Balance Bike DIY

So I was busting my mind to find a perfect birthday present, and I decided to build a balance bike for a 2 year old.

The first step was obviously making some kind of sketch of a design that I liked the most

I used 1 cm thick plywood for the long sides and 2 cm thick plywood for the front part of the bike ( steering wheel).

At first I made from scrap plywood a sample of the side, and than use router to make multiple sides more easily. And also to save that sample for future projects .

For the front wheelbase I also made a sample for router.

I needed to use something to connect front and rear, so I came up with this solution. I decided to use door hinge, it is very solid and very easy to install it on the bike.

I then make a groove in between the two sheets of plywood and then glued it with the hinge between the two sheets.

I was thinking to put some bolts near the hinge to make it more secure, but when the glue was dry I realized that it was pretty solid and didn't needed bolts.

this part was a little tricky because I had to find a way to put wheels in the wheelbase and to secure them.

I made a groove from underneath in the forks to make room for bolts of the wheel, and then use a little wood to fill that hole and secure all that with bolts.

Here are two types of seating that I made, the first was from a simple piece of cloth, but I didn't liked that so I decided to make leather one instead.

The steering wheel was made from 2 cm plywood, and there is also a second version of that too, with a slightly curve.

Because I was making more than one balance bike, I made two versions. One with black and blue wheels and other with white and pink wheels.

Black ones were painted with mat black color and then applied blue strip that I cut form a self sticking wallpaper, that worked very well on my surprise.

That is it!

p.s. This is my first "instructables" project. I hope you liked it and sorry for my English :D