Төмендетілген велосипедтер: Стиль және мәдениет

Customized bicycle

A lowrider bicycle is a highly customized bicycle with styling inspired by lowrider cars. These bikes often feature a long, curved banana seat with a sissy bar and very tall upward swept ape hanger handlebars. A lot of chrome, velvet, and overspoked wheels are common accessories to these custom bicycles. They were at first stigmatized by mainstream U. S. culture, even as they were a symbol of pride in Chicano communities. They later became accepted and popular elsewhere. Lowrider Bicycle was a magazine dedicated to the bikes first published in 1993. Some of the bikes are not rideable and exist only for aesthetic purposes.

Early modified bikes first appeared in California alongside Lowrider car culture popular in Chicano communities. Mexican American youth would emulate the craft of lowrider cars with their bicycles as a canvas for creativity, usually starting with common muscle bikes. This allowed those who were too young to drive a car to have a custom vehicle. Similar to lowrider cars, the bikes were stigmatized as a part of "gang culture" by mainstream America simply because of their origins within the Chicano community. George Barris, who moved to Los Angeles to "become part of the emerging teen car culture" opened a shop in Bell, California, a Mexican American neighborhood. He used the Schwinn stock frame to create a modified bike for The Munsters set in the mid 1960s. This was for the character Eddie Munster, yet the bike did not appear on the show and was largely unknown at the time. In the 1990s, Lowrider Bicycle magazine used this bike to "effectively creat[e] an origin myth for the lowrider bicycle movement." He had worked on bikes since he was ten. His bikes were featured in prominent music videos and films. Some have referred to Silva as the "Godfather of Lowrider Bicycles" because of his long history in the community and his influence in expanding the lowriding bike scene, Lowrider bicycles surged in popularity in the 1990s, as competition over style and design became intense. The first bike to be featured on the cover of the magazine was known as "Claim Jumper" and owned by Danny Galvez, Jr. of Los Angeles, California. It challenged the violent Hollywood image portrayed of Chicano youth in films like “Blood in, Blood out,” “American Me” and “Mi Vida Loca." The Los Chilangos lowriding bicycle club of Mexico City formed in 2014. In a story on the group, one photographer who followed the group credited the importance of the Chicano culture in bridging lowriding bike culture across the border and expanding its popularity in Mexico. A article for The Daily Chela by Brandon Loran Maxwell noted that there is a resurgence of lowrider bicycles occurring.

Some lowrider bikes are modified into lowrider tricycles, for style. Converting a lowrider bicycle into a tricycle often allows the bike to sit closer to the ground while still being rideable, and even hop without falling over if they have airbag suspension or hydraulic suspension. Converting a bicycle into a tricycle often creates extra carry space at the back of the bike. The space between the two rear wheels is sometimes used to mount either a two seater "love seat", a "boombox," or even pumps for hydraulic or air suspension. Commercially bolt on conversion kits to convert any existing lowrider bicycle into a tricycle are available from many sources.