These leather-clad bikers also evoke the angels of death in Cocteau's "Orphee" (see the entry above). As Death's minions, they literally do her dirty work, running over the unsuspecting soon-to-be-deceased. http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_946-975#Page_951 Thanks, answers that one.