“It started a few years back as a bunch of garage nights," says Jeff Hoge, one of the founders of the Tacoma Breakfast Club." Hoge along with some of his friends and roommates like Mark Kirkland, Aaron Walter Baker, Billy Davis, Devin Fouts, Amanda Kim, Chris McQueen among others would meet up Friday nights to begin wrenching on their projects. Sometimes they would work on the bikes, and other times they would just have some beers.

A few years back, I noticed that every winter we would lose touch with each other as everyone crawled into their holes until the weather started getting better," Explains founding member Billy Davis, "So I started reaching out to my buddies, and we would get together on Friday or Saturday night at one of our garages do some wrenching."

Although Tacoma is a relatively populous city (Washington’s third largest), it is decisively quieter than other cities of its size – with what some locals would say is not a lot going on. “In Tacoma there are smaller groups of us, which is rad because we are so tight,” says co-founder Aaron Walker Baker, “But riding with more people and not listening to the same old stories from Billy would be nice.”

Tacoma’s motorcycle scene sees a lot of diversity in their bikes and their people. "To me, there really isn't a chopper scene [specifically]. It's just us kicking it, helping each other out, and having a good time. Some of us don't even ride choppers." Though this may be due to the backgrounds of those involved in the Breakfast Club. “Longshoremen on BSAs, scientists on pre-units, punk rockers on evos, and graphic designers on panheads,” says Baker, “Nobody tries to out cool one another, and everyone pitches in with parts and knowledge.” But with that closeness there was also a lack of regular events happening.

“We wondered why there wasn’t any regular chopper rides in Tacoma and eventually we realized that if there was gonna be something it had to be us that would organize it,” says Hoge. While there have been a number of bike events in the area, and a number of custom shops, there was a lack of something that spoke to what would become the Breakfast Club. “To our surprise, we realized, we had a chopper scene of our own going here in Tacoma.”

“We started doing a breakfast ride on Sunday mornings to some place local and go for a ride after, or sometimes we’d just head back to one of our garages,” says Hoge. It took a while for it to become something resembling an official happening. By 2017 Hoge and Baker had launched an Instagram page to help document the trips and, “To let everyone know the meeting times, places, and destinations,” explained Hoge, “It is much easier than group texts, and to make sure a ride happens if either Aaron or I or both couldn’t make it that day.”

“After a while Aaron took charge of designing stickers, patches, and giving us all terrible club names,” Says Hoge. The happy side-effect of the online presence was that it allowed for connecting with friends and like-minded weirdos in Olympia and Seattle – as well as expanding the group in Tacoma. Though it should be said that for the members of the Breakfast Club the social media account shouldn't be taken as reality. “In my eye the Breakfast Club isn't what Instagram makes it look like. Really, it's mostly just all of us talking shit about crazy weird bikes that are on Craigslist and all of us lending a hand to each other which is rad. Just good buds hanging out building bikes and drinking beer."

Whether or not social media is an accurate reflection of the group, it has been part of bring more people together as the group has grown. “Aaron Baker was the first member of the Tacoma Breakfast Club to bring me in,” explains DJ “Tronn” Jones, “We had been following each other on Instagram for a few months going back and forth about motorcycles and fatherhood by commenting on each other's pictures and talking about putting together rides with our buddy's.”

The summer of 2018 saw a real increase in the number of rides and the size of the group. “I think the reason it has grown so much is because food and motorcycles bring people together,” explains Tronn. “There is Nothing like breaking bread with new found friends and riding in a large pack of motorcycles.”

From the pages of The Ton #2