The Little Blue Bicycle Refurbishment Project…

The Score: Bike 1, Lucille 1 lump

I have a mountain bike and I really like it but Ibert the child safety seat does not. Ibert is a great idea, but for me and many others if you are small with a small bike Ibert is not going to work for you. So…I did want any obsessed parent would do I bought another bike with more clearance for Ibert and Ethan (Ethan is the son and Ibert is the seat).. and since I am a sensible obsessed parent I decided I was not going to spend more than $50. After a diligent search on Craigslist.com I turned up a so-called-antique bike for $65. It definitely looked old – but it had character. After a few emails to the seller I was told the antique bike was not for me since it appeared I was not looking to appreciate its antiqueness (I am afraid I questioned his knowledge that the bike was an antique afterall he admitted he was not a bike-guy), however he had just the bike for me for the amazing price of $30. So off we went to pretty-far-away-land of east Mesa where I found my future bike. I had Ibert with me of course so I tested it out. It seemed to work and perhaps would work best if the handlebars could be raised – to which I was assured they would. I hate impulse shopping and prefer to think about things first, but I sure didn’t want to drive all the way back here again after having “time to think about it” -- so I bought it. Once home we got “her” all cleaned up and even adjusted the handlebars with the help of a neighbor. Ibert looked really good on this bike and I could squeeze in between him and the bike seat, barely, but it was doable. Maybe I could raise the handlebars just a little bit more? So I loosened the main nut around the stem, then I loosened the bolt holding the stem in the bike, then I pulled. But nothing happened…it wouldn’t budge. So then I pulled really really hard and the handlebar came off, but first it hit me in the forehead with the force that I exerted to get it out. It really hurt and now I have a huge blue lump on my forehead. It was so big my son thought it was a “booby” – this is something he calls all bumps including my boobies which are a little bigger than bumps.

All in all I am not so sure Ibert and this bike are going to be good together because this too is a small bike (see what impulse shopping gets you). So what are my choices? Resale the bike for $30 plus pain and suffering or…refurbish the bike and sell it for more or keep it. So far one hour and one lump invested. I will keep you posted on the refurbishing progress. 

As it turns out ibert the child bicycle seat fits my husband's bike very well.  After some websearching I noticed that many women had the same problem with the seat fitting their bike, however it fits a man's or larger bike very well.