Josh I like your view on teaching, noticing that some people have fear of mechanical things and making simple leson plans to help those people have a successful relationship to technical achievement. 

I teach mentally handicapped, blind, deaf, average cyclist, youth, professional mechanics. I have always taught at a high level, I challenge people to go beyond what is expected, I teach everyone like they are earning PhD's. Do they succeed? Most exceed, all need to practice more and more. I never want me student to be as good as I am, I want them to be better, I want them to learn all the tricks I have, and apply the knowledge they have to make the ideas better.  

Here is a strange concept in learning approach

My dear woman is not mechanical, she still has trouble fixing a flat, yet she can build professional wheels. (???) You ask how can someone not fix a flat and yet build pro wheels. Simple answer is her skills are in SEEING, she is an artist, she knows how to use her eyes. There is only one major tool needed; a spoke wrench. Only two ways of turning it; clockwise and counter clockwise. SEEING what needs to be done is the fairy/elven magic, and she knows how to see.
Flat tires on the other hand require many more tools, chemistry, and knowledge. How to loosen brakes, remove wheel, remove tire, find hole, find puncture maker in tire, remove mold release, apply glue (correctly) apply patch, test, install tube, tire, wheel, brakes.  
Building a wheel takes more time, and it is an easier skill to learn. With one wrench, two turn directions you can: round, dish, tension, and true a wheel. I just teach people to see. 

When people see how easy it is to build a wheel, then they look at the whole bike as something that can be learned. When I start with a flat tire class they realize that they will never remember all the details months from now when they need it most. I teach how to be successful in mind blowing projects before I teach how to be successful in self sufficiency projects. 

When a student tells me that they can not learn how to adjust derailleurs, I remind them that Wheels are magic and you have built your own wheels, you can learn anything now.  And they can!!!  I do not believe in teaching to the least common denominator. I just teach people to see. 

Do you see anything differently now? 



Christopher Wallace
Holistic Cycles/ Bicycle Guild
140 Harrison St
Oak Park, IL. 60304


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Bike mechanics workbook
From: veganboyjosh@gmail.com
Date: Wed, August 20, 2014 5:31 pm
To: The Think Tank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org>

Brakes before gears is also good because while they're both cable systems operating under mostly the same simplified concept (pull the cable, something happens), the brakes are much more simple of a concept and easy to grasp for someone who's not familiar with either. 


On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 8:11 PM, Eric Brozell <brozells@verizon.net> wrote:
Christopher,

I really like this simple idea!

Eric


On 8/20/14 7:28 PM, christopher@holisticcycles.com wrote:
Years ago I had a kid on a bicycle under the front end of my car lifting my front wheels off the ground as I slid down a steep hill bouncing off the curb. When the kid was asked why he did not stop at the intersection, he replied that he had only had time to fix the gears before a test ride. For years I would kidnap a youths bike if it did not have brakes, I would install the brake for free, and tell him about the kid that was under my car and I would not not let another kid end up under there as long as I had the skills to do something about it. 

My advice is teach them brake systems first. In a safe parking lot have two kids at the same speed see who can stop more effectively, one who only uses a front brake or only a rear brake. Physics says a object moving forward and being pulled down by gravity will have the best braking force from the wheel that is forward and down. Test and find out for your self

Christopher Wallace
Holistic Cycles/ Bicycle Guild
140 Harrison St
Oak Park, IL. 60304


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Bike mechanics workbook
From: Ron Kellis <ron.kellis@velocitycoop.org>
Date: Tue, August 19, 2014 6:36 pm
To: The Think Tank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org>

Be sure you have thought out what your goal is. The ability to take care of most of the basics, Air (tire, tube, wheel truing), Brakes, Chain/cable/crank arm, derailleurs adjustment including hanger alignment in a month class, or  longer course to cover things they may not see at their stage of learning/experience. 

A-B-C-D covers 80% of what comes through our co-op doors and I think of it as Mech 102, 101 being righty-tighty, tool use & care, etc Take a look at Primitive Pete for that.

The remaining 20% is bearings/advanced and if you can do a hub, then head sets and bottom brackets are just a variation. That can be an "add-on" or a shadow type deal for the first couple. Then let them practice on a shop bike. Wheel building is a separate  deal, some may not be interested plus it's a parts cost for a co-op even if it is just spokes. 

By teaching the A-B-C-D everyone learns the basics and can lean on each other as trouble shooting becomes necessary. 

A speciality per person seems to me to be a lot to coordinate to be sure a full team is present.

Use the Park Book for the basics and the many videos on-line as necessary. If possible, let the kids research some of them as a recurring project. 

I'm former military, and for many of the skills, the idea of get the basics taught and then let them do OJT for the more advanced tasks has worked pretty well. Not too different from a riding class then off to do it.

Nothing's perfect, but I do the A-B-C-D in three hours twice a month. A & B hands on their own bike, remove/replace both wheels and break down/reasemble the front, then patch a shop tube, C & D as mostly show and tell, if their derailleur needs adjustment it backs up what the limiting screws don't do. 

They leave the class able to fix a flat and if their brakes aren't working correctly, they now have an idea why and if they don't have the tools or find they can't quite do it on their own, they know what they want to do when they come back. It would be easy to do A-B-C-D in 4 90 min. classes. Spice it up with horizontal vs. vertical dropouts, mounting a rear wheel with the vertical derailleur mount so they learn to get the wheel straight in the stays. Coaster wheel to learn about the brake. Add in the advanced once a quarter. Any more I tell students to set aside 6 hrs on a Sat with nothing else on their schedule and just come back to the co-op to be walked through it. 

Take what you can use, just my thoughts.

I posted some stuff to the wiki, including some open source anatomy pictures. I'll send you my syllabus/class hand-out tomorrow. 

R




On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 6:57 AM, Dominik Zylka <domzylka@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello People,

Our developing high school bike program in Melbourne is in need of a fantastic workbook for our students to utilise. Our resources are completely outdated and participant numbers are increasing so we need a resource that will keep our students developing and learning. 

Contents we'd love:
- Workshop rules and procedures
- Worksheets on all the specific processes and anatomy's
- Activities
- Diagrams and explanations 
- you get the idea.

We understand that these resources take a heap of time and effort to compile and we'd be so very grateful if someone was willing to help out by sharing theirs. 

Best Regards

Dominik

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