Alt Bike Culture - Making a low-cost lowrider bike

Despite the fact that I am a white, non-hispanic high school teacher, I really dig lowrider bikes. Reminds me of my youth in Santa Barbara, California.

Anyway, I would love to get one for cheap, so that means building, I suppose.

Any suggestions for a cheap one?

What about picking up an old cruiser, replacing the saddle with a banana seat, and switching the handlebars to apehangers. Then replacing the forks with some springers. I guess that would work, but with beautiful bikes like these (http://www.bicycledesigner.com/defaulthome.asp?Navigation=bicyclesnavigation.asp&Main=/bicyclesmain.asp%3FType%3Dclassic) at low prices, maybe that's the way to go. They've got the sweet wheels.

Maybe I could bend the stock forks out to make it ride low? Sounds tricky.

Any advice appreciated.

I'd recommend going up and down alleys looking for discarded bikes. Then start mixing and matching components. You can bend out forks, use chrome steel wheels from older department store bikes, plenty of silver paint, etc. With some creativity, you could put one together for almost no money at all, and you could pretty easily do it with very little money.

And better yet, you'd have a bike you made yourself, which will make you far more satisfied than one you bought.

Can you weld? Do you want to learn how to weld? It isn't that hard, and can open a lot of doors. But even if you start simple, I think you'll find that you'll get nicely addicted to making custom bikes.

So start your search in the alleys and thrift stores, and maybe buy a few special parts like springer forks or something, and have fun! (oh, and if you have any specific questions, make sure you ask here).

peace,
sam

Those bikes in that link will NOT be very high quality for that price.. Think low end department store kind of stuff...

I'd look around for used or free youth cruisers that you can put shiny rims on and a springer fork. A banana seat can be found on an old kids bike (and reupholstered if necessary), and you can get cool sissy bars cheaply. The world of BMX offers some very cool chainrings for low prices, and a three speed internal hub off an old Raleigh would cap things off nicely, and are easy to work with.

Hope this helps with some ideas.

peace,
sam

i'd highly advise anyone in this thread to check out atomiczombie.com that guy has some really cool stuff. his book is pricy, but very detailed from start to finish on finding cheap and free parts, welding and anything else.

Those bikes in that link will NOT be very high quality for that price.. Think low end department store kind of stuff...

I'd look around for used or free youth cruisers that you can put shiny rims on and a springer fork. A banana seat can be found on an old kids bike (and reupholstered if necessary), and you can get cool sissy bars cheaply. The world of BMX offers some very cool chainrings for low prices, and a three speed internal hub off an old Raleigh would cap things off nicely, and are easy to work with.

Hope this helps with some ideas.

peace,
sam

Thanks for the ideas. Sounds good.

[QUOTE=neoz]Any suggestions for a cheap one?

What about picking up an old cruiser, replacing the saddle with a banana seat, and switching the handlebars to apehangers. Then replacing the forks with some springers. I guess that would work, but with beautiful bikes


I have used this company for stuff and I would recommend them for the type of stuff
you are mentioning here.......
[url]www.lovelylowrider.com (http://www.bicycledesigner.com/defaulthome.asp?
Any advice appreciated.[/QUOTE)

Dont forget to post pics of your rig when you finish ! :D

Here's another source:

http://www.streetlowrider.com/store/index.php?osCsid=57d3a2208a26672943b4d93549ebc1f4

you can bend stock forks with a conduit bender. you can use taller forks for more rake and flex.

Check out this website for Lowrider Bikes (http://www.mbbike.com)

Occasionally, I'll see lowrider bikes on Craigslist and they're not always very expensive. "Lowrider" is a pretty broad term, though, so depends on what you're after.

Example:
http://lubbock.craigslist.org/bik/734916415.html

if youre for the authentic 70s lowrider use a schwinn "straight" springer and remove the spring.


i knew i had built one that way. BMX lowriders made it to the scene around the late 80s early 90s which is where i went with this bike

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c330/Lownslow302/e2d2551b.jpg

www.layitlow.com theres a lowrider bike forum on there and it will probably a lot of help, i also have one that i may be willing to sell, i'll post pics later as i'm out of town right now

Personally I have no problem with the stuff they sell at BicycleDesigner.com

Sure some of it is cheap, but some is decent for the price. Yes the built bikes are kind of ridiculous with all the cheap baubles they've slapped on, but you can get a decent start there for not a lot of scratch.

You could buy one of their frames and a springer fork for around 200 and put the rest together from scavenged parts...

also check out www.nirve.com (http://www.nirve.com) for some decent parts

and these guys http://www.chubbyscruisers.com/ have some great built cruisers that i would buy with no hesitation

check this rat rod stretch cruiser out... its under 300
http://www.chubbyscruisers.com/shop/rat-rod-kustom-cruiser-p-47.html


here's an ultra cool one some tool on this forum commutes on :rolleyes: :innocent:

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=75026&stc=1&d=1214844691