It's Riding Season for the Dayton, Oh Mother Chapter!
The warmer weather means that many of us will take a little time to enjoy the outdoors and a little sunshine. The warmer weather also brings about the much-anticipated riding season.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Richard “Peezy” Price about the well-known Made Men Motorcycle Club. Rich told me that about 90% of them worked together at General Motors Truck and Bus, and they would ride together. In the Spring of 2004 that they decided to formalize and become a club after they rode to an annual event called the Round Up, which is an annual that is held in a different city every year.
Rich said, “We felt so much love from the men and ladies there that we decided that we wanted to make our own club... Came home and did the research. There are some steps we had to take first within the biker community protocol to make that happen. Where a club starts is called the mother chapter. Made Men was birthed here. So, Dayton is the mother chapter.”
Made Men Dayton was founded by Richard “Peezy” Price, Eric “E-Dubb” Evans, and Chris “Krome” Allen”. They took those steps, then in the Spring of 2004, they started the club. Over the last 15 years they have branched out. They now have 5 chapters, including chapters in Cincinnati, Nashville, Houston, Texas and Plano, Texas. Their initial core value was the brotherhood of riding.
Philanthropy and fundraising is a spin off from the brotherhood. 90% of what they give is to children’s charities. Rich explained, “Motorcycle riding is what brings us together. The love of that. Then everything spins off of that. It is not a really complicated process, but in order to survive as long as we have, we are very structured. 15% of our members are former military. There are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Veterans in our club. Guys in every walk of life and business. We have a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Sargent of Arms in every chapter. It’s all founded in riding. That is what brings us together. You take the motorcycles away and it goes away.”
I asked Rich what a bike blessing is. Rich replied, “Many organizations have bike blessings. A bike blessing is an event that prays for safe travels for the biking season. We do not put it on, we just go to them. A man or woman of the cloth prays and puts holy water on you and the bike for a safe riding season…bike season started in April and last until the first snowfall.”
I asked Rich what types of riding they did during the restrictions brought on by Covid-19. Rich said, “We had individual and small group rides. No event destinations. Just hitting the roads, the back ways, and the highways. Because that is what we enjoy doing. We stayed safe when we rode. Stayed 6 feet apart and masked up. We miss the comradery of 20-30-40 of us riding in groups. As people get vaccinated and the restrictions on meeting are lifted, we will all be together again.”
I asked Rich to explain the symbolism on the vest. Rich replied, “The vest is called your cut or colors. You have an upper roster which has your club’s name. Your patch in the center, which is your logo or emblem, and your lower rocker tells where you are from. The MM stands for Made Men, and it is trademarked its property of our LLC.
I asked Rich if there was anything that he would like the readers of the Dayton Weekly News to know about Made Men, and Rich said, “We try to break the stereotype. Everyone thinks that we are like Sons of Anarchy, but that’s not the case. We are a motorcycle club not a gang. We are Chemists, Paramedics, guys that own their own insurance companies and that drive dump trucks, corrections officers, guys that work in upper management in fortune 500 companies, and small business owners. We run the gamut for guys that comprise this club. Like ourselves and a lot of other clubs they are not how the media and movies portray them. When we travel to the events sometimes there’s a couple thousand people there. There is no drama. No fighting. No shooting. There are very few places that we as minorities can get together and have that kind of environment. People don’t realize that the bike environment is that environment. That’s one of the things that I love about it. Going to see other men and women and everyone is so in love with each other. When people who have never been to a bike event come and see that… it opens their eyes. But all you see on the news is something bad.”
I asked Rich to tell me about some of the places they like to ride. Rich, responded, “We typically like to go visit other clubs, in other cities, as well as around the state. Locally, we tend to ride to the other club’s functions. We might go to any local restaurant. The summer before Covid, a big group of us went to a big bike event in California. Guys like to ride to
mile marker 0 in Florida, the furthest point in the United States. We like to ride to visit our brothers in other chapters in other cities. If the weather’s nice, it is more about where we can go, how much time off do we have, and how far can we get before we have to be at work."
Rich continued, “It’s as much about the comradery on the road as it is the destination. A lot of times we will meet up without a destination in mind. It is just the fact that we are going to meet up and go someplace together. We like to hit Harley dealerships that are off the beaten path. Like any rural state, if we have not been there, those are some of the places that we like to get up and ride to. We like to find Dives. Little restaurants and eateries that are in small towns that you might read about or hear about on the tv show or internet. We like to get up on the weekend and collectively ride to that spot and sample that cuisine. Those are the kind of things that we like to do.” Rich said that some of the places that they have been, that we might have heard of, are Nashville’s Gus’s World-Famous Fried Chicken, Sweetie Pie’s in St. Louis, and Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles.
I asked Rich if he would share some safety tips. Rich said, “For the drivers I’d say, look twice... you might save a life. And put your cell phone down. For riders, I would say do not adjust your radio or your phone when you’re moving. Our club strongly advocates the wearing of helmets, even though it’s not a law. We advocate to wear full face helmets when we ride. Check your bike out every time before you go out. Check your tire pressure. Make sure everything is working properly especially before you embark on a long road trip. Make sure your bike is road worthy. That the tires are not bald and have proper air level. Check your oil, fluids, and be safe. Always assume that somebody doesn’t see you. When I ride, I always assume that every car that I’m coming up on doesn’t see me. That way I’m constantly on the defensive.”
Made Men Dayton is having a free event called Day in the Park with Made Men M. C. C on Saturday, June 26th at the Dayton Firefighters Activity Center at 3616 Needmore Rd from noon – 7. The event is free. Rich expressed that, “ The community has always overwhelmingly come out and supported us. More support than we ever thought that we would have. We are indebted and thank everyone for that…Know that part of the proceeds is going to a good cause. We’ve raffled off two motorcycles and those proceeds go to our charitable contributions. When you see a Made Man function advertised, please continue to support. Every single event, I am blown away at how they come and support that the community gives us. From the very first one to the last one. Especially the Dayton community.
For more information on Made Men Motorcycle Club you can find them on Instagram and Facebook. To donate to any of their charities just reach out to Made Men Dayton, Made Men Cincinnati, or any of the Made Men in the area and stop by their Day At the Park on June 26th.
Since 1993, the Dayton Weekly News has delivered news and information geared towards Dayton’s African-American community covering local politics, health, education, business, community news, religion, sports and entertainment.
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