Local Buzz
Who, What, Where, Now!
Rides Redone
Bullhorns attached to the front of a 1930s frame are one of the many eccentric details Kremer has added to his rat rods.
With a stout, rusted frame and a pair of bullhorns fastened to the handlebars, one of Bruce Kremer’s “rat rod” bikes begs to be ridden. It sits in a yard hidden just off Main Street with about forty other vintage bikes, each rebuilt by Kremer and each with a personality of its own.
Kremer doesn’t care to advertise much: A single green cruiser sits behind a fence between The Wicked Spud and the Bank of America in Hailey with a sign suggesting more bikes around back, which leads to his shop. Although he sells most of the bikes he restores, he has yet to name this casual shop, which opened July 4, 2010.
Kremer began rebuilding vintage bikes just one year ago. He tracked down a Schwinn Stingray, the bike of his childhood, and restored it with a little added flare. After finishing the Stingray, Kremer was hooked and continued searching for old bikes to rework. He has been an artist for years and said he sees his bikes as “rolling sculptures.”
Many of the bikes in the yard are what Kremer calls rat rods. He described rat rod cars as a more earthbound form of the well-known hot rod craze. The idea behind the rat rod started after World War II, Kremer said, when men were coming home and fixing the motors of their old cars to drive around. Unlike a hot rod, the cars were not intended to be showpieces, but just functioning cars. He sees his rat rod bikes as an extension of that ethos.
Kremer buys his bike frames and parts from various places in Idaho.
“Nothing from the Internet. They’re all from mostly south central Idaho, from Blackfoot to Boise. Part of the attraction to this hobby is the personal interaction, and that includes finding the bikes. I think I almost enjoy that the most,” he said.
With bike frames ranging from the 1930s to the 1980s, Kremer’s shop has a variety of cruisers and road bikes. Most take weeks to rebuild because the parts are often completely immobile and stiff with rust when he finds them. Although he is adamant about finding frames with the original paint jobs, he is focused not on building period-pieces, but aesthetically pleasing and functioning bicycles.
Once Kremer finds a new frame, he will either try to reconstruct the bike true to what it once looked like, or he will make a rat rod out of it.
With Kremer, the rat rod mentality guarantees a rusted-over frame will remain as is, and that if the old skip-tooth spokes are not broken or the original tires are not cracked, those will remain on the bike as well.
“You either understand vintage bikes and really see them as a little bit of a time capsule, or you see this all as a yard sale,” Kremer said.
People often comment on his bikes while riding by or strolling past. He said the reaction to his pieces is usually a nostalgic smile or a grin at the eccentric accents he adds. Occasionally people will come in and try to size up a bike to see if it will be the perfect fit, but a perfect fit is not the point.
“It’s more about how it makes you feel when you ride it than the efficiency of getting down the road,” Kremer said.
Kremer has no set plans for his business. He seems content spending the afternoon trying to make the gears shift properly on the blue Schwinn Corvette he just began working on and trying to decide which bike frame deserves a pair of striking-cobra-shaped handlebars.
Kremer has some daydreams about starting a community bike shop or a co-op sometime in the future, but does not have any force behind that plan yet. For now, Kremer can be found in his workshop, his hands covered in grease, building his rolling sculptures or taking his rebuilds for the occasional ride.
Photography by Hailey Tucker
Email
Print
Feed
Sun Valley Magazine encourages its readers to post thoughtful and respectful comments on all of our online stories. You comments may be edited for length and language.
Reader Comments:
cool