"Glider" Balance Bike

Ever wanted to make a tiny bike? Of course you have! Make that tiny person in your life ecstatic with joy by surprising them with a new tiny bike! Get your hands on the following materials and let's get started.

Shopping List:
1. Plywood (3/4". About 1/4 of a 4x8" sheet)

2. 1" Dowel (Length & Diameter) - This dowel is for the handlebar.

3. Foam & Fabric - Cushion and upholstery for the bike seat.

3. Wheels - We got ours from Orchard Supply for 13.99 each.

4. Axles - You'll need two of these. Guess why!

Step 1: CNC Milling

Enough talking, let's start making! Download the above zipped file and get over to the nearest CNC Machine.

Step 2: Assemble Frame & Fork

Now that we've got all our parts milled, it's time to start sticking them together. First step is to laminate together the main frame and front fork into two different coherent pieces. Take a look at the exploded axon for guidance and the picture of Chris and Bernie having so much fun for motivation.

Put a good amount of wood glue between each set of Plywood and then clamp it up for an hour or two. Easy!

Just incase you wanted to also worksome metal during this process, you can fancy up the collars for your axles by creating an insert that looks like the bit in the picture up there with a lathe. Our wheels had a 1/2 interior diameter but needed a little bit of help to stop the axles from rattling around, so Chris whipped these little beauties into shape. They even have lock screws! Amazing!

Step 3: Upholstery & Final Assembly

The two most important parts of any ride are comfort and style. And
what better way to satisfy that requirement than with some shiny upholstery?

1. Cut out a piece of foam to cushion the bumps outta your ride. Glue your new luxury seat to the top of your plywood seat.

2. Cut out a matching piece of your fabric of choice to match the profile of your seat. In our photos you can see Noa using a heavy duty stapler to hold the fabric in place.

3. Take some more of that fabric and cut nested rectangular forms for the grips.

4. Sew up the fabric and then roll and insert the felt pieces on the inside.

5. Slide those bad boys onto your grips and Bam!

If you've been following the instructions with any sort of fidelity, you should have a collection of parts that might one day resemble a tiny bicycle. Let's now take them and turn them into an actual tiny bicycle for an actual tiny person.

1. Attach the seat to the main frame. We're using screws. They worked!

2. Hinge attachment?!

3. I think that's it?! Give the bike to the tiny person! Do it now!

Step 4: Give the Tiny Bike to the Tiny Person

This step may happen spontaneously, as molecular interaction between tiny people and tiny bikes is vigorous.

Nice work! You did it!