Soul on Bikes

A good read. I have lived in East Oakland all my life and know the East Bay Dragons very well, but it was great to get the uncensored history about this organization that Mom didnt want to tell me until now (after I read the book). Its a good feeling to know that there is deep history in East Oakland but many people especially of my generation take it for granted.

Soul on Bikes, hands-down, is the best piece of non-fiction I've read in ages. Feeling more like I was face to face with Tobie Gene, listening to his story over coffee, the author grabs hold of your attention and takes you on a mind-swirling, 100 mph, yet poignant ride through modern American history and culture. In a time when mainstream culture is so focused on the self, material wants and reality TV, it's refreshing to see that the human side of life still exists in passion, pride and family.

Soul On Bikes exposes a sector of the biker movement of the 1950s and 60s that goes beyond the images of violence/drugs/mayhem usually portrayed in the media. Yeah, there's some of that, but what Tobie Gene's really describing here is a brotherhood of men who formed together around a love of motorcycles and their community, and also out of protection in a violent time and place. Strength in numbers.It's also a story of good ol' American get-up-and-go with Tobie's hardworking beginnings as a sharecropper's son, his move to California with his family, and the formation of the East Bay Dragons car club, and eventually motorcycle club. And he's grown his club into the premiere all-black club in the US. Impressive story.

Too often the motorcycle enthusiast press and mainstream media atempt to portray motorcycling as a sport whiter than ice hockey: "Soul On Bikes" provides a fascinating and wholly unexpected side of two-wheeled culture that few know of. This biograhy combines some very funny and exciting personal insights and rich historical chronicles of the African-American motorcycle scene on the West Coast during the last half century. Tobie Gene Legingston lived through the rough years of the segregated South, became part of the huge black migration to economic independence in the post WWII years and helped create a biking culture - one of working-class pride in Harley-Davidson motorcycles - that continues to this day. You won't read about this in the pages of Easyriders, but "Soul" provides evidence that custom biking is not white, nor black, not Latino, or Asian, but a uniquely American phenomenon appreciated by all kinds of riders.

Soul On Bikes is a terrific story and even better read. Tobie Gene provides an interesting perspective on the Old South and the rise of Blacks in America. Along the way beatnicks, hippies, urban revolutionaries, Hells Angels, and other counterculture segments of society are respectfully given proper narriative.Most of all, the real reason to read this book is fun. Words fly off the pages faster than a chopped Harley. Every page reveals yet more interesting details about bike riders and their clubs. As a society open only to Blacks and Harley riders, the East Bay Dragons M.C. has maintained its status as one of our nation's oldest, most formidable organizations.Here's the real test: I haven't riden in more than 30 years since the last time I put a bike down in traffic and thought it was the end. I'm white and from the east coast. There aren't too many similarities on the surface between the Dragons and me.Nonetheless, as the book unfolds I can wholly identify with the spirit of the Dragons without having to stretch my imagination.That's what I call an engaging book.