Proud of the kids, thought I'd post a few pics of the project -- transforming my street triple into a race bike. This was day 1 of our after school club.
Very cool project, looks like they're serious about it. Good luck and keep us informed on the progress.
Sweet! Are there any assignments for them throughout the process like explaining why they chose certain components?
Love the big shop coat on your daughter. I recall somewhat similar efforts with my pop. From this I think I inherited his basically craptastic mechanical skills, but the memories are sweet and the impression has lasted five decades. Good work.
Yeah. Bad assumption on my part as it did look like a class shop. Its just a little weird to bring your own rig in to a project I thought. No matter -- good story.
These are actually grade 6, 7, and 8 students -- I'm the principal of the elementary school, and for the past while we've used the high school shop (next door) to build 2 cafe racers (raffled off for charity) and now my new race bike. High school staff likes it as it's a basic primer of power mechanics for grade 9 at the "new school". I could have built this over a long weekend myself, but I thought it would be another way to involve the kids in a fun project and get them spinning wrenches. The lad in the pics above is really keen on taking auto mechanics in high school, so he jumped at the chance. I appreciate the comments -- a good reminder of the "why" (as if I needed any more motivation!).
Yep -- one of the other participants is a motocrasher... I think he has a KX65 at home or something... so this should help!
The grade 5 and 6 curriculum in science has a unit on "simple machines" -- so what I've done in the past is show students that a complex motorcycle is just a combination of simple machines (lever, pulley, sprocket, etc.). Grade 8 students have a unit on pneumatics and hydraulics (coming up later in the year) so the brake bleeding prior to removal is a good primer!
This is really cool, great way to initiate kids into the manner of all things mechanical. My daughter knows how to change a car wheel (and manually mount and balance a car tire), plus she helped me change out shocks on the Miata. Having exposure to these tasks really helps kids understand basic mechanical concepts as they age, which continues to promote independence as they grow. One thing I would like you to consider is to instill the sense of safety by promoting kids to wear safety glasses when they enter the shop and to wear chemical appropriate gloves when working with fluids like brake and gas. I have trained my daughter to remind me to wear glasses whenever we are in the shop because you never know when someone else is going to start throwing dirt or dust that can get in your eyes, and knowing which gloves to wear for which fluid will promote inherent safety ideals (and prevent some liability issues) in the future. Building a safety culture from the beginning promotes awareness of environmental hazards so that kids are better prepared (and less scared of the unknown) when they have to make critical decisions that can affect themselves and those around them.
Ye Yep, you are right about the PPP -- I realized that the gal at the bleed nipple was OK with her prescription glasses, but the fella with the syringe should have had eye protection as well. I did tell them all about brake fluid and the potential danger of it ahead of time. As for the gloves, I tend to avoid using them, as I immediately tear them and I think they are more hassle than they are worth; however, considering we will be dumping the oil and glycol in upcoming sessions, they would be a good addition as well. I'll pick some up this weekend. We live in a rural area on the Canadian prairies, and I've spoken to parents and kids about "work clothes", or using the shop smocks... none of the boys want to wear them as they (and their folks) are totally fine with getting oil, grease, and etc. on their clothes. I guess it's a farm thing...
Remember about glasses - Prescription glasses that are not ANSI Z87.1 (shatterproof) with side shields can give a false sense of safety and can potentially cause more harm than not.
Ok -- I'll get some direction from the HS power mech teacher. My undergrad degree was in History and English, not Vocational Instruction!
Try several different brands, took me a while to find some I liked. Right now I'm using Derma Pro nitrile black from Advance Auto. Some of them you just look at them and they rip. I was getting Motion Pro's thru PU and liked them but PU quit carrying them or Motion Pro did. I wear them all the time in the shop, my hands are in much better shape because of it.