17 years olds and priority

So my 17 year old's bike a cross bike is see in garage with wheels off and tire off rim. What Happen I ask him and he says tires popped? Ok where are the skewers. I don't know. Well go find them now we need them. After awhile no finding he says they are like a $5 part so what.

I patch the tubes for the 2nd time they are fine hold air. No skewers to hold tire on bike and I am getting irritated no responsibility. He has this attitude that so what and now I am thinking he can cough up the skewers and the cash. I go to the trouble of patching tubes because it gets the job done for pennies and this crap.

Rant on


Deacon mark

On 6/8/2017 6:59 PM, wrote:
So my 17 year old's bike a cross bike is see in garage with wheels off and tire off rim. What Happen I ask him and he says tires popped? Ok where are the skewers. I don't know. Well go find them now we need them. After awhile no finding he says they are like a $5 part so what.

I patch the tubes for the 2nd time they are fine hold air. No skewers to hold tire on bike and I am getting irritated no responsibility. He has this attitude that so what and now I am thinking he can cough up the skewers and the cash. I go to the trouble of patching tubes because it gets the job done for pennies and this crap.

Rant on


Deacon mark


I'm reminded of an essay by Eric Hoffer on equipment and
facilities maintenance, particularly his Oakland docks
versus various 3d world ports he visited. It's in 'The
Temper of Our Time'. He saw regular rigorous maintenance (or
its lack) as the window to a culture's soul. His point is
well taken.


Some might say you describe above most of this nation's
troubles in microcosm.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 6/8/2017 7:59 PM, wrote:
So my 17 year old's bike a cross bike is see in garage with wheels off and tire off rim. What Happen I ask him and he says tires popped? Ok where are the skewers. I don't know. Well go find them now we need them. After awhile no finding he says they are like a $5 part so what.

I patch the tubes for the 2nd time they are fine hold air. No skewers to hold tire on bike and I am getting irritated no responsibility. He has this attitude that so what and now I am thinking he can cough up the skewers and the cash. I go to the trouble of patching tubes because it gets the job done for pennies and this crap.

17-year-olds can be very, very difficult.

But don't despair. One 17-year-old I knew had the job of mowing the
family yard. He delayed, complained, sulked, evaded, whined and almost
had to be flogged to get the job done.

Later, he married, then bought a house of his own with a small yard. To
my astonishment, he manicured the lawn to perfection.

--
- Frank Krygowski

Andrew you are dead no with the observation your friend said. Taking care of things is critical to all types of actives. I repair guitars and very $$$$ I might add. Regular easy to do maintenance and basic taking care will yield huge gains and if you are lucky they might not loose value.

Deacon Mark

On Thu, 8 Jun 2017 16:59:24 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

So my 17 year old's bike a cross bike is see in garage with wheels off and tire off rim. What Happen I ask him and he says tires popped? Ok where are the skewers. I don't know. Well go find them now we need them. After awhile no finding he says they are like a $5 part so what.

I patch the tubes for the 2nd time they are fine hold air. No skewers to hold tire on bike and I am getting irritated no responsibility. He has this attitude that so what and now I am thinking he can cough up the skewers and the cash. I go to the trouble of patching tubes because it gets the job done for pennies and this crap.

Rant on


Deacon mark

Why are fixing a 17 year old's bicycle?
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Thu, 8 Jun 2017 21:07:04 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 6/8/2017 7:59 PM, wrote:
So my 17 year old's bike a cross bike is see in garage with wheels off and tire off rim. What Happen I ask him and he says tires popped? Ok where are the skewers. I don't know. Well go find them now we need them. After awhile no finding he says they are like a $5 part so what.

I patch the tubes for the 2nd time they are fine hold air. No skewers to hold tire on bike and I am getting irritated no responsibility. He has this attitude that so what and now I am thinking he can cough up the skewers and the cash. I go to the trouble of patching tubes because it gets the job done for pennies and this crap.

17-year-olds can be very, very difficult.

But don't despair. One 17-year-old I knew had the job of mowing the
family yard. He delayed, complained, sulked, evaded, whined and almost
had to be flogged to get the job done.

Later, he married, then bought a house of his own with a small yard. To
my astonishment, he manicured the lawn to perfection.

I took a different path. I made it a point to never give my kids any
money. They all had assigned "jobs" for which, if they accomplished
their "jobs" they got paid. If they didn't do the job - mowing the
lawn, edging the lawn, sweeping up after, etc., no pay that week.

A side effect was that my daughter, the youngest (5 years old), argued
that if she took her pay her brothers might rob her. I suggested a
notebook where she could write down her wages each week and when she
wanted money her mother could see how much the daughter had
accumulated and give her the money. She thought about that and told me
that she didn't know about "numbers" and I told her that was her
problem. She pestered her brothers to show her "numbers" and when she
entered first grade she knew about "numbers" at least as far as
addition and subtraction and even "big numbers" all the way to 100 :-)
She currently is in Financial Management"

--
Cheers,

John B.

On Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 4:59:26 PM UTC-7, wrote:
So my 17 year old's bike a cross bike is see in garage with wheels off and tire off rim. What Happen I ask him and he says tires popped? Ok where are the skewers. I don't know. Well go find them now we need them. After awhile no finding he says they are like a $5 part so what.

I patch the tubes for the 2nd time they are fine hold air. No skewers to hold tire on bike and I am getting irritated no responsibility. He has this attitude that so what and now I am thinking he can cough up the skewers and the cash. I go to the trouble of patching tubes because it gets the job done for pennies and this crap.

Rant on

Mark, why would you even do a minutes work on your son's bike if he isn't interested in riding?

I am not going to fix them he can you are correct. Frankly he was is like me a runner first the bike is to get around. He just has what I only can dream........1:59 800 meter
Speed. That is faster than some ride a bike.

He laughs at my now 9-10 minute running pace but I could smoke him in a century big time.

Deacon Mark

On Fri, 9 Jun 2017 08:24:38 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 4:59:26 PM UTC-7, wrote:
So my 17 year old's bike a cross bike is see in garage with wheels off and tire off rim. What Happen I ask him and he says tires popped? Ok where are the skewers. I don't know. Well go find them now we need them. After awhile no finding he says they are like a $5 part so what.

I patch the tubes for the 2nd time they are fine hold air. No skewers to hold tire on bike and I am getting irritated no responsibility. He has this attitude that so what and now I am thinking he can cough up the skewers and the cash. I go to the trouble of patching tubes because it gets the job done for pennies and this crap.

Rant on

Mark, why would you even do a minutes work on your son's bike if he isn't interested in riding?

Or to put it another way, why can't the kid do it himself?
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Friday, June 9, 2017 at 5:40:59 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I am not going to fix them he can you are correct. Frankly he was is like me a runner first the bike is to get around. He just has what I only can dream........1:59 800 meter
Speed. That is faster than some ride a bike.

He laughs at my now 9-10 minute running pace but I could smoke him in a century big time.

Crush him now because you wont have the chance later.

Most kids in my son's cohort were not mechanical at age 17 or particularly interested in bikes. Your son sounds totally normal. My son got interested in bikes in college and can now crush me like a bug regardless of distance, He currently rides with guys who are doing times up the canyons in SLC equivalent to the Tour of Utah riders, which is staggering. My son gets dropped, but he's a big guy and doesn't do the same crazy miles as his friends. Anyway, when we ride together, he lollygags, and I gasp for air. The days of crushing him are a distant memory.

As for fixing his bike, he worked in a couple of bike shops where he got some mechanical training, but he's still not much of a mechanic. He'll get there one day. It's the rare kid who really knows or cares how to fix bikes -- or cars or plumbing, etc., etc. They can, however, Instagram.

-- Jay Beattie.