Honestly, I'd love not to write this article, and I'm going to give you a warning before proceeding. We're, unfortunately, going to have to talk about pedophilia, so if that's a subject that's uncomfortable and triggering, which it really should be for everyone, leave now.
Why is RideApart covering this subject? Because a story recently went live, caused an absolutely righteous firestorm, and was subsequently taken down by the owner of Easyriders Magazine on his personal site, BikerNet, and the ensuing reporting by content creators and said owner's absolutely shit-ass, half-hearted, horrendous apology.
It is newsworthy in that we're talking about the folks who own one of the oldest biker titles around. Easyriders is/was one of the cornerstones of chopper culture.
But I mean, who in their right mind in the year of Epstein-This, Epstein-That, and everyone calling for anyone tied to that monster to get their heads chopped off would post a goddamn Penthouse-style letter-to-the-editor about CSAM?
Apparently, the site owned and operated by Keith "Bandit" Ball, the owner of Easyriders Magazine and BikerNet, who's also a Sturgis Hall of Fame Inductee. And, honestly, we need to know who the fuck wrote it, so this person is never allowed to attend a biker function again. They probably also should be investigated by the police, cause this shit doesn't come out of one's imagination.
Let's start with how this came to RideApart's attention.
As you'd expect with a publication like (and a publisher who owns) Easyriders, something of this nature quickly gained notice by the community. But it began with Weems Motor Co, a motorcycle builder out of Tampa, Florida, when Easyriders contracted a singer, songwriter, and freelance model, Jasmine Cain, to appear with one of Weems' customs for a shoot. Cain, however, was alerted to or otherwise discovered the aforementioned article and told Weems that she'd absolutely not be working with anyone associated with Easyriders and BikerNet due to their publishing something of this nature.
Again, a warning right now.
OK, so the title of the story was "An Outlaw's Confession by Renegade," and began with the skin-crawling sentence, "You got it all wrong. Kathy was 13 and I was 23. I would fly to her elementary school..." I haven't been able to access the rest of the article, as it was quickly removed, and the Wayback Machine doesn't have it archived.
But YouTuber shadetree surgeon has seen it and put up a video about the story linked below, as did Weems Motor Co., and Cain, who all state that it involved "Renegade" picking up a child from her elementary school, taking her to Los Angeles, having her strip at dank clubs, and then assaulting her himself. My skin is crawling just writing that out.
The post, which originally went up on February 10th, 2026, was taken down after the internet rightfully flipped its collective shit on Easyriders, BikerNet, and Ball. The former and latter of which then proceeded to offer the most mealy-mouthed apologies around, the first of which came from the Easyriders Instagram page.
"On February 10, a highly offensive, despicable item was posted on Bikernet," the apology begins. "We want to state unequivocally that the Easyriders staff had no involvement with this post, was not aware of it prior to publication, and most certainly does not condone its contents. We share in your outrage and want to assure you that this item had nothing to do with Easyriders. It was not published in our magazine nor featured on any of our social media platforms. We appreciate those who have taken the time to reach out to us about this and we appreciate those who are standing with us in support. Thank you for your continued loyalty to Easyriders Magazine."
It was signed "Easyriders Staff."
OK, sure, Easyriders has nothing to do with it. BikerNet may have different writers and staff, but it still has the same owner. Keith "Bandit" Ball, the owner of both, who publishes routinely under his byline on BikerNet, then proceeded to enter the apology tour with an absolute bullshit-ass mea-culpa.
In a statement dated February 12th, 2026, Ball starts with "Wow. You can imagine. I’ve had recommendations from everyone and their mother on how to handle this. We do not support pedophilia in anyway shape or form. I’m completely responsible for the story and pulled it down immediately."
He then offers this, "My mistake." I'm sorry, but what the actual hell are you doing here? Your mistake? Your mistake to publish a pedophilic story? In 2026? When the most dominant news story of our day is how this insane web of pedophilia runs through every house of power on the planet? Your mistake?!
Ball continues, "I’m not going to blame anyone except myself. Not going to throw anyone under the bus. That’s against the code." It's against your code to call out the writer of a pedophilic story? That's your code? No, no, no. That's not a code. That's protecting a heinous act. Basically, you're Pam Bondi'ing the situation and protecting someone who you absolutely shouldn't be protecting.
The editor continues, but does so by attacking some woman named Amy, supposedly in his circle, who's apparently keeping this story—which, again, he published on his site only two days ago at the time of writing—alive, saying, "But someone has kept this mistake alive through her posts. She’s not happy with me, and I wish her no harm, but she is the one pounding the pedophilia drum and trying to blame it on me...Amy wrote an anti-Muslim piece which I rejected. Am I flashing it all over the internet to make her out to be a bad person? Hell no, she’s a brilliant writer."
Here's where Ball's apology, however, goes completely off the rails and basically cops to the story as fine, and relates it to far more minor criminal offenses that absolutely don't include the assault of children. Ball continues, "We publish murder mysteries, does that mean we condone murder? We publish stories about stolen motorcycles. Does that mean we condone thievery? I don’t think so."
Ball then goes on to say he's just trying to "rebuild" Easyriders Magazine, and that "We hope to get past this... We are also on a mission to rebuild the coolest motorcycle magazine, Easyriders, which is 55 years old this year."
"We are all about riding free, riding cool bikes and featuring the best builders in the world. What could be better?" he adds, before signing off the apology. What could be better is if you named the writer, that's what. Because, against your code? Damn the code, man. We're talking about child sexual assault. It ain't some petty larceny or something along the lines of narcing on a friend to their spouse for spending cash they didn't have. It's a horrifying fantasy piece [hopefully that's as far as it went, though that's more than disgusting enough. jj] written about the sexual assault of a child.
Now here's where the motorcycling world needs to come together right freakin' now.
I used to write for Easyriders back in the day when it went through its last rebirth. The folks behind it wanted a more inclusive magazine, one that wasn't as Hell's Angels, brotherrrrrrr-adjacent. They were good people and had a good vision. But the publishing world is hard, and that went under, unfortunately. Ball, apparently, then bought it from the ashes, and is currently trying to restart it in all its SAMCRO-wannabe glory. No one in the motorcycling world, however, should help him do that until he says who wrote this shit.
They need to be outed. There need to be repercussions. The public has a right to know who this person is and to ostracize them from our community. No one deserves a safe space when it comes to this. No one.
