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COMMUNITY Lowriding for a higher cause Former gang member helps kids build bikes to be featured at car show Comment By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Follow @@VickieAldous MailTribune.com By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Follow @@VickieAldous Posted Feb. 12, 2016 at 2:40 PM Updated Feb 12, 2016 at 2:41 PM By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Follow @@VickieAldous Posted Feb. 12, 2016 at 2:40 PM Updated Feb 12, 2016 at 2:41 PM » Social News Seventh-grader Emanuel Valle attached a side mirror to the handlebar of a gleaming lowrider bicycle, but the mirror still wiggled loosely. "We've got it, but it's moving up and down," Valle said. "You've got to tighten it up, buddy," said Rico Gutierrez, showing Valle how to tighten the mirror in place with a wrench. A former gang member who now mentors people ranging from elementary school kids to jail inmates, Gutierrez was surrounded by middle school students learning to build a lowrider bike at Kids Unlimited Academy on Riverside Drive in Medford earlier this week. Gutierrez also travels to several local elementary schools to teach boys and girls during the four-week bike-building programs he leads along with other adult members of the local Familia Unida lowrider car and bike club. With gleaming gold-tone frames, pedals and spokes, plus whitewall tires and add-ons such as mirrors, decorative mufflers and spare tires, the custom-built bikes will be among the highlights of the Medford Rod & Custom Show. The annual car show is from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at The Expo, 1 Peninger Road, Central Point. Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for senior citizens, military members and kids 12 and older. Children younger than 12 get in free. "People will be blown away by the bikes the kids are building," Gutierrez said. "People will say, 'Wow!' " He said kids not only learn how to use tools and assemble bikes, they learn how to communicate and finish what they start. "The kids have to work together and communicate," Gutierrez said. "They're seeing a bike being assembled from the frame up." Before he got involved with the bike program, Valle, who attends McLoughlin Middle School in Medford, said he knew how to change his bicycle tires. But seeing dozens of parts laid out on a table before assembling the lowrider bike at Kids Unlimited was a bit intimidating. "I thought, 'How is this going to make a bike?' " Valle said. But working on the bike pushed his skills to the next level. "I've learned how to work as a team more and put on different parts," Valle said. He added that the men showing the kids how to build the bikes are nice and helpful. As he works with the students, Gutierrez tries to steer them away from gangs — several of which operate in Medford, contributing to the city's count of assaults, stabbings, drive-by shootings and other crimes. "I got involved with gangs because I wanted to be part of the fast life," said Gutierrez, who says he worked as a money collector and enforcer for a gang. "They want to have nice cars and bikes. We teach them you can have those things by learning a trade and building it yourself. You don't have to sell drugs and live the fast life." Will Young, middle school director for Kids Unlimited, said kids who are going through rough experiences can relate to Gutierrez, even if their problems have nothing to do with gangs. "You see them working together, and Rico is having conversations with the kids," Young said. "From the first day, it was more than about the bike. It was about Rico sharing his story. I've known the things Rico's gone through. When he said he wanted to do a bike program, I said, 'Let's go.' If you work with young people, it's important for them to understand what you've overcome." Gutierrez helps teach kids the importance of education and community involvement, Young said. Jason Friedrich, another adult member of the Familia Unida lowrider club who is a mentor in the bike program, said he saw an ad for a lowrider bike in a magazine when he was 13 years old. His desire to have his own bike prompted him to get a job at a flea market. "It's a hobby. It kept me off the streets. I was heading into gangs," he said. Friedrich has gone on to build elaborate lowrider bicycles and has starred in a Pepsi commercial. He said lowrider bikes can have various themes, from sports to cartoon characters. The most meaningful one he built was to honor his cousin, who died in Iraq in 2003. "It keeps the memory of him alive," Friedrich said. "It keeps patriotism in the kids alive." He said lowrider bikes and cars have a decades-long history in America, with old Schwinn bicycles often used as the foundations for custom bikes in the 1960s and 1970s. As for lowrider cars, drivers get the most style points for driving "low and slow," according to Raymond Blanco, another adult member of Familia Unida who helps the kids. Lowrider drivers originally loaded their cars down with sandbags to achieve the low-slung look, then later started cutting springs, he said. Because lowrider cars had trouble navigating speed bumps and driveways, owners began adding air bags and hydraulics to temporarily raise their vehicles. Some cities also had laws requiring headlights to be of a certain minimum height, so drivers would flip a switch when they saw the police and raise their cars, Blanco said. The hydraulics and air bags are what allow lowrider cars to rock side to side and up and down. Friedrich said people shouldn't assume that someone riding a lowrider bike or driving a lowrider car is a gang member. The bike or car could be the very thing keeping the person out of the reach of gangs. "Don't judge a book by the cover," he said. Staff reporter Vickie Aldous can be reached at 541-776-4486 or [email protected] . Follow her at www.twitter.com/VickieAldous . By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Follow @@VickieAldous MailTribune.com By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Follow @@VickieAldous Posted Feb. 12, 2016 at 2:40 PM Updated Feb 12, 2016 at 2:41 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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