Cecilia Biemann
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Thanks to a group of teenagers who posted a music video about their creations on YouTube, scraper bikes are becoming a worldwide movement. The video has attracted a cult following, with over 3 million views to date. Scraper bikes are bicycles with rims so big that they scrape the inside of the wheel well. The ‘scraper’ movement actually started with cars, but since many of the people involved can’t afford cars, Oakland youth Tyrone Stevenson Jr. took the aesthetics of scraper cars and applied them to bicycles. To do that, he fitted large wheels on bike small frames, added colorful foil food wrappers from Oreos or Skittles to the spokes (so when they roll they flash), and spray-painted the frames to match. Less practical than they are interesting, building these bikes is providing an outlet for youth to express themselves without breaking the law.  As Mr. Stevenson, the self-proclaimed 'Scraper Bike King' put it, "The true meaning of a scraper bike is basically, I want to give back something positive to the community... Because there's so much going on. Drugs and killing and stuff, this is a way of giving the kids a way to a positive future, but being creative at the same time."
(treehugger)References: npr.org, treehugger Filed In: |
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