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Hero image for If You're in it, You're in it to the Limit - Bikies

Part one of two from this full length episode.

Part two of two from this full length episode.

Part one of two from this full length episode.

Part two of two from this full length episode.

If You're in it, You're in it to the Limit - Bikies

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1972

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This notorious film looks at '70s bikie culture, focusing on Auckland's Hells Angels (the first Angels chapter outside of California). These not-so-easy riders — with sideburns and swastikas and fuelled by pies and beer — rev up the Triumphs, defend the creed, beat up students, cruise on the Interislander, provoke civic censure, and attend the Hastings Blossom Festival. After a funeral, Aotearoa's sons of anarchy head back on the highway. Bikies was banned by the NZBC — possibly due to the public urination, lane-crossing, chauvinism and pig's head activity.

It does something to you that’s for sure. You get on a bike on a nice warm sort of a day and you start going pretty quick ... you get a feeling that’s something rare I think. You're free, you’ve got the wind around you and all that sort of carry on.
– A Hells Angel member, responding to an off-screen prod that riding a bike is almost a sexual feeling

Key Cast & Crew

John Charles

Director

Michael Scott-Smith

Producer

Ian McDonald

Composer

Don Cunningham

Sound

Peter Janes

Camera

Jamie Selkirk

Editor

Produced by

NZ Broadcasting Corporation

Source

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision - TVNZ Collection

Music

Musicians: Simon Morris (guitar, vocal), Bill Lake (bass guitar, vocal, and solo vocals on 'I Will Not Think About Tomorrow'), Jeff Kennedy (drums) and John Charles (keyboards). Composer and music director Ian McDonald