OAKLAND STROKE M/C

                                                                                A NEW FRIENDSHIP  

 It was the summer of 1974 when Ron "Hot" Rodden and "Indian" Bill took off after a night of partying with no rest in between from the city of Oakland to Calistoga for a motorcycle event. Upon the arrival to Calistoga, Ron noticed a 1945 Army style Flat Head, he asked who the owner of the classic was.  Eppie stepped forward as the owner. Ron introduced himself and said, "nice looking bike. I really like it." This was the start of one of the friendships. Oakland Stroke Motorcycle Club would eventually rise from.                                                                               

  As they forged their friendship, Eppie became a prospect for a local club in Hayward to which Ron and his close friend "Indian" Bill were already members. Later that year, during the club's officer elections, Ron was voted in as the Sergeant at Arms, Eppie had a great deal of respect for Ron, because he was the elder and had a lot of wisdom and experience to offer the novice biker. "Indian" Bill remained a great friend to Ron and was somebody the members always admired. Ron helped make sure the rules the club voted on were followed and had a hell of a time while doing it.

 The men picked up a great deal of experience in the world of motorcycle clubs, yet their time with the club they were involved with was short lived due to issues that Ron  and others disagreed with.     

  Now independent riders, they still rode hard and partied hard.  Friday night parties didn't end until Sunday or even Monday morning.They went to different organized club parties and hung around at different locales like Ron's close friend, Donald "Snake" Meyers' motorcycle shop.  During this time, Rons friends met the eleven or twelve year old son of Ron, Craig Rodden.The kid was such a hell-raiser that some quietly wondered if the youth would ever make it to adulthood.  Yet there was something about the boy they always  liked.  

                                   Indian Bill           Snake Meyers          Dirty Red           Hot Rodden          1975

OAKLAND STROKE IS BORN

  Also during this time, Ron tossed around the idea of starting up their own club. In their time of riding and partying together, they met other riders and brothers who would be on board with the new club.  Coming up with a name and colors for this new club was a challenge.  One day while over at Ron's house looking through his ample collection of  memorabilia, a certain picture in a fantasy art book caught their eye. The image showed a dog-like creature with dragon's wings and a serpent's tail clutching a full moon.When Ron saw the picture, he said, "Yeah, I like that!" This would be the image for the center of their colors and he considered the name "Night Dogs." But the name just didn't  sit well. Then all of a sudden, his face lit up into a devilish grin as the name slipped out the "Moon-dogs." In the beginning, that's what the club was going to be called.  Little did they know at the time, in Gothic mythology, there was a legend of a certain gargoyle that, on the night of a full moon, would transform into the Moon-dog.        

  After men were recruited to be part of the Moon-dogs, but before the colors were forged, Some members had reservations about the name "Moon-dogs." The members felt that it just didn't seem to fit a motorcycle club.So it was voted on and decided to pick a new name before the members got patched up.                                               

 One night, on their way back from a Carlos Santana and Tower of Power concert in San Francisco, Ron and some of the other concert goers were on the Bay Bridge headed back to Oakland.  The album, "Back to Oakland," and the song, "Oakland Stroke," by "Tower of Power" came to mind they started singing and inspiration just hit.  Right then and there, on the way back to Oakland in 1977, it was agreed that the new club would be dubbed - Oakland Stroke Motorcycle Club. The founders being Oakland boys, were avid fans of the Raiders Football team.  For this reason, it was decided that the colors of this new club would be Black and Silver. The patches were made and the members of Oakland Stroke were ready to ride! 

                                                                                   Original Colors  1977 

THE DORMANT YEARS

   During this time of the late 1970s, many clubs came and went.  Oakland Stroke partied and rode with the best of them.  Unfortunately, too much partying and not enough organization soon caused Oakland Stroke MC to fall by the wayside.  Even though the club was never officially disbanded, there came a time when Ron the president /founder of the club felt compelled to collect the Oakland Stroke patches from the remaining members. From that point, the club lie dormant until 2007.
 
  Ron's life during these dormant years of the club was far from dormant.  Partying became his business and he did   it well.  He was known by those in his circle to have the finest women, beautiful custom cars and bikes, the best parties, and an endless supply of drugs and booze.  Although he soon gained a great deal of success and popularity, by the late 1980s Ron came to the realization that he didn't like where his life was going. He had become someone that he did not like and saw that his life needed a drastic change. So the partying for Ron ended and he embarked on a new spiritual path. Ron being an avid motorcycle enthusiast, took his bikes along with him on this new path. Ron enjoyed riding cross country and attending Sturgis Rallies every year.  On the way to one of the Strurgis Rallies, Easy Rider Magazine, was taking pictures of riders and captured Ron in a shadowy silhouette with the sun setting in the background. The people of "Easy Rider" liked this picture of  Ron so much that they decided to make it the cover of one of the issues. Ron passed on his love for riding to his sons, Marty and Craig, who eventually rode Ron's bikes as they grew up. Ron and Craig enjoyed Father's Day runs and rode cross country together. Ron also was part of a group that founded another club called B.A.D. MC, Bikers Against Drugs in the early 1990"s which stayed together for some time.

  Meanwhile ...
Craig had a 1958 Panhead that he bought from "Indian" Bill. Craig wanted to put that bike in the 1998 Grand National Roadster Show, but it needed some work.Craig and Eppie teamed up to work on the bike to get it ready for the event. Ron was also working on his own bike to enter in the same show. Ron inherited this bike from "Indian" Bill who passed away in the late nineties while living at Ron's house. Ron wanted to fulfill a promise to himself and Bill that Ron would complete the bike and enter it into the show. He -dubbed the bike "Bill's Bagger."  Both Ron and Craig walked home with second place trophies each, in their class.  

                                                        Ron at the Roadster Show with "Bill's Bagger 1998

                                 Craig's 1958 Custom Pan Head at the Roadster Show with Trophie 1998

                                                                                
  Ron became busy with his other fulfilling life pursuits but he always made time to ride. Craig and Eppie bonded while working on the ‘58 Panhead and started riding a lot together. They would go to various organized rides and runs and do their own riding. Craig, on occasion, would mention that he wanted the to start up a motorcycle club and bring back Oakland Stroke. Eppie wasn't ready at the time because he was raising his family and the idea just didn't feel right. Neither of them could have anticipated the events that would come to pass.

RON’S PASSING AND OAKLAND STROKE’S RESURRECTION

  In 2007, Ron had a series of strokes that left him physically incapacitated. Craig took it apon him self to call Ron's friends letting them  what happend. About a month later,  Eppie received a distressed call from Craig saying that if he wanted to see Ron one last time he should come back to Oakland, He made it in time to see his old friend Ron's face light up the way he remembered it.While alone with Ron in his hospital room he said,"Ya -know Ron, in all these years, I've never been able to capture the magic we had as friends." Referring to the times back in the days of riding with Oakland Stroke. Ron smiled and nodded vigorously in agreement, Not being able to speak because of his strokes. A short month later, Ron passed peacefully at home on April 19, 2007. Craig and family lost a father, many people lost a  friend and the world lost a great man.

 After Ron's first couple of strokes, while he still had his speech, Ron requested to be cremated. He also requested to have his ashes along with the ashes of his great friend "Indian" Bill (that Ron kept in his glass cabinet since the late nineties) to be spread together. "Take our ashes and spread them through the hills of Altamont" Ron said to his two sons, Marty and Craig.  Ron loved to ride through those hills with all the peaceful windmills on his way to one of his favorite stops– the Mountain House. Craig learned how much his father loved those windmills after talking with his dad's close friend Jimi K who often rode through the hills with Ron. Jimi knew of the perfect spot and took Craig to where he and Ron had stopped and admired the peaceful windmills.They both knew that it was the perfect place to spread the ashes.

  The only thing left to carry on Ron's wishes was the Memorial Ride. Craig gathered as many of Ron's riding friends available to participate on the ride. With Eppie still having his old set of the Oakland Stroke colors and Craig having two left from Ron. Craig made sure the colors were worn by family (Craig and his cousin Ken Potter) The ride was graceful, with over twenty bikes present. Before setting out on the ride through the Altamont Hills,The riders went to visit Ron's memorial site at the Mountain View Cemetery where they all prayed and had themselves and their bikes blessed with some of the ashes from both Ron and "Indian" Bill. With the original Oakland Stroke patches leading the pack, some former members of B.A.D. together with other good friends of Ron rode through the Altamont hills as Craig let some of  the ashes of Ron "Hot" Rodden and "Indian" Bill be carried on the wind.

  After the ride, Craig, and Ken discussed the idea of resurrecting the club. This would be a difficult job, they thought, as Eppie, the only original member of Oakland Stroke, interested was living in Las Vegas. Eppie told Craig and Ken "I may not be able to come back for some time and it could be a year or more, if at all.

 Soon after, Craig called Jimi K. asking if he would be interested in being a part of resurrecting the old club to honor Ron's passing.  Jimi thought this was a great idea and told Craig that he would get in touch with some of the former members of B.A.D. and other close friends of Ron.  All the men agreed this would be a great way to honor Ron, their friend, mentor and original founder/president of Oakland Stroke. Craig, Jimi and the new founders were now in place, ready to resurrect the old MC

  New Patch 2007

  While admiring the old colors, Craig wanted to give the patches a more modern look and feel without losing the original overall idea. His idea of replacing the moon on the original patch with a human skull adding blue, red and moving the MC to the bottom, fit well, the new center patch was made the top and bottom rockers were kept original.  All of the members loved the updated version and it was unanimously agreed that this would be the new patch for Oakland Stroke.  Oakland Stroke Motorcycle Club rides today with the spirits of Ron "Hot" Rodden and "Indian" Bill riding with them freely in the wind…That's our story and we're sticking to it.

      Ron, you will be missed... O.S.M.C.  Live to Ride - Ride to Live