The Clairebarian was just over two years old the first time she used a bearing press. It was in the middle of November 2016 and I was installing some fresh bearings into the cups of a BSA bottom bracket. She, really, wanted to try it. Suffice it to say the tolerances were loose by any standard, and my tiny mechanic managed the full pressing with minimal grunting. I like to think it was the start of her obsession with press tools. Maybe tools in general. She’s always hovering around when there’s a headset or bearing kit to go into a bike or hub. 

Whether it’s using our miter box, installing some bearings, or whatever we’re up to, I think that using hand tools, and the connection to the work being performed, is an amazing use of time with kids. It’s the physical literacy of using the tools and the transferable, general, mechanical knowledge and experience. Bicycles present a myriad of fun opportunities to passively learn about bolt sizes, thread pitches and directions, torque, and materials. 

Claire and I have been riding the bus a lot since my injury and our topics of conversation range widely and change wildly. The other day on our way home she was playing with the zippers on her various layers while chatting about this-and-that when I pointed out that her rain jacket and fleece appeared to have the same gauge of zipper. Huh?

She looks at them intently and then told me it wasn’t possible. Why not? Because her fleece is from MEC and her jacket is from Showers Pass. Ah, but zippers are like bolts on bicycles. The sizing is standardized and goes beyond brand-X or brand-Y. 

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s the odd shitty bike company out there using easily-broken hollow 8mm aluminum bolts with impossible to find, fine 1.0mm thread pitches. That is, instead of the essentially universal 8-1.25mm. The same thing may happen with zippers, but YKK or otherwise if the teeth fit then zip-it. 

My mind was blown, that my kid’s mind was blown. She’s pressed in more headsets than the average bike shop employee, understands the process of bleeding hydraulic disc brakes, and just did 90% of the work stripping my Waltworks V1 and it simply never occurred to her that the zipper on one side of a jacket would fit together with anything other than their natural pairing on the other side. And apparently, it’s pretty damn cool.

Now, if you’re replacing a zipper, both sides come together. And, really as practical applications go this knowledge extends to making two single sleeping bags into a double and possibly swapping a favourite fleece into one of those 3-in-1 jacket sets that every outdoor gear company sells. But then, how directly transferable is the swapping cranksets or installing disc brakes? 

We made the rest of the journey home, despite the fact it was raining, with Claire’s jacket and fleece zipped together. For her it was hilarious. For me, it was a reminder to look for other examples of ordinary everyday items to drive our mechanical understanding and imaginations.