Picked up this tough little trike at Goodwill for $5.00
The tires are all flat
The headset is bone dry and it's got some rust
But my daughter Josie is really excited about building a custom "pink bike" so here we go.
My father in law is an old hot-rodder and retired pipe-fitter so he knows his way around the shop and stuff like torches, welders, and paint guns. He is co-builder on this project.
To kick things off we visited Bay Area Schwinn in Pasadena Texas. No idea what we were looking for, just wanted to see if they had any old parts and spend some time together hatching plans and getting ideas. We noticed a cool little tricycle from Giant that had a fake skateboard as the deck between the rear wheels.
On the way home we were talking about it and I mentioned we might try something similar with a real skateboard. Just a few blocks later I spotted a skateboard at a road-side flea-market. The lady wanted $8.00 I offered $5.00 and she let it go for $6.00.
Spent the afternoon today over at "Pee-Paw's" garage tearing down the trike and starting to mock things up. Cut the skateboard in half and used the rounded ends to trace the same curve on the straight sides. Little bit of jigsaw work and sanding and we've got two mini-skateboards.
Josie and Pee-Paw at work
She is documenting the build with her own camera
Josie likes bikes and skateboards so as you can imagine she is excited about the project. I like the idea of combining the two so she could grab the bars, put her foot on the deck, and kick with the other foot like a skateboard and then leap-frog up on the seat and start pedaling. Even before we had the skateboard idea she had perfected the leapfrog trick. It'll also be cool if one kid can pedal wile another is riding on the boards. Sort of a tandem skate-trike arrangement.
So that's where we're at. Lots of work ahead. Plans include notching the spine in two places to add some rake to the forks wile keeping the boards level and fabricating some kind of fender for the front wheel. We're thinking bubble-gum pink with blue pearl clear-coat for the paint. Probably paint the wheels silver.
If you've got ideas post-em.
edit 4/28: posted music video
The tires are all flat
The headset is bone dry and it's got some rust
But my daughter Josie is really excited about building a custom "pink bike" so here we go.
My father in law is an old hot-rodder and retired pipe-fitter so he knows his way around the shop and stuff like torches, welders, and paint guns. He is co-builder on this project.
To kick things off we visited Bay Area Schwinn in Pasadena Texas. No idea what we were looking for, just wanted to see if they had any old parts and spend some time together hatching plans and getting ideas. We noticed a cool little tricycle from Giant that had a fake skateboard as the deck between the rear wheels.
On the way home we were talking about it and I mentioned we might try something similar with a real skateboard. Just a few blocks later I spotted a skateboard at a road-side flea-market. The lady wanted $8.00 I offered $5.00 and she let it go for $6.00.
Spent the afternoon today over at "Pee-Paw's" garage tearing down the trike and starting to mock things up. Cut the skateboard in half and used the rounded ends to trace the same curve on the straight sides. Little bit of jigsaw work and sanding and we've got two mini-skateboards.
Josie and Pee-Paw at work
She is documenting the build with her own camera
Josie likes bikes and skateboards so as you can imagine she is excited about the project. I like the idea of combining the two so she could grab the bars, put her foot on the deck, and kick with the other foot like a skateboard and then leap-frog up on the seat and start pedaling. Even before we had the skateboard idea she had perfected the leapfrog trick. It'll also be cool if one kid can pedal wile another is riding on the boards. Sort of a tandem skate-trike arrangement.
So that's where we're at. Lots of work ahead. Plans include notching the spine in two places to add some rake to the forks wile keeping the boards level and fabricating some kind of fender for the front wheel. We're thinking bubble-gum pink with blue pearl clear-coat for the paint. Probably paint the wheels silver.
If you've got ideas post-em.
edit 4/28: posted music video