Bandidos Roll In And Out Of Amarillo

Over the Memorial Day weekend you might have noticed a little more motorcycle traffic than normal here in Bomb City. The Bandidos Motorcycle club just happened to have their national rally here in town and for the most part it was a quiet event.

Get our free mobile app

If you haven't heard of them before or are new to biker gangs, the Bandidos are a outlaw motorcycle club similar in operation to the Hell's Angels, Mongols, and the Outlaws. Their distinctive patchwork is a coordinated in red text on a yellow field. Each of these groups consider themselves part of the 1% of bikers who don't necessarily follow the law, drawing back to remarks from the American Motorcycle Association back in the day saying 99% of bikers usually do.

Rolling Into The Yellow City

The Bandidos started arriving into town Friday and in low numbers, As the organization didn't have a gather permit, attendance at any one event in town had to stay below 2,500 and leaders of the organization worked with officials from both Randall and Potter counties to keep these numbers in check. Despite the low numbers there is no doubt the city did see some income in the form of hotel stays and all the hired services like food vendors, bands and time at the Amarillo Dragway.

Memories of Waco

Law enforcement was keeping an eye on them the entire weekend. Randall County Sheriff Forbis went on the record with ABC 7 about watching the events:

“There have been large events that have happened in the past with Bandidos and other groups, where they didn't get along and there was some violence that it occurred"

The sheriff no doubt having thoughts about the events in Waco where violence broke out between rival groups at a Twin Peaks location that resulted in 9 deaths, 18 injuries and almost 200 arrests. Luckily for the folks here in Amarillo it was a much quieter event.

Just remember even as we round out into Memorial Day weekend there are still plenty of bikes here in town getting ready to make their way out, give them a second look.