Bike Swap

Having a boy and a girl is great and I wouldn't want it any other way, but there is one teensy downside - hand me downs just don't work. Not for clothes, not for shoes, not for toys, and not for bikes. When we gave our son a new bike for his birthday, we told our daughter she could have his old one. At first she was excited at the prospect of a "big kid" bike. But then she proclaimed, "but there is nothing girl about it!"

She's right. Its blue, grey and black. In her mind, all boy colors. Here's his bike on the day he got it, his 4th birthday. He turns 8 in a week, so he got a good 4 years out of it!

 Of course his sister had to give it a try. She looks so tiny! Its hard to believe that she can ride it now - without training wheels no less. 

To make it more her style I knew I'd have to paint it and replace the blue accessories (handle bar grips etc.) with colors she likes. Before painting the bike, I removed the tires, the tire splash guard things, chain/gear cover, and all of the existing decals. I also cleaned the bike really thoroughly. I taped and covered everything I didn't want painted like the pedals and gears. I decided to keep the grey and black, and paint only the blue. I used frog tape and plastic grocery bags to cover the areas I didn't want painted. Of course I neglected to take a picture of this. Eventually I'll get the hang of this blogging thing!

While the paint was drying (I used left over white appliance spray paint from this project) I used my Silhouette Cameo to make decals to dress up the bike. We call our daughter little B so I cut out a bunch of yellow bees, as well as purple and yellow flowers, and polka-dots (per her suggestion). I also cut out some strips with a scalloped edge to trim the transition sections between the new and old paint (although, the frog tape made VERY crisp lines). 

I kept the tire splash guards black and covered them with bees and flowers. The handle bar grips are new from Amazon. They were a little long so I cut a section out of the middle before sliding them on.  They are very snug so I'm not worried about them sliding apart.  The bike seat cover is also from Amazon. 

I removed the old blue bar covers and used them as patterns to make new ones. I had some iron on fabric laminating sheets in my craft stash which I used to make the pink and rainbow fabric water proof. That is my very last scrap of rainbow fabric. I think I bought it for her second birthday party. The basket is from her old bike. 

I ordered the flower spoke clips on Amazon and let her clip them on. 

Its definitely a custom bike! I have a few more decals that I'm going to let her stick on this weekend. Hopefully we'll get another 4 years out of it!