Is your child’s bike summer holiday ready? Let Little Spanners fix it up!

Kids in Donegal can look forward to a wheelie good summer thanks to a local bike mechanic who’s busy fixing chains and keeping them on the go.

Cess Holden from Little Spanners in Glenties has the tools and skills to revive old bikes, encouraging kids to swap screen time for fun outdoor adventures this summer.

From punctures to rusty chains and broken brakes, Cess provides affordable solutions to any bike issue.

Cess is a familiar face in local schools, where she services kids’ bikes during school hours.

Now that summer is here, she’s offering three service packages: mini, midi, or maxi. Cess will soon announce a workshop schedule at community centers and coffee shops throughout Donegal. The calendar’s final locations will be based on participant interest, ensuring minimal travel.

Services:

• Mini (€20): Puncture repair, chain clean and lubrication, brake block adjustment, and ensuring all nuts and bolts are tight.
• Midi (€30): All of the above + a child-specific bike fit, adjusting the seat, handlebars, and brake levers to suit their size and ability.
• Maxi (€50): All of the above + replacement of cables & inner tubes, adding accessories like stabilisers and baskets, and full gear indexing to ensure smooth gear changes.

Cess also offers a bike assembly service. If you’ve purchased a flat-packed bike from Aldi, Smyths Toys, or a bike shop, she’ll assemble it safely for €20.

Prefer to learn how to maintain your child’s bike?

Join one of Little Spanners’ parent workshops! Cess will demonstrate simple maintenance tasks requiring no specialized tools, but making a significant difference. Learn how to repair punctures and prevent them from recurring. Simply bring yourself and your child’s bike. If the scheduled dates don’t work, gather a group of friends, and Cess can host a workshop at a location convenient for you – even your own garden!

Cost: €10 per person with 1 bike, or €15 for those bringing 2 bikes. Minimum 10 bikes, maximum 15.

Cess’ Business Story: 

Cycling enthusiast Cess is one of Donegal’s few female bike mechanics. She’s no stranger to endurance challenges, including the Donegal Ultra 555 Solo and Mizen to Malin non-stop.

“As my love of cycling has grown, so has my fleet of bikes, and so has my need to maintain them. But I could barely even fix a puncture. My extremely patient friend, Antony, painstakingly showed me how to keep on top of everything. Each time something needed fixing on one of my bikes, we mended it together under his supervision. My knowledge started to grow and so did my collection of tools.”

Cess now holds a Level 2 City & Guilds qualification in Bicycle Mechanics.

“As a fully trained, but still very green mechanic, the next step was to get experience. I was blessed to do my work experience in local national schools servicing kids bikes while they were in lessons. It was a win win situation. Kids got their bikes serviced and I learned my trade. And here I also found my niche,” she said.

“And so Little Spanners was born. Little Spanners because I specialise in kids’ bikes. And Little Spanners as a nod to how it all started. Antony will always be Big Spanners.

“Little Spanners offers service & repairs for kids bikes. We do adult bikes too, but our specialist services are:

• National School Visits – I come into your school for a day. The kids bring their bike to school and I service them while they are in lessons. If you want, I can also provide cycling safety talks or demonstrations where each child can help with their own bike.
• Adult Education Sessions – Parents don’t have the time, the tools or the knowledge to maintain their kids bikes. Our 2 hour workshop gives you big bang for your buck. We’ll teach you how to keep those little bikes roadworthy with the bare minimum of effort.
• Mini Bike Fit – Do you know how high your child’s seat should be, what angle the brake levers should be for little hands, how high the handlebars should be? We’ll do the adjustments and have their bikes set up just for them.
• Bike Repairs and Servicing – at my garage workshop or in a pop-up location. We cover the whole of Donegal.

If you need a bike repair or wish to host a workshop, contact Little Spanners on 083 864 9579 or email cess@littlespanners.ie

Follow @littlespanners on social media for updates on local workshops.

Is your child’s bike summer holiday ready? Let Little Spanners fix it up! was last modified: June 19th, 2025 by Rachel McLaughlin

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