Tricked Out Tricycle

Well, I may be slow, but I eventually follow through. As promised, here is the saga of the "Tricked Out Tricycle..."

I found this lovely little Craigslist special a few weeks ago. For $25, I thought it was a good deal. It was the perfect size trike for my little girl and even came with a sun canopy! There was a lot of sun fading and some pretty ugly peeling Disney princess stickers, but I figured that I could update it with a paint job to make it like new...

Little did I realize all the steps that go into properly painting a bike! Taking it apart, taping the non-paintable parts, sanding, priming, painting...ugh. There had to be an easier way.

That's when I started surfing the interwebs for some ideas, and then it came to me! DUCT TAPE.

I bought some butterfly duct tape on Ebay, took the trike apart, thoroughly washed everything, and wrapped the frame in the butterfly tape. This is the result:

Nifty, hey? I mean... LOOK AT IT. Except for the tires it looks new!

The canopy had some very faded "Disney Princess" decals. Butterfly duct tape is definitely better! (I can't stand Disney princesses...)

The old white handlebar grips were severely chewed-upon and gross. Oddly enough, the purple foot rests were in respectable condition. I pried both the gross handlebar grips and the foot rests off the bike. I threw away the handlebar grips and replaced them with the newly cleaned foot rests instead. I purchased some new handlebar ribbons and a new bicycle basket on ebay (I love ebay). Some super glue now holds the handlebar ribbons in place. I covered the foot rests with generous layers of butterfly duct tape.

A cute butterfly bell and some reflective stickers on the wheels top it all off. So there you have it - an original, one-of-a-kind tricycle that's new to us for under $40 total!