New York City has documented one-percenter motorcycle club presence dating to 1969, when the Hells Angels established their NYC chapter at 77 East Third Street in the East Village. Multiple major outlaw motorcycle clubs maintain documented presence across the five boroughs and Long Island, including the Hells Angels, the Pagans MC, and the Ching-a-Lings.
| Field | Documented detail |
|---|---|
| Hells Angels NYC chapter | Established 1969 at 77 East Third Street, Manhattan; relocated to Throggs Neck, Bronx in 2019 |
| Pagans MC presence | Long Island, Westchester, parts of upstate (per DOJ documentation) |
| Ching-a-Lings MC | Founded 1966, South Bronx |
| Unknown Bikers MC | Founded 1974, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (covered in our dedicated profile) |
| Federal classification | Multiple NYC-area clubs classified as outlaw motorcycle gangs per DOJ |
This article covers the documented MC history of New York City and the broader New York State landscape. For broader cluster context, our motorcycle clubs complete guide is the cluster reference.
Hells Angels NYC: East Third Street
The Hells Angels’ New York City chapter is one of the most recognized motorcycle club chapters in the world. The chapter was established in 1969 at 77 East Third Street in the East Village, during a period when the neighborhood was cheap, rough, and populated by people with zero interest in mainstream respectability - artists, musicians, political radicals, and outlaws of every description.
The NYC chapter rose to national prominence under Sandy Frazier Alexander, who served as president from the chapter’s founding in 1969 until 1984. Alexander became one of the most well-known Hells Angels members on the East Coast, a figure whose reputation extended well beyond the motorcycle world. Under his leadership, the chapter established itself as a major force in the club’s national structure.
The East Village of the late 1960s and 1970s was a natural environment for the HA. The Hells Angels were part of the neighborhood ecosystem, not separate from it. They existed alongside the same community that produced CBGB, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and the punk scene that would reshape American music. That cultural context is unique. No other Hells Angels chapter in the world occupied a neighborhood with that kind of creative energy swirling around it.
Federal and state law enforcement have conducted multiple investigations targeting the NYC chapter over the decades. A major 1985 federal case resulted in convictions of several members on racketeering charges. Subsequent investigations in the 1990s and 2000s continued to target the chapter on various charges. Despite sustained pressure, the chapter remained at the East Third Street location for fifty years before relocating to Throggs Neck in the Bronx in 2019.
The chapter’s longevity in Manhattan was remarkable on its own terms. Real estate pressure alone could have displaced them decades earlier. The fact that they held their ground for fifty years, in a neighborhood where a studio apartment costs more per month than most people’s motorcycle, was a statement that required no explanation. Their eventual departure in 2019 marked the end of an era for the East Village.
The Pagans MC: Outer Boroughs and Beyond
The Pagans Motorcycle Club has maintained a significant presence in the New York metropolitan area for decades. Founded in 1959 in Prince George’s County, Maryland, the Pagans grew to become the dominant one-percenter club on the East Coast, with territory stretching from New Jersey through New York and down to Florida.
The Pagans’ New York footprint concentrates in the outer boroughs and Long Island rather than Manhattan. Their territory includes areas of Staten Island, parts of Long Island, and the suburban belt surrounding the city. That distribution reflects the club’s working-class recruitment base - the Pagans have traditionally drawn members from blue-collar communities, and the outer boroughs and suburbs have more of that demographic than Manhattan’s brownstones and boutiques.
One important distinction separates the Pagans from the other “Big Four” outlaw clubs: they have not traditionally expanded internationally. While the Hells Angels, Outlaws, and Bandidos operate chapters on multiple continents, the Pagans remain a primarily domestic organization. Their strength is concentrated in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with New York as key territory.
The rivalry between the Pagans and the Hells Angels in the New York area is one of the most significant inter-club conflicts on the East Coast. Both organizations claim territory in and around the city, and the overlap has produced documented confrontations. A 2002 fight at the Hellraiser Ball on Long Island between Pagans and Hells Angels members resulted in multiple injuries and arrests, becoming one of the most widely reported inter-club incidents in New York history.
Federal law enforcement has targeted Pagans chapters in the New York area multiple times. The ATF and FBI have conducted undercover operations, wiretap investigations, and multi-agency task forces resulting in convictions on drug trafficking, weapons violations, and racketeering charges.
The Breed MC: Between Territories
The Breed Motorcycle Club is a one-percenter organization founded by Salvatore DeIulio in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1965, that maintained chapters in the New York metropolitan area for decades. Their geographic position - operating in the space between Hells Angels territory and Pagans territory - has placed them at the center of inter-club dynamics in the Northeast for decades.
That position requires a particular kind of awareness. The New York metro area includes territory claimed or influenced by multiple major clubs. Navigating those overlapping claims demands the kind of political skill that is central to MC culture everywhere but is especially critical in a dense urban environment where a wrong turn can put you in someone else’s territory before you realize you have crossed a line.
The Breed’s significance in the New York scene is both historical and geographic. They are one of the older one-percenter clubs in the region, with roots that go back to the same era that produced the Pagans and the early East Coast expansion of the Hells Angels. Their persistence in a crowded and competitive environment speaks to the organizational strength that keeps a club functioning across decades.
Federal law enforcement has included the Breed in multiple investigations. The ATF has conducted operations resulting in arrests on drug and weapons charges. Like every one-percenter club in the Northeast, the Breed has experienced the full weight of federal RICO prosecutions aimed at demonstrating that the club operates as a criminal enterprise.
The Ching-a-Lings: The Bronx, 1966
The Ching-a-Lings Motorcycle Club holds a distinct place in New York City’s motorcycle history. Founded in the South Bronx in 1966, they began as a Puerto Rican street gang before patching over the New Rochelle Motorcycle Club and becoming a formal MC with Black and Latino membership. Their formation reflected the social upheaval of the 1960s and the determination of Black and Latino riders to build their own MC organizations rather than seeking entry into clubs that did not want them.
The Ching-a-Lings operated in the South Bronx during one of the most brutal periods in the borough’s history. The 1970s brought arson, abandonment, and economic collapse to the South Bronx - the era when a national news anchor stood in front of a burning building and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.” The club existed within that environment. Their history is inseparable from the neighborhood’s history.
The Ching-a-Lings built a reputation as a hard-core club operating by its own rules in a place where conventional rules had largely stopped applying. They were part of a broader ecosystem of motorcycle clubs in New York that existed outside the traditional one-percenter framework - organizations shaped by urban survival, racial identity, and neighborhood loyalty as much as by the MC protocols governing clubs in other parts of the country.
Their story connects to a chapter of American motorcycle history that has been consistently underwritten. Black and Latino motorcycle clubs in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and other major cities built their own traditions that parallel and sometimes intersect the broader outlaw MC world. The Ching-a-Lings were part of that foundation.
Upstate: A Different State Entirely
Leave the city limits heading north and New York transforms into something unrecognizable to anyone whose experience of the state stops at the Bronx border. Upstate New York - the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, the Finger Lakes - offers motorcycle riding that has nothing in common with grinding through Midtown traffic.
The Taconic State Parkway running north through Dutchess and Columbia Counties is one of the great motorcycle roads in the Northeast. Smooth pavement, sweeping curves, a canopy of trees that turns gold and red every October. The road through the Catskills on Route 28 follows the Esopus Creek through mountain valleys. The Adirondacks offer hundreds of miles of two-lane roads through wilderness that feels like it belongs in Montana, not four hours from Times Square.
The upstate MC scene includes chapters of major clubs - Hells Angels, Outlaws, and Pagans all have chapters in various upstate locations. These chapters operate in environments completely different from their metro counterparts. Rural and small-town settings where club dynamics are shaped by local relationships, not the intense media scrutiny that comes with a Manhattan address.
Riding upstate is a reminder of why motorcycle clubs exist in the first place. Not for the politics or the patch protocols or the territory disputes. A group of people who share a bond over two wheels and an engine, covering ground together through terrain that rewards every mile you put in.
The Modern Urban Scene
New York’s motorcycle culture in the 2020s extends well beyond the traditional MC world. The city has become a center of urban motorcycle culture in ways the old-line clubs never anticipated.
The sport bike and dirt bike scene - particularly in upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn - has developed its own identity entirely separate from the cruiser-and-Harley world. Groups of riders on sport bikes, ATVs, and dirt bikes take to the streets in organized and semi-organized rides that draw hundreds of participants. The scene has its own codes, its own social media presence, and its own relationship with law enforcement. It is a different culture operating on the same streets.
The NYPD maintains dedicated motorcycle enforcement units targeting both the traditional MC scene and the newer sport bike and ATV culture. Operations have included mass seizures of motorcycles and ATVs, arrests, and the use of aviation units to track riding groups across the boroughs. The enforcement approach differs from how federal agencies target outlaw MCs, but the adversarial relationship between riders and police is a constant across both worlds.
For riders looking for community without the intensity of the one-percenter world, New York offers an enormous range. Brand-specific clubs, adventure riding groups, vintage enthusiasts, and casual riding crews all operate throughout the city and surrounding region. Whether they are riding Harleys with history going back to the Shovelhead era or modern sport bikes, the common thread is the road. The diversity of New York’s riding community mirrors the diversity of the city itself.
Geography as Destiny
New York’s motorcycle club history cannot be separated from its geography. The density creates territorial dynamics that do not exist anywhere else in America. In Arizona or Texas, club territories can be defined by hundreds of miles of highway. In New York, territories are measured in city blocks. A club in the South Bronx and a club in Lower Manhattan are ten miles apart but might as well be on different planets.
That density means inter-club encounters are more frequent and more visible than in sprawling western cities. The protocols around respect, territory, and the right to wear certain patches are universal across motorcycle club culture, but the margin for error is thinner when everyone is operating in close proximity. A misunderstanding that might never happen in a state with wide-open highways can escalate quickly in a city where everyone is on top of everyone else.
Long Island adds another dimension. The island’s suburban and semi-rural character creates a different riding environment from the boroughs - more space, more highway, a culture that blends urban edge with suburban freedom. Club chapters on Long Island operate closer to what you find in other northeastern suburban areas.
The geographic reality is this: New York produces riders who are comfortable in conditions that would make riders from most other regions hesitate. If you can ride a motorcycle through Manhattan rush hour, you can ride anywhere on the planet. That resilience connects every part of the New York biker scene - the one-percenter clubs, the weekend cruisers, the sport bike crews, and everyone in between.
We make gear for people who ride like it means something. Our t-shirts and hoodies are built for riders who know what they represent, whether they are threading through city traffic or carving upstate back roads. And our patches and merch carry the symbols of a culture that was here before the money arrived - and plans to stay.
Disclaimer
We are not an MC, and we do not pretend to be. We are a brand built by riders who respect the culture and the history. This article is based on public records, court documents, news reporting, and published sources. We do not endorse or glorify criminal activity.
Sources
- EV Grieve: The Hells Angels Have Left the East Village - Reporting on the 2019 sale and departure from 77 East Third Street
- One Percenter Bikers: Ching-A-Ling Nomads MC - History and founding details of the Ching-a-Lings
- One Percenter Bikers: Breed MC - Breed MC founding, expansion, and law enforcement history
- U.S. Department of Justice: Pagans MC RICO Indictment - Federal charges against Pagans members in the New York area
- Barger, Ralph “Sonny,” with Keith and Kent Zimmerman. Hell’s Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club. William Morrow, 2000.
- Barker, Thomas. Biker Gangs and Transnational Organized Crime. Routledge, 2nd edition, 2014.
