Age and technical ability.

[rich p]

I never understand these threads except as a vague series of reminisces about how it was all better in my day and how the youth of today just don't get it.

In fact they do get it and a lot more that our generation don't get and what they all have in common is an ability to take in and learn. Changing a tyre, building a wheel, they could do that if they tried, most of them are too busy hacking ipods, modding xboxes/nerf guns etc...

Face it. You lot have had your day, time to turn over to a new generation you helped bring up.

Spot on. I can do most jobs on a bike if necessary but my son has abilities I can only wish for. Get over it.

 

[Theseus]

As Aristotle or Socretes once said "The youth of today ..."

It is now our turn to complain, just like our parents did about us

 

[Dave Davenport]

Spot on. I can do most jobs on a bike if necessary but my son has abilities I can only wish for. Get over it.

Yep, whilst I'm fairly competent with most mechanical / electrical stuff having done a 1970's apprenticship and spent 35 years in engineering, I know feck all when it comes to I.T (not even sure if you put a full stop between the I & T) and I know which one of those skills is more likley to get you a well paid job these days.
Having said that, I don't fix half the things I used to 20 years ago (washing machines, TV's etc.), mainly because stuff's so cheap these days.
Still surprises me how many keen cyclists take their bikes to shops for basic stuff though.

 

[compo]

Face it. You lot have had your day, time to turn over to a new generation you helped bring up.

We have and look what a crappy hole the country is turning into.

 

[rich p]

My mum did without central heating, a washing machine and a fridge for most of her life. My generation had it easy.

 

[Crackle]

We have and look what a crappy hole the country is turning into.

I dunno Compo. I see no real evidence of this, just that it isn't how it was, stuff has always changed.

 

[fossyant]

Face it. You lot have had your day, time to turn over to a new generation you helped bring up.

From a has been, old person !

 

[Boris Bajic]

I think it all looks just about right at the moment.

I was taught by my big brother, who was taught by my father. It was my mother (a wartime land girl) who taught me to find punctures and patch them and how to oil a chain and remove a wheel.

My children (13, 16 and 18) are keen-ish to learn but more passive than active. It will come.

They're comfortable changing pedals, (some) tyres, adjusting brakes, seat height, bars and so on... The rest will come in time. I demonstrated a BB change to one of them and he was more interested in what was on the radio. No hurry. If he wants to get it, he'll get it.

We live in different days.

When still cycling to work I was asked regularly to pop down to the bike racks to sort out a strange malfunction in a bicycle. The requesters were sometimes my age or older. I don't see it as a generational thing at all.

There were some scrawny and callow boys in their mid-20s at my office who did something called 'downhill' and could strip and replace a bottom bracket in eight seconds with all the fingers of their left hand broken.

I think the current 'younger generation' know all they need to and will be just fine. They listen to dreadful music and don't understand how to wear a suit, but they can fix things and prep them very nicely.

If I see any generation who have somehow missed the boat, it is my age-group (forty-something). There are some of us who have come to cycling late, fill our sheds with the latest plastic bikes and cannot remove a wheel. But that isn't yet a crime. At least they're out and about on bicycles.

 

[subaqua]

depends on your skillset i think. My dad was a time served automotive engineer and if it moved he could fix it. show him something with wires though and it all went to rat5hit. I learnt how to strip down and rebuild bikes by learning how to strip down cars and engines as we never had a "decent car " always a banger that needed a lot of fettling just to keep going. taught me a lot. some of these skills are now being passed down to my kids from me the youngest has a hexbug habitat ( google it ) and i won't build it but make him do it as he is learning the skills needed to fix things. i got the eldest help me sort out her bike and she now knows how to use a spanner , screwdriver allen key etc properly.

my dad pushed me into choosing a decent trade , as an electrician. the skills he taught me as a kid helped me immensley in that as i could fix machines as i knew the basic principles of engineering , could weld and fabricate bracketry and see the details.

wifey overloaded the washing machine a few weeks ago and a shirt wrapped itsellf into the seal and it threw a belt. its covered by a warranty but we needed it so i whipped the covers off drained the drum recovered the shirt reattached the seal and refixed the belt in less than 30 minutes. would have taken 2 weeks for the engineer to fix . if its good enogh for Obree its good enough for me

 

[why_me]

i am 56 too and i recall getting my big bruv to fix my bike. now i get the shop to do it. i'm a great organiser but please never give me a screwdriver or spanner. i'm sure the youngsters are today as varied as us older ones. also - i think the bikes look a bit more technical than they did when i had my first bikes so if the kids can fix anything - they score more points.

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

I blame credit cards. To hell with the expense, bung it into the LBS.

I agree with Screenman. I could strip and rebuild a SA 3 speed before I was a teen. Bottom brackets I could do with my eyes shut. Many people now don't even know how to even adjust a three speed never mind strip one.

I disagree you need to spend a fortune on tools to maintain modern bikes. I can strip my bike to it's component parts and I only have three special tools plus two I made myself. The whole lot didn't cost more than £20. I have a workstand, but that's a luxury not a necessity. I do agree one of the biggest problems is sorting out compatibility issues if not replacing like with like.

Wow, that sent me back, my chopper - purple - had the sturmey archer 3-speed with the chain shift which was always snapping.
I remember stripping it down and couldn't get it back together.
When I was 12-ish (1974) we used to build bikes from various parts, I used to love cowhorns!
Brakes, for cissies usually cos we couldn't afford brake blocks.

 

[sidevalve]

AAHH , cowhorns. Happy days ! {Removes pipe and slippers].

 

[derrick]

I was brought up in the sixties I am now 56, in those days we stripped and fettled bikes from I suppose 10 years old, I can certainly remember building a tandem when I was 11.

So my point is are the younger one's missing something or is it not age related, we seem to have a lot of people asking very simple or to me it seems questions that I would have known the answer too from a very early age. Have these people been bought up in a world where they did not get grease under their nails, or was it due to my very working class background that I had to learn or go without.

I hope this post does not cause upset, it is certainly not meant to, I am sure, no certain that many of those lacking basic mechanical skills have others that I do not possess.

Please discuss.

I have a freind slightly younger than me, about 56 he cannot do anything, ie change light bulb, change three pin plug,mend puncture, he does know how to turn tv on to watch the football, don't know how is other half puts up wit him, she does it all.

 

[gbb]

you are missing one thing, the money was not around years ago like it is today, then it was "make do or mend"

I was trying to rationalise it in my head, couldnt think if there's a correlation or not...but the above probably has more to do with it than anything else.
Its not (neccessarily) a taught thing (the ability to mend things) although in my case my father was a technician in the RAF, but he was away a lot, i dont remember him teaching me stuff...so mine was self taught, mainly through interest in things mechanical.

Hand made gliders as a kid, not from boxes...from plans as big as your dinner table, hand cut every spar, every section, every single part.
Strip hubs and freewheels as a young teenager...and make them work. Build bikes from spare parts. Strip model aero engines to understand how they work (although there's nothing much in there anyway)...there's not much i wouldnt try.

And most importantly, in the early 70s...we didnt have the money. I NEVER had a new bike as a kid.

Its just all too throw away nowadays...all too easy.

 

[gbb]

I never understand these threads except as a vague series of reminisces about how it was all better in my day and how the youth of today just don't get it.

In fact they do get it and a lot more that our generation don't get and what they all have in common is an ability to take in and learn. Changing a tyre, building a wheel, they could do that if they tried, most of them are too busy hacking ipods, modding xboxes/nerf guns etc...

Face it. You lot have had your day, time to turn over to a new generation you helped bring up.

Spot on. I can do most jobs on a bike if necessary but my son has abilities I can only wish for. Get over it.

TBF, i think you've missed the fact that OP said in his final line...
'I am sure, no certain that many of those lacking basic mechanical skills have others that I do not possess.'

I think he made that point quite deliberately. Its merely an observation about peoples apparent lack of mechanical skills.
Has that ever been any different ?..were 'our' generation any better ? i know i was, but were my friends and peers..actually, i don't know for sure.