Lowrider bikes are a pedal version of the chopper motorcycle made famous by the American film "Easy Rider".
Lowriders, choppers or cruisers, they are a South West American invention, just like the surf board, the in-line skates, skate boards and the Beach Boys. All these
cool lowriders are straight from the California beach style.
Lowriders are not about riding a bike, its about the bike its self, the lowrider bike are a work of art in chrome and steel, they are shinny and brightly coloured, a wonder to look at and to show off with. A must for all the bikes is style.
To have a nice lowrider you must have a lot of chrome, high handle bars, small wheels, white wall tires, kick stand, chrome fenders and a "banana" saddle, for an added bit of class you need some chrome wing mirrors and to top it all off a spare wheel on the back.
A chopper is similar to a lowrider, but with longer front forks so the front wheel is pushed out in front and of course the high rise handle bars and as with a lowrider as much chrome as you can get.
Cruisers are again very similar, but with a more relaxed position, high bars and a long saddle, all these bikes have 24" wheels with 144 spokes, suspension can also be fitted to your beach bike, but these will be a spring arrangement on the forks, not
hydraulics.
Lowriders can also have three wheels and can be stretched to get an even lower rider position.
Read our latest review on the
Giant Stiletto Lowrider here!!
The Stileto takes 20x3.0" front and 24x3.0" rear tyres; road tyres are the only real practical option here. BMX mags are an idea I've been playing with although I'm unsure as to whether one of these will handle not only the load but the skate. As far as loadbearing on these cruisers goes, I regularly carry upwards of 500lb including myself and custom electronics fittings with no real issues except the same two spokes that went on the rear through three wheels! For some reason the front tyre gets the most wear, mine having been replaced twice now, still on the original rear tyre and brake pads after eighteen months and over ten thousand miles. A very recent problem I came across (ike, yesterday) is the crank that joins the two chains. Does the job superbly, except that it will suddenly and for no apparent reason, fail. What mine's done is deform somewhere inside the housing to the point where the chains now meet and the interface between the cogs is no longer uniform - it slips. Sometimes this means zero traction in the chainset, others the rear chain slips the cog and buries itself around the shaft or even between the cogs - either way, that gets annoying.