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Look cool, be cool with a beach cruiser or a lowrider.
New car models come out every year. When you look at them, can you really tell the difference between them? You could do that in the 1950s, for sure, but today? No, they mostly look the same.
That isn’t the case with bicycles. Bicycling is more popular than ever, and new models are being brought out every year for any type of interest from road bikes to mountain bikes and everything in between.
Two of the newest styles gaining interest among a larger group of fans are the beach cruisers and the lowriders.
A lowrider bike is exactly what it sounds like – a bike that hugs the ground. The highest points these kinds of bikes are the handgrips, and the seat is down at wheel level. Indeed, the pedals are sometimes higher than the seat. It looks like a Harley Davidson! That’s why it’s also called a “chopper bike” or a “muscle bike.”
These lowriders got their start in the Chicano-American community, but are starting to pick up their popularity with the mainstream. It’s all about style. Most lowriders have the banana seat made famous by the Schwinn Stingray of yore, “excessive” chrome, “overspoked” wheels, and fur. Lowriders have a culture of their own and their bikes are custom creations to show off their personalities.
Aztlan Bicycle is the world’s number one lowrider bike company – at least according to their website. They certainly were one of the first companies to come out with the lowrider.
Similar to the lowrider is the beach cruiser. Remember the Stingray bike of the 1950s and 60s? That’s the forerunner of the beach cruiser. It’s usually a single speed bicycle, and the brake levers aren’t on the handlebars, they’re at your feet. The pedals, that is to say. They’re called coaster brakes, which means you have to reverse pedal to slow down or stop. Cruiser bikes have what’s called balloon tires to go over packed sand – hence the name, beach cruiser.
Like any other bike you care to name, the beach cruiser comes in styles designed for men, women and children.
Nearly every major bike manufacturer makes at least one cruiser model, and there are new manufacturers out there. Check out Electra, Nirve, Kustom Kruiser, and Aero-Fast before you make any decision on what kind of cruiser to buy.
To take just one example, Nirve has several styles of Cruisers to choose from, and you can check out the styles and specifications at their website.
The “Classic” series consists of the Classic, the Fifty-Three, the Knuckle, the Kilroy, and the Forty-Nine. Cool names, but you’ll have to scope them out to see if you like them.
Their Islander series consists of the Sunflower, the Island Flower, and the Lahaina. As you might expect, these bikes are decorated with paintings of flowers on the frame! These bikes are for girls or women, and have three speeds.
So if you’re looking for a little different biking experience, check out the lowriders or the cruisers, and you might like what you see.
Andrew Caxton is a consultant who writes on many consumer topics like recumbent and http://www.bikecyclingreviews.com For additional information on beach bikes subjects follow this link lowrider bikes
Harley-Davidson and the Hells Angels. Few pairings are as synonymous as
those two names. The pairing of Harley Davidson and the Hells Angels is
something akin to peanut butter and jelly, but sometimes it turns into
oil and water. In other words, sometimes the two don’t mix. Since the
formation of Hells Angels, Harley Davidson has been their motorcycle of
choice, which hasn’t always thrilled the company. They faced
a negative reaction from the buying public, who connected the company
to the biker gang.
Since the early days of the biker gang, the Hells Angels have seemed to
revel in their poor reputation. To this day many members still wear a
patch on their jacket, signifying their
“one-percenter” status. The label was given to them
in the 1950s after the American Motorcyclist Association claimed that
1% of all bikers clubs were outlaws, the Hells Angels included.
Harley seemed willing, albeit reluctantly, to accept the relationship
until the 1966 release of a Hunter S. Thompson book. Hell’s
Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
delivered an unflinching description of the gang in action. Thompson
lived around the gang for nearly a year, only leaving after receiving a
severe beating from some members. He wrote about everything
the gang did, including violent beatings and gang rape.
This rape of two teenage girls, 14 and 15, by a group of outlaws, sent
shockwaves across the country. Over 300 Hells Angels members were
gathered for a rally in California when the event occurred, landing
four members in jail, and the rest escorted from the area. The men were
eventually acquitted of rape, but Harley-Davidson was still left with yet
another black mark on their record. Suddenly the company saw themselves
as a willing participants to the actions committed by the gang.
Another incident, documented and verified in Thompson’s book,
occurred in 1961. A man accidentally hit one of the members’
bikes with his car, a shouting match ensued, and the man was severely
beaten as well as having his car destroyed. At the same time, articles
detailing the worst offenses of the Hells Angels appeared in Time,
Life, and The New York Times. In each instance, the bikers connection
to the bikes they loved appeared front and center.
The most famous incident involving the Hells Angels took place in
Altamont, California in 1969. Members of the Oakland chapter were hired
as security guards for a concert featuring some of the biggest bands at
the time. A concert goer who charged the stage was stabbed to death by
one of the Hells Angels. Despite charges being dropped, the incident
had already done damage to Harley-Davidson’s reputation.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the tangled relationship between
Harley-Davidson and the Hells Angels became even more strained. A 1983
incident led to four members being charged with conspiracy, after a
conflict with another biker gang. In more recent years, the Hells
Angels tangled with a rival gang in Nevada. The skirmish ended with two
members dead, and two in prison.
Harley-Davidson’s affiliation with the Hells Angels, willing
or not, suffered as a result of poor public opinion. The motorcycle
gangs were the long time loyal customers, who depended on the company
for equipment, but not their only customers. The majority of people who
purchased a motorcycle, had no involvement in a biker gang, but were
fearful of others thinking they were. When the Harley-Angels connection
formed, some customers took their loyalty elsewhere. Throughout certain
points in the history of the company, they’ve blamed their
financial woes on the biker gang. They claim that when the Hells Angels
make the front page, sales plummet.
The history of Harley-Davidson and the Hells Angels, is a long and
tangled one. Thanks to the publicity surrounding the bikers, the
company reached a widespread audience of new consumers. The same
publicity has caused damage to the company’s reputation, but
they have always managed to bounce back. Harley Davidson and the Hells
Angels are two groups that will forever be connected.
Mel Raskinski is a senior writer for Motorcycle Parts and Apparel. Check out their wide selection of motorcycle parts and apparel by visiting: [http://motorcyclepartsandapparel.com]
To view a wide selection of Harley Davidson aftermarket parts [http://motorcyclepartsandapparel.com/harley-davidson-parts.html], please visit our site.
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