Introduction 2008 is the 50th anniversary year of the kustom bicycle movement, by our reckoning. In order to celebrate this important milestone, we here at BikeRod&Kustom felt it was necessary to fill in the lost pages of our movement's early history. And so, for the first time anywhere, BR&K is pleased to present you with the detailed story of how kustom bicycling first began. This series of articles will cover the first 20 years of its history. For our first installment we will be covering the years 1958 to 1962, a time when kustom bicycle style was in its infancy. These were the days before factory-produced bikes like the Huffy "Penguin" and Schwinn "Stingray" came onto the scene. Young people had a cool vision of being able to ride their bicycles with kustom style, and they made it happen by taking it to the streets. Kustom bicycling first started out as a small regional phenomenon in the United States, but interest in the style spread throughout the country in its first twenty years, and would eventually touch the look of bicycles in Europe and most world continents- even as far away as Australia. The movement itself was more or less informal during the early years, and as such, documentary information on how it evolved tends to be very hard to come by. My search for material on the origins of kustom cycling turned out to be no easy task, and was at times highly frustrating. My interest in the kustom bicycle story actually goes back at least thirty years. I had always wanted to know how the movement began but was never able to find the answers, I only had a vague notion, and hard facts on the subject always seemed to be elusive. Back in the mid-1970's, when I first started showing kustom bicycles at motorcycle shows, I tried asking some of the older motorcycle exhibiters what they knew about the subject. Unfortunately, they appeared to know even less than I did. My investigative research basically went nowhere, and other avenues for finding information were just not available to me. Unlike today, people in the 1970's did not have home computers or the Internet, and document sources like "eBay" were decades away. Easy access to obscure newspaper archives was also just a dream. What little information I did find in the 1970s was put away into storage, until now. Years later, in 2006, my interest in kustom bicycle "origins" was rekindled by what I saw on the Internet, or should I say what I didn't see. The "Net" had much rumor and speculation on the matter, but the hard facts were still not available. Many believed that the Schwinn "Stingray" introduced in mid 1963 was the catalyst that started things off. A few thought that a certain bicycle (the "Munster Chain Bike") made in early 1965 at the shop of George Barris was the first true "kustomized" bike. Neither of these beliefs was true, or was even close to being right, as I found out. The Schwinn "Stingray" was not even the first commercially made bicycle to sport a set of high-rise handlebars and a banana (or Solo Polo) seat. It was out of frustration that I took up the quest again. I wanted to finally set the record straight on the origins of kustom cycling. So, about a year and a half ago I resumed the hunt for information; to find out once and for all "when" and "where" the movement first began, and to document its early evolution. Although initially frustrated in my attempts to gather information my efforts were eventually rewarded, if ever so slowly. And, what I discovered was very interesting indeed. John Brain A question of wording, Kustom vs. Custom We begin by going west, back to late 1950s California. Hot Rodding and automotive customizing was a big part of life for many Californians in the 50s. "George Barris" probably the most famous name in the history of customized cars coined the term "Kustom" to help clearly identify a look and attitude that he and many others were developing at the time. Kustom with a "K" clearly denoted a new attitude towards vehicle modification and hot rod styling sense. It was about wild, flashy, innovative and creative thinking. Clearly associated with a new breed of car modifiers who wanted to find out just how far hot rod design and vehicle modification could go. "Kustom" was about pushing limits and boundaries, and denoted an alternative outlook concerned with experimentation, and the search for the ultimate in cool. "Kustom" is a term that can describe any form of transportation made within the boundaries of "Barris-style" creative design, including pedal-power. On the other hand, the term "Custom" with a "C", is less focused, and could refer to just about anything in or out of the automotive field: from siding installed on your home to having a trailer hitch mounted on the back of your car. Today, a search on the Internet for "custom bicycle" tends to take you to sites about hand-made road bikes. An Internet search for "kustom bicycle" will take you to sites featuring bikes that can trace their stylistic history back to the experimentation and cool design work done by builders in 1950s California. Although, it must be said that back in the early days, a "customized" bicycle was generally understood to be what we would now call a "kustomized" bicycle. The word"kustom" today best describes bicycles that are made within the "Barris" notion of automotive creativity and the historic ideal of California "cool". |
J O H N B R A I N ' S H I S T O R Y O F |
ILLUSTRATION © 2008, JOHN BRAIN |
V O L U M E O N E : The first five years 1958-'62 |
Above: The first kustom bicycles were simple affairs; old 24 and 26-inch balloon-tire bicycles were stripped of extra parts, given a paint job and maybe some decals, and were then outfitted with 6 to 8-inch riser handlebars and long goosenecks. Handlebar height was the key visual element to these bikes, the higher the better. |
Introduction 2008 is the 50th anniversary year of the kustom bicycle movement, by our reckoning. In order to celebrate this important milestone, we here at BikeRod&Kustom felt it was necessary to fill in the lost pages of our movement's early history. And so, for the first time anywhere, BR&K is pleased to present you with the detailed story of how kustom bicycling first began. This series of articles will cover the first 20 years of its history. For our first installment we will be covering the years 1958 to 1962, a time when kustom bicycle style was in its infancy. These were the days before factory-produced bikes like the Huffy "Penguin" and Schwinn "Stingray" came onto the scene. Young people had a cool vision of being able to ride their bicycles with kustom style, and they made it happen by taking it to the streets. Kustom bicycling first started out as a small regional phenomenon in the United States, but interest in the style spread throughout the country in its first twenty years, and would eventually touch the look of bicycles in Europe and most world continents- even as far away as Australia. The movement itself was more or less informal during the early years, and as such, documentary information on how it evolved tends to be very hard to come by. My search for material on the origins of kustom cycling turned out to be no easy task, and was at times highly frustrating. My interest in the kustom bicycle story actually goes back at least thirty years. I had always wanted to know how the movement began but was never able to find the answers, I only had a vague notion, and hard facts on the subject always seemed to be elusive. Back in the mid-1970's, when I first started showing kustom bicycles at motorcycle shows, I tried asking some of the older motorcycle exhibiters what they knew about the subject. Unfortunately, they appeared to know even less than I did. My investigative research basically went nowhere, and other avenues for finding information were just not available to me. Unlike today, people in the 1970's did not have home computers or the Internet, and document sources like "eBay" were decades away. Easy access to obscure newspaper archives was also just a dream. What little information I did find in the 1970s was put away into storage, until now. Years later, in 2006, my interest in kustom bicycle "origins" was rekindled by what I saw on the Internet, or should I say what I didn't see. The "Net" had much rumor and speculation on the matter, but the hard facts were still not available. Many believed that the Schwinn "Stingray" introduced in mid 1963 was the catalyst that started things off. A few thought that a certain bicycle (the "Munster Chain Bike") made in early 1965 at the shop of George Barris was the first true "kustomized" bike. Neither of these beliefs was true, or was even close to being right, as I found out. The Schwinn "Stingray" was not even the first commercially made bicycle to sport a set of high-rise handlebars and a banana (or Solo Polo) seat. It was out of frustration that I took up the quest again. I wanted to finally set the record straight on the origins of kustom cycling. So, about a year and a half ago I resumed the hunt for information; to find out once and for all "when" and "where" the movement first began, and to document its early evolution. Although initially frustrated in my attempts to gather information my efforts were eventually rewarded, if ever so slowly. And, what I discovered was very interesting indeed. John Brain A question of wording, Kustom vs. Custom We begin by going west, back to late 1950s California. Hot Rodding and automotive customizing was a big part of life for many Californians in the 50s. "George Barris" probably the most famous name in the history of customized cars coined the term "Kustom" to help clearly identify a look and attitude that he and many others were developing at the time. Kustom with a "K" clearly denoted a new attitude towards vehicle modification and hot rod styling sense. It was about wild, flashy, innovative and creative thinking. Clearly associated with a new breed of car modifiers who wanted to find out just how far hot rod design and vehicle modification could go. "Kustom" was about pushing limits and boundaries, and denoted an alternative outlook concerned with experimentation, and the search for the ultimate in cool. "Kustom" is a term that can describe any form of transportation made within the boundaries of "Barris-style" creative design, including pedal-power. On the other hand, the term "Custom" with a "C", is less focused, and could refer to just about anything in or out of the automotive field: from siding installed on your home to having a trailer hitch mounted on the back of your car. Today, a search on the Internet for "custom bicycle" tends to take you to sites about hand-made road bikes. An Internet search for "kustom bicycle" will take you to sites featuring bikes that can trace their stylistic history back to the experimentation and cool design work done by builders in 1950s California. Although, it must be said that back in the early days, a "customized" bicycle was generally understood to be what we would now call a "kustomized" bicycle. The word"kustom" today best describes bicycles that are made within the "Barris" notion of automotive creativity and the historic ideal of California "cool". |
In 1958 there was a new look on the scene in Southern California.. Boys of junior high school age were starting to modify their bicycles in order to get their handle-grips into a higher position. For some, the modification helped in the delivering of newspapers. A newsboy could mount a bigger stack of papers on the top-tube of his bike frame when his handlebars were elevated. For other kids, the raising of their handlebars was a cool modification; similar to a trend seen on some kustom motorcycles of that era; especially the kind ridden by members of California's outlaw motorcycle clubs. Motorcycle gangs were gaining a lot of notoriety in California at the time, and the trend to mounting tall handlebars (known in some circles as "ape hangers") was gaining favor with a number of the bike club members. For many riders having these tall handlebars on their motorcycles was definitely part of the "outlaw" image. Many kids saw this tall outlaw handlebar look as cool and desirable too, and they started looking for ways to transfer the style over to their pedal bikes. It was in this way that the first California "kustom" bicycles came into existence. Invariably, the kind of bicycles being modified in 1958 were big American balloon-tire bikes produced in the 1940's and 50's. This was the time of the baby boom after the Second World War; an age when American bicycle companies did a great business catering to the transportation needs of a large (and growing) population of young people. The large mass of bikes produced after the war became the raw material for California's first young bicycle kustomizers in the late 1950's. Raising the height of bicycle handlebars was accomplished in one of two ways in 1958. Kids could either go to a bike shop and purchase a set of new "riser" type handlebars to install - which were 6 to 8 inches high (the tallest then available), or, they could raise the height of their stock bars by mounting a long gooseneck handlebar stem, which would effectively raise the height of their handlebars 6 to 10 inches higher than normal (depending on stem length chosen). Of course, there were some kids who would mount both the "riser" handlebars and the tall gooseneck stems to their bikes, creating an even more elevated hand-grip position. The trend quickly spread, and soon there was competition to see whose bike had the tallest handlebars in the neighborhood. These old stripped-down, spray-can-painted bikes with the high handlebars formed the beginning of a new movement; kustom cycling had its birth in 1958. (Note):1958 is the earliest year that I could conclusively pinpoint a trend to bicycle kustomization, partly from a few ads I discovered which refer to the components used for the raising of handlebars, but mostly from a reference I found in a critical newspaper article from February 1960, which dates the start of the high-handlebar fad to mid-1958, quote: " Bicycle dealers said it began in earnest almost 18 months ago, or soon after the motorcyclists adopted the pattern of raising and using deluxe handlebars". |
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Above, Below: Here are two classified ads for bicycles outfitted with "riser" parts. Riser handlebars and long goosenecks were especially popular with paperboys. From Long Beach and Van Nuys California newspapers. 1958. |
Below: Ad from a Modesto California newspaper for long gooseneck handlebar stems. These stems were an extremely popular accessory. A vital component used to get handlebars as high as possible. |
Below: Riser handlebars and long gooseneck stems were often advertised together. Pasadena, California |
Below: Van Nuys newspaper ad featuring "handlebar risers", this probably refers to the sale of long goose neck stems. The term "riser" was often used to describe both handlebars and long stems. |
Below: An example of late-1950's "riser" bicycle handlebars. These bars were the tallest available in 1958, and were the precursors to the taller "apehanger" type bars which would be made available for bicycles the following year. |
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Left and Below: Marlon Brando was the "Wild One", riding free and rebellious on his machine. He was the perfect screen idol for the restless youth of the 1950s. And it's no wonder that young teens felt an affinity to this image and attitude. Seeing Brando in the persona of "Johnny" the (take no bullshit) leader of the "Black Rebels" motorcycle club, made youngsters dream of the day they too could take charge of their lives, and say to hell with the rest of the world. they would kustomize their bicycles with high handlebars just like the outlaw motorcyclists did, and in doing so declared that they had aspirations for freedom and fun as well. |
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V O L U M E O N E |
V O L U M E T W O |
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