Harleys with heart
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An MDMC member delivers backpacks to a school in Shunyi as part of an outreach project. [Photo: Caroline Killmer] |
I arrive at the weekly meet up of the official prospect chapter of the Mad Dog Motorcycle Club (MDMC) in Beijing to find six members sitting at a table in Frank's Place. The bar wasn't crowded, but still they were pretty conspicuous, with their matching shirts and leather vests. One fussed with his collar. "Got a problem with your shirt?" an American member (road name Starky) asked.
"I hate buttons," came the reply.
"You could just remove them and sew it up," another American (road name Papadad) suggested.
And that's just one way in which the Mad Dogs do not fit the typical stereotype of a biker club.
In the interests of full disclosure: I've met the Mad Dog Motorcycle Club before. I've ridden on (and nearly fallen off of) their Harleys, been to their barbeques, taken their photos. They pride themselves on their bikes (of course), being able to one-up anyone with bawdy jokes (don't even get them started) and their charitable works. Wait, what?
"We're not just guys riding bikes. We also do stuff for the community," club spokesman Joe Fitter explained. All the Mad Dogs have lived abroad in an assortment of countries, some more modernized than others, and it's given them pause for thought.
"The reality is that to be able to buy a Harley or aspire to certain levels of entertainment, especially if you live in a developing country, you want to be able to share some of that with the community," Fitter said. Mad Dog chapters in Southeast Asia have raised money for everything from cleft palate surgeries, to flood relief, to child oncology services.
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