A Wasted Effort

[Buzzard]

Our society consists of 5-6 generations depending on how old you are. You have the generation that grew up in the depression era and into WWII, then the Babyboomers that are now becoming retirement age, GenerationX--who knows what they did or are for--now we have the entitlement generation where its gimme gimme gimme. Up and coming Millenium generation with the cell phones and laptops thrive on a 3 day week and 6 months vacation. Wouldn't get their hands dirty for nothing. I don't know where its all went wrong, but when you got a step son that goes out looking for a job and the boss said he'd pay him what he was worth, he told him he wouldn't work that cheap. I know 40 yr olds are still living in their Mom's garage. I watched the neighbor kid come home from school the other day on his bicycle come up the drive way jumped off it and let is slam into the ground and into the house he ran. No respect for anything.
No wonder this country's in the shape it is.
buzzard

 

[mapbike]

Mapbike..... That is why at 64 I... 1. Have NEVER gave or paid for a vehicle for my 2 boys. 2. They as teenagers have NEVER driven my vehicles without me there. 3. Have never paid for their insurance. I guess I'm just a hard azz. I wanted my kids to respect what they paid for.

Yep, i was always that same way until that one time when I thought it would work out good and help the boy out........Wrong!

Thats why it hasnt happened since and wont in the future, we cant ever help anyone who isn't willing to help themselves, yes kids are kids and they will make mistakes but I know it is our duty as the adults to make sure they learn a valuable lesson from those mistakes, it's not the easiest thing to do but it is for their own good.

Peace

 

[mapbike]

Our society consists of 5-6 generations depending on how old you are. You have the generation that grew up in the depression era and into WWII, then the Babyboomers that are now becoming retirement age, GenerationX--who knows what they did or are for--now we have the entitlement generation where its gimme gimme gimme. Up and coming Millenium generation with the cell phones and laptops thrive on a 3 day week and 6 months vacation. Wouldn't get their hands dirty for nothing. I don't know where its all went wrong, but when you got a step son that goes out looking for a job and the boss said he'd pay him what he was worth, he told him he wouldn't work that cheap. I know 40 yr olds are still living in their Mom's garage. I watched the neighbor kid come home from school the other day on his bicycle come up the drive way jumped off it and let is slam into the ground and into the house he ran. No respect for anything.
No wonder this country's in the shape it is.
buzzard

Amen Brother..............


Each generation you just described has made the next one worse by trying to "make things better for their kids than they had it" this is what has made this unruly, ungreatful generation of everyone owes me something and all my problems are some elses fault what they are.

people get lazy when things get to easy and this has been the road this country has been on for years, and our "leadership" loves it......the more they hand stuff out the dumber and needier the (sheeple) get and the more wealth and power the leadership gets..........

most people with an entitlement mentality dont truly realize that the people that offer them the hand outs are basically telling them that they are doing it because they think the recipients are to stupid to do it themselves and they need them as a life line, and all it will cost them is a bit more of their freedom.......until one day they are enslaved by the state........... this happens every time it's tried......history tells us this and our kids this day and time are prime (subjects).....

Peace

 

[Mike B]

You know any parents who don't want to make things better for their kids than they had it?

 

[Poopyboogin420]

I'm 28 years old and I remember my mom having to mix oatmeal with ground beef to make it stretch out further. I remember birthdays that I cherished the one present that I would receive (usually a plastic GI Joe) and be happy as ****. I rode the same bicycle from the time i was 5 till i was 10, learning how to fix it along the way. I wasnt given a new bike either. I won $150 for selling the most items in a door to door fundraiser my school had put on, and used the money to buy a Huffy 18 speed mountain bike from Sam's club. I don't what generation I fall into, but it really doesn't matter. There was spoiled brats back in the 50's and all the way up to now. The problem is that parents don't have a clue and use material to earn their children's love and respect. My sister in law is a perfect example. She buys all three of her children a toy EVERYTIME they go to Wally World. I asked why? So they don't throw a fit. My son is 2 1/2 and he knows already that if I start counting, he better behave. And I hardly ever have to give any spankings, mostly time outs. My point is, it's def not the kids fault, and most definitely is the parents fault.

 

[mapbike]

You know any parents who don't want to make things better for their kids than they had it?

Not many....

I didnt mean wanting them to have it better in some ways was the problem in itself, the problem is not teaching them to work hard for what they want & need and that anything that is worth having in life takes hard work and sacrifice.

In my opinion & experience to many times parents give the kids too much and make life so easy on them that it ruins them.....they think everything should be free or easy when raised this way and then when the reality of the real world and life hits them in the face that's when they go running back to mommy and daddy for their needs or they run down to the welfare office and look for a hand out that us few hard working people that are left has to pay for and as a consequence we do with out some of our own wants and needs because we have to give so much of our earnings to the ones who are to lazy to get off there own blessed assurance and work, dig, push, endure, sacrifice and achieve through hard work and comittment.

We are creating a generation in this country that is confused about what freedom is and was meant to be.

Hard work, sweat,tears & people comitted to a greater cause than themselves is what made this a once great nation great.... and the lack of all this is what will bring it down to it's knees in the near future.

Moraltiy is down the tubes in this country and all that starts in the home...and morality either good or bad will make or break a county, parents dont teach their kids any more, either a school teacher or the TV is their primary teacher, and many time they are both agenda driven and it is not always or many times what is really in the best interest of the kids.


Peace

 

[matthurd]

Too bad, 2Door. I remember when my son was 13 and I was going to teach him to work on cars and put together a nice car for him in the process. We went out to work on the family chariot and he came back in the house abruptly. Had to wash the grease off his hands! I knew right then and there he would never be much of a mechanic. Some have the knack, some don't. Now I have to get to work on my Geo Metro. Next week Dax will be shipping me a new cylinder, piston, and rings to get my GT50R going after the Opti-2 fiasco.

not always true, my dad did the same thing when i was younger, and i did the same thing as him, fast forward 10 years and i'll happily work on greasy parts just to get an idea what i'm doing and see how it works.

just takes time.

as for everyone pawning the problems off on my generation, history repeats its self. i bet you had things handed to you in comparison to your parents, of course looking back you don't think of it that way.

my dad had to work for a traveling circus during the summers when he was 10 years old cause his mother/my grandmother couldn't afford to have him in the house all day for 3 months.

i never had to work for a circus cause my parents were too poor to support me during the summer, so i certainly had it easier then him, but it was far from the fabled childhood like many of you are trying to make it seem that everyone my age has.

and for anyone wondering, my build, over $900 in parts, i earned most of it, my mother gave me $130 of it at christmas, other then that i earned every penny of it myself.

 

[mapbike]

I'm 28 years old and I remember my mom having to mix oatmeal with ground beef to make it stretch out further. I remember birthdays that I cherished the one present that I would receive (usually a plastic GI Joe) and be happy as ****. I rode the same bicycle from the time i was 5 till i was 10, learning how to fix it along the way. I wasnt given a new bike either. I won $150 for selling the most items in a door to door fundraiser my school had put on, and used the money to buy a Huffy 18 speed mountain bike from Sam's club. I don't what generation I fall into, but it really doesn't matter. There was spoiled brats back in the 50's and all the way up to now. The problem is that parents don't have a clue and use material to earn their children's love and respect. My sister in law is a perfect example. She buys all three of her children a toy EVERYTIME they go to Wally World. I asked why? So they don't throw a fit. My son is 2 1/2 and he knows already that if I start counting, he better behave. And I hardly ever have to give any spankings, mostly time outs. My point is, it's def not the kids fault, and most definitely is the parents fault.

Agreed....... the kids are a product of their inviroment and it's the parent responsibilty to make it the right one based on a tried and true value system that we were given buy out creator, yes there have been brats all through human history but now it's hard to find a kid that isn't because the tables have turned and the rebellion and fit throwing that was once frowned upon is now accepted as healthy expression in some cases...........that is hog wash and stern discepline in love will direct the kids in the way they should go.

My dad and mother growing up told my brother and I only once......that was our only warning, they made sure we understood there wishes or rules and then from that time forward we had no excuse for not following it and if we slipped up we were punished, nearly always spanked or as we called it a "whoop-in" and we always knew we had it coming and never rebelled against either of them for it, we knew they loved us and we knew they were doing it for our own good even though we didnt like it, my parents weren't perfect by any means but they demanded & earned our respect through their love, discepline and most of all consistency in all things, they never counted to 3 so we would have just a few more seconds to get away with something or warned us over & over, I did my boys this very same way when they were growing up and some people did say I was to hard on them at times but most of the time those same people would comment on how nice, polite and respectful those boys always were, they were very well behaved in our friends homes and knew not to run around or ask for anything unless they were asking myself or their mom, this teaches them respect of their elders and teaches them patients as well, all kids arent brats I know and we have to handle some different than others but we have lost the correct way to train our kids up in this country as a whole and it shows, the kids rule the roost so to speak in many homes and the parents just give in to their every desire in hopes I guess of buying their love or because they want their kids to like them and be their friend, wrong way to go, we should be their parent, teacher, trainer and if done right they will be our friend as well because of a healthy respect not a friend because we give them their way right or wrong, this latter decription of a friend creates one that will turn on you when things get tough but a friend developed through love and respect will stick it out through thick & thin and this is what we want our kids to be not only for us but for the fellow mankind also.

Just my $.02 nothing more nothing less, nothing said here is meant in anyway to offend and I am now moving away from the raising kids topic......

been lots of good conversation here....... I hope some young parents and soem of the young kids read through this and get some encouragement and maybe even some help from all these great posts, there are for sure lessons to be learned here.

Peace

 

[2door]

Okay, back to bicycles
I pulled the cylinder/piston/rings and replaced them. The carburetor and fuel tank were full of crud so I cleaned them and installed a new (welded on) chain tensioner bracket, adjusted the chain tension and finally rode the little beast this afternoon. It doesn't have the power it once had but that's probably the new rings/cylinder. My neighbor wants to buy it for his daughter. She's 21 and not mechanically inclined but her dad is a motorcycle guy so he'll be able to help her with it if there's problems and they live just around the corner from me so I'm there if she needs help.
I cleaned the rust off the rims and spokes, cleaned it up generally and it's about ready for a new owner.
I really need the garage space so I'll be glad to see it gone. Just hope I don't see it laying on its side in their back yard a year from now.
Tom

 

[Mike B]

One day, in humanities class when we were studying The Iliad, one of the students asked the prof why it was needed to read this stuff over and over. We read it in Jr high, we read it in high school and now here we are reading it again in college.

What is so important about this story that we need to read it over and over again?

The answer was simple and profound.

Because it teaches us that mankind has not changed in over 2000 years.

Yup, nothing is new. We are the same as we were in the times of Homer.

Yup, labor jobs are pretty much toast now, China can do it cheaper.

Today it's business, technology and finance. And it wouldn't hurt to learn Mandarin Chinese either.

 

[mapbike]

Okay, back to bicycles
I pulled the cylinder/piston/rings and replaced them. The carburetor and fuel tank were full of crud so I cleaned them and installed a new (welded on) chain tensioner bracket, adjusted the chain tension and finally rode the little beast this afternoon. It doesn't have the power it once had but that's probably the new rings/cylinder. My neighbor wants to buy it for his daughter. She's 21 and not mechanically inclined but her dad is a motorcycle guy so he'll be able to help her with it if there's problems and they live just around the corner from me so I'm there if she needs help.
I cleaned the rust off the rims and spokes, cleaned it up generally and it's about ready for a new owner.
I really need the garage space so I'll be glad to see it gone. Just hope I don't see it laying on its side in their back yard a year from now.
Tom

Good deal Tom glad to hear she will be getting what sounds to be a good home.......

and yes back to bikes now....... I just get a little wound up because I'm so concerned about our youth these days......

I moved all three of my bikes out of the shop so I could get to the tools I needed to replace a front axle hub on my wifes Monte Carlo this morning, I had to go into town and buy a 35mm axle socket that I didnt have inorder to get the job done so I rode my Scoot that has no peddles, it is also very enjoyable and gets me there and back on those 20 mile round trips to town a bit faster than my MB's because it will cruise at 55-60mph.

Hope to get a upper bearing put in one of the bikes this next week sometime if I can find the time.

My scoot pic below.....

Peace

 

[Tohri]

You can complain about today's youth (I sure do plenty, and I'm 25) But take some comfort in the fact that this is darwinism at work. Maybe I'm just a schadenfreude addict, but when my co-worker said 'Better safe than sorry' the other day I corrected him. No, Better Sorry first. Then they'll know why you're supposed to be Safe. It's when someone grows up in a world free of dangers or penalties that they're heading for being truly sorry.

Besides, I'm waiting for this house of cards we call 'Modern America' to take a nice tumble. I'll be the smug illigitimati that knows how to fix all the stuff that's broken and not made anymore. (Or, you know, just be the guy with the coolest toys. Fu$k the spinny rims you paid a man to put on the Civic you paid a man to 'Tune')

 

[rohmell]

I have a kinda similar story:

On day I was riding my MB and spotted a yard sale, so I stopped. Some kids who were playing in the yard came over to check out the MB, and as we were talking, I come to find out that one of the kids has a Goped that didn't run, so I offered to take a look at it.

Well, the bolts holding the engine to the frame of the Goped were stripped, so I offered to fix it. The kid trusted me to take the engine home, I mean he never saw me before, or anything I could have taken the engine and never come back. So I took the engine cleaned the carb, retapped the holes and added some new bolts and lockwashers, and brought it back the next day and installed it for him. He watched for 5 minutes, then went off to play ball.

A couple pulls on the pull-start and it was running, I rode it up and down the block, it was working great, but the kid didn't seem thankful to me, nor did he say thanks or anything, he seemed more interested in playing ball.

Later that week I passed by his house, and asked how's the Goped, and he said the pull-start broke, and I saw it sitting in the corner of the year tossed like garbage. I took the pull-start off, I guess he had tried to fix it, but the parts were in wrong, so I laid everything out on the driveway and said this is how it goes together. He watched for 5 seconds, then went off to play ball, that pissed me off, so I just left the parts on the driveway, and left.
You know, you try to help out a kid, and they show zero interest in the hows or whys, they are only interested in the final result, and then it breaks, and they spend 5 minutes trying to figure it out, then give up and toss the thing like garbage.

I would have bought it off of him, but it was one of those early Gopeds with the direct friction drive and no clutch, the engine would stall every time you stopped, it was a PITA.

Sorry for boring you with my long story, but I just had a cup of coffee, and I cannot stop.

 

[fishyfish777]

What a shame. Personally, I've been hooked to motor-bicycles since around early last year (I'm 16 turning 17 in a week) and meticulously read over every FAQ and tips thread on this forum before getting an HT - but I can see why some other teens might not fit this hobby well.

For sure, if I wasn't a gearhead I wouldn't see much of the value of the motorbicycle; until you actually look up what they are, do you not realize that they are actually very sensitive and personal machines that require constant care.

However! I don't think it's a matter of values and "taking care of things". I think it's just that teenagers these days are commonly taught that most things are nearly maintenance-free and anything broken has a designated type of person to fix it - for example, in the 60's one might have worked to adjust the valves on a Beetle every few thousand miles in their own garage but now so many things are maintenance-free that teenagers are not taught to take care of their own stuff. This behaviour is, obviously, compounded by the fact that the things a lot of teens are interested in - things like cell phones and video games - are constantly improved and as such will usually be due for a replacement by the time any maintenance is required. Therefore, it's not that teenagers necessarily are simply less respectful these days; they are taught that most things don't really require care and they should focus on what's important (studying and social contact and such) rather than fixing what doesn't need to be fixed.

In conclusion, with everything getting more and more complex, "do-it-yourself" is generally dying out in favor of simply calling a repairman. The HT engine, for example, is contradictory to the things that teens are exposed to these days: it's very finicky, it's very unreliable, and it's very sensitive to everything. So, it's not really that surprising that the hobby is more popular with the older generation who grew up fixing everything themselves and this generation of teenagers doesn't take well to this kind of thing.

With the evolution of new battery technology, inherent reliability, easy installation and rising gas prices, however, we might see a general increase in E-bikes instead.

 

[dtj6ppc]

What a shame. Personally, I've been hooked to motor-bicycles since around early last year (I'm 16 turning 17 in a week) and meticulously read over every FAQ and tips thread on this forum before getting an HT - but I can see why some other teens might not fit this hobby well.

For sure, if I wasn't a gearhead I wouldn't see much of the value of the motorbicycle; until you actually look up what they are, do you not realize that they are actually very sensitive and personal machines that require constant care.

However! I don't think it's a matter of values and "taking care of things". I think it's just that teenagers these days are commonly taught that most things are nearly maintenance-free and anything broken has a designated type of person to fix it - for example, in the 60's one might have worked to adjust the valves on a Beetle every few thousand miles in their own garage but now so many things are maintenance-free that teenagers are not taught to take care of their own stuff. This behaviour is, obviously, compounded by the fact that the things a lot of teens are interested in - things like cell phones and video games - are constantly improved and as such will usually be due for a replacement by the time any maintenance is required. Therefore, it's not that teenagers necessarily are simply less respectful these days; they are taught that most things don't really require care and they should focus on what's important (studying and social contact and such) rather than fixing what doesn't need to be fixed.

In conclusion, with everything getting more and more complex, "do-it-yourself" is generally dying out in favor of simply calling a repairman. The HT engine, for example, is contradictory to the things that teens are exposed to these days: it's very finicky, it's very unreliable, and it's very sensitive to everything. So, it's not really that surprising that the hobby is more popular with the older generation who grew up fixing everything themselves and this generation of teenagers doesn't take well to this kind of thing.

With the evolution of new battery technology, inherent reliability, easy installation and rising gas prices, however, we might see a general increase in E-bikes instead.

Very well said..............Don

 

[rohmell]

Yes I agree. Very eloquently stated.

 

[2door]

If every teen today was like this young man, Fishyfish, there would be a lot less friction between adults and them.
Very well said, Fishy. It's refreshing to see a person of your age with such insight.
Thanks for your words.
Tom

 

[fishyfish777]

If every teen today was like this young man, Fishyfish, there would be a lot less friction between adults and them.
Very well said, Fishy. It's refreshing to see a person of your age with such insight.
Thanks for your words.
Tom

Goes both ways as well, lol. If all adults acted with the same amount of respect and courteousness that you and everyone on this board show to people, the world would be a far nicer place. (Heck, I would have loved to have such an uncle back when I was 13 but obviously that time of my childhood is over and you can already probably guess what I am buying for my 17th birthday in a week, if you know what I mean )

Thank you, all of you, for your kind words.

 

[rohmell]

The way you write and present yourself, I would be very surprised if you are a product of the public school systems. I bet that you were home schooled, or went to private school.

 

[dmb]

after buying my daughter 5 cars in 10 years and 2 dui's.now she's mad at me because i havent powder coated the girls dyno yet! i feel so stouped and ashamed of what has become of my once princess. i hope tough love and bus rides works because thats all i have for her now...sadly... dennis