Soul on Bikes [Hardcover]

Tobie Levingston (Author), Tobie Gene Levingston (Author), Keith & Kent Zimmerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004

When Sonny Barger formed the Oakland Hell's Angels in 1957, a few miles up East 14th Street in East Oakland, a young black bike rider form Louisiana named Tobie Gene Levingston was soon to follow in Barger's footsteps. The two knew and respected each other and had ridden their Harleys together in the same East Bay neighborhood. In 1959, Tobie Gene organized the Dragons, a loosely knit, all-black men's club, one of the first of its kind. The dragon's earliest incarnation began as an all-black car club. It originally stemmed from Tobie Gene's big brother role to keep his younger brothers and friends occupied and out of trouble. The Dragons became ten strong, including members like MacArthur, Hooker, Tobie's brothers Joe Louis and Jonas, Baby Joe, Sam and Cousin Rabbit. Tobie Gene became the East Bay Dragons MC's first and only president, still reigning and riding after forty-four years.'

Editorial Reviews

Review

Frost Illustrated Feb. 7, 2007

“Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set is a fascinating biography of a fascinating black man and an equally fascinating black movement.”

From the Publisher

The East Bay Dragons Motorcycle Club has gunned its Harleys through the meanest streets of Oakland, Calif., since the 1950s. While Rosa Parks took her historic bus ride, before Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton and the Black Panthers stood bravely for equal rights, the East Bay Dragons MC risked life and limb during the days when it was a revolutionary act for a black man to ride a Harley chopper.

Here's a slice of underground American and African-American history you're unlikely to read in any history book. Tobie Gene Levingston and his colorful cast of misfits and comrades are an all-black, all-Harley, all-chopper group of motorcyclists who have found more than their fair share of violence and redemption on the battlegrounds of urban America.

Headquartered in Oakland, California, the East Bay Dragons exist alongside the Hell's Angels and the Oakland Raiders, securing their place as modern urban folk heroes. Starting out in the 1950s as a car club, Tobie Gene and the Dragons switched to two wheels and encountered street scuffles, rival clubs, ethnic stereotypes, police misconduct, and racial tensions. Their legacy is an untold portion of African-American history. From his humble beginnings as the son of a poor sharecropper, Tobie Gene became the founder and president of the nation's most elite exclusively black motorcycle club. Soul on Bikes recounts the club's adventures with humor, attitude, and most important, soul.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks; 1st edition (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076031747X
• ISBN-13: 978-0760317471
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Professional & Technical > Automotive > Motorcycles > History

More About the Author

Keith and Kent Zimmerman are a unique twin-brother writing team. They have written 16 books together. Their latest project will be published by Broadway /Random House in March 2011. Operation Family Secrets is a gripping narrative nonfiction work about the Chicago mob. Recent published works by "the Zimmermen" include Alice Cooper, Golf Monster with rock legend Alice Cooper for Crown/Random House as well as A Personal Stand, with Country superstar Trace Adkins published by Villard/Random House.

Their first literary project was Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, John Lydon's acclaimed memoirs of the Sex Pistols and the London punk scene. Rotten was nominated for a Ralph J. Gleason Award in 1994, was a Number One bestseller in the UK, and is in print in six languages and has recently been reissued. Immediately after the release of Rotten, they co-authored a book in 1996 for St. Martin's Press entitled Daddy-O: Iguana Heads and Texas Tales about American Southwest photorealist painter and sculptor Robert "Daddy-O" Wade.

In 2000 the Zimmerman brothers scored their first New York Times bestseller with Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Ralph "Sonny" Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Hell's Angel has been published in fifteen countries. Four subsequent books written with Barger include Ridin' High, Livin' Free (a short story collection) and two thrillers, Dead In 5 Heartbeats and Six Chambers, One Bullet, and Freedom: Credos From the Road, all published by William Morrow/HarperCollins. Their sixth book, Soul On Bikes, was a true tale of an all-black/all-male/all-Harley motorcycle club called the East Bay Dragons, published by Motorbooks Int'l.

In 2004 BackBeat Books published the Zimmerman brothers' seventh book (and first music book since Rotten) called Sing My Way Home: Voices of the New American Roots Rock. In 2005 Simon & Schuster/Spotlight Entertainment published Mythbusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time, based on the popular science television show seen worldwide on the Discovery Network. Next the Zimmermen completed a biography of Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton with David Hilliard. Huey: Spirit of the Panther was published by Avalon Press in 2006.

The Zimmermen also collaborated with the Teutul family--Paul Sr., Paul Jr., and Mikey--on Orange County Choppers: The Tale of the Teutuls for Warner Books. The book is also partially based on their hit television series, American Chopper. The Zimmermen also wrote The Art of Jazz, the official 50th Anniversary book for the Monterey Jazz Festival.

The two brothers began their writing careers in the music industry, having spent over two decades as Senior Editors with the national music trade magazine formerly known as Gavin. In April of 2005, the Zimmermen were named 2005 Writer Laureates by the San Francisco Friends of the Library. In addition, the Zimmermen teach a weekly creative writing class in H-Unit at San Quentin State Prison.

On the film front, Huey has been optioned for a mini-series by HBO, and Hell's Angel will star Mickey Rourke with Fox studios and director Tony Scott (Top Gun, True Romance) at the helm. Operation Family Secrets is also in development as a motion picture.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faster Than A Chopped Harley!, January 22, 2004

By 

D. Sean Brickell (gorgeous Virginia Beach, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soul on Bikes (Hardcover)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Black Motorcycles Clubs Were a Part of Bay Area History, May 6, 2004

By 

Dera R Williams (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soul on Bikes (Hardcover)

I must admit I had very little knowledge nor contact with bikers or motorcycle clubs. I had heard of The East Bay Dragons, founded in Oakland and of course, everyone knew the Hell's Angels. Both were synonymous with danger and bad news in my sheltered existence. Their rough manner and their reputation of being bad asses was reason to avoid them. So, it was with great surprise while reading Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set, Marcus Book Store's April book club Selection, to find out that the East Bay Dragons is an integral part of Oakland history.

Tobie Gene Levingston and his family were a part of the northern migration to the East Bay from the southern states in the 1950s; his family being from rural Louisiana. Enticed by the burgeoning factories and other labor jobs and longing to escape the drudgery and endless, vicious cycle of sharecropping that so many black families had succumbed to as a legacy of slavery, California offered new beginnings towards a brighter future. Levingston, then in his early twenties began working in an iron foundry. The work was dirty and back breaking but it enabled him to contribute to his family finances and indulge in some luxuries; one of those being cars. He formed a car club but his group ran into some trouble with the local police and as a result disbanded. Not long after that, Levingston became interested in motorcycles and formed The East Bay Dragons, a black motorcycle club that is active to this day.

Because of the problems he had with the car club, Levingston was determined to keep the MC on the straight and narrow. But as this was a group of young black men, just the sight of them on their bikes, raised fear and ire to other residents and law enforcement agencies. There was rivalry with other MCs, white as well as black. There was the political climate of Oakland with racism and later the Black Panther movement. And there were the drugs. Oakland was rampant with drug trade and all the vices that went along with it did not escape some members of the East Bay Dragons. Though Levingston was the heart and moral pulse of the group, he could not control actions of every member. As a result, there were some violent clashes with the police and other MCs.

This book was a historical walk though Oakland and surrounding cities. Streets and locales that are familiar to this Oakland raised reviewer were prevalent all through the manuscript. Blues and prostitution on Seventh Street, East and West Oakland neighborhood haunts, and the evolution of blacks coming of age in a city that until the mid-60s was run by whites. Myths about the East Bay Dragons were debunked; these are fellows with families, jobs, with kids in college, who pay taxes and are home and business owners. Such movies as the Biker Boys with Lawrence Fishburn have brought to light that men and women from all walks of life are in the biker community. I was surprised to learn that Levingston and Sonny Barger of the Hell's Angels were good friends with a history that goes way back. They have much respect for each other (Barger writes the foreword to the book) and the animosity between the two MCs were minimal. The Marcus Bookstore Book Club had our book club discussion and Mr. Levingston along with other members of the East Bay Dragons and the Oakland Invaders, another MC club were invited. It was a sight to behold as they roared down Martin Luther King Boulevard and parked their beautiful bikes along the street outside of the bookstore. Bold, black and bad.

Dera Williams
Marcus Book Club
APOOO BookClub

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cool Slice of Hidden History, February 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Soul on Bikes (Hardcover)

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.