Your source files from bower would typically be compiled to the public folder through Elixir (or Gulp).
I don't see any reason to "bower install" on the production server and would gitignore the resources it installs.
Also your node_modules are ignored by default (L5).
// In gulp it goes something like this
gulp.src(paths.bootstrap + '**/*.{ttf,woff,eof,svg}')
.pipe(gulp.dest('./public'));
// Elixir - not sure but I think the syntax is
mix
.copy(src, dest)
I'm sure @JeffreyWay will guide us on this once L5 becomes stable.