Long Riders - November 2003
The second book that interrupted my summer riding schedule didn't so much shatter any assumptions, but it went a long way towards illuminating a seriously under represented segment of the motorcycle community. Soul On Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set tells the wild, wacky story of Toby Gene Levingston, the long-standing president and founder of the East Bay Dragons, one of the country's oldest African-American motorcycle clubs. Soul was written with assistance from Ken and Keith Zimmerman, the biographers who helped breathe life into tell-alls by Ralph "Sonny" Barger and punk rocker Johnny "Rotten" Lydon; here, the Zimmerman's just let Levingston recollect on over five decades of riding, brawling and living in urban America. Because of his club's unique social circumstances and location in Oakland, California, Levingston found himself in the historical epicenter of several defining events of the mid- 20th Century. His club lived and ride through the tumultuous days of Civil Rights unrest and riots in nearby Watts; they shared in the "Free Love" and relaxed social mores of the hippie generation in the late 1970s; they vied for members with the Black Panthers who were another force to be reckoned with in their community and they managed to keep the Dragon's gold and green colors flying through the crack cocaine epidemic that ruined countless poor, inner-city neighborhoods like their in the 1980s.
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Riders who were on the road during the early days will laugh at the illustrations depicting huge Afro haircuts, platform shoes and motorcycles adorned with some truly psychedelic custom inventions. Levingston comes off as a fairly unassuming, likeable guy, equal parts club authoritarian and guy-next-door; it's a pleasant contrast to the frequently self-aggrandizing folklore that affects too many autobiographies. Soul On Bikes is hard to put down for several reasons, including Levingston's picture-perfect recollection of the early Harley chopper customizing scene. The founder of a 1950s-era car club, Levingston walks us briskly through the oftentimes funny attempts at upgrading hot rods on a shoestring budget (the club's fake whitewall tires, for instance, were actually made from cheap plastic and would shatter when brushed against a curb!) There were constant conflicts with other clubs and problems both on the road and in the Dragon's clubhouse, but Toby Gene, the son of proud Louisiana sharecroppers, always managed to maintain order and style among his members, which makes for a wickedly entertaining read.
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| -- Mike Seate, bestselling author of Choppers and Jesse James: The Man and His Machines
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