Argh Help Needed: Name a Biker Gang

~ Jenny

So there’s a biker gang in the Liz trilogy that needs a name. Bob suggested “Bad Crusies.” I suggested we ask you for suggestions. So this is a Rust Belt biker gang, headed by a sociopath and being used by bad guys to threaten local businesses. So not a good biker gang, not like Jill’s biker gang.

Suggestions in comments, please. Bob will probably choose the name since this is part of his plot. (You sort of knew it was his plot already, didn’t you? Not much snappy patter in vicious biker gangs.)

64 thoughts on “Argh Help Needed: Name a Biker Gang”

  1. According to the United States Department of Justice, Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (or OMGs) “…are organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises. OMGs are highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in criminal activities such as violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking.”

    Hells Angels.
    The Outlaws Motorcycle Club.
    The Black Pistons.
    The Mongols.

    Known for a fairly significant presence of outlaw motorcycle gangs, Ohio began seeing an influx of these groups in the 1960s when the gangs migrated into the Midwest from the East and West coasts, Lovett said. “All have specific patches to identify the gang,” most commonly on a jacket or vest, although sometimes on a motorcycle or helmet, he said.

    A Quick Look: Criminal Gang Trends in Ohio – Ohio Attorney General

    I don’t know about “Crusies,” but something with “Cruisers” would fit.

  2. This is a research rabbit hole. I may not stop for days. Did you know the Night Wolves are a motorcycle club in Russia? They are enforcers for Putin. (insert horrified emoticons here)

    I’m assuming you don’t want to use the name of any actual gangs here.

    Iron Wolves
    Wolverines
    Demon’s Nightmares

    Whoa. Wikipedia has a list of over 200 gangs. (more horrified emoticons)

    1. How mature is this gang? Like, a gang that’s been around awhile doesn’t seem like a Flaming Zombie gang, but newer? 100% see that as their name!

      Plus, zombies!!

      1. I do like the zombies reference, but agree we need a bit more info – age range, how well established the gang is (like, one that’s been going for decades shouldn’t sound too modern), do they have something that brought them together besides (I’m assuming) an appetite for crime? Like maybe they all used to work at the bike factory but got laid off when it closed down?, etc.

        Do you want a colour reference, or is that too cute?

        The Rusted Zombies?
        The Bloody Zombies?

        Something with just initials – the BZs, etc?

        I do think it needs the ‘The’ to preface…

        1. Age range. The leader is in his fifties now, but the gang probably ranges from teens up through the fifties. Been together for at least thirty years.

          Bob? Get in here and answer these questions.

          There’s a cardboard box factory that closes down in this, so Bob might be all over them forming when the box factory goes south.

          I’m not sure these guys know they’re in the Rust Belt (I didn’t know Ohio was part of the Rust Belt) so I don’t think the “Rusty” thing will work although I like it.

          Flaming Zombies. The FZ’s.

          We’re kind of over the top on names, so that might actually work. They tend to use arson and I suppose a laid off worker is a kind of zombie.

          Most people will not have the inside scoop on how we work so they won’t get the joke, but it’s a good biker gang name.

          1. You didn’t know Ohio is part of the Rust Belt! Was there no rust in your part of Ohio when you lived there? I know Ohio as part of the Rust Belt like you know California has earthquakes.

          2. I grew up in farmland in the middle of nowhere. Miles and miles of perfectly flat farmland. No rust.

      1. +1 on Flaming Zombies. Seems like the kind of name some guys who consider themselves marginalized might choose in their youth because Zombie Apocalypse and eating the rich. The patch and the tattoo art would catch on with people who think gangs are cool.

  5. Radioactive Snowfall
    WDOA (Wanted: Dead or Alive)
    Thunder & Lightning
    The Swarm
    Mountaineers
    Cyclops MC (leader has to have only one eye)
    Trophy Hunters
    Crazed Zombies

  6. If I remember correctly, the town is called Burney, right? Could that be the Burney Burners, then?

    (I would not want to choose a name that’s already there.)

  10. Something with snakes?

    But then, there are a LOT of real gangs with snake references… so maybe not…

  11. If you have a name for the gang’s chief, e.g. Bubba Wilson, they could be Bubba’s Zombies or Wilson’s Zombies. They don’t need to be actual supernatural living dead zombies – it’s just a name. If they’re the Cuyahoga Zombies, their jackets and bikes could have flame decals.

    1. The Cuyahoga River is a river in the United States, located in Northeast Ohio, that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so much so that it caught fire at least 13 times, most famously on June 22, 1969… – Wiki

      Happy 53rd anniversary, Ohio!

  14. These are great.

    They’re a southern Ohio gang, I think, not just the town’s. Gotta get Bob in here to answer the question.

    Leader is a guy named Mickey Pitts.

    Needless to say, this is Bob’s part of the plot so I’ll get him to weigh in.

    3. I suppose “Mickey’s Mice” would be too cutesy. 🙂

      Oh, and hubs & I have just had a 20 minute discussion about 1 space vs. 2 spaces after the period. I’m a 2 spacer and I won. 🙂

      (We have form emails we have to send out at work … I fix the 1 spaces to 2. If it has my name on it, it’s going to be right.) 🙂

      1. Or … The Rodents, if they really want to be tough.

        I had an uncle who was in a bike gang. It did not end well for him. But he was basically an innocent bystander. He was good to his family… he bought me the John Lennon Playboy magazine interview… very strategically cut out, so that I, as a 16 year old girl, would not see anything I shouldn’t. 🙂 And, I remember him sitting on the couch reading “The Great Santini” and just giggling. And he wouldn’t tell all his nieces and nephews what the ‘FTW’ letters tattooed on his knuckles meant. 🙂

  15. The Grave Disappointments

    Although, given the books, maybe something with color in there?

    And Ohio’s state bird is the Cardinal, which has a good sound to it.

    The Black Cardinals…. Grrr. They will give you last rights before they kill you.

    I guess it matters if you want them to sound really tough and scary, or sort of funny tough and scary, or just silly like they had no idea what they were doing when they picked the name.

    1. I am preserving a dignified silence on “Demented Crusies.”
      Except for this comment.

    3. Bob, are you really going to give up the possibility of getting zombies into this book?

      Because I’m thinking this is your best (only) shot…

      And at time of writing, Audrey is currently plus 17 hearts with The Flaming Zombies – she’s running away with the reader vote here!

  17. Flaming Zombies, as Bob has just pointed out to me, is a drink:

    75ml Rum Blend (1:1:1 Dark Rum:Gold Rum:White Rum)

    25ml Apricot Brandy

    25ml Pineapple Juice

    25ml Grapefruit Juice

    25ml Lime Juice

    12.5ml Grenadine

    2-3 Dashes of Angostura Bitters

    25ml Overproof Rum (Garnish)

    Squeezed Lime-Half for Garnish

    Powdered Cinnamon for Garnish

    Sounds vile. Which would fit with the name.

    1. all the better to take a name from something they heard before. they’d probably try to flip the script and claim the drink was named after *them* 🙂

      1. I don’t have a problem with there being a drink of the same name – I doubt readers will put that much thought into it, and if they do… Well, as Jenny says, it doesn’t exactly sound inviting!

        1. I just looked the drink version up – you set fire to it and use the cinnamon to make sparks. Sounds about the right level for a biker gang, no?

          1. Could be an initiation ritual to make a prospective member drink a Flaming Zombie.

  18. Luciferz Zombiez

    Change the s to zs in Iron Zombiez, Iron Wolvez, Demented Cruziez, Viking Raiderz etc.

  20. The Zombie Apocalypse. Because why buy a big loud motorcycle if you don’t want to intimidate?

    1. Ooh, I like this one! But if they’re dedicated, “I don’t read no stinkin’ books” bikers, they might not know how to spell Apocalipz….

  21. Iron Skulls

    Metal Death

    P.S. 50 years ago I knew some Bandidos MC members. No biker gang would use “flamming” anything as their name.

  22. In partial defense of motorcycle gangs… I worked retail in my college days and one of the older ladies I worked with invited me over to her home one night to chill out in her newly purchased hot tub.

    Unbeknownst to me… her son and a few of his friends were joining us and yes… they were members of a motorcycle gang. She was trying to fix him up with a good girl… and I was trying not to bolt out the door in fear.

    But they were very nice and gentlemanly and he realized the set up and apologized for his well meaning mother when she went in to get snacks and drinks.

    Nothing but good times ahead!

    1. I’m okay with motorcycle gangs in the sense of a bunch of good old boys on cycles who hang out together. No problem at all.
      If they’re armed, I have problems.

      1. There was a motorcycle “gang” composed of judges that would get together once a year and ride from Palm Beach to Key West. I’ve forgotten their name though.

  23. I’d forgotten about a gang that was active in the Bronx when I was a teenager there– the Savage Skulls. It appears they are now defunct.

  24. Great name for a motorcycle gang in the new season of Umbrella Academy: Mothers of Agony

    Oh hey could you use Deborah Blakes motorcycle riders?

    Fun!

        1. Bob seems taken with Iron Wolves. I do not know why, but I’m not writing them, so I butt out.

  25. I’ve got covid and am feeling total crap and grumpy, so I’m thinking that “The Virus” sounds like a scary name for a gang.

  28. The Fallen
    Fallen Devils
    Iron Demons
    Hell Legion
    Road Rash
    Road Wrath
    The Wraiths
    Night Terrors

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