The coordinator of our doll club has travelled often over the years to Bali. Because of that, she has become well versed in how to find the best things made by the locals. You can always find factory knock offs of anything, but there’s something so special about getting something that is made by hand.
The thing that we all get silly about at meetings is when she’s been on a trip and comes back with a hand made doll size bicycle to raffle off. That usually causes a rush to the tickets for the draw and makes for a good deposit to the club bank account that night. Here is a picture of Karen’s doll riding a bike she brought back a while ago. The doll was made for Karen last Christmas in our exchange.
Because I OBVIOUSLY didn’t win one of the two bikes she brought back this last trip, I decided I wouldn’t rest until I could find one myself. While walking around in town recently we looked in the window at Victoria Miniland. Lo and behold, they had these doll size bikes in the window. The store wasn’t open at the time, but I made a note to go back. The opportunity came up and away I went to see what I could find out about these wonderful little bikes. They have these in model form to put together yourself and/or already made up ones. I chose to buy the model because I know I can do this.
This is the pile of goodies in the box and isn’t to daunting.
I stayed with it, and got it together. Unfortunately, I broke a screw on the back brakes, but a little glue and some sneaky little fixing up and I was able to make it come together. The screws mostly will do up tightly but a couple I had to put a drop of glue on just for added measure. Because off my super woman strength breaking that screw, the back brakes don’t actually work now…. Ahem, won’t do that next time.
It comes with a warning from me though. I will not put my doll on it and send her/him off to road test it. I cannot allow whoever ends up with the bike to head out the door, because she/he would likely go careening off a cliff unable to stop because the brakes aren’t working. I’m sure all that would be left at the bottom would be a pile of bike parts and stuffing, so not risking that. My fault, not the kit. I am very happy with this bike, it’s fun and the wheels really do turn. You can push it forward and the pedals will turn making the wheels turn, and it has a little kick stand, so it will also stand up. I think the doll will have to be about 12” or so to fit it.
The kit itself is reasonably priced at approx. $20.00 depending on which model of bike you choose. I didn’t look at the cost of the finished ones, I got to involved with choosing the one I wanted to make but I would guess they are probably at least twice that cost or maybe a little less. This being a ladies bike, I may go back for a mans bike. Even with a few little bits that I had to fix up to make work, I still enjoyed the project. It was fun to do, and something to keep those little grey cells working.
The shop owner gave me a print out of better instructions for putting it together as the ones that come with it, not so good… If you’re interested in making one as well, here is the link to the store to order from. Victoria Miniland. When you get to the page, in the “select category” at the top of the page, click on “other scales” in the drop down box. Enjoy..
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