If you give a Mouse a Bike

This spring Mouse has grown and needs to move from an 18 inch bike to a 20 inch BMX bike. I (Steve) had kept a BMX bike frame from his youth in hopes of rebuilding the bike. The bike is an early 80s Diamondback.

The donated parts bike is an older Magna girls bike. Purple, pink and white. The white will work perfectly with the chrome Diamondback. The pink...well we can paint it.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon we began the BMX Build. The parts bike was taken apart and the parts cleaned. Cassi did a lot of the dirty, cleaning work. Break cleaner was used to remove years of dust and dirt from the white wheels.

Early 80s chrome Diamondback.

All of the bearings for the crank and forks had to be cleaned and greased.

The hope was to use the big sprocket with the cranks. It looked great but in the end the chain was to short to use it. We reverted back to the parts bike, it had a white sprocket. The white sprocket was much smaller but still looks great on the bike.

The frame and fork match together.

Painting of the handlebars and seat stay. Original parts were pink. Black was the color of choice. Mouse loves black, white and pink with silver coming in next. So she was excited to have a silver and black bike.

Wheels and cranks on the bike. It rolls!

Mouse with her bike. It's funny how this homemade bike caused such a stir. The neighbor boys all got new bikes this year too. Now they all want one like Mouse. She is quite proud of it. And we are quite proud of her. Proud that she will show off this handmade bike with pride. That she is always so proud of the things we make her. We hope she never looses that trait.

~Steve and Cassi - bike builders