My son is growing. It’s a joy to watch and be a part of. As time goes on, he acquires new skills and usually need a little hand holding or encouragement. I appreciate this opportunity and it drives me to grow and to become a better man.
One thing that we are both into are bicycles. I imagine at some point, he’ll want to start doing upgrades and fixes to them. This thought scares me as in my ideal world, a father is a handy man, who can teach his son these things.
I am not a handy man, I never had a father, never had this kind of an experience. So at the tender age of 35, I bought a cheapo bicycle (because I’m afraid of ruining my daily) and am planning to disassemble it and then reassemble it on uprated components, so I can learn how to do this and also have a cheap fun bike to thrash on the pump track.
Sadly I didn’t take any before pics of how I got it. Dirty, rusty, looking like no one ever cared about it.
This is after a good clean, first test ride. 3×7 drivetrain, 26′ wheels, spring forks…
Step one is getting rid of the front gearing, I’ll never use that.
This was my first time removing the bottom bracket, so exciting. I was smiling the whole time, just figuring out how to do everything, thinking about how one day I’ll be doing this together with my son.
So here it is, one less wire, no more gears on the front, removed the controls for that too of course.
Quite excited for what comes next (probably wheels and the rear shifter setup).
I am completely honest, I am afraid. Afraid of riding this thing (what if I bought bad components or my the quality of my work is bad), afraid of getting carried away and sinking a lot of money into this and most of all, afraid of not meeting my own imaginary expectations.
Also, I am grateful, that there is something good inside of me which drives me to be a better father to my son.