"bicycle-shaped object"

Peter Howard wrote:

While we're on the topic of "why can't they be like we were, perfect in
every way" I must relate my own experience of kids and bikes. The 14 year
old son of a good friend who lives across the road was very impressed by my
Greenspeed GT3 trike. I don't use it much because a medical condition I
thought would make an upright difficult for long rides improved outa sight.
I offered this kid a deal. He gets to ride it on weekends and at the end of
twelve months it becomes his if he submits to me one weekly book report of
300 words or an essay of similar length on a topic set by me. Additionally,
he must attend a monthly bike repair and maintenance class run by me.
This deal was rejected so he mustn't like the Greenspeed that much after
all. I'd have thought that fifty book reports at twenty cents a word was
outstanding pay. At the end of twelve months he could have sold the
Greenspeed and bought a whole ****load of mindless and repetitive video
games but his idea of deferred gratification seems to be getting something
in ten minutes time rather than instantly....

Is this deal still available? If so, what books do I need to read and
report on?

I had to work 160 hours to earn enough money to buy my trike [1].

[1] http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/1940446684_1a8852b1ed.jpg?v=0.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
"Localized intense suction such as tornadoes is created when temperature
differences are high enough between meeting air masses, and can impart
excessive energy onto a cyclist." - Randy Schlitter

In article , vey
wrote:

Jay Beattie wrote:
On Dec 14, 3:48 pm, vey wrote:
Peter Howard wrote:
Anyway, I tried.
I don't waste my time with kids anymore. They know everything, so why
bother?

Tell him that the bike is actually a game controller. If he becomes a
level-five mechanic, he will get to battle cog-dor for the golden
grease tube. Show him the secret controller moves (call them
"cheats") -- lubing the chain, tightening a crank bolt, etc. Turn the
garage lights on and off -- honk the car horn. That will get him
interested. -- Jay Beattie.

Jay, you've got the imagination thing down.

Heh. Some kids are mechanical nerds, and some are not.

My father was aggressively mechanically oriented, both professionally
and personally. He had three boys:

The oldest (me) is an creative bodger, who has messed with everything
from motorcycle valve adjustments to reattaching the driver's door to my
New Beetle. I mess with bicycles (but not welding) quite aggressively,
and am a computer nerd and problem-solver by trade. I like working with
my hands.

The middle one has a deft touch with piloting any motor vehicle, from
forklifts to motorboats. He has never shown any substantial interest in
getting his hands dirty at a workbench. He manages the receiving dock
for a big-box hardware store.

The youngest one is aggressively mechanically oriented. His projects
have included resurrecting a van with an engine transplant and a few
custom cruiser bikes, and his day job is rebuilding bicycle suspension
components (warranty and requested work) for a national distributor.

I don't think it's necessarily a problem if a kid wants to just ride a
bike without learning how to maintain it. There's such a thing as
priorities and talents, and lots of people (possibly including me)
should not do their own bike maintenance.

I would consider lubing a chain and changing a tire basic maintenance
that I would try to teach to any child who had a bicycle. Installing a
new crankset properly is something that won't come up much for most
riders, and while it isn't particularly hard, I don't think most kids
have easy access to a crank extraction tool.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"My scenarios may give the impression I could be an excellent crook.
Not true - I am a talented lawyer." - Sandy in rec.bicycles.racing

"Peter Howard" writes:

I'd have thought that fifty book reports at twenty cents a word was
outstanding pay.

I think the kid is a little saavy and knows that the bike is not worth
$3,000, if it ever was. Probably, its worth half of what you paid for
it, new. By your own calculation, that's only 10c/word.

Also, 52 book reports x 300 words is a lot to ask of anyone. It's
probably 3x what is asked of him by any given school teacher in any
given school year! If he bails out after 20 book reports, he has
nothing!!

If you asked for 15 book reports of 1000 words each, you might have
gotten some traction ...

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA

I have to admit, my first bike was a hand-me-down (age 5), second bike
was a gift (birthday, 7), third bike was a gift (2nd bike no good, age
8), 4th bike was a purchase (age 10, $60 {12x birthday/xmas presents}
+ $30 parental subsidy), and the 5th bike, I bought it with my job
(age 16), it cost me 80 hours of computer programming.

52 book reports x 300 words, if the books are long or difficult at all
to read, could easily be 200-400 hours of work! What a bad deal!
With 200-400 hours of free time, a competant 16-year old boy might
score 3-4 high maintenance girlfriends, captain a swim team, or
something even better !! No bike, trike, or even videogame can
compete with that ... :-) :-) Opportunity cost, you know ...

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA

Pat wrote:

Where you went wrong on your rant is in this sentence:

"These are bikes you cannot mend yourself; take them into a shop and any
self-respecting mechanic will most likely refuse to fix them too. "

That's just rubbish. Bike shops make a lot of money off of fixing these
cheap bikes. They like to see those bikes come through the door.

I've worked as a mechanic at three different shops; only one of the
three would consent to service BSOs, and then only after explicit
warnings about the cost of the repair compared to the cost of the
bike. Almost always, the bikes in question really needed full
overhauls, but I don't think I ever saw a customer consent to pay the
going rate in order to get one. They opted instead for the minimum
repair that would make their bikes marginally operable again-- which
is very much like what they did when they purchased their bikes new.

To complicate matters, owners of BSOs often stored their bikes outside
in the weather and never lubricated them.

Chalo

"Donald Gillies" wrote in message
...
"Peter Howard" writes:

I'd have thought that fifty book reports at twenty cents a word was
outstanding pay.

I think the kid is a little saavy and knows that the bike is not worth
$3,000, if it ever was. Probably, its worth half of what you paid for
it, new. By your own calculation, that's only 10c/word.

Reminds me of a time in my life when I was building stitch 'n glue plywood
dinghys to order for use as yacht tenders. Lookers would come and say "Why,
I can get one of those for half the price in Sydney/Melbourne/Perth." I'd
say "Great! Can you pick me up half a dozen next time you're down there?"
This is Australia, where we have one domestic trike manufacturer
(Greenspeed) and any others are imported. Because they are both scarce and
costly they do tend to hold their value well in this country, if you can
find one for sale. The kid liked the trike and what I was really trying to
do was have him find out what books are good for using the only such machine
within 500 miles as bait. He's always asking me questions, the most recent
being "How do atom bombs work?" but is highly resistant to the notion of
finding out for himself. As one of the weekly tasks I'd have settled for
having him find out how something works and explaining it to me from notes
he'd made. In an age of high speed broadband he wouldn't even have to bestir
his skinny ass to go down to the local library.


Also, 52 book reports x 300 words is a lot to ask of anyone. It's
probably 3x what is asked of him by any given school teacher in any
given school year! If he bails out after 20 book reports, he has
nothing!!

300 words is only half a printed A4 page!
If he'd bailed after 20 reports I'd have rewarded his sincere effort, like
giving him 40% of the trike by weight.


If you asked for 15 book reports of 1000 words each, you might have
gotten some traction ...

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA

Unfortunately, at present this kid can't be motivated and won't learn. A few
weeks ago I was doing some MIG welding (making a very solid and bulletproof
truing stand).
The kid turns up and says "Can I do some welding?"
"Sure," say I. "Nip home first and put on some boots, long sleeves and long
pants."
When he demurred at this onerous imposition, I explained why they were
necessary.
He then proceeded to tell me I was totally wrong about ultra-violet
radiation and hot slag and how he welded all the time at his Dads business
without using proper safety equipment.
What he actually wanted me to do was drop everything so he could run through
twenty dollars worth of wire and gas supplied by me, learning nothing and
producing nothing except a lot of exciting noise, sparks and fumes.
When he's interested in learning a new skill, then he can weld.

Peter H
Grumpy kid-hating old prick.

On Dec 15, 2:36 am, (Donald Gillies) wrote:
I have to admit, my first bike was a hand-me-down (age 5), second bike
was a gift (birthday, 7), third bike was a gift (2nd bike no good, age
8), 4th bike was a purchase (age 10, $60 {12x birthday/xmas presents}
+ $30 parental subsidy), and the 5th bike, I bought it with my job
(age 16), it cost me 80 hours of computer programming.


My 4th bike was the first I bought myself. It was $40 (a three speed
"banana bike") and I paid for it by collecting beer bottles at 2 1/2
cents each. Fortunately, there were a lot of people drinking beer down
the country roads near my place, and I had the use of my sister's bike
with dual rear baskets. One hundred thirty three dozen bottles, give
or take a few pop bottles (3 cents each.) Took all summer.

vey wrote:
These are bikes you cannot mend yourself;
take them into a shop and any self-respecting mechanic will most likely
refuse to fix them too.

Bike shops should be careful not to alienate customers this way. For
years I rode BSOs because that's what I could afford, and didn't have
access to cheap used bikes because I didn't know anybody who rode 'real
bikes'. I rode a lot too. I'd commute about 15 miles to the University
in the morning and take the bus back. I'd ride about 10 miles around
town a few days per week. Later, when I moved closer to the University,
I'd commute about 15 miles per day to/from work & school. I once even
rode 75 miles wearing cotton shorts and tee shirt and sandals in 100+
degree weather carrying my water in 2L soda bottles in the heavy metal
baskets on the back of my "Roadmaster" bike from WalMart.

Anyhow, all of that said, I did all of my own maintenance. I'd replace
cables now and then, overhaul headset/BB/wheel bearings, replace brake
pads, etc. The thing that'd make me mad was that every time I'd go to a
LBS to buy some bearings I'd get a lecture about how the bike wasn't
maintainable, wasn't good for actual riding, that I shouldn't use the
lithium grease from the auto parts store (but their much more expensive
version instead -- BTW, I STILL use lithium grease from the auto parts
store!!), etc. Sure, it was always out of adjustment (no indexing, so
that mostly meant I was limited to fewer gears), the brakes never worked
well (I wasn't all that fast on knobby tires on a heavy bike anyhow, and
it was mostly flat), etc, it didn't fit well, but it WORKED, and they
WERE cheaper. The only reason I replaced my first BSO was because a car
bent the forks while I was riding it.

Sure, obviously I agree that a person is better off with a good used
bike than a big box BSO, but one should be aware that not everybody has
access to that world and some need an introduction. Sure, it's easier
now with Craigslist, but even then it can be scary to buy used not
knowing what you're getting into! Those bike shops that alienated me
would have been better off trying to mentor me, as it was one such shop
that finally turned me from a POBSO (person on a bike shaped object) to
a cyclist with some very simple mentoring. They gained my loyalty for a
number of years, and I still visit and buy something small every once in
a while when I'm in town.