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A scraper bike is a bicycle that has been modified by its owner, often with decorated spokes with matching body and wheel colors, using tinfoil, re-used cardboard, candy wrappers and paint. The bike frames themselves are also modified with BMX frames, heightened seats, or custom pieces to create unique bicycles. Scraper Bikes are an offshoot of the 90's era scraper culture of car modification.
“A scraper bike is a piece of art, every artist builds up their bike from scratch using different material, different colors to customize it to fit the artist inside.” - Baybe Champ, 2016.
The Original Scraper Bike Team
The Original Scraper Bike Team was founded by Tyrone “Baybe Champ” Stevenson Jr., aka Scraper Bike King, in 2006 in Oakland, California. Scraper bikes gained notoriety in 2007 with the YouTube music video "Scraper Bikes" by Trunk Boiz.
In 2016, with support from Oakland Public Library and Bike East Bay, the Original Scraper Bike Team opened up the Bike Shed in East Oakland. The Bike Shed, which is a youth-led, no-fee bike shop, is run by “Chef Boy RB” Burnette Jr., aka Scraper Bike President.