Bicycle Tinkerer

Grit from grit's day mentioned that her daughters got new bicycles recently.  She home schools them.  The combination of those two facts got me thinking.  The earliest memory of my dad teaching me something mechanical in nature was how to work on my own bike.

Since then my interest in bicycles has waxed and waned but never has gone altogether.  I find the easy to understand mechanics appealing.  I've read Bicycling Science and I really like that a seemingly simple device could also be potentially the most efficient method of travel and most efficient conversion of human power into mechanical movement.  The Wright Brothers were bicycle mechanics before they built their plane.  Once you know how to work on a bike, you can expand that knowledge in so many different ways.

I've become a tinkerer and do-it-yourselfer.  I like to work with tools, in my shop, on our vehicles or fixing broken toys.  I have a basic understanding of how to make things and even went to college for industrial design.  I feel being allowed to pull out some of my dad's tools and work on fixing a flat tire or modding the bike somehow contributed to what I have become.

My bikes are in the garage.  They have a layer of dust on them because they haven't been ridden in a while.  I've worked on my daughter's bike and a couple of other similar projects.  I've even considered holding the occasional bike workshop for the kids in our condo complex.  This way I can get their bikes running better and maybe teach a few how to work on their own.

After we move, I would like to use our bikes more.  This means a little adjustment to our current living style but I think a move to a new area would be an opportunity to do so.  If we are using our bikes more, my kids will soon get their first lesson on how to do maintenance on their own bikes.