Sept 19, 2009: Around two dozen motorcycle accidents were allegedly cause by Brother Speed Motorcycle Club in Oregon. Two bikers were seriously injured in the accidents and a main highway was closed for several hours.The Brother Speed Motorcycle Club is a one-percenter motorcycle gang that was formed in Boise, Idaho in 1969, but now has its mother chapter in Portland, Oregon.
Brother Speed was established by a group of high school friends who rode motorcycles together. The friends noticed an increase in motorcycles in the area and decided to run a newspaper ad looking for anyone interested in riding together and starting a motorcycle club.
A meeting was organized with approximately 20 people attending the first meeting. A few weeks after the first meeting, the group came up with the name, "Brother Speed".
The club's insignia is a winged skull with sunglasses and its "colors" are black and gold.
There are around 150 Brother Speed members and there are eight chapters spread across Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Utah.
It is one of the "big five" motorcycle clubs in Oregon, alongside the Vagos, Free Souls, Gypsy Jokers and the Outsiders.
Members must be male, at least 21 years of age and own an American-made motorcycle.
Brother Speed Motorcycle Club was “Officially Established” in May, 1969, although the roots of the club were established much earlier.
As I recall, it was about 1960 in the 3rd grade, when 2 other guys and I struck up a friendship and started hanging around together. (Later becoming Chartered members of the Boise Chapter) The fact that all of our fathers rode motorcycles also provided a common interest in bringing us together.
During high school we all rode bikes and eventually graduated into the larger bikes. Boise, in 1967, was such a small town, we knew everyone that owned a Harley or were in the process in building one. There was getting to be quite a few of us hanging around together. Even though a few of us had joined the military, or was lost to the draft, our numbers had continued to grow, including some that just returned from The Vietnam War.
In the spring of 1969, Hollywood had produced a few biker movies, thus making being a biker a popular thing to be. We saw an influx of guys building bikes and wanting to ride together. We then decided to run an add in our local paper stating that anyone interested in riding together and starting a motorcycle club, attend the meeting that we had organized.
We had at least 20 guys attend the first meeting, and a couple weeks later we came up with the name, “Brother Speed”. Another guy had a sketched drawing of a winged skull with the helmet, goggles and scarf. That becoming our center patch.
The following year we started a chapter in Logan, Utah and Portland, Oregon. Since then, with our outstanding motorcycles and guys that are always having the most fun, we have established a total of 7 Chapters here in the Northwest.
