Lego bike repairs

 I have repaired a number of the little Lego cyclists, most of which were missing the little feet they stand on. Or not, as was the case with the motorcycle above at left. This had perfect wheels without a trace of damage, and no feet. The tell-tale in these cases is the missing paint behind the rider's leg. Because this motorcycle originally had a sidecar, which was in the way when the combination was painted by hand. Having three wheels it wouldn't fall over so didn't require the feet fitted to the two-wheelers in the series. The motorbike at right did have its feet broken off.

Most of these bikes are made of grey plastic which I repair with strips cut from a broken piece of grey groundplate. The feet are simple rectangular strips where I sand the ends to have rounded corners. Missing sections of wheel are made out of a bit of round edge from one of the lugs, also sanded a bit to round it off.

The bikes and scooter above also have one or two replacement feet. They're glued on with superglue, except the feet on the bikes that have lost their sidecars. The latter have feet stuck on with acetone, so that these can still be removed if ever I'd be so lucky as to find a spare sidecar.

I did fix one sidecar combination, which I got cheap because it was broken. Just glueing it back on doesn't really work, it easily breaks off again. So I used an extremely fine bit in the table drill to make a hole on each side, exactly where the original connection was. A little stem cut from the same groundplate was then inserted and superglued in the holes to reinforce the connection.

Final type of repair was a Lambretta rider who had unfortunately lost her head. Two bits of groundplate in two layers provided enough thickness to sand into a ball shape. A cut round the circumference resembles the helmet edge of the original and a tiny cut-off sliver made a nose. Flesh coloured paint was mixed to match the hands and legs, and the helmet was painted red to go with the original red detail on the rear.