Dear Gang,

Last night, whilst “her indoors” was in fact out and I was left holding the baby. Once he was asleep and i’d done all the other fatherly jobs like bottle washing/sterilising, tropical fish cleaning, putting bins out etc I thought I would fit my new bottle cages, pump and swap the stem on my road bike.

Any who, its 2230hrs and i’m outside on our decking starting to bolt on cages, stem. Baby Monitor clipped to my top. My 15 week old boy Nathan is likely to awake at any time for a feed. I managed to get done what i wanted to do but the whole time I was very aware that if he woke up i would need to leave the bike and go fuel him up which got me wondering what is the most involved bike maintenance job that anyone has done whilst being in charge of a sleeping baby, monitored on a monitor??

Also is it wrong to test ride upon completion as long as you are still within range on the monitor??

I am tired and not riding enough which may be the influencing factor for a slightly odd post……

Lol I have done this many many times. Also works if you attach baby to your chest using one of those sling/strap things. They get a front row seat to watch the all important fettling too.

Don’t worry, it get’s easier:-)

Cheers PedalHead, when yours are in the sling, where do you get their helmets from?? 😉

more like goggles required…don’t want to get GT85 in the little blighter’s face 🙂

Built a bike with a 1 year olds ‘help’. 2 now Just yesterday he helped me press in a headset. He prefers Thomas the tank engine though.

I do turbo sessions with the monitor. Struggle to hear crying but it has warning lights.

Yup, been there, done that during afternoon naps.

The job would invariably be interupted by the waking child, requiring a mad rush inside, frantic wash of the hands and run upstairs before social services are alerted! His mum would come home and question me over how he got the oily marks on his face later that day!

Someone on here did measure their steerer from the top down rather than the crown race up once whilst doing bike build and childcare.

When he posted he had the now 115mm long steerer of his brand new MX Comps in one hand and a screaming kid beside him.

People didn’t own with Bombers in those days or there may have been trouble.

lol !! 😆

What’s he doing getting up for feeds at 22:30?!
Should he not be sleeping all night?
😉

I also used to get on the turbo when he was napping…actually used to want him to wake up so I had an excuse to get off!

Have done fork and shock servicing with the monitor in the kitchen, I mean workbench!

Yup, My workbench in the garage looks like the flight deck of the space shuttle some nights:
Stereo-check
Monitor-check
Cordless phone (landline)- check
Mobile phone-check
lights on charge-check
keys for the house, so nobody/nothing sneeks in and eat’s them, steals them or fiddles with them-check
lap top (if i’m on the turbo)-check
Fan(if I’m on the turbo)-check………………………
brew-check
like some of you have said though, it’s the “Sh1t, what do I do, the minute it flashes or you hear a rustle, sigh, scream etc!”

We have a 18foot by 10foot workshop at the bootom of the garden. I barely use it.

All my bike stuff is crammed in the garage as I can leave the door to the house open and keep an ear on what’s going on when my wife’s out.

I was trying to ghetto my tyres the other night and the wife was out so I had the back door open and the kitchen door open so I could hear any crys when outside surrounded by empty CO2 canisters and covered in tyre jizz swearing at my back wheel because I couldn’t get it to work. Wife comes home after I threw the towel in and wonders why its so cold in the house when the heating is on. I was still sweating from furiously using the track pump to try inflating the bloody back tyre.

Only thing to watch for as they get bigger is they can crawl out of bed and come downstairs without making a sound: first clue is when the TV goes on!

bled my hope brakes last week with baby monitor in tow
Was very aware that I had to make sure I was not going to transfer any DOT fluid on my hands/clothes etc to baby should she wake up

Done this loads of times

plus

carried out maintainance on my kart for racing using the same principles for years.

Even down to locking the front door 😆

just always wear disposable gloves. then no worries about nasty stuff from hands going onto baby. i reckon most jobs can be safely abandoned to care for the baby. Just brake bleeding that may need ‘making safe’

I find it’s the best time for bike maintenance. Wife’s out, baby asleep, monitor in the garage and a bike to fettle. The next best (bike related) thing to be doing if you can’t ride! 🙂

Brilliant! I’m not the only one then – I have done this many times with our twin girls (now 13 months).

Most involved bit of maintenence might have been a brake bleed? Bike wask, tyre changes etc. including stretching the range of the monitor outside 🙂

I’ve taken my lad to the garage in the pram whilst I do bike fettling. Teach him what’s going on and how to maintain bikes. I’m sure it’s all going in…. (he’s now 8 months).

wear some latex gloves and an apron?

That way you tear both off and give you hands a quic krinse to get the white powder off and your ready for anything!

edit: check they arent allergic to latex first. 😕

*wave*

Yes – thin latex (etc) gloves are the best investment.

As the kids get older and you learn they routine it’s possible to do just about everything to fix the bike.

with the help of a large tarp and a tool box i managed to frame swap in the front room a few times id rathe keep brake bleeds for a free hour not somthing i like to rush
also striped cleaned and rebuilt a scooter eingin in the front room with no problems

gloves are the way tho…. get your marygolds out 😆

also striped cleaned and rebuilt a scooter eingin in the front room

did test running it wake the baby?

it was out the frame had to fully rebuild bottom end so no running involved 😆

The answer is to train your children to do the jobs for you see below Alice has just completed a full service and custom tune and is suitably ‘stoked’:

IMG00113-20101029-1346 by Loco Tuning, on Flickr

heh heh

I once overheard my eldest daughter telling her younger sister that if she ever woke up & came downstairs she could either find dad on the computer in his study or “playing with bikes in the garage”

😳

Nah mate, I wouldn”t worry about it it’s fine. You can’t put your life on hold because your baby is alseep. You wouldnt get any time to do anything otherwise.

you registered just to resurrect a 6 month old thread?

and no link to a dodgy website?

curious.

oops thread necro. Sorry about that.