Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Scraper bike spotted in Ann Arbor



Imagine my joy at spotting a genuine scarper bike on the Diag this afternoon. For those of you who are a little rusty on your Hyphy (Bay Area hip-hop) slang, "scrapers" are cars (usually GM sedans from the late 80's early 90's) sporting audaciously large rims--20" at the very least. Scraper bikes get their name form their wheel's similarity to the wheels of a scraper (car). The scraper bike movement was started by Tyrone Stevenson in Oakland, California. He and some friends started to decorate their bike wheels with old candy wrappers and aluminum foil. The popularity of the bikes grew rapidly and soon the Scraper Bike Non-profit was born. The group works to provide youth from undeserved neighborhoods in Oakland a positive extracurricular outlet and positive social network all while promoting sustainable transit. From their blog:
The Scraper Bike Movement seeks to capture the creativity of youth living within dangerous communities. It gives them a positive outlet that is fun, educational, and promotes healthy lifestyles. The Scraper Bike Movement offers youth a sustainable group of peers that is positive and motivating. We want to expand and enlighten young peoples perspective on life through fixing and painting bicycles. Our goal is to support youth entrepreneurship and cultural innovation.

Make sure you check out the scraper bike music video and the documentary Scrapetown after the jump. Hopefully we'll be seeing more hella cool scraper bikes around town.



Scrapertown from California is a place. on Vimeo.

1 comment:

  1. Don't forget that that is a tall-bike as well.

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