If a bicycle could represent the eclectic, vibrant feel of modern music, it might look a lot like Rahsaan Bahati’s custom Giant Propel Advanced SL featuring a matching CADEX 50 Ultra Disc WheelSystem along with a custom-painted CADEX Aero Integrated handlebar and lightweight Amp saddle.
Envisioned and realized by artist Michael Patrick Hurley, Bahati’s dream machine features a red-to-gold gradient basecoat covered with black crackle lacquer, finished off with white particle iridescent pearl. Logos and graphics were made using black holographic opal vinyl.
The finished piece radiates like a horn section and electrifies like a blistering guitar solo, a living canvas that blends elements of hip-hop and heavy metal into an expression all its own.
Bahati’s father was a musician, kickstarting his son’s musical journey with saxophone lessons when Rahsaan was 5 years old. Raised in Compton, California, Bahati was taught how to hold a drum stick by legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins and went on to be a drum major in his school marching band. He attended Indiana University, where he studied computer animation, joined a funk band, and won national collegiate cycling titles. He would go on to compete for a decade as a professional cyclist.
“I’ve played in every kind of band I could,” Bahati said. “Music and cycling have been the two consistent things in my life.”
Hurley, a graphic design major at Rhode Island School of Design, started cycling as an activity that he and his wife could do together. Before long he was restoring classic bikes, which included repainting frames. His wife took to racing and began competing at a high level on the famed velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. Hurley repainted her bikes as well, and his craft was born.
Years later, a move to Los Angeles opened Hurley’s eyes to a more diverse cycling community than what he’d experienced in East Coast cities like Providence and Philadelphia. It was during Los Angeles group rides that he and Bahati crossed paths, which ultimately led to their collaboration.
“Every bike has a vibe, a voice” Hurley says. “If I’m working on a Rahsaan bike, I would listen to music that helps me get into that mode.”
Bahati has diverse musical tastes, but he consistently gravitates towards funk, 90s R&B and pioneering hip-hop artists from the same period, such as Nas and Wu-Tang Clan. For this project, Hurley also drew inspiration from 80s hair-metal guitars finished with crackle lacquer, something he hadn’t seen attempted on a bicycle frame. The result speaks for itself, and not in hushed tones. It demands your attention.
“Mike Hurley, he’s not a painter, he’s an artist,” Bahati said. “This is not a bike—this is a work of art that’s on a Giant Propel.”
