Restoring Old Bikes

The first time Tom and I rode bikes together

was in San Francisco last summer.

We rented bikes are peddled our

way over to the Golden Gate Bridge.

It is one of my absolute favorite memories.

My personal bike is an old, 

dusty bike from the early 2000's that's been

sitting in our barn for the past 12 or so years.

It's not a bad looking bike but it's definitely not

what I'd want to ride around on these days.

Well the other day I was thinking that it

would be fun to get some of our old bikes

out and see if we can spruce them up a bit.

I really wanted some bikes for when Tom is in town.

So I went out and investigated our bike sitch.

We have 5 working bikes, but they all looked terrible.

That's due to the fact that they haven't been touched in a decade.

Spider webs, dirt, dirt and more dirt was all I was seeing.

So I found mine, and I found a bigger bike that we

got from a friend a while back and I took them

over to the water hose and gave them a well deserved bath.

Mine is on the left, Toms in on the right

After getting the two bikes clean I went to walmart and bought

glossy spray paint in white and black.

I bought white and black but you can buy any color,

I would just get glossy so the bike is shiny.

Once I got home I got to work.

Work = Covering the areas of the bike that

you don't want to get paint on with tape and grocery bags...

I also put a paint tarp up on the wall and underneath the bikes

so that I kept the paint contained.

This is the bike I painted for Tom.

I asked Tom what he wanted his bike to look like

and he said black with two white stripes on the lower bar.

So I painted the whole thing black and then let it dry.

I then went back and painted two white stripes on the bike.

It really turned out SO good!!

Simple but cool!

And it just totally transformed the bike!!

Now onto my bike.

I wanted my bike to be white with black spots.

Kind of like a Dalmatian.

I just had this vision in my head and I knew it would look cool.

So I too my bike and spray painted it white.

Then I took some black paint that I already had

and took a fine tipped paint brush and started putting

spots all over the bike.

That part was so fun.

I wasn't making them all look the same, 

I thought they looked better some being big and some small.

I finished the spots and well, I was already in love.

But I didn't stop there.

I have always wanted a cute wicker basket on my bike.

So me and my mom went to our goodwill in town and found

a perfect little wicker basket that was only $3.00.

We didn't want the basket to have handles so

we cut the handles off and were left with the perfect little bike basket!!

We attached the basket with zip ties and then covered them with ribbon.

Once the basket was on it just really completed the whole look!!

I am in love with both of these bikes!!

They were so easy to spruce up.

I did get really sweaty and gross and covered in paint

but it was so worth it.

Why buy a new bike when you have perfectly good ones already.

All they need is a coat of paint and a little creativity and Voila, new bikes!!

It was only $3.99 to fix up Toms bike.

(All we bought was spray paint)

It was $7.00 to fix up my bike.

(Spray paint - $3.99, Basket - $3.00)

So In all I spent $11.00 restoring two bikes.

Had I gone out and bought them I would have spent a fortune.

So I hope this project motivates you to go get that old bike

that's been sitting in the garage for yeeaarrss and spruce it up a bit.

It's easy and affordable, the best combo ;)

Hope you guys enjoyed this project post!!

Have a good day everyone!!

Emily