I'm going to relate an experience I had a few weeks ago.
Keep in mind that I've been riding for fifty years, and understand the lifestyle, and actually know and like quite a few "1 percenters".
I crew on a sprint car here in the Dallas- Ft.Worth area, and the promoter of the racing series that these cars belong to struck a deal to provide the evening's entertainment for a weekend "meeting of the tribes" at one of the local dirt tracks.
Our season was over, and the promoter put together a night's racing program where all the cars would be paid the same, no matter who won. It was a win-win for the cars as regardless of your finishing position you got the same money, and the bikers got a night's sprint car racing to watch.
Most of us are in the 50-60 age range and remember the biker clubs of the '60's, so when we heard that clubs like the banditos, scorpions and several others I don't recall at this moment were to be sharing the same grounds, along with copious quantities of alcohol, we expected some tension.
That expectation was enhanced when we got to the race track, and saw that each club had cordoned off their "turf" with everything from safety tape to barb wire!!
We were invited to check out the vendor area, which was smack in the middle of the "tribes", and the comment from the guys with our car was "OK Britton, you've been around these people all your life, will we be safe going over there?" My answer was that it was all about attitude, if you belittle these people because of their lifestyle, you're going to have a problem.
To make a too long story short, the night went on, we did our "race" thing, and after, talking to the local police that were there providing security we found that after two days of being at the race track, the "bikers" had had no problems whatsoever.
After the racing was over the clubs were invited into the pits to look at the cars and mingle with the drivers, and we found many of these folks to have more than a passing knowledge of the sprint car and it's workings. If one were to go by appearances alone, you would never get out of the tow truck in the pits in the first place. In reality, regardless of how these folks looked, they were on their best behavior, and I've seen many "rougher" nights at the race track.
Don't judge a book by it's cover........