Respect is the key word here ******, if you respect them they usually will respect you..some key issues, don't ask questions about their club, do not touch one of their bikes, unless they let you, don't get in their face about anything, that is a hard one to do sometimes, but in the long run it is a good one to follow. Remember these guys are a family, so if crap comes down with one, don't count on it being one on one..above all else do not put any kind of a bottom rocker on a vest with a center patch, bottom rockers are turf rockers, in other words that is the clubs land..If you go to a Rally and a club has a area that they camp in, they will have it roped off, that is their turf for the weekend, do not cross over into it unless your invited. thats a no-no..the clubs have enforcers or sargt. at arms that will deal with that, usually its a friendly reminder to leave, but if it is a prospect that has been assigned that duty, well he may push it, as a prospect he has to earn his bones and some of them really take that serious. as for patches and pins, most are ok, never wear a 1% in a diamond patch, although that patch seems to have gone by the wayside some still wear it, some clubs are pretty good at mingling with crowds, some are not, don't walk up to a bunch of club members and think they will greet you with open arms, unless of course they are HOG members, they buy their patch, they don't earn it..thats another thing to remember, when dealing with a outlaw club, they earn that center patch, they don't go buy it, or have it given to them. different clubs have different ways to earn it, I won't go into that here. The key to it all is respect..I have been in rest areas and had some club members pull in and never say a word to me, and I have had some pull in and talk and be friendly with me, but never let your guard down, keep alert at all times..usually minding your own business is a good rule here..as for the red wings, black wings, etc, etc, as this is a family forum I won't go into it..if you decide to put a set of broken wings on a vest or cut-off I put mine down on the lower 1/3 of the back, just the way I like to wear mine, no rules about that as far as I know..hope this helps you..

 

FWIW, I've been riding since the late '60's and a lot during the bad ol' days of the '70's in and around North Carolina and St. Louis and never heard of a "crash patch" until this thread. I wore one of the large ones above and always heard them called "wilted wings".....which could mean any number of things. I still have my old ones laying around somewhere. This "broken wing/crash patch" is, I'm inclined to agree with another poster, a more recent interpretation. Never saw or heard a reference to it as such before, and I rode around with both savory and unsavory types "back in the day".

 

Cav- Care to enlighten us to the Original "wilted wings" version? This is actually a good point to having this thread! I know that particular patch as one thing and really don't want to dis-respect or LOSE the heritage of the original meaning.

Don't leave us hanging.

 

Wow! I guess the 'meaning of patches' is regional or changes with time or both or something else, but I've been around the biker community and wearing a vest since the early 70's and some of those defininitions are news to me! And I'm sure my friend 8-Ball, who is a prominent member of a midwest 1% club, who by the way has never been anything but hetero all his life, would love to know what some LEO website is spreading about his name patch. He got the the name in Vail Co. when me and him lived there. One night we were attacked by 4 drunk tourists in our nieghborhood bar. I used a closed buck knife clenched in my hand and started hammer fisting the creeps and he grabbed a ball off the pool table and cup-handed the sob's with it. After they........left, we discovered it was the 8-ball he had in his hand. And a legend was born!!
By the way, this was 25 years ago and we were extremely well trained professinials in the art of drunken self preservation, so don't try this at home.

 

I don't know how enlightening this is, but this is a scan ofmy patch, worn '76-'79. I took it off because I was in Charlotte at the time and patches of any sort were problematic given the atmosphere immediatelyfollowing the "Fourth of July Massacre" ('79, as I recall, when 4-5 Outlaws were blown away in their crib). Those were hard times for riders....nothing like going to Hinson's H-D and being surrounded by people with magnums, any one of which might draw fire from any direction and you potentially in the crossfire.

It had no particular meaning in any circle in which I ever ran and I never heard of one proposed prior to this thread. We just regarded it as a sign of a high mileage, experienced (in multiple ways...a lot of us were VN vets) types. There was no such thing as RUB's in those days.

 

Speaking of wings....one free "attaboy" to the first person who can identify these (on the jacket). On the road to Daytona, '79.

 

[quote]ORIGINAL: Bear64

[quote]ORIGINAL: ******

Yea I hear ya on the Respect thing. My "mistake" was asking a guy a question about patches, or how the ____________ felt about riders wearing a Certain set of patches. Later I was approached by he and an Officer of __________ MC. My second mistake, and I do this with my friends, I touched his shoulder. With me it is just habit. After our conversation, all was cool. They learned I was just an un-informed harmless Old Fart!!!!

Thanks for the "guidance".

 

Quote:

ORIGINAL: Hiram

pococj - I now know what the broken wings are, what's the significance of the others that you listed?

BTW, never had a patch vest until I joined to PGR

Upside down wings are a protest against HD; the protest reasons are many, and not necessarily the same from one person to the next.

Red wings are earned by the performance of a certain sexual act.

OHFFOH = OutHouseForever, Forever OutHouse. OutHouse M/C, a small club I helped start when I was young, ignorant, and havin' a load of fun.

 

I need that 1975 Ford Station Wagon patch........

 

Cav, I was in Charleston back then. Used to ride or drive up to Charlottes some, especially for the EasyRiders swap meet. It got pretty hairy in some of the juke joints up there, and once we got stuck in the middle of a small war. Was not a good place to be. Seemed like every little town had an M/C, and the smaller the outfit, the badder they tried to be.

81 had a club house right off the interstate outside Charleston, and they usually kept pretty much to themselves. It got sorta strange for awhile after those Outlaws went down. Used to ride by the 81 joint and see armed guards patrolling the perimeter. Weird!

Charleston is where I learned a lotta ettiquite about bikers, and especially 1%ers. We weren't allowed to fly our patch inside the 81 area, which was Charleston, Dorchester, & Berkeleycounties, IIRC. We partied pretty hard, had each other's backs, and walked the walk, but there was always a certain line that wasn't crossed by unspoken agreement. The other side of that line was a completely different universe.

Later, I had the opportunity to cross that line;it no longer had that mystique, and I politely declined.