Pedaling into History
Review of the bicycle exhibit at the Fowler Museum.
“So I walked into the Fowler Museum at UCLA for the bicycle exhibit. It is a history-to-the-present kind of thing. The main reason I went to this was for the lowrider bikes on display. I had seen them before at a lowrider convention a year ago. I thought that they were really cool and creative because they were all so different from your everyday bike. I think it’s really weird for me to be interested in bicycles because I haven’t ridden one since I was six years old! But hey, I’m a strange kind of gal!
I must explain that when I was in the “Bicycles: History, Beauty, Fantasy” exhibit, it was very cold and quiet, very museum-like. You know what I mean, people whispering “look at that” to each other, or “hmmmm, that’s interesting” or like most, nothing at all. The air was very still and quiet and if anyone said anything a little too loud, everyone would turn around to see who it was.
But once I was in the “Cruisin’, Stylin’ and Pedal-Scrapin’: The Art of the Lowrider Bicycles” part, music was bumpin’ “Bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yeah bow wow yippee yo yippee yeah!” People around me were groovin’ and boppin’ to it. There were crazy strobe lights everywhere. It was soooooo much more livelier and fun to be in!
The lowrider bikes were so well kept and I mean not just because they are in a museum, but because you could tell the people who owned them put their heart and souls into these bikes. Like this one bike I saw called “3-Sum”(hey, hey, don’t get any ideas!) owned by Gonzalo Esparza, Jr. It was this shimmery red color, with gold on its wheels and handles. Now, the reason it’s called “3-sum” is because it has this red velvet seat with gold trimming in the back for two people to sit in and a regular bicycle seat for someone else to sit and drive on.
The other five bikes in the exhibit were just as great. Some of the owners put art on the body, gold and chrome handles, shimmery exotic reds, blues, greens, etc., and customized seats with different colors of velvet. All to give them their own sense of individuality. It was amazing to see all this work put into these bikes! It was also great to see the contrast between the different styles of bikes. On one hand you see these old-er, mass-manufactured, more “sensible” bicycles. And on the other you’ve got these one-of-a-kind, fresher, off-the-wall concoctions.
The history part of the exhibit had one of the first bikes ever invented on display. That is if you can actually call it a bike! Let me explain. It basically looks like one of those little kid bikes with no peddles, no real seat, a handle that looks like it doesn’t really work, and it’s mainly made of wood. You would have to push it along with your feet. It was basically a novelty when it first came out. A toy for the rich. You could say it was in the Flintstones Stage of the bike.
I thought three other bicycles in this portion of the exhibit were very interesting. One was this bike made completely of metal. Now, when I say completely, I MEAN COMPLETELY! It weighed about 175 pounds and looked very hard to ride. The second bicycle was made of bamboo from Shanghai, but manufactured in Austria. The company that manufactured this bike said that it was lighter and “better than steel.” That’s pretty crazy if you ask me. The third set of bikes were made for women. They had sloping seats so as not to break women’s hymens. For a long time after bikes with pedals were invented, people believed that it was unladylike to ride a bicycle anyway. If that’s not strange I don’t know what is!
This is a great exhibit! I highly recommend you go and see it. Hey! After seeing the exhibit, I really felt like riding a bike again!
What: “Bicycles: History,
Beauty, Fantasy” and
“Cruisin’, Stylin’ and
Pedal-Scrapin’: The Art
of the Lowrider
Bicycles” exhibits
Where: UCLA Fowler Museum.
The Fowler Museum is
west of Royce Hall on
the UCLA campus
When: October 4, 1998 –
January 3, 1999
Why: Free admission now
through December 1998
For More Information Call:
(310) 825-4361″