because I was out driving with some local R Gruppers this morning. One of them, like me, also rides. He apparently had the audacity to pass (on his motorcycle) a group of "club" members out for a ride. They first tried to swerve into him, kicking at him, trying to run him off the road. Being on a bike of vastly superior performance, he soon outran them (they gave chase, giving it their best, but had nothing for him). Not long after had to stop for gas.

These ass holes saw him as they rode by, did a u-turn, and surrounded him at the pump. They were very threatening, reading him the riot act about "respect" and all of that. Fortunately, there were plenty of other people at that mini-mart, or who knows what they would have done.

When I was much younger, I put a toe in their waters, but I guess I never paid enough attention. I still run into these guys at local bike gatherings, but do my level best to avoid them. I've always known they have their own "rules". I never thought they expected an unwitting public to know them and heed them, though. And this one just screams "insecurity". I've never looked at passing someone as "disrespecting" them.

Yeah, I've been honked at, lights flashed at me, flipped off, etc. when someone feels I did so inappropriately, but my buddy says this was a perfectly legal, safe, in a passing zone pass on a small group (four guys) just plodding along. And these erstwhile "tough guys" got all butt hurt about it.

I know some of you live in areas that have much larger populations of this sort. Have any of you ever encountered anything like this?