Recycling Cycling Part 2

With four boys in the family, there's usually one of them wanting or needing to upgrade their bike at least every 12 months.  Fortunately for us there's often the opportunity to hand the bike down to the next sibling   However as the boys get older and their interests move in different directions, so too do the types of bikes they want to ride.  Liam my second eldest held high hopes for a BMX, one with "pegs for grinding" at the skate park to be precise.  With what seems the highest concentration of bike shops per capita, the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne provides well for retail cycling therapy, but this time around we  tried a different angle and headed to the Bike Shed at CERES in East Brunswick to see what we could pick up to build a BMX.

The Bike Shed is a true DIY experience, so don't expect to be served in the retail sense. It runs as a co-operative and is staffed by some very knowledgeable volunteers.  They won't fix your bike, but they'll provide you with the right tools and the information on what to do.  

Step 1. Find what you are looking for 

Step 2. Talk to the person in charge about how much they want for it 

Step 3. Get to work. All the tools you'll need are onsite if required 

Half the fun of the exercise was scrounging around the old bikes looking for something that fit Liam's requirements.  Liam found an old school BMX in pieces with handle bars, rims and tyres.  He was stoked and we had a father-son project to get working on.  First up was a visit to YouTube to check out what tips were available for restoring a BMX.  Whilst a teenage boy's DIY video condensed 10 hours work into 6 minutes, I hope it conveyed the message that building a bike is no 5 minute exercise.  

Next up we went to the hardware store to purchase paint stripper, a wire paint stripping brush for a power drill, undercoat and spray paint.  Then it was home to remove the original paint and restore the frame back to bare metal.  The paint stripper and scraper did the job very well, but you rarely think about all of the tight spaces on a small bike frame.  

This is where the power drill attachment came into its own. Once at the bare metal stage, the bike was sanded with fine grain wet and dry sand paper to ensure a smooth surface for painting.  The undercoat followed next.  This gave us both the opportunity to get the paint brushes out and apply a rust proof protective layer.  Next up was more sanding to have a blemish free surface ready for the top coat.  A disposable spray can was used to apply the first top coat, followed by a light sand and then another.  

We built the bike back up with the parts we had from the Bike Shed and took our incomplete BMX to a local bike shop who were able to provide the rest of the pieces we needed to finish the project.  The same bike shop had a very nice BMX on sale for $199, so I said to Liam you know you don't have to do this bike up.  I wouldn't mind if you said you wanted a new bike.  He turned to me and said, "No Dad, I want to finish this one."  My pride in my son to choose old over new brought a massive smile to my face.  Being so involved in the project really meant something to him.  So we bought the parts, which almost cost as much as a new BMX and headed home to finish the build.  

In this day an age where it's easier and often cheaper to buy new than to recycle old, it gave me a real sense of satisfaction to work with Liam on a bike restoration project.  Liam now rides his old school BMX to school and around our suburb on a regular basis. The bike's distinctive look of not being something off the showroom floor is an instant conversation starter and reveals the true value of putting in the effort to create something original rather than mass produced.