The images in Danny Lyon’s The Bikeriders book range from haunting to nostalgic to action-packed. In a sense, they tell the story more vividly than even the most skillfully written narrative ever could. They let you imagine a time long gone.
The story springs from the part of Lyon’s life that started when he joined the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club in 1965. His 650 Triumph motorcycle, Nikon camera, and tape recorder allowed him to live the story and document it as it happened.
The first edition of the book came out in 1968; this edition, released in 2003, includes 15 black-and-white and 14 color images not included in the original. Special thanks to Tom Kelly for the use of his copy of The Bikeriders for this review.
In the introduction to the 1968 edition, Lyon explains the origin of the term “outlaw motorcycle club”. Those clubs who opted out of playing by the official rules set forth by the then American Motorcycle Association, both on and off the race track, became known as outlaw clubs.
The narrative includes the stories of various people in the club as transcribed from Lyon’s recordings. That content is about the events in the club, and it explains the backstories of the individuals Lyon recorded. The interviews, or statements as Lyon calls them, are, as with the images, narrative snapshots defined by time and place. As a result, there is no unified storyline. Rather, there are many related, but separate stories.
Cal, Zipco, Johnny Goodpaster, Bobby Goodpaster, Rodney Pink, Funny Sonny, Benny, Kathy, Frank Jenner, Cockroach, and others are the storytellers. Lyon puts it on the page verbatim. There is little interpretation provided because it’s unnecessary. You’ll get it.
Their stories are entirely direct quotes. The quotes are gritty, toasty, or “salty,” as they call it, and direct. Their images in the book allow the reader to place a face to their words; you can practically hear their voices. If you have heard vintage Triumphs, BSAs, and Harley-Davidsons with straight pipes or fishtails on their unmuffled pipes, the images of the club’s dirt track races evoke a soundtrack from your memory.
Their lives play out in graphic detail in their statements. Their personal struggles, their toughness, their troubled past, the evolution of the clubs they rode with, and the price they paid for their lifestyles as The Bikeriders.
In a way, little really ties their individual statements into the larger whole of the story in The Bikeriders. That is accomplished in the Preface to the 2003 edition and the Introduction from the 1968 original. There, Lyon pulls things together with help from Brucie, a former club member.
Lyon found that in the early 1970s, the club split apart based on the beer drinkers vs. the pot smokers. He learned that club founder Johnny Davis was challenged for leadership by new riders who had joined. Davis went to a parking lot to fight for it—and was gunned down.
This year, Lyon’s book was released as a feature film with the same title. I saw The Bikeriders motion picture soon after reading the book. As is often the case with movies based on books, some parts closely follow the book’s inspiration, particularly in the visuals of Lyon’s photos and the use of the interviews in dialogue.
The film, written and directed by Jeff Nichols, introduces story elements that create the continuity of a more complete, if partly fictionalized, story. True to the lifestyle Lyon documented, The Bikeriders movie is vulgar and violent, but that’s the story. The soundtrack has music of two kinds—the music of the day and the rumble of the bikes.
The Bikeriders Book Fast Facts
- Author: Danny Lyon
- Published: 2003
- Publisher: First Chronicle Books
- Format: Soft cover; 7.5-by-10 inches; 121 pages; 72 black-and-white and color images
- ISBN: 978-0-811841-61-0, 0-8118-4161-8
