Unknown Bikers
| Also Known As | Unknown Bikers street gang Unknown Bikers club |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founding Location | Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City |
| Territory | Union Avenue to Rodney Street and Metropolitan Avenue to South Fourth Street, Williamsburg |
| Lineage | |
| Successor(s) | Unknown Bikers MC (later motorcycle-club identity; exact continuity requires documentation) |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Neighborhood street gang and club; distinct from the later Unknown Bikers MC article |
| Activities | Street-club activity Inter-club conflict Biker-style activity |
| Politics | |
| Notable Members | Alicat (member from approximately 1976 to early 1980) Little Willie (identified in 1978 contemporary reporting) |
| Rivals | South 9 Bikers (territorially distinct but socially connected) Dukes Arabian Knights |
| Activity | |
| Status | Historical 1970s street-gang phase |
| Years Active | By 1970s (exact founding date uncertain) |
The Unknown Bikers were a Williamsburg, Brooklyn street gang and neighborhood club documented by contemporary reporting in the 1970s. A March 1978 New York Times report described approximately thirty Unknown Bikers in Williamsburg, wearing leather jackets and styling their bicycles after motorcycles.[1]
This page covers the street-gang phase. The later Unknown Bikers MC is a separate article about a motorcycle club with a reported Brooklyn base, Polish influence and chapters in the United States and abroad. The available evidence does not by itself prove an uninterrupted institutional transition between the two phases.
1970s Williamsburg club
The 1978 New York Times article placed the Unknown Bikers among the rival gangs of Williamsburg. It described the group as numbering about thirty, wearing waist-length leather jackets, and using remodeled Schwinn bicycles with elongated forks to resemble motorcycles.[1] The report also described an abandoned building used by the Unknown Bikers as a makeshift church.
A later oral-history feature places the Unknown Bikers on a section of Southside Williamsburg extending from Union Avenue to Rodney Street and from Metropolitan Avenue toward South Fourth Street. It describes them as one of the major Williamsburg clubs of the period.[2] The boundaries are a participant's recollection rather than a complete contemporary survey.
Relationship with the South 9 Bikers
The oral history records that Alicat began hanging out with the Unknown Bikers around 1975 and became a member in 1976. It says that he moved over to the South 9 Bikers in early 1980, while the two groups were already socially connected.[2] This is evidence of movement and association between two clubs, not proof that they were one organization or that one commanded the other.
The same account describes the Unknown Bikers and South 9 Bikers as occupying different parts of Williamsburg and recalls conflict involving the Dukes and Arabian Knights. The incident includes contested personal identification and responsibility, so the article does not assign the conduct to every club member.[2]
Relationship to Unknown Bikers MC
Later sources describe an Unknown Bikers MC based in Brooklyn, but the club's founding date and continuity with the 1970s street-gang phase remain separate historical claims. The MC article records the later club's own reported chapter network and Polish influence without treating those claims as proof that the 1970s group and later MC were identical.[3]
Organizational limits
This article covers the Williamsburg street organization called the Unknown Bikers. It does not include every motorcycle club using the name, every person wearing biker-style clothing, or every participant in recalled inter-club conflicts. A complete roster, formal hierarchy and uninterrupted institutional history have not been established.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “True Story of City Gang Life: No Glittery ‘West Side Story’”, The New York Times, March 6, 1978.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “Gangs of Old New York”, Vice, oral-history feature.
- ↑ “Unknown Bikers MC”, One Percenter Bikers.