these are the two bikes i was given, typical cheap suspension bikes with horrible frames and forks but at least the red one had half decent brakes and shifters...
well my daughter wanted me to make her a "bouncy bike" and although the red one was the better bike it was too big for her so the blue one had to do.
i stripped the red one down and used its metal brakes on the wife's bike to replace her awful plastic ones and also swapped the "flappy paddle" shifters over to replace her awful twist shifters that she hated. the wheels are also a little better than hers (just goes to show how cheap the wife's bike was
) so will be swapped when I've re-done the bearings and tweaked the spokes.i also used its handle bars on my hybrid to replace the ones i shortened when i was using it as my main bike.
i managed to sort enough working parts to sort the blue bike out, fitted the brakes from my wife's bike, new cables,a seat and two tyres i had lying around from when i refurbished my daughters other bike, and i binned the front shifter as it was completely shot (she manages much better with just gears on the back and i can always change the front by hand).
well its all together, working and safe and she can chuck it about as much as she likes. the next thing will be to strip it down and repaint it in some girly colours and it could really do with new tyres i guess. should look quite smart then
not bad for a couple of freebies
Edited by THE ANORAK, 19 February 2009 - 06:38 PM.
