There's nothing that says fun quite like a bike with a banana seat. Whether you spent your childhood on a Schwinn Stingray or just learned about them by watching Stranger Things, just looking at one evokes the freedom of exploring on two wheels.
To celebrate these iconic bikes, we recently built a one-off custom based on Slice Lite, which itself evolved from some of the same origins. For our founder Kyle, the bike of his youth in northern England was the Raleigh Chopper; the UK's muscle-car inspired answer to the American Schwinn Stingray. When designing Slice Lite, our designers tapped into the energy of those bikes to create a unique look while crafting a new everyday utility at the same time.
For this project we took the same track to customization as custom chopper and lowrider builders in SoCal, stripping down a Slice Lite and recreating it as a fully custom cruiser, while of course keeping all the ebike features!
First up was a fresh finish, namely a sparkling green powder coat. Then we got out the elbow grease and stripped the black anodized motor and crankset parts. The expert mechanics in our workshop rebuilt the wheels on chrome-finish rims, complimented by a high-polish front hub and headset from White Industries. We hit up F&R Cycles for their custom twisted handlebars, seat bar, kickstand, whitewall tires and of course the white velour saddle+grips! Rounding out the build is a stem from local friends SimWorks, some polished SRAM brakes and SE Racing pedals, all topped off by green valve dice and a vintage-style horn.
We set up the display and controls down by the stem to keep the bars clean, slapped on some chrome decals and rolled it out at The ONE Moto show here in Portland where it was a huge hit. Cid in our workshop even made a tribute poster, perfectly complementing the custom show vibe.
We'll be rolling the LowSlicer around to events and shows all year long, so be sure to come out and check it for yourself. If you ask real nice (and have clean hands) we may even let you take it for a spin!
