Hesston students set new trend with modified bikes
by Meredith Spicher – Features Editor
You may or may not have noticed the recent fascination with bikes here at Hesston College. I mean, how can you miss it? Between almost getting ran over on your way to class, and being amused by the crazy things that the guys do to the bikes, they’re kind of hard to miss. Several guys here on campus are absolutely fascinated by buying cheap bikes and fixing them up. So what started this craze? Who even started it in the first place?
Most of the guys say it was Lane Schrock.
Schrock, a freshman from Iowa, found a small bike at the Etcetera shop in Newton for just $12. It was in relatively good condition, and he needed a way to get to class quickly, so he bought it. After awhile, he decided that it needed a little something else; so he then started to do some touch-up work on it. The guys really respect Schrock.
“Lane was a real OG [original gangster],” said, Trevor Natalini, a sophomore. “He was riding his mini bike before it was even cool. He knew what was up before we did. When he rode his bike, he made Snoop Dogg look bad. So, I think in reality, Lane’s bike idea manifested somewhere deep inside wither Cody [Miller] or Nick [McCoy], and they decided to get one, so I did too.”
That’s how the craze got started. Soon, many others, such as freshman, Uriah Sauder, joined. But just having a bike wasn’t enough. Things can always be improved. And that’s exactly what the guys did. They started painting them, chroming them out, putting bigger pegs on them.
“When I first got my bike, I wanted to pimp it out,” explained Natalini. “Since MTV’s ‘Pimp My Ride” was no longer running, I had to get creative; so I asked the bike shop for some monkey bars, and they put them on.”
He then went on to brag about the new chrome on his bike, saying it’s “chrome to da dome!”
Freshman Nicholas McCoy said the project has been about creating the most over-the-top bikes they could, within a small budget.
“We just wanted to make [the bikes] the most ridiculous and funniest thing ever,” he said. “I wanted to do something that nobody has done and have fun and not spend too much money.”
Another addition to their collection: a Power Wheels Jeep they use to pull people around with their bikes. Sauder said they can fit four people in it at once, even though it has a pretty low weight limit.
The bikes seem to leave a lasting impression on those who encounter them.
“A couple weeks ago, I had just got back from the airport in Newton and I left my coat in my trunk; so I got my bike from my room and rode it out there,” Natalini said. “Outside by the KC parking lot, there was this older lady who was meeting with Dogg [Resident Director Brent Brockmuller]. She saw my bike and started laughing, and asked me if it was mine. Then we had a small conversation about it. It seemed like it made her morning, to see a 21-year-old ride a bike made for 8-year-olds.”
