I spent a really charming hour or so with our rarely-resident student daughter. I was showing her around a step-through shopper and we found a wobbly wheel bearing.
She showed enormous patience as I took her tediously through cone spanners, axles, cups and all the rest of it.
The bearings would have been changed in an ideal world but it was late in the evening so we greased, re-assembled and tightened. It was OK, but we could both feel the 'scratchiness' of the old shells. She could see stuff as it was explained, which was cheering.
She was amused that there wasn't a 'completely correct' way of sorting out bearings, or at least not one that I know. I think she quite liked learning that there is guesswork in setting some things up.It seemed to reassure her that I just sort of faffed about with the tightness until I got to the stage of 'turns freely but no wobble'.
Along the way we sorted the (hateful) canti brakes and showed some kindness to the various cables.
She did some bits herself, including the chain - and she used the chain-wear indicator.... It is a start. Lots of questions and lots of engagement.
You may scoff that she is picking up fairly rudimentary maintenance at almost twenty, but it hasn't really interested her greatly up to now.
I was taught some of this stuff by an elder sister, so the swings are becoming roundabouts again, or similar.
