Great Gift Idea
Nice work Rob! Your posting reminded me of the coolest gift a brother-in-law just got for his parents.
His parents had their old bikes in storage for eons. Never even thought about using them. Being the crafty chap that my brother-in-law is, he stole his parents bikes from them at Christmas time, brought them to his house, and totally fixed up their old bikes. New chains, repainted, greased, cleaned, he even researched where you can by old bike stickers (like Free Style, Raleigh, etc.). He gave his folks back their bikes on their anniversary and they hadn't even noticed they were missing. Now his parents are biking regularly and love it!
It probably cost a bit to fix up the bikes but refurbishing an old bike wouldn't have cost more than a typical gift. It was thoughful, practically waste-free and created a positive change in their lives. Perfect gift or what?
What a great present! You
What a great present! You have one very cool brother-in-law.
It kind of puts me to shame. All my bike really needs is a tune-up and cleaning (and ideally, regular pedals instead of the clipless ones so I can wear real shoes).