My winter bike wrenching plans included several crankset swaps so I invited one of my 11 year old grandsons to work with me. We completed 4 crankset swaps. The Ketts and my Rans SWB now all have short (148mm - 152mm) cranksets. Mrs. Grouch's Greenspeed has been returned to it's original configuration and is up for sale.

It's always enjoyable working with Tyler. It makes me feel useful to show him detail stuff like starting bolts with your fingers before cranking on them and using the torque wrench. I wish that I had more projects that we could do together. Being a grandad rocks!

Good on you RG, that speaks volumes about you and how much your family means to you. Raise them right, first time. Post some pics of you and Tyler at work if you get some.

Bill

Many years from now he will be fixing something and he will remember to start the bolt with his fingers - and then he will once again remember his grand-dad...

... This is what it's all about in the end.

I know the feeling.

Excellent experience for kids! And grandpa too!

........and he will pass that on to HIS grandkids...

I was on old kid in my mid-twenties when I first took apart a crankset/bottom bracket. Quite a headstart for an eleven-year-old.

Is it time for you and Tyler to rehab a garage sale find or two?

My Grandfather was a Gardener and a carpenter and I spent a lot of time with him in my young days. Father was a mechanic but not a job we could do together in the few hours we spent together. The gardening has always been a passion but the carpentry must be in my genes. I can now weld wood as good as the next bloke.

The skills of our fathers are being lost at an alarming pase.

OP, good for you, make shure you tell him to pass it down the line.

I did my first oil change and blade sharpening with my grandfather when I was 9
on his snapper lawn mower.
As much as I can I do my own wrenching,,cars, motorcycles, bicycles, small engines,,, all because of my grandfather.
He took the time to explain things to me, like how much it cost to pay someone else to do these simple tasks.

If I can find the right one. We did a couple last year.

The best one was up a pretty nice road bike (aluminum and carbon frame, mostly Ultegra and 105 components) from spares my son and I had laying around. Tyler did most of the work except for brake and derailleur adjustments. Unfortunately it's too big for Tyler so uncle Paul uses it to pull his daughter in a kiddie trailer.

I ran a community bicycle recycling program with kids aged 8 to 17 for several years. These were some of the most rewarding years of my life. I only wish I still had the program now that some of my grandchildren are coming into the right age for it.

You can influence a child's life in big ways if you catch them at the right age and teach them the right things. Wrenching bicycles, especially because doing it correctly is so important for safety, teaches them a lot about precision, problem solving, and pride in workmanship.

Good job, Mr. Grouch.

My grandfather taught me a couple of things that I still use these days. Righty tighty, lefty loosey and measure twice cut once. The later I still have problems with, I'm waiting for someone to invent that board stretcher you keep hearing about, I need it on just about every project I do.

When you're swapping out cranksets and pedals, you can have fun with that one. It's a good place for "Always start a bolt with just your fingers."