My Thoughts on LOWRIDER Bicycles

During my search for the great bicycle design, I came across MANY lowrider bikes and after much thought, I have finally decided to address the issue. I have gotten a few emails asking my thoughts, one from a guy with a bicycle company that was looking to expand his product line. Wwhat I told the company owner was this; "Don't sell anything that you aren't an expert on, can't build, is SO NICHE, and requires a certain race of people to make the product line viable. In fairness, most of the pictures in this post consist of 'Show Bikes' but there is some of ones people ride everday also.





Lowrider bicycles, in my opinion are too niche to EVER be mainstream and unfortunatley, when people see these bicycles, they think of Mexicans. That isn't racial, it is just the truth! Like african americans, as latinos start to understand their buying power as a race and demand better housing, civil rights, fair wages and the like, their standard of living will go up as a people, and the old ways, like with black folks will fade into the past. I am ceratin spanish, no matter how well they are doing, will continue from generation to generation.





Back to the lowrider bike issue, it is RARE to even see a latino kid on these bicycles, here in Denver and believe me, we have a VERY LARGE latino population and they are at least 50% of the homeowners in the area where I live and I can't even remember the last time I saw a lowrider bike. I said all of that to say this, this market is WAY TO NICHE to ever flourish in the mainstream. ALL OF THE LATINO KIDS AND TEENS where I live ride regular bikes (although ugly ones) and truthfully, they could buy a lowrider bicycle for about the same cost as some of the bikes I see them on....what does that say? And what does that say about the mainstream viability of this niche market?




To those of you who build them, GREAT! Keep on doing your thing cause I ain't hatin on you, but it is a tough sell where 'Cross over appeal' is concerned when anyone, no matter what race, looks at a product and says "You know a ***** person designed that." Offended yet, OH BABY I GOT MORE! When you see, or hear of 'Bling-Bling' Jewelry, what color man do you think of? A Black man! Don't lie, that's who I think of and I AM BLACK! For those of you who live here in Colorado, when someone mention the city of Boulder, Colorado, what type of people do you think of? WHITE PEOPLE!




It's true so get mad if you want. Anyway, I think low rider bikes, for the most part look, well, OVERDONE!



Out of the hundreds and hundreds I have looked at, the one pictured below is the ONLY ONE I have ever seen that I kinda think is ok. Even this one....white wall tires.....PLAYED OUT! I vomit ever time I see a bicycle with WHITE WALL TIRES! YUK!