Had a young lad call me yesterday. "Can you adjust spokes on bike wheel please?". "No prob, says I" thinking a quick tweak on half a dozen spokes n job jobbed. Young lad arrives with wheel off little 80cc off roader. There must be about 5mm movement on hub any connection between hub and rim was purely accidental. Not to mention just about rooted wheel bearings and an absence of any form of lube on wheel spindle sinced it rolled off assembly line. On Friday, talking to kid (maybe late 20's) at work. He looks up from bike mag - "does 4 stroke mean it's got four pistons" Personally I blame the Dads.
Personally I blame the Dads. These days you lucky if your Mum and Dad live in the same house. ...anyway I only like twins...ding.ning....ning...ning...
The definition of confusion is Father's Day
he probably tried alt shift F4.....to get a power pack....that fixes everything.........
My kids decided to build a dog kennel out of the spa pool demo materials...I offerd advice....do a drawing.....measure up the wood.... Can we use the power saw.... er no....heres a hand saw.... Stuff that its useless... Jeezz....how do you think they built stuff before power tools? They have them at School with lazers.... Well heres a lesson on to use a hand saw, square and pencil.... after about 10 minutes... Hey its not that hard.... learn the basics first....... Silly old fool What????? nothing dog looked less than impressed....
Can you come and teach me that stuff? I don't understand wood...I've tried to weld it,but it just turns into a smoking mess.
Lazers at school?? The nanny state barely lets them use plastic knives, that was part of the excuse for closing a lot of woodwork and metalwork classes. Plant them behind a computer where it's safe
Eventually got round to fixing the wheel for lad tonight. Did lovely job but half dozen spokes will need replacing 'cause they are rusted solid. Gives lad ring to find out what bike the wheel is off. THAT floored him, "Oh ! not really sure, I've only just bought it" "Well, I need to know to order spokes" "I'll try and find out" he says, sounding like I've just asked him to explain quantum physics.
Yeah,I had a kid bring in a bike like that - a DR80 or something with no rear wheel.''Where's the wheel?''....'I dunno'....''Well,it used to have a wheel,what happened when you lost it?''.....'My cousins borrowed it,and this is how I got it back'.I told him to go and get the wheel back from his uncle's place,and he came back a couple of times without it,wondering if I had fixed his bike.Finally I got his father to get the wheel,and I got it with half the spokes broken or missing.I was lucky to get a partial set from Coleman's,as they couldn't sell them as a full set,so got them for a token price.When I finally got it up and running I drummed in to NEVER let his cousins,brothers,uncles or father ride his bike....because that's how they get fucked up.
Finally found out what the wheel was off, a FORZA MOTO X which is apparantely a Chinese knock off Honda and so as such nobody knows who the importer is and spares ( you must be joking) I need 6 spokes so am hoping Hamco in Palmy can make some. Thought wheel bearings were knackered, but having stripped them they seemed fine. I cleaned all the crud off the bearing spacer (which was just a piece of cold drawn welded tube) and measured it. It turned out to be 1mm too long and so was pushing on the bearing inner races and nipping everything up. Skimmed down reassembled with grease and spins like a spinny thing.
I watched my stepson attempt to install a spark plug in an ER 185 with the ceramic end down and decided he won't inherit any of my motorbike collection.......
well, I have 3 sons and a daughter...only 1 son knows which end of a screwdriver to apply and where to put it. None of them have spent much time with an in-house male so I often wonder where #2 son got his mechanical interest from. Have decided its hardwired into him, some weird genetic thing. Actually it showed up very early, by the time he was about 18 months old he got pissed off when his toy trucks didint work and pulled them apart to fix them. He is now the official family Mr Fixit. Seriously, I do think its hardwired, he has always reminded me of my Pop who was an A grade mechanic and amatuer fixer-upper. Some folk have it and some folk use your skills. Hey it works for me. Dont know why anyone would want to make fun at someone who has no mechanical ability or interest, its just the way we are.
UNNA and decided he won't inherit any of my motorbike collection....... Oh that is a bit sad. I think the lad better stick away from tools then, you can't teach common sense. I had a friend's son come over to my workshop one night a week starting from when he was 8 and was showing an interest in cars. That boy could do the basics pretty much from day 1 with very little supervision and now has a job doing wheel alignments and suspension work. At 17 he now has a car he fitted a bigger motor and turbo into and repainted satin black...I'm so proud of him I don't know if that is hardwired or not, maybe just having an interest or curiosity in how things work helps. Shame a lot of things just are not fixable now. Or sealed to stop you prying... I hate that. Changed a spark plug in a friend's car, he is my age but mechanically inept. Lucky I did not get all smartarsed about how he should be able to change a damn sparkplug as it took all my flexi socket extensions just to get in there and remove it
Ah the nature or nurture one.... I thought common sence was what you learned from your mistakes... unfortunately now we don't like to let the kids out as much as in the olden days to get cuts and bruises... my youngest is helping me build a deck and any little cut or bump is a major....." its much easier killing aliens isn't it...? " " dry....." I learn't about mechanics from a Haynes manual and a 1961 VW that I could not afford to have fixed....bit of a curse really as cars keep you poor.
Why is it that most baby boomers can fix things and most generation X & Y don't seem to be able to? Part was caused by poverty. If you didn't fix your Ford 10 yourself you didn't go anywhere. Part is caused by modern complexity. I could fix an airhead BMW but I wouldn't know where to start on an R1200RT. But mostly it is attitude. Anyone can learn anything if they put their mind to it. Why do some kids not ever come into the workshop? Fear of learning something? Yet other kids are building up boy racer cars and good on them. Boy racers will ultimately be our salvation as they are learning the skills that industry needs. The trouble is that there are too few of them.
