September 2012 - CityBike

a fun bike to grind out the miles on unless
your body is youthful and elastic enough to
help you bear the terrible pain.
That lasted until 1992, when Tobey Gene
bought a H-D tourer with the intent of
chopping it. He took it for one long ride
before putting it under the Sawzall, but on
the ride, he discovered “...a funny thing...
My arms and shoulders didn’t ache. I
wasn’t rattled or tired.” He realized a
touring rig was the ticket
for enjoying the actual
riding experience even
more, which led to almost
universal adoption of
baggers throughout the
club—Street Glides and
Road Glides, for the most
part, modded with lavish
paint jobs, acres of chrome
and sound systems that
can disrupt weather
patterns. He now owns
a ‘99 Electra Glide Ultra
Classic, although he hasn’t ridden it in a few
years. Why not sell it and accept the role
of elder statesman? He bristles a bit and
tells me he’ll “stop riding when the old boy
upstairs tells me to get off. When he tells
me to get back on, I’ll ride, but I don’t care
what anybody else says.”
He really doesn’t. Tobey Gene has lived
Sinatra’s “My Way,” starting the club in
1958 with his brothers and friends (with
cars at first) so they could enjoy the
California dream as other young people
did—driving, drinking, dancing to rock
n’ roll—on their own terms. When they
discovered motorcycles the next year, they
all bought bikes—always Harleys—and
never looked back. Their club (according
to the autobiography,
which is filled with a lot
of good factual stuff but
may also have some of the
stories motorcycle clubs
seem to have that get just
a little more colorful with
each telling) always had
the fastest motorcycles,
the best riders, the fiercest
brawlers, the best-looking
ladies and the sort of
dances everybody wanted
to crash.
And yet, the Dragons seem to have gotten
along well with (mostly) anybody and
everybody. The Hell’s Angels are allies—
Tobey and his brothers knew Sonny Barger
before he started riding—other white
clubs like them, and they’ve had a special
relationship with the Oakland Police
Department since at least the 1960s, when
a motor officer named Milton Harbelt took
the Dragons under his wing, taking care
of their police-related problems and even
showing up at their parties. The Dragons
reciprocate; they provided the only club
escort at the funeral of the Oakland officers
gunned down in 2009 and escort the little
league team when the police can’t do it.
Hook, a founding member, tells us about the
old days.
(and all male) to this day. “Why do I need
a black club?” Tobey said, pointing his
cane at me, “why do you need the KKK?” I
didn’t bother telling him the Klan stopped
admitting Jews some time ago, but point
taken. The Dragons actually had a white
founding member, a guy named Buzzy,
but when Buzzy would drink, he’d start
“talking black” as Tobey Gene said, even
using the hated N-word, and though he
never received a richly deserved beating
for it, he still disrupted the harmony and
unity of the club. So after Buzzy moved
away (much to everybody’s relief), the club
was all-black and all male (women are a
no-go, Tobey tells me, because the jealousy
and back-biting gets too much when
couples start getting involved). Tobey’s
brother Joe Louis Levingston told me that
when he hangs out with folks from other
backgrounds, “I can’t be me and you can’t
be you,” something that resonates with any
group (motorcyclists, for instance) that
feels marginalized by society.
Soul on Bikes: the East Bay Dragons
MC and the Black Biker Set was a
great read. I don’t know if it’s the
fact that the subjects are things I love—
Oakland, motorcycles, urban history—
or the Zimmerman brother’s excellent
work co-authoring the book (they also
wrote extensively about Sony Barger and
the Oakland Hells’ Angels, so they’re
familiar with the subject), but it’s an
Dragons pose at their favorite
barbecue shack. Photo: East Bay
Dragons Collection.
entertaining page turner
that gives you an idea of
what it was like to live in the
turbulent, troubled—but
fun—East Bay in the ‘50s,
‘60s
and
‘70s.
There’s a
complete
rendering of
the history
of the
Dragons,
as well as
portraits
of other
black clubs,
both in
Northern
and Southern
California.
There may be
a bit too much
Tobey Gene in
there for some,
but I enjoyed
finding out
how he
viewed the
world and
how that
view evolved
over the
Give yourself a dope-slap
if you said, “hey! That’s Angela Davis!” It’s Kathleen Cleaver at a Free
Huey rally, 1968-ish.
years. After
all, how
many black
motorcycle
club
Presidentsfor-Life
have you
Bags was a popular
Dragon—sadly, he died under mysterious
circumstances coming back from a Reno rally
in 1999; the only Dragon, we were told, to die
in a crash. Photo: East Bay Dragons Collection.
chatted with? I’m guessing not more
than one.
Tobey Gene would answer many of my
questions with a cry to “read the book!
You gotta read the book!”, and I’m glad I
did. The problem is that it’s out of print
and used copies are priced at $70 and
up—yow! Luckily, it seems to be in
most Bay Area libraries, including San
Francisco and (of course!) Oakland.
Releasing it as an e-book seems like a
no-brainer to me, so email the Dragons at
info@eastbaydragons.com or Quayside
Publishing (who own Motorbooks):
customerservice@quaysidepub.com and
tell them to get on the ball..
The fuzz in San Leandro and Hayward
weren’t so accommodating, harassing the
club members mercilessly, and after many
arrests and bike impoundings, they learned
to stay away from those towns.
I asked Tobey Gene why he needed to start
an all-black club, and why it’s all-black
What does the future hold? Tobey is
President for Life, but at 78 years old,
that era will be ending sooner rather
than later. But he and his brother aren’t
worried. “We’ll still be an all-black club in
200 years,” Joe Louis told me. “The new
members will keep it going because they’re
harder about the rules than we were.”
Seeing the camaraderie and hearing the
stories makes me believe that the Dragons
will be waking people up at 3:00 am with
their straight pipes and booming sound
systems for many decades to come.
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September 2012 | 14 | CityBike.com
September 2012 | 15 | CityBike.com