The Heartbreaking Creation of a Ghost Bike @outsidemagazine

The bicycle was black before it was white.
It lay on the pavement behind Alan Nakagawa’s house in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood. An English-style cruiser, it had fenders, a swept-back handlebar, and a wide leather seat. Nakagawa and two friends, Isaiah and Julio, got busy, pulling off the tubes and tires, disassembling the brakes, sanding the frame. Nakagawa is an artist who primarily works with sound, but on this evening his medium was paint—two cans of white Krylon ColorMaster. He painted the chain guard and then the frame. He waved the can to coat the fork, the handlebar, the saddle, the fenders, and the chain. Finally, Nakagawa painted the rims and the spokes and the pedals.
It was after dark now, and the bike was done, leaning against a couple of sawhorses, gleaming and wet.

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