Arizona Bike Week is geared more toward the casual motorcyclist, but that doesn't mean the gangsters are absent.
A Scottsdale police spokesman tells New Times just two alleged motorcycle gangsters were arrested during this year's Arizona Bike Week, which ran during the last week of March.
According to police, one member of Lost Dutchman MC was arrested for excessive speeding, while a member of Exiled Few MC was booked for violations related to an ignition interlock and a concealed weapon.
Both of those clubs are Arizona-based.
Meanwhile, it looks like the Hells Angels decided to play nice this year. Hells Angels members tend to claim Arizona Bike Week is for the yuppies, but that's apparently not quite the case.
According to an internal memo from the Scottsdale Police Department obtained by New Times, Arizona Bike Week "historically draws" outlaw motorcycle gangs to Scottsdale, with the Hells Angels and a handful of other clubs mentioned by name.
The memo says cops documented more than 20 motorcycle gangsters last year alone, several of them from out of state.
The memo, which is stated to be for officer-safety purposes, explains that guns, knives, and "other non-traditional weapons" have been found on a "VAST MAJORITY" (all-caps is theirs) of motorcycle gangsters contacted by police.
The Angels also got another shout-out in the brief memo for not playing so well with their rival gangs.
"Within the past year there have been significant violent confrontations in Arizona between rival OMGs including the Mongols, Vagos and Hells Angels," the memo says. "Officers should use extreme caution in any dealings with OMG members."
You may recall members of the Hells Angels and Vagos got into one of the world's safest gun fights in August, 2010, in which at least 50 shots were fired, but nobody was killed.
Still, everyone apparently kept things relatively safe in Scottsdale this year.
Meanwhile, happy anniversary to Sonny Barger, who celebrated his 55th year with the Hells Angels this weekend.
