Terrifying maintenance (or lack of)

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A friend of my eight-year-old daughter came 'round the other day, together with one of her friends. We'll call my daughters friend Sally (not her real name) for ease. Sally was riding her own BMX and Sally's friend was riding Sally's 5-speed MTB.
I was working installing a towbar on our car and noticed a bike had been left across the median strip between us and the neighbours so went to move it, and realised the tyres were near flat. When questioned, Sally and friend said "yeah, she's got a puncture, it takes her ages to get anywhere".
On went the compressor, 40 psi in each tyre on both the BMX and the MTB as they were both near flat, the air stayed in so I assume they weren't punctured. The girls had gone in the house by this time so I took 5 minutes to apply an eye to these bikes.
Both chains red with rust, so gave them a douse with chain lube followed by a wipe to remove the excess. MTB wasn't shifting (heard it doing the deraillieur castanet clatter coming down the street) so I set the cable correctly. Cables on MTB really needed oiling but the brakes worked OK.
The BMX, franly, horrified me. Only the rear brake worked. The saddle-to-seat post clamp was loose, tightened that. The handlebars were twisted off to one side, straightened them. The handlebar-to-stem four-screw clamp was very loose, tightened that. The front brake was the horror. As with many BMXs it was fitted with one of those 360 brake collars which allow the rider to spin the handlebars completely around without tangling the brake cables. However, since this was a cheapo BMX, as many are, the components used are cheapo too and cease to work with any efficiency very quickly.
For those who don't know what these look like, see below;

The collar is supposed to be lifted by the brake cable, but if not lubricated said cables and collar just stiffen up, leading to the next picture;

The bloody brake lever had snapped off at the pivot point, and you would need to have been Hercules to get the brake lever/collar/cables/caliper to move anyway!!!

Why in hell do parents send their kids out on bikes this dangerous?

 

[I like Skol]

OMG, you tinkered with the bike and are now completely liable for any injuries she may incur while riding that bike!!!

Had the same with one of the neighbours kids last year. She has a pink tasselly bike with a basket on the handlebars and is still on stabilisers (age about 6). I noticed she didn't really join in the riding up and down our quiet cul-de-sac with my 2 boys age 4 and 7 at the time and both off stabilisers for a good while. I watched a bit and saw she just wasn't confident on the bike at all so I had a quick chat and found she was too scared to get going because she wasn't very good at stopping. I squeezed the brakes only to find the levers bottomed out almost before the brakes touched the rims, very little stopping force provided. I did a quick twiddle of the adjusters/locknuts and she scooted off happy as larry to join in the fun. To be honest she is probably ready to lose the stabilisers but that isn't my job, she has her own parents?

(will probably teach her to ride this year if she is still on the stabilisers!)

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Do you want to move in next door to me as my rear deraillieur isnt indexing properly

 

[festival]

well done.
I see this and worse almost every day at work.
The latest was the parent who bought a boxed bike from tesco last summer, put it together and wondered why the brakes and gears didn't work. Now it got a puncture and the cables have corroded. So £10 for the puncture, £18 for cables, new noodle £3, labour for brakes & gears £30, replace rusty chain etc and the bike only cost £65.
When I pointed out the far superior £135 kids bike we sell and how we pdi it, foc safety check etc,etc he said "oh I would pay that much for a small kids bike" I laughed & pointed out he just had, and only got a cheap poor BSO, he wouldnt accept it.

 

[Jim_Noir]

To be fair when I was a lad I had some right death traps, that was half the fun... but it was the 70s so was allowed. Brake cables just got ripped out and you used your foot or chucked yourself off to stop!

 

[Woz!]

Yeah, it's a running battle to prevent my 13 year old from removing the brakes on his BMX!

 

[Moodyman]

Last summer scene:

Neighbour: "Hi mate. Could you fix my son's brake for me. He's using his shoes to stop and his mum's getting a little pee'd off with him wearing out his new trainers."

Me: Yeah sure..looks at bike. 'Where's the front brake calipers? and where is the rear brake cable?"

Neighbour: Huh?

Me: "You've got no brake system on this bike, no wonder he's using his shoes to stop"

Neighbour: "Can you fix it?"

Me: "No"

Neighbour: "You sure?"

Me: "Yeah. Can't fix anything that isn't there."

Neighbour: "You buy what you need, and I'll pay you"

Me: "Not worth it. The rear tyre's gone and needs replacing" (tyre carcass shredding due to shoe braking). " Also, your saddle clamp has corroded (left outside in all weather) and could snap at any moment."

Neighbour: Scratches head...."That's another £30 to spend. I only bought this one last year"

Me: "Yeah. Kids are expensive"

 

[Cubist]

If I were to tot up the hours I've spent adjusting crappy gears and brakes on crappy bikes! I seemed at one point that every time one of the kids' mates came to the house on a bike something needed doing to them. I generally tend just to check them over as force of habit if there's one lying on the driveway, and I cannot remember seeing one that DIDN'T need something doing to it!

I have occasionally sighed and said something to Mrs Cube about why their Dads don't service their bikes, but apparently most Dads aren't obsessive perfectionists when it comes to brakes and gears.


Don't fret about BMXs though. Even when adjusted to the millimetre the average BMX brake won't stop the bike. That's what those big chunky soled trainers are for!

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

You've had it now, fixing local kids' bikes!

I made that mistake once and shortly afterwards resorted to hiding behind the sofa with the lights off as a constant stream of little darlings beggars came knocking on my door with various velocipede ailments

 

[summerdays]

I hate seeing the rubbish in the school bike shed ... and have occasionally mention something to a parent (the ones I know and like) ... there is one bike I want to fiddle with but I feel that having told the Mum what the problem is and how to fix it easily that I shouldn't touch it... however the temptation is there every morning as he is one of the regulars. I couldn't help myself to pick up one that had been slung down on the ground and prop it up properly this morning.... ok it won't be where he left it but it will be less likely to get damaged.

 

[subaqua]

the comment i get all the time when i go to school with eldest daughter and the other kids ride her bike.

"wow its so smooth and the brakes are really good."

yes cos its looked after properly and adjusted regularly.

the wifes bike I could ahve slung across the road as the brakes were terrible to adjust. even the advice on Park tools and bicycle tutor didn't help much. sorted it in the end though and you can stop on a sixpence now.

 

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You can bloody-well bet though, witrh respect to these aforementioned parents who's childrens bikes are one step off hadning them a pin-free grenade, if their little darlings ever get hurt on their bikes because they couldn't stop/turn etc it won't be their (the parents) fault!!