Lowriders - What's The Attraction?

De Communautique.

I was just a small kid in the late 1960s, when the Tv show The Munsters was on the air in Prime Time Television, young adequate to feel that Eddie Munster (the werewolf son) was my preferred character on the show. I don't keep in mind him riding the "converted Schwinn Stingray" which was apparently the first lowrider bike...

The lowrider bike craze sweeping the urban United States is energizing the creative impulses of young adults, as they express their personalities on comfy bikes.

I was just a tiny kid in the late 1960s, when the Tv show The Munsters was on the air in Prime Time Tv, young enough to feel that Eddie Munster (the werewolf son) was my preferred character on the show. I do not don't forget him riding the "converted Schwinn Stingray" which was apparently the very first lowrider bike featured on Television, and which started out the craze for the lowriders through the late 60s and 70s.

I do bear in mind that I wanted to sleep in a bureau drawer as he did - I felt that would be good and snug!

What I most bear in mind about the show, in the technologies division, was the vehicle they drove - the converted hearse. Now that was a automobile!

Anyway, that's just a bit of historical interest. Most children nowadays have never even heard of the Munsters - or if they have it's the remake carried out in the 1980s which had none of the charm of the original - give me Fred Gwynne, Yvonne DeCarlo and Al Lewis any day of the week!

It wasn't a Television show that brought the lowrider back into favor in the late 1980s, nonetheless, but merely the concerted creativity of people in the Chicano neighborhoods of Los Angeles, who started exercising their creativity by tricking out their bikes with chrome, paint, and all sorts of accessories. The hobby caught on and has spread through urban areas all through the United States.

Lowrider bikes are not built for speed - they are built for leisurely rides along the beach (hence the fat tires), or by way of the neighborhood. The riders want to "see and be observed in style."

Lowriders are normally deemed to be among the most comfortable of bikes. The "apehanger" handlebars extend up so high that riders are perforce forced to sit up straight - reducing the stress on the back which is a single of the chief causes of biking discomfort. The tires are cushiony, the seat, whether or not banana or some other sort, are roomy and comfortable. Most of them have only one particular speed and schwinn spin bikes a simple coaster break, so they do not break down that often.

With the new space age materials of which bikes are created, these bikes are not as heavy as you could believe, so if you're thinking of getting a new bike, and like to indulge in your creativity, you may want to think about finding a low rider. (Even if you do not want to trick it out, or "pimp it" as the slang goes, spinning bicycles it is nonetheless a classic "retro" style and a fun ride.)

But if you do want to trick it out (a term I choose to "pimp" frankly, as I would think that word would have unpleasant connotations) there are plenty of stores, both bricks and mortar and on the web, where you can buy practically any accessory you can think of - from gold and chrome mirrors, rims and spokes, to hand-painted murals on the frame, to rows of mirrors schwinn spinning bikes on every single side, to a baby spare tire mounted on the back!

So examine out your local store or surf the web, and have some fun!