Fugawi Motorcycle Club ready for reality TV debut

Alex Taylor | The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

Show Caption Hide Caption Fugawi Motorcycle Club in reality show on History Channel Members of the Fugawi Motorcycle Club, of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., talk about "We're the Fugawis," their new reality show on the History Channel.

Motorcycle group based in New York will be featured on the History Channel

Group formed in 2006 when they were looking for an escape from life%27s complications

Fugawis had a bit part in 2012%27s %27The Dark Knight Rises%27

CHESTNUT RIDGE, N.Y. — Don't be fooled by their Harley-Davidson hogs or the skull and tomahawk stitched onto their black leather vests.

Despite their outlaw image, the Fugawi Motorcycle Club is anything but a gang of troublemakers, members say. More like a bunch of middle-aged family men with an outsized love of loud bikes, practical jokes and roadside restaurants.

"People see bikers, they think 'bad,' " says club president Scott Sanguinetti, 48, known as "Mudflap." "It's not true. It's a bunch of crap. We don't all have tattoos and long hair."

Beginning Tuesday at 10 p.m., the Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.-based bikers will roar across television screens when their reality show, We're The Fugawis, makes its debut on the History Channel.

The 10-episode, half-hour series follows the adventures — and misadventures — of the bikers as they hang out at their clubhouse or hit the highway, revving engines and billowing clouds of exhaust smoke.

"Wherever we go people start following us," says Sanguinetti, who runs the Nanuet New and Used second-hand store when he's not riding his 1996 Harley Ultra Classic. "We could have fun at an insurance seminar."

The bikers — who go by nicknames such as "Wise One," "Tommy Gunz," "Holeshot" and "Old Timer" — also have to balance their motorcycle lifestyles with day jobs as plumbers, electricians and general contractors.

The Fugawis (pronounced fuh-ga-we) were started in 2006 by a group of lifelong buddies, many of them graduates of Nanuet High School, who were looking for an escape from life's complications. Appropriately, one of their slogans is "Don't worry about it."

"Truthfully, I bought my motorcycle to get away from trials and tribulations of life," explained Pat F. Capasso, 49, of Suffern, N.Y., who goes by the name of "Medicine Man." "When I'm on my bike, and the wind is on my face, I forget about everything."

Their bike brotherhood grew steadily larger. The Fugawis now have 20 or so members scattered across Rockland County, N.Y., and Northern New Jersey.

During riding season, the club participates in annual charity events and organizes weekend road trips to Lake George or spins to favorite haunts such as Biggie's Clam Bar on Route 17 in Carlstadt, N.J.

"We don't fool around when it comes to food," says Capasso, who recommends Biggie's oysters on the half-shell.

The Fugawis landed their show after a playing a bit part in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises. The bikers liked being in front of a camera so much they decided to share their story on television.

A daughter of one of the club's members, Daria Scoccimarro, introduced the bikers to the New Wave Entertainment production company where she works. The meeting led to a pilot. We're The Fugawis began filming in early April.

According to Capasso, who rides a 2004 Harley-Davidson Road King, the months of shooting did little to crimp the club's uninhibited humor and sense of adventure.

"The only thing I had to curb was my language," he says, chuckling. "After the first week, I forgot the cameras were around."

For his part, Sanguinetti hopes the family-friendly show helps to combat stereotypes about bikers.

"We wanted to show the humor," he says. "Not the hard-core."

When to watch

We're the Fugawis

History Channel, Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific