Teach an old bicycle new tricks

I was seeking an entry level 12" bicycle for my son to pick up cycling some time back, naturally there we tons of options out there from affordable to expensive models but they all had something in common. They pretty much all came with a little too much bells & whistles and nasty colours along with awful graphics.

While there are a few classic brands still offering nice looking kid bicycles the cost of those bicycles (which they will grow out of in not time) usually doesn't justify the build quality. Which meant you pay more for the form then it's function, so I held back the purchase at that time.

Until I got hold of an old Releigh bike that was handed down to us.

A good old weathered Releigh.

It was a descent bike with all the basics. Though a bit weathered with the usual ghastly colours and graphics it still functioned well, and it came with one of these old school coaster brakes which meant no cables and brake systems to repair.

So with that in hand I decided to make a cool bike for my boy. Here we had a pretty solid bike, all it needed was some attention and restoration. I have always liked the look of vintage bike so this was pretty much my end goal with this thing.

I started with the disassembling, sanding and primer. Since I did not have a workshop or a garage I did all this in our little courtyard out back during weekends being a full time working dad.

In pieces with it first coat of primer.

Having limited time I could not do an extremely thorough job so I just worked on the main areas.
While I would have liked to reuse all the original parts there were certain parts that needed replacing so I  had to source new parts like tires and the training wheels as the rubber was too far gone or warped.

Cherry Red and Ivory White

Here's the frame with its first coat of 'Cherry Red' with the crank.

Host of parts that got the attention they needed.

There were also the other bits that got their new coats of paint, and since this bike had no traditional braking system with break pads I could paint the rims as well with a nice 'Ivory White'

Bike project complete.

So after a combination of 5-6 weekends and lots of manual labor there you have it, a fully restored 12' kids bicycle that simple and classic. As mentioned while I required new parts such as tires, training wheels and grips those parts were found at old mom and pop shops for cheap. I even upholstered the seat with matching Ivory Pleather which were scraps from a local upholstery shop.

The tough one on this project was painting the stripes on but the patience and hard work paid off.

Understandably the boys will grow out of this in a heartbeat but at least their first bike was (hopefully) a cool one that they can have nice memories of.

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