Progress Report on Emma’s Bike Restoration

Blog 3373 – 01.27.2025

Compare the above picture to this one taken on January 18th for a visual progress report on Emma’s bike restoration:

So far Emma’s Bike which thirty years ago belonged to her dad Jay, has a new front tire and tube and new rear wheel, tube, and tire. At this point I could have probably gotten a new bike for Emma for what the parts alone have cost not to mention the several hours I have invested already I this project. But then what would be the fun in that.

This is as I said in my first blog about restoring this bike for Emma, a labor of love as it was for Jay’s Grandpa Wallace Mendel Stokes when he first put this bike together for Jay from spare used bicycle parts and painted it blue for a boy. It was originally pink and will be again as soon as a special ordered spray can of Rust oleum Candy Pink gloss paint arrives.

I have also ordered some additional new parts for Emma’s bike:

A darker pink saddle, handle grips with streamers of course, a basket with pink accents and flowers that light up when the bike moves, and training wheels that light up when they turn.

I intend for this bike to be something that she enjoys riding as much as she now enjoys walking and swinging. I know my beloved granddaughter Emma Grace already hears the voice of liberty and adventure calling to her: “Come dance with me, come walk with me, come ride with me, come fly with me. Come.”

Someone has said: “When children first learn to walk that they are headed for the door and out into the world and away from home” or words to that effect. As parents and grandparents, family, and friends it is our job not to hinder them in their adventure, their journey, but to help prepare them and to help equip them for the adventure of a lifetime.

When I first learned to ride a bike at five on my cousin Brenda’s girl’s bike, it was easier and safer to ride because it did not have that “nut buster bar” (I apologize if that sound crude to any of you, but if you have known the pain of slipping off a bike seat and landing crotch first on said bar you will overlook my perhaps a bit to graphic language.)

Emma will not have to concern herself with that nor have to wait till she can balance the bike herself to ride it. I suspect even when I get the bike completely restored for her it will sit in Jay and Lauren’s garage for a few years before Emma is ready to ride it. But hey, Grandpa White, is already enjoying the vision of Emma Grace “flying through the breeze with the greatest of easy.”