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Bicycling

Memo to MTV: “Pimp My Bike” = Ratings Gold

4:02 PM EDT on September 29, 2008

Via TreeHugger, this YouTube clip features Oakland's Trunk Boiz boasting about their scraper bikes, which sport custom-painted frames and rims to match (more photos here). The video has become an online sensation, drawing more than two million views. Tyrone Stevenson, one of the creators of the scraper bike style, is ready to capitalize, reports NPR:

"Oakland has been taken over by scraper bikes," says Stevenson. "Onthe Internet, it is worldwide. There's people from literally across theworld making these bikes, from Portland, Oregon, to Japan to Australiato Jamaica."

Stevenson says he's already making a livingscraperizing bikes, but he's got big plans for the future: trademarks,patents and, someday soon, a scraper bike shop.

Stevenson's rhyme also includes the heavy favorite for Streetsblog's 2008 Lyric of the Year:

I'm movin' on my scraper bike I'm cruisin' on my scraper bike My scraper bike go hard I don't need no car

That's the sound of America's youth culture catching up to the Japanese.

Ben Fried
Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.

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