Lowrider Bike Life: Expressing the Latino culture on two wheels

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Low and Slow: Expressing the Latino culture on two wheels
On a perfect sunny day, you might find Antonio Yepez and his family and friends cruising down the street, with their chrome shining in the afternoon light as his crew rides low and slow.
We traveled to San Jose on a beautiful Sunday afternoon for the city’s Viva Calle biking event this month, as thousands of people took the streets on two wheels, but it was Yepez’s group of lowrider bicycles that stood out among the crowd.
“People look at you and say, wow that is a beautiful bike, and too me it feels good,” said Yepez. “This is what I want to do, represent our culture.”
Representation is built inside his Tenderloin apartment, where Yepez grinds and shapes old bicycles frames into beautiful works of art. In the past 15 years, he has built more than a dozen lowrider bikes.
“What I have in my head, I put it here,” said Yepez, while pointing to one of his creations. “If you have art, this is the best thing you can do, show off your art and your work.”
He expresses his art on two wheels, in a Latino and Chicano culture known for their elaborate lowrider cars on four wheels.
“I always had a dream to have a lowrider car, but never had enough money to build one,” he said.
But even so, he has gained recognition for designing his own bikes, including his latest creation called the “Joker” - a purple bike he built for his son, featuring the different faces of the Batman villain Joker. The bike is mostly used as show piece for display and contests.
“We already won 10 awards for this one,” Yepez said. “Third places, first places, but more first place wins than thirds.”
But beyond the awards and accolades, his biggest victory is how his hobby and art has become a family affair. When Antonio needs help when fine tuning his bicycles and recruits his wife Bertha for assistance.
“This is a two-person job,” said Bertha. “We always help each other, everyone in our club helps with everything, so I love, I love all of this.”
It is a love, they take to streets, where his family rides together expressing their Latino culture through their club and crew - a crew where everyone is included no matter their race or background - including Ryan White, an Irish-American who grew up in an Hispanic neighborhood in Southern California in the late 70’s and now rolls with Yepez and his family.
“I am the white guy, they call me Guero,” he said with a smile. “They see the love I have for their culture, I also speak Spanish as well, so they are not going to care that I am white.”
The popularity of lowrider bicycles can be traced back to 1960’s in Los Angeles.
Yepez says, he is one of the few people still designing the bikes in San Francisco with other designers and artists spread throughout of the Bay Area.
He tries to stay true to his art, building bikes for himself and family, knowing he could make a nice profit if he massed produced the lowriders bicycles.
“One time a guy offered me $10,000 for one of my bikes,” he laughed. “I didn’t even have to think about it, I turned him down.”
He hopes to pass his creations to his sons and family, and even one day share his creation with a bigger audience.
“One day, one day I want to see my bikes in a museum,” said Yepez. “One day, I would like to see a museum dedicated to our art.”
Story: @RyanYamamotoTVNews @cbssf @CBSNews
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