As its first full time employee Keith Bandit Ball knows the history of Easyriders Magazine, as well, or better than most. For almost 23 years as Editor he set the tone and flavor of what used to be called the “Bikers’ Bible” under the direction of Lou Kimzey and later Joe Teresi.
Besides Easyriders magazine, Ball was, for a short time, the editor of HOTBIKE. Today Ball writes biker fiction books and runs www.bikernet.com, which is infused with the same hard-core bad-ass biker attitude that was his style when he was at the helm of Easyriders. Bandit tells us about helping start and manage ABATE, his position on FTW and what it was like when the staff at Easyriders were the young- guns.
USRN: At what point did you join Easyriders?
KBB: On the third issue, 1971.
USRN: You were brought in to be what?
KBB: I was actually hired as the manager of ABATE, initially. I was just a kid. I was 22 years old. I had been building bikes, but I’d just got back from three tours in Viet Nam. I was going to Long Beach City College and I was going to school on the GI bill and working for a custom bike shop in North Long Beach at the time.
I met Lou Kimzey and he was going to feature a couple bikes that I’d built and offered me a job. I started as the manager of ABATE and shortly became an associate editor of Easyriders.
USRN: That involved doing what?
KBB: Well, basically we were a clearing house for information, for motorcycle rights advocates all across the country. Of course there weren’t a whole lot of them at that point. We created a structure where a guy could start a state chapter of ABATE. We really didn’t control these guys at all, we weren’t like a big governing body. We supplied the structure, gave them as much information as we possibly could and as much support. I recruited or interviewed perspective state coordinators, and they built their own organization within individual states.
Some of those men are still leaders in the movement today. We worked with people all over the world to get information about helmet laws, helmets, studies and statistics. We made that information public through the magazine. But we’d also made it available in printed form for guys who were state coordinators. They would use that information and send it to their state politicians and so it went
In a lot of respects we were a clearing house for information that came and went between organizations and state chapters of ABATE, how they were successful, what information and statistics they came across, etc. We shared it with the world through Easyriders, so we helped augment the flow of information… and basically that’s what I did.
USRN: Did you and Lou have any discussion about the importance of ABATE to the magazine and the magazine to ABATE?
KBB: Well, we started ABATE. The name was Lou’s. Actually, prior to ABATE Joe Teresi and Mil Blair at Jammer worked with government officials to prove that modified motorcycles weren’t harmful. They made the government go away from trying to restrict or govern modified motorcycles for until…..for…Jesus…30 or 35 years.
During that period all bikers were considered bad guys. We were outlaws all over the country and the government was just looking for ways to put their thumb on us, so first came restrictions on modifications and we dealt with that, and then came helmet laws and eye protection ordinances and it was crucial that bikers got involved.
Even the straight motorcycle press sided with the government officials. They wanted helmet law, and the AMA actually supported helmet legislation. The AMA didn’t even have a governing arm that worked with legislation until two or three years after ABATE was formed…it was really incredible.
There we were, the outlaw crazy men up against the entire straight world. I mean the straight Harley-Davidson guys, all the Honda clean folks, you name it, they were all in favor of trying to control bikers.
As you know, we don’t put up with that bullshit.
USRN: Was the mood really “us against them” “They’re out to get us, if they can shut us down they will” type thing?
KBB: Yeah absolutely. It was a quirky time in the entire history of our country. The freedom movement was strong, the anti Viet Nam war movement… the hippy era…and it was a time when lots of people, including government officials, were trying to find themselves. You know they had been straight guys for so long and they were beginning to discover that the straight side made mistakes too. You know, it wasn’t just a matter of following the doctrine of the day, they had to wake up and check both sides of the fence.
USRN: So you came in six months after the magazine was launched…full of piss and vinegar, 22 years old..what did you guys want to accomplish? Did you have any idea it would become what it has?
KBB: No…no. I mean…an interesting sidebar to this is that Lou Kimzey, with the two partners who owned D & D distributors at the time, Joe Teresi and Mil Blair, thought, “hey we’re going to start this magazine” and promote D&D parts, but Lou took it in a different direction. They didn’t have any idea it was going explode. The thing popped unbelievably, and it was the nature of the public and the readership. They were so hungry for something…. something more than just another tech book…this was a lifestyle publication…
USRN: One of the early correspondents, John Hurley, Rogue….said there would be a lot of banging on the table and cussing in meetings…everybody was passionate about what they wanted in the magazine…is that how you remember it?
KBB: Absolutely.
USRN: Between 1971 and 1978 there were a lot of companies advertising drug paraphernalia and hardcore stuff….did that affect your ability to get advertisers of legitimate companies… Maybe they didn’t want to be side by side with the guy advertising marijuana grow lamps?
KBB: (laughs) that’s a funny question…. one is…we didn’t give a shit… We didn’t go after advertisers. If they didn’t want to advertise with us, that was ok, we didn’t care. Now the magazine world has completely changed. In those days it was about your circulation. You made money off selling magazines. We never really had an advertising department.
When I returned to Easyriders in 1987 we had one advertising salesperson. Lizette basically just took orders.
Nowadays everybody thinks about the advertiser. The advertiser comes first, which makes magazine production strange ‘cause you don’t dare walk out of bounds. In the beginning we did what we wanted to do…because it was right for the reader. We weren’t thinking we might upset and advertiser.
Second, everybody was doing drugs. I don’t think it held us up. The nudity held us up more than the drug paraphernalia. If anybody was bothered by it, they would probably be bothered more by the nudity not that we sold grow lamps.
USRN: What happened to Lou Kimzey?
KBB: He had severe diabetes…
USRN: When did Michael Lichter join the magazine?
KBB: 1981…I gave him his first assignment, to cover Sturgis. We covered Sturgis for the first time in 1981.
USRN: Really?
KBB: Yes and that event doubled the next year. It went from 12,000 to 24,000 attendees the next year and then doubled the following year and I think it doubled every year for several years…
USRN: What are some of the other milestones of the magazine?
KBB: I’d say the land speed record was a milestone…. I would say that I think something like 13 helmet laws were repealed…that was another milestone.
Every issue was a milestone… goddamit…! (laughs)
USRN: Is Bandit still a FTW kind of guy? Still full of piss and vinegar?
KBB: (laughs) I never really liked that term FTW…to be honest with you. In fact Indian Larry was cornered by some straight media guy once who said “Oh what about this FTW stuff…” and he (Indian Larry) replied, “It means ‘Forever Two Wheels’” and I’m more into that…forever two wheels…I don’t want to Fuck the world….you know…I gotta live here. Forever Two Wheels really says it for me. I love this lifestyle.
To say I’m full of piss and vinegar…. well, yeah, to a certain extent. I’m still very passionate about the lifestyle, building motorcycles, chasing women and doing those things. No, I don’t use grow lights anymore…(laughs), and of course I’ve changed. I’m 57, but I still feel as strongly about this non-stop adventure as I always have.
USRN: Anything you’d change… about the magazine…any mistakes you’d like to fi x if you had a time machine?
KBB: No. Regarding my life, I stayed at Easyriders for almost 10 years and then I left for six or seven and then I was back for 13, and I left in ’99.
Everything I’ve done in between..I’ve had a really bitchin’ life. I feel really strongly about that. I’ve had lots of adventures, and I’ve been married five times. I’ve struggled, handled quirky aspects, and I’ve had some great adventures. Many of those things I wouldn’t have been able to do, if I’d just stayed at one job the whole time.
Now, from the magazine standpoint. Joe Teresi was the publisher when I went back in ’87 and I stuck with him until ’99 and we did some great things. We grew from just a few magazines up to 14 titles. We produced motorcycle videos, broke the land speed record, created events, stores and product lines.
Yes, there were times, I didn’t agree with the direction Joe went in, but many business decisions are a roll of the dice. He was the boss. His life and every dime he had was on the line constantly. He had to make the decisions… so, you can pitch-a-bitch and you can bring up your side of the story and at the end of the day you’ve got to realize that he’s the guy making those final decisions and you have to honor that.
So sure, there were some things I saw that had changed about the magazine that I think we should’ve handled differently, but you know, that’s the way it goes.
USRN: Easyriders helped expand the motorcycle market…and has influenced many start up magazines including this one. Would you say that overall the industry is bigger because Easyriders existed.
KBB: Absolutely.
USRN: What would have happened to the magazine if Harley-Davidson folded during the AMF years?
KBB: That’s one of those wild questions. I’d have to be a crystal ball to answer it. It was a difficult time for H-D. But we’re Americans. We adjust; someone would have started another motorcycle company and kept the faith, so to speak. If it was V-Twin oriented and could be customized, then we might have just boomed right along with it.
On the other hand…it could have been a tough time…a time when we struggled along. Now you look at the industry and it’s stronger than its been since the late ‘70s ….this year over 1 million motorcycles will be sold…in the late ‘70s …I think 1978, a million and a quarter motorcycles were sold every year in this country and that dropped to just over 400,000 at one point. Now we’re way up there, so if Harley-Davidson died tomorrow, I’m sure it would have some impact on it, but there are so many other manufacturers now that others would grow…
USRN: The mystique of the Harley lifestyle has contributed to the boom, but the EVO might be what historians point to as the savior…if it’s not around the industry doesn’t grow, maybe?
KBB: There’s a lot of what ifs…..The EVO engine and the strides that Harley- Davidson made absolutely turned the industry around…Harley-Davidsons became reliable motorcycles and for some reason all these companies were afforded the opportunity to make Evolution engines, so custom motorcycles became more reliable. The whole thing really clicked into gear.
Even now I find it surprising that all these Big Dogs and production bikes are using Evolution engines. To me that’s yesterday’s technology, on the other hand the Evolution is a strong, perfected powerplant, it’s reliable, it’s easy enough to work on, and it fits in any frame. Man it’s rock and roll…so it really keeps the entire aftermarket going.
USRN: Maybe that should be your next book…what would’ve happened to the world without the EVO engine.
KBB: (laughs) Yeah…but I’m not writing books like that. I like writing fiction, like if Louis L’Amour wrote motorcycle fiction. But you never know what adventures lie ahead.
In January of 2005, Dixie Rider National Motorcycle News became USRider News. We're the same folks doing the same thing, only now we're doing it all over the United States. That might be a Federal Offense because we're crossing state lines, but let's keep that between us ok?
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