Can't tell how badly rusted those wheels are, but if they're not too bad, you can simply clean 'em up and paint them, the same way I did mine when I first scored my bike. You can always buy new wheels later AFTER you've taken care of other things, aye? Small tip, but helpful for saving money out the gate, LOL. Might wanna check the wheel bearings too, those don't cost much to replace and good bearings make a BIG DIFFERENCE... take it from an old school vertical skateboarder, LOL. One day, I'll figure out how to put German racing bearings in my monkeybike, till then I'm stuck with these new bearings from T-Bolt, CHP, Fast 50s or Faster Minis... can't remember where I bought 'em, I suffer from CRS, 10-4??? You can Google all those vendors or distributors for more info and pricing. The guys (and gals) at this site are pretty helpful, they'll see you through your entire restoration, but you can also check out "the competition"---those crazy mini-riding fools at miniriders.com in "The Land of Oz" (LOL). Those boyz are SE-WIOUS about racing their minis, I kid you not. But these hands at lilhonda.com know their stuff, they've really helped me with the FrankenBike, my little offroad thrasher. You can see shots of the bike in my Z50 thread in this forum. One question: why so set upon factory-style bars? Why not let the kids decide which bars they like best? Alright, that's actually two questions, but I've found the wider lower bars on my FrankenBike to be excellent, they really provide a lot of positive control in the dirt, especially at speed on fairly rough roads. I offset the lower bar height by extending the fork legs and putting stiffer springs in there, so the FrankenBike handles like a true dirt bike, except of course for those pesky 8" wheels, LOL. I don't know how old your kids are, maybe the bars won't be an issue for 'em if they're really young. Oh, yeah, one last thing: kudos to ya for being a good dad!!! With the exception of small craft sailing and perhaps technical rock climbing, I haven't found anything that beats monkeybiking for pure freedom, 10-4??? And sadly enough, that kind of freedom is hard to find in this Brave New World, so let your kids enjoy every minute of it... I came to monkeybiking late in life, but I've ridden dirt bikes all my life, and this little FrankenBike o' mine makes me feel like a kid again every time I ride it, LOL.
P.S. Skydiving & close proximity wingsuit flight offer heller freedom, no doubt, but that whole scene comes at a much steeper price. If I could afford the gear, citation, etc., I'd be riding my FrankenBike off "The Visor" on Half Dome and pulling two cords: one for me, one for the monkeybike, LOL. Maybe the Troll Wall in Norway, with some wingsuit action thrown in for good measure... hafta put a JATO unit on the FrankenBike so it won't get messed up on the rocks below, 10-4??? Send that thing so far out into space it'll make Evel Knievel look like a Girl Scout in Summer Camp, LOL... and I'm a big fan of ol' Evel too, don't misunderstand that joking line. Good ol' Evel, he sure was a hand when it came to jumping bikes, kind of like the ORIGINAL CYCLE JUMPER, yeah??? His son Robbie is cool too, but Evel was THE MAN when it came to jumping all sorts of rigs, buses, etc., back in the day. I can STILL remember watching him on TV... was it ABC's Wide World Of Sports that televised some of his jumps??? Dang, that pesky CRS is rearing its ugly head, but I'm willing to swear on a stack of old SkateBoarder Magazines that Evel was featured on ABC's Wide World Of Sports on more than one occasion.
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