Furthermore, Stadnick offered Hells Angels membership on a 'patch-for-patch' basis, allowing members to trade their current patches for equivalent Hells Angels. Around ten Rock Machine members at the time joined their former arch-enemy, the Hells Angels, due to the Bandidos refusal to grant full members status to 'Full-Patch' members of the Rock Machine forcing them to become probationary members of the Bandidos and take a reduction in ranking, this angered some members along with abandoning the Rock machine namesake for a Texas-based entity, it was felt by some that the Bandidos patch with its cartoonish drawing of a Mexican bandit was 'silly'. It was overseen by high-ranking Bandidos member Edward Winterhalder. The Rock Machine was merged with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club on January 6, 2001, in a patch-over ceremony located at the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter clubhouse.
