Unfortunate yes, but..
.. that picture is of a Harley Sportster. No self-respcting Hells Angel would be seen dead (ahem) on a Sportster, which is widely regarded as a girlie bike.
The UK's Motorcycle News earlier this week contributed a cracking example to the "unfortunate juxtaposition of content and advertisement" genre with this piece on murdered biker Gerard Michael Tobin: Motorcycle News piece on dead biker with Harley Davidson ad declaring "No-one ever wished they'd stayed in more" Given that …
Whilst, Carole Nash insurance ads could be considered humourous when seen on the same page as news about an unfortunate incident, I have trouble believing that this is the ad which originally spawned this article.
I may be wrong, of course, and no disrespect intended towards the biker, as there are 3 members of my immediate family who are registered members of the FCM (www.fcm-bikers.org.uk), but this does seem a little like groping at straws.
I would like to publicly extend my apologies to Gerard Tobin's friends and family for the unfortunate incident where we mistakenly placed a Harley-Davidson advert next to the story of the motorcyclist killed on the M40.
This was a genuine oversight and we never intended to cause any upset in this tragic time. Unfortunately this was a system error and as soon as we realised we took the advert down.
Marc Potter, Web and Print Editor, MCN
Any specialty magazine, particularly online, is going to have gaffe's like that all the time. It's an unfortunate matter of the separation of editorial and advertising staff.
Just below his helmet? Was he wearing one of those stupid half helmets? Anything more and the round would have been in his neck. Of course, any quality firearm would have easily penetrated the helmet.
I hope police capture the perps soon. There's probably a whole lot more to this story. Unless some newspaper takes an interest to it when/if they finally get busted, tried, convicted and sentenced, it'll be up to the MN to keep the story alive.
No intelligent motorcyclist in the US would wear colors. Even for fun. Particularly for fun.
There certainly are Hells Angels in Canada but
I no idea they frequented the UK they have become
much more efficient than I gave them credit for if they
are killing guys there. For anyone who doesn't know
wearing a clubs colors can get you shot here in the
US unless you happen to be a member even then
it's not always a good idea.
Two old mates of mine had HD sportsters. You wouldn't have told them they owned hairdresser bikes. But then again, the local Angels chapter wouldn't have made such a remark to them either. Perhaps a little bizarrely they tended to make the first remark about them being very average bikes at best.
Nice blokes though, loved their mums and all that.
As you may have noticed, the ad text "No one ever wished they'd stayed in more" can be read two diametrically opposed ways:
- the intentional "People never regret going out (more often)."
- the unintentional "People often regret going out (but none regrets it as much the guy who got shot)."
Of course it's a girlie bike, my little sister used to ride a "sportster".
My heart still belongs to my old GSX1100E (fireballed).
But, hat's off to the good old UK polite farce who have managed now to arrest 4 people responsible for 2 bullets.
And continuing sympathies for friends and family of Mr Tobin.