Once an item that you were only ever likely to see on some West Coast, Latino rapper’s video, the Lowrider bike has landed firmly on UK soil and in the hearts and minds of dedicated individualists. Looking somewhere in between a vehicle owned by the Hair Bear Bunch and what Liberace would have ridden if he was a gangster, the Lowrider bike is all about showing out. So they may be cripplingly uncomfortable to ride, but like those 7 inch heels or that pair of limited edition trainers you could only find two sizes smaller than you needed, who cares when you look so fucking cool?

The true pioneer of the UK Lowrider scene is Ben Wilson, designer, DJ, customisation visionary and personal transport solution specialist. Not only did Ben start building Lowrider bikes at a time when the rest of us thought we were starting something by buying the original, two ton mountain bikes, he has written two theses on the culture. Ben has taken the scene a step on by building his own bikes from scratch, designed and built Lowriders for people such as the Prince of Saudi Arabia and Cypress Hill and is currently working on possibly the most extreme Lowrider project ever.

At a time when the culture was virtually unknown in the UK, how was it that you first got involved in the Lowrider scene?
“I’ve always been fascinated by customisation, by the way people take objects and customise them to their own specs – whether it’s a functionality or aesthetic customisation.”

“My first vivid memory is of my dad pushing me on a bike without stabilizers, I don’t know how old I was, but for me that was real vivid. I remember really looking up to my big brother – he had a Supergoose and like, JT leather race pants and it was just, ‘the shit’ – this was back in the days when BMX was just fully American. So I really grew up on BMX and then skateboarding, I still skate most days so that’s been a big influence.”

“Went to try and do A levels and just left after 2 days, I was like ‘I’m not really feeling this’, so I went and did a B-Tec in 3D design and it was wicked and did 2 years in the workshop making stuff and by the end of that I’d got into the Chopper scene, doing up Choppers with Chopper UK and we made a bit of money out of it – basically if you wanted a Chopper or there were Choppers selling, we were doing them. Kind of got out of that because suddenly all the dickheads were riding them about and they were in pop videos and that, so I didn’t really do that anymore.”

“I saw Lowriders back in the early 90s – I think Backyard bought some Lowriders in to the country and iD did a 2-page feature on them with Conrad on one. They did this wicked shot in Soho at night with this light behind and I was like, ‘That’s what I want man, I want a bad bike to go to the pub on’. At the time everyone was getting their cars and licenses, I had no money and everyone was lowering their Novas - not that I really wanted to do that - but I wanted a bit of a ‘ride’ type thing.”

“I was going to try to import a bike, I just didn’t have the money, but I knew I had the skills to build one. So I found a cantilevered frame similar to a Shwinn but it was actually an old Raleigh frame – I had a friend’s dad who was a painter, and like called in all the old favours and built my first bike. It was cool – I made my own forks and had a Mondeo yellow custom flip paint job, I made the seat because I couldn’t find any parts in the UK. At the time I was well pleased, I got a lot of props for it and managed to build it for £25 all in. All I really wanted to do was a radical custom, so I sold that bike for £125 and put all the money back in to building my next bike. That one was a lot more body work – I filled in a lot of panels. I was really looking at what they were doing in the US and trying to replicate that in my own style and at the time I was the only person in the UK doing it and for me that was wicked because I had real individual bikes.”

What’s the history behind Lowriders?
“It started off with cars in the 1960s - predominantly Hispanic kids on the West coast wanted to imitate the predominantly white kids’ hotrods, which they customised the engines of and raced on salt lakes. They often couldn’t afford the heavy customisation that went into the engine, so they decided to have a kind of slow and low, ‘proud’ ride. They lowered their cars by cutting the suspension and I suppose pioneered that whole low-profile aesthetic. Hydraulics came in because it became illegal to have your car too low, so they used to take the hydraulics off agricultural equipment and fork lift trucks and so when they drove past the police they’d boost the car up and after they’d drop it down again.”

“It became a competitive arena and customisation just increased and got more complex and now they’re definitely the most highly customised vehicles. We haven’t seen too much of it here in the UK but it’s starting to happen – I’ve only really seen one car that’s really mental. It’s not set up for it over here, the labour costs and cost of the parts is too high and you don’t get many people who want to drop £50-60K on a car that they only drive on a Sunday.”

Without any sell-on value?
“This is what interests me about customisation, it’s a very individual thing. You do it in the way that you do it, for your own reasons but the sale value is a weird one – it’s either worth incredible amounts of money or absolutely nothing. My motorbike at the moment is pretty heavily customised but it’s probably worth less than a standard bike. I’ve dropped loads of cash on it, though that doesn’t matter to me - I wasn’t going to ride the bike ‘standard’.”

“The Lowrider bikes really started in the early 80’s with the kids replicating what their fathers were doing with their cars and it really became a family affair, so perhaps the mother or an aunt would do the upholstery and perhaps the father or uncle or someone would do the framework and they’d bring in all these separate skills on the bike. They’d learn on the bikes and then when they hit 16, bang! They get their first car, so it’s kind of like learning the grade – the cars are just a bigger product you can customise.”

So what are the specific aspects of a Lowrider bike, how would we recognise one if we saw it?
“Historically a Schwinn ‘Stingray’ frame – originally a German company which moved to America as one of the biggest selling bikes of the 50’s. Pee Wee Herman used to ride a 26 - beautiful frame - it’s called a cantilever design where the top tube’s got a bend in it, the down tube’s got an S in it and the cantilever is the beautiful curve that goes from the down tube to the seat tube.”

“So, a Schwinn frame with body modifications – usually panelling with airbrush artwork - wheels with lots of spokes that are radially laced. It’s really opened up now though because people are building their own frames and components and now Lowriding is about whatever you want to do but it’s about customisation and the more you customise it to your own aesthetic and practical desires and dreams, the better.”

So how do your bikes differ from the traditional Lowrider?
“I rode a Lowrider everyday through one winter when I was up at Manchester University and just out of using the product I was like, you know the ergonomics could be looked at to make this a real nice bike to ride but still maintain the aesthetics.”

“My frames are very much a homage to Schwinn, very much taking inspiration from here and there. I veer away from the traditional banana seat with the rear stays, I prefer the leather look of the original Brooks saddle. I like the fat tubing aesthetic from mountain bikes so my tubing is fatter; I like the trick of having single rear stays, again elevated chain stays from mountain biking; my bottom bracket is much further up so you’re in a semi-recumbent riding position, so a lot of the ergonomics of recumbent bikes have been looked at. I use high-tech mountain biking components, chopper ape-hanger bars for comfy riding. I think because I wasn’t immersed in the whole US scene I had a blank canvas to do what I liked.”

“I look at a lot of what comes out from the States these days and find it horrifically ostentatious, offensive to look at, but if that keeps those kids out of trouble and brings family unity and maybe teaches them a skill, it don’t matter what the end product is. You know, it’s about culture, pride and family in a time where that’s often lost, I think it’s fantastic.”