Diary

Week 12

Scribe: Brianna McGee

Wednesday, April 26th 2023

Lab Summary

• • All groups were working on finishing touches on the motorcycle. The engine group was a little behind putting everything together. Groups who were mainly done were also working on their final projects.

Wheels Talk

• • Physics
    • Mass is centered in the middle of the wheel
    • Less mass = easier to stop, start, change direction
  • Materials
    • Increase the durability of the wheel
  • Response to forces
    • Understanding what the motorcycle is meant to do (i.e. turning quickly, stopping, starting)
  • Technology
    • Better machinery
    • Speciality machines that can produce anything
  • Materials
    • Properties of different materials: strength, flexibility, hardness, workability, resistance to corrosion, conductivity, friction coefficient, cost, availability, etc.
    • Rim is made of a mild steel sheet, which is rolled into correct profile, welded, plated with copper, nickel, and chromium; must be strong, rigid, and machinable
    • Spokes are made from mild steel wire
    • Hubs can be made of aluminum then cast, machined, and polished; our hubs were made of steel
    • Bearings are extremely hard, withstand wear, and reduce friction
    • Tires are mainly flexible
  • Efficiency = best performance at the lowest cost
  • Engineering
    • Engineers look at the forces acting on a structure and analyze the effect
    • Dead load → weight of the vehicle itself
    • Live load → rider, passenger, gas and oil, luggage
    • Static load → wheel at rest (effect of gravity)
    • Dynamic load → wheel in motion, 4 types: effect of applying motor power, effect of applying brakes, effect of turning the motorcycle, and effect of striking an object
    • Geometry of the wheel reacts to forces (*triangulation*)
      • 10 sets of groups of four spokes
      • Two are leaning forward, and two are leaning backward
      • Two are attaching to the left side of the hub, and two are attaching to the right side of the hub
    • Basic forces –> compression, tension, shear, bending, and torsion
    • Structural components on forces
      • Tire → cushions the other elements from impact
      • Rim → compression ring that supports the tire
      • Spokes → tension member that supports the rim (no compression in spokes because that would bend the spoke); acceleration → backwards leaning 20 spokes provide tensile reaction; braking → forward learning 20 spokes provide tensile reaction; turning → right or left 20 spokes provide tensile reaction
      • Hub → tension member that supports the spokes
    • Applying forces to an element creates STRESS, and the reaction the stress is STRAIN.
    • Young’s modulus of elasticity

 

Scribe: Brianna McGee

Monday, April 24th 2023

Lab Summary

• • Some groups continued cleaning until they could begin the process of putting everything back together. Other groups began to put the motorcycle parts back together.

Chapter 8 

• • Difference between work and leisure
  • It would be utopian to understand work without external rewards. You find who you are and what makes you happy in your leisure activities. → Wouldn’t the best and most fulfilling work be something you find to be a leisure activity.
  • Community of use. The community aspect is also a reward. To have a community that appreciates your work is a reward in itself.
  • Alienation → factory owns and sells the shoe
  • He likes to fix motorcycles instead of being an electrician because it is more meaningful to him. Psychic utility
  • Final point of the book → suggest that we follow the traces of our own actions that imitate some understanding of a good life

Concluding Remarks 

• • Trip to India → in India, there were different people and different cultures, he didn’t feel connected, he watched some electricians pulling cable through some pipe. He felt connected to these people because he understood what they were doing.
  • Common experiences bring us together. It makes you feel connected to other people. Pirsig welding connection
  • The importance of failure → connection to Pirsig, failing in school is not an option. The whole school system rejects failure. High-up people should understand and have experienced failure.
  • Self-reliance → idea of agency (to be able to do for yourself); reference to activities directed by yourself and not by others; stoic idea of self-reliance
  • Objective measures → tradesmen see their results and their success.

 

Week 11

Scribe: Isaac Gyamfi

Wednesday, 19th April 2023

Intro

• The engine will come together on Monday.
• We hope to finish SCAS on Monday too.

Lab Activity Update

• Engine Group: Used punches and press to create circle with a gas kit material; laser cutting

• Frame Group:  Cleaning and priming

• Electricals Group: Putting the oil tubes together and making adjustments to the throttle.

• Wheels: Lubricating threads of the spoke

• Suspension: 

Chapter 7 SCAS

• Is memorizing for standardized test learning although you’re gaining knowledge?
• Wisdom is how you apply what you know while knowledge is what you know.
• Testable skills like memorization are deceptive – the chess player analogy.
• The Ohms law reference.
• In society, people value universalists than practicians.

 

 

 

Scribe: Isaac Gyamfi

Monday, 17th April 2023

Intro

• Prof Littman gave updates on how he worked on the motorcycle frames during the weekend 
• A guest professor will be visiting the class next week to talk about mechanical stress and strain.
• Prof Littman talked about the five types of basic forces: compression, tension, shear, bending, and torsion. 

Lab Activity Update

• Engine Group: Cut the valves with a lapping compound 

• Frame Group:  Another layer of Bondo

• Electricals Group: Making fittings for the battery box and oil reservoir.

• Wheels: Installed the spokes / re-spoking the wheels.

• Suspension: Cleaning 

Chapter 6 SCAS

• What’s the purpose of college? According to the author, it is to provide credentials and establish social stratification. 
• There’s a mismatch between forms and content.
• Content is more about knowledge and form is more about protocols like meeting deadlines, etc
• The class discussed the author’s job experience – writing abstracts and indexing.
• The class shared their future aspirations.
•  Emotional intelligence transcends to managing workers at workplaces.
•   To be a manager, you have to bend your ego.
• How is being part of a crew different from being part of a team?

 

 

Week 10

Scribe: Arlo Cohen

Wednesday April 12

Intro

• Prof Littman got sanding paper for rust for frame group

Lab Summary

• Engine Group: Sanded head of piston, Kept cleaning
• Frame Group: More bondo, cleaned pieces of triple tree
• Fluids/Cables: Worked on connecting the battery box and oil reservoir
• Wheels: Lacing spokes on rear wheels, put spokes on the wrong side of hub
• Suspension: Pressed the bushes onto the stanchions using arbor press

Chapter 5 SCAS

• Author’s life story-BA in physics, then PhD in Philosophy, but didn’t like academia
• Instead worked as mechanic, discussed his own thoughts on pricing
• Didn’t have to put a costume on to work as a mechanic
• Can always switch paths in life
  • Coulomb didn’t get to science until 40
• Not good to get tunnel visioned into one part of a job
• Is mechanic in service of himself of customer-affects the type of work one does
  • Who should be financially responsible if a mechanic goes above and beyond?
• Profit can be ethical, but can also not be
• Hydraulics: master cylinder is much bigger than slave cylinder, so that pressing master cylinder a little bit pushes slave cylinder much more

Chapter 6 for Monday 

Monday April 10

Intro

• Barrels can be measured and straightened using lathe-oil comes out of the exhaust if the barrels are top big
• Prof. Littman cleaned out hubs for wheel group, got bushes for forks
• Necessary to lubricate parts before putting them together

Lab Summary

• Frame Group: Bondo
• Engine Group: Cleaned, counted teeth on gears to try to determine transmission type, mapped engine with laser
• Fluids/Cables: Worked on fabricating pieces for handlebars
• Wheels: drilled holes in the hubs so that the heavier duty spokes could fit
• Suspension: Used emory paper to clean forks

Chapter 4 SCAS

• Some people are better fits for certain jobs, “different types of work attract different human types”
• In practice vs. in theory-in theory there’s no difference, but there is
• String theory: attempts to combine weak force, strong force, electromagnetism, gravity-particles are resonances
• Makes distinction between creator, repair person-repair person has to be more attentive to work with something he/she did not create
• Idiot means not concerned about others-some mechanics are idiots
• Friend had difficulty drawing a skeleton-look at what you’re copying, move it around so that you focus on details, observations
• Connection to Persig, Persig’s bad mechanic
  • Assumed problem must be one thing without even checking
  • Can check hypotheses-ex: check stiffness of springs
  • Previous owner had made spring stiffer-to get to higher RPM, but caused the valve stem to mushroom
• Mechanic needs to be attentive, just like a doctor

 

Chapter 5 for Wednesday

 

Week 9

Scribe: Maisha Atkinson

What we did last week

Mc- clean up carburetor, sandblasted and cleaned up valves

Tasman- sandblasted – difficulty 

Jackie- cleaning up fender, bondo- pasty material in a can and add hardener to set and to fill in dents in metal and then smooth out and sand it off; filler compound, don’t use too much hardener

Bri- finishing cleaning smaller parts of bottom end

Paige- getting ready to do bondo

Heather- preparing to do bondo

Maisha – got new bearings, cleaned parts

Lucas- new bearings, cleaned up parts

Joseph- sanded cover for engine, start polishing

Mia- work out why throttle wasn’t twisting properly; grip was going too far, grip longer than holder so throttle wouldn’t work right, have to extend holder

Conlan- new bearings, cleaning

Arlo- cables

Tim- suspension worked on sandblasting stanchions; weren’t completely straight and had to test on table; went from light to heavyweight forks on motorcycle because they were bending; stanchions are long metal cylinders that run through fork tubes

Isaac- finished getting the clutch and cables together; electrical cables device; rotor (rotating magnet) 

Bakari- sandblaster on stanchion, bend on stanchion, looked on ebay for new pieces; prof bought new bushes for stanchions

 

Groups will start putting motorcycle back together now parts are back from powdercoater

 

Next week reading

Chapters 2 and 3 Wednesday

Chapter 4 next Monday

Chapter 5 Wednesday

First discussion of “Shop Class as Soulcraft”

Introduction

• Intro serves to talk about why the author wanted to write about the book
  • I hope it will speak to those…
  • Audience was specifically for those who didn’t want to go into trades
  • Manual competence
  • Stress the importance of doing stuff with hands
  • How we speak about value of work (upscaling the workforce) people more detached from fundamentals of tech
  • Romanticizes hands on jobs
    • Time at ‘think tank’ was not fulfilling
  • Connection to zen because they both have phds from Chicago
  • “How many of our high schools offered shop class”
    • (1 or two hands including prof)
• Agency
  • The struggle for individual agency
  • He grew up on a commune
• Had worked as an electrician
  • The fact that when you turn a light on then you know you’ve done a good job
• Down on managers
• Managers (page 9 quote) “…they must answer to”
• Competent jobs don’t need to brag
• Teamwork and responsibility
• “The team vs the crew”

Chapter 1

• Describing decline of shop class, what reasons are offered?
  • Shift toward tech class and away from the hands on classes like shop
  • To fund schools having more computers; information economy ( in connecting ch1 to intro), college prep classes
  • Manual work put on a pedestal as opposed to other types of labor
    • Talks about how fulfilling it is
    • Manual work is lower nowadays
    • Put on a pedestal to be consider as good as education
    • Stigma against manual jobs that make parents not want to do it
    • Alan blinder quote
    • Manual competence; doing things yourself gives you a sense of peacefulness
    • Makes almost an economic argument that skilled jobs are moving offshore
    • Going to college and getting a skilled job isn’t necessarily great
  • 1970s Act that created shopclasses
    • Their way to have everyone at same skill level in vocational training
    • Mass immigration and federal immigration shutdown immigration in 1950
    • Immigrants were thought of as unskilled, didn’t speak the language, etc
    • Henry ford hired immigrants
    • The children of managers could make something nice for mom while lower class children could become more socialized into what they’ll likely be doing
  • How chat gpt and ai is changing workforce and how manual workers could be replaced
  • “You can’t hammer a nail through the internet” (yet)
  • “A washing machine exists for our needs…”
  • “The repairman has to begin each job by…”
  • “Surgeon’s judgment is simultaneously…”
  • “My purpose in this book is to…”
    • Possible thesis statement
  • “…Not so much problem solving as problem finding”

 

Wednesday

• With model t brakes, band that goes around steel drum;needed new kevlar liners
• Reports
  • Prof – (on wheels) instead of sandblasting, used a dremel tool to get the paint off the hubcap; (handle grip)fix handle with a shim, they need to extend the cylinder the grip for the throttle goes around; ordered new set of steels and fiber washers for carburetor group
  • MC- threw valve springs into parts washer, cleaner carburetor, needle clip is broken may need to be spot welded, when you spot weld bronze it can get brittle
  • Tasman-same as MC
  • Jackie- worked on frame started to bondo gas tank, may need a second layer today
  • Paige – bondo
  • Arlo- working on throttle
  • Heather- bondo
  • Joseph- working on gaskets, took out scanner, scanned engine covers to make vector graphics for laser cutter
  • Lucas – getting paint off of hubs, spokes are too big for hub so we need to drill larger holes
  • Joshua- cleaned and worked on gasket
  • Isaac – armature and got a signal on the scope
  • Tim- wrapped emory paper on metal rods, need to clean out sand
  • Anything that has sand in it from powder coater needs to get ALL sand out, essential for moving parts
  • Conlan- starting to get sand out of hubs
  • Mia – working on throttle
• Science discussion
  • Toyota discussion about combustion
  • Emissions
    • Emissions from a motorcycle (gasoline engine), what comes out the gas pipe is c02, carbon monoxide, water, CH818, un combusted fuel aka unburned hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides, sulfur oxide
    • Air to fuel ratio
    • Stoichiometric ratio, air to fuel ratio
    • Too much fuel means running rich, not enough fuel means running lean
    • Triumph tiger cub engine calculations
      • C8H18+12.5o2 – 8CO2+9 H2O   balanced chemical reaction for octane burning
      • Energy released is 44400 joules for every gram of C8H18
      • Air is 21% oxygen, nitrogen is 79%
      • Breathing is an important part of an engine
      • 3.76 nitrogen molecules for every oxygen molecule
      • 1 mole of octane needs 12.5 moles of oxygen
      • Our engine is a 200cc or ⅕ of a liter; how much does 200 ccs of air weigh?
      • Top speed of engine is 6000 rpm or 100rps
      • At top engine speed there are 50 explosions per second
      • The engine is about ¼ efficient
        • Where does the rest of the energy go? Heat; hot gasses come out, we have to cool the engine
        • Typical 
        • Diesels are better
      • How can we get more energy per explosion?
        • More displacement
        • Higher starting pressure in cylinder  – supercharger (increasing pressure)
        • Use pure oxygen instead of air
      • More power – more energy per explosion
• Shop class as a soulcraft
  • Chapter 2
    • Degradation of blue collar labor and then white collar labor when we separate such thought processes from working with material both jobs are degraded
    • People use all ingenuity to more people are experts at one thing one thinks, the rest do
    • Discussion about going to college
      • You don’t have to stay in a cubicle your whole life
    • Discussion on henry ford and assembly lines (963 workers)
      • Doubled wages in 1913-14, reduced work day, three shifts to keep factory working all hours, profit sharing so workers could invest in company and buy their own cars
      • Henry ford philosophy that work makes one feel valuable
      • Very particular about his workers 
    • Getting out of working on an assembly line.. Personal anecdote on how his experience in military and assembly line relates to discussion in chapter
  • Chapter 3
    • Idea of being a master of one’s own stuff
      • In order to learn to use a machine you need to first fail
    • Motorcycle as a mule what is he criticizing in this comparison
      • Motorcycle is like an animal which needs to be tamed, and must be lubricated.. Wouldn’t be riding a motorcycle if you were an optimist, needs more judgment on the human’s part
    • Examples used (build-a-bear, agencies controlling technology)
      • They’re part of a marketing strategy to make us believe we have our own creativity, same with American Girl dolls, IKEA (all parts are there and fact that you put it together yourself gives a sense of relation to furniture)
      • Creativity comes from long practice
      • Legos
      • Programming
        • Assembly level programs lowest level of programming
        • Grace Hopper
        • Literal computer bug created the term
    • Device versus a thing

Week 8

Scribe: Timothy Tymecki

March 29, 2023 (Wednesday)

Lab Report

• The Top Engine team cut the fuel line and helped to clean the valves for the engine.
• The Frame team worked on sandblasting the gas tank and fenders.
• The Bottom Engine team polished the ending covers.
• The Wheels team helped clean parts of the wheels and prepared for the new spokes.
• The Cables and Electronics team continued to fabricate parts for the motorcycle cables and clutch.
• The Suspension team used the parts cleaner to polish the threads of various parts.

Professor Ju

• He is interested in biofuels  and has worked with various companies like Exxon, NASA, as well as various Japanese companies for sustainability and energy efficiency. He also is involved in 3 start-up companies.

 

• Hydrogen could be fuel in the future, through ammonia. Ammonia is easier to handle than compressed hydrogen gas.

 

• IHI, a Japanese company, is leading the path for the research and development of ammonia as energy. 

 

• Gas turbine engines are essentially just a fan, and like an internal combustion engine, requires heat to function. 
• Peak efficiency for an internal combustion engine is about 30%, gas turbine efficiency can be between 30 and 40 percent. 
• Hydrogen fuel cell is hydrogen on one side and oxygen on the other side with a polymer membrane separating them. By slowly oxidizing hydrogen, electricity can be generated with the byproduct of water. Efficiency is very high, about 80 to 90%.
• Methane-based energy sources are not really clean energy.
• The average efficiency for a coal plant is about 38%.
• Ammonia today is made through the Haber–Bosch process. Prof. Du is working with the U.S. Department of energy to make ammonia through a new process.
• Professor Ju started the sustainable energy certificate 
• Biofuel has different definitions, but started from George Bush The 1st gen of biofuels is from plants, such as ethanol from corn, while 2nd gen include other sources, such as from algae.

• John (from our lab) dislikes using ethanol because it can damage the engine over time
• Prof. Ju agrees that ethanol can be harmful because of the lack of lubrication and that ethanol is a strong solvent. 
• Ability of the fuel to govern knock, which when fuel burns unevenly in an engine’s cylinders, due to a piston disrupted by detonation. 
• Detonation is a spike in pressure and temperature, which causes a shockwave in the engine.
• The number you buy at the pump is called the cetane number for diesel and octane number for gasoline. For example, 87 for Regular or 92 for Premium are these numbers you see at a gas station.
• Octane is C8H18, a hydrocarbon
• Higher octane fuels are less likely to auto-ignite.
• Knock causes the loss of power as well
• Practical advice: Don’t buy a higher octane fuel if you have a car that does not specifically need it. Only a high compression ratio vehicle needs them.
• Diesel engines have a higher compression ratio, and don’t pre-mix the fuel, meaning they are generally better and don’t knock.
• Diffusion means collision of molecules, from high to low concentrations. A candle is non-premixed diffusion, whereas a Bunsen burner or our motorcycle is a premixed diffusion flame.
• Prof. Du is concerned about electrical fires with electrical vehicles. 
• The batteries for EVs use lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. In China, they use LFP, or Lithium iron phosphate, in EVs.

 

Ending notes:

Read the first 70 pages for Shop Class as SoulCraft

Final presentation should be about 10-15 minutes in length

Professor Littman is preparing for a Model-T demonstration next week

March 27, 2023 (Monday)

Lab Reports from last class

• The Top Engine team took the carburetor apart and worked on the choke. They also confirmed that the motorcycle has a standard- size barrel. 
• The frame team worked on sandblasting various parts
• The Bottom Engine team worked on trying to separate the flywheel to get access to the connecting rod. They also polished up the engine covers.
• The cables team fabricated various parts for the handlebars and clutch
• The wheels group prepared for the new spokes by examining the new rims. They learned the rims were not symmetrical. 
• The suspension team used emery paper on the stanchions and took off the grease nipples.

 

Meeting with Professor Arnold:

• He is passionate about MAE, entrepreneurship, and blacksmithing. 
• Sandblasting knocks off the rust
• Corrosion is when a material starts to decay. Materials decay in a certain type of way based on the elemental composition
• Iron needs oxygen and water to rust, because it’s an electrochemical reaction.
• WD-40 stands for Water Displacement Formula 40. It keeps water away. 
• WD-40 is an oily compound that can also help reduce friction.
• Lard is environmentally safe and can substitute for WD-40
• We could paint parts, trying chroming, to prevent rust from occurring
• It is actually good that chrome oxidizes, as opposed to iron.
• The foam in the motorcycle seat was still squishy, but had air cavities. The leather was in good shape. This surprised Professor Littman, as leather usually becomes brittle as it corrodes.
• All materials corrode and eventually need to be replaced.
• For bridges, the tension of the supporting cables is greatest at the top of the tower, but the cables are most likely to break at the bottom, where there is the least tension. 
• Powder coating tends to be better than painting for corrosion control.
• In general, things break at sharp corners. 
• To choose materials for a project, consider what properties you want. We use glass for windows because it is transparent, even though it is fragile. 
• Carbon and Nitrogen atoms resist the change in shape in Iron, making it harder through solid solution hardening
• Steel is an alloy of iron + carbon. More carbon leads to a harder, brittle, and less ductile material. Steel is tough. It takes a lot of effort to deform it, but it can be deformed a lot before it breaks.
• You want a material for cars or motorcycles to absorb energy so you don’t have to.
• Tough materials can absorb a lot of energy, toughness is the technical term
• Bolts can be made harder so they can withstand shear force
• Powder coating needs an electrical field so the field can attract the powder towards the material. 
• Grease is effective at preventing rusting by being oily. Oil and water don’t mix. 
• When it comes to materials, there is a certain probability that the estimate could be wrong. Safety factors in engineering are important to mitigate risk factors.
• Corten steel, used in various parts of campus, is a stable oxidized type of steel.
• Rust continues to rust like an onion of deeper and deeper layers.

Week 7

Scribe: Heather Jung

Wednesay Mar 22

Fluids

Intro:

• doesn’t keep shape very well
• Continuing and can analyze the dynamics of blobs of fluid particles 
• Fluids are always opposing the motion
  • Laminar flow transition to turbulent flow 
  • Golf ball dimples create more resistance (skin friction) for better form drag by closing the wave
• Often propulsion requires a working fluid- gasoline, nozzle nuances
• Sometimes the two combine
  • Sailboat- water drag -rudder, air- propulsion system sail

Carburation: 

• Fluid dynamics of carburation
  • Venturi effect- for an incompressible flow, a reduction of area causes an increase in local flow velocity and a consequent decrease in presser
• Carburetor
  • Control engine power by adjusting air intake flow according to command of rider
  • Meter the fuel flow in the air flow aspirated maintaining the ratio of air/fuel to optimal values throughout the engine operating 
  • Homogenize air flow

Fin’s Heat Transfer:

• Temperature of hot gases inside cylinder can be as high as 2000 C
• Cylinder head at much lower temperature
• Convective heat transfer
  • Increasing h requires a pump or a fan – Nu = f(Re,Pr) – otherwise we can increase A
  • Fins on the engine increase the area (A)
  • Tb is constant
• Energy balance for a fin, can optimize perimeter

External aerodynamics:

• Through computation, can make geometrical model and calculate drag → improve performance of vehicle
• Faster you go, more drag, more friction on wheels 
• Lighter is better in engineering, less complexity 

Monday Mar 20 

Logistics/Announcements

• All parts were sent to the powder coater and are expected to be sent back and be ready to be worked on by Wednesday
• Class this Wednesday: Professor Martinelli
  • Meet at lab right at 1:30 and will have precept at 3
• Next Wednesday: Prof. Joo- energy
• No readings this week, but will be starting 2nd book soon 
• Everyone will have to do a presentation which will need to include some technical element

Demonstration

• Make and break coil

• Classic magnetic oscillator
• Pulsed DC
• Changed magnetic field at same frequency as it is buzzing

Book Discussion

CH 27

• Narrator grabs at shadow and sees it is himself- phaedrus

CH 28

• Mythos- story and logos- rationality that explains the mythos/stories that you are told
• Depending on what culture you are a part of – explain the world differently 

CH 29

• Loneliest people in biggest cities due to bigger psychic distance 
• Arete- greek for ‘excellence’ 
• Aristotle breaking down rhetoric is similar to how narrator breaks down parts of motorcycle 
• Sophists used stories to explain the world but plato, socrates won the debate
• Bc won the debate- western world has been operating based on this mythos that truth is objective, way of explaining the world (immortal principle of cosmologists)

CH 30

• Trying to beat the chairman at his own game as well as aristotle 
• Phaedrus as the wolf
• Chris is crying at the end bc misses Phaedrus

CH 31

• Realizes glass door dream was not a dream but a memory from when Phaedrus was at the hospital 
• Personal struggle with his duality affects his ability to be a good father to Chris
• Phaedrus coming out and Chris is able to talk with lost father again

CH 32

• Make it to the oceans of California
• Comes to first circle- Chris asks for his own motorcycle
• Owning and taking care of motorcycle is an exercise in tuning and taking care of oneself, having the right attitude
• Phaedrus is the “good” guy but is he really, if struggles to keep himself together with all these ideas

Afterword

• Pirsig’s own analysis- culture bearing, the era had a role in the success of the book
• Younger culture rejecting the adults world, lots of resistance and counter cultural movements (vietnam war)
• Chris was murdered → Nell 
• Ghost and spirit in different cultures- searching for something that existed previously  everywhere
• Pirsig trying to find the patterns he had with Chris again and finds it in Nell 

Week 6

Scribe: Joseph Norwood

Monday, March 6, 2023

LAB WORK RECAP:

The whole class was deep in the cleaning portion of the restoration process. Everyone was using the parts cleaner, sandblasting, and preparing all the parts that would be sent to be powder coated.

SCIENCE:

This week’s reading sparked a discussion about special relativity, general relativity, matter, and antimatter. We also briefly discussed gravitational waves for fun.

Content: Black hole video, picture of Einstein’s Cross, and new quotations added to the website

Dem0: Today’s demo was a stator and a rotor. We saw how a change in magnetic flux induces a voltage in coils of wire. The rotor we saw was composed of 6 pole magnets, while the stator was composed of 6 coils of wire with an iron core. We learned that using an iron core as a dielectric within the solenoids increased the outputted voltage, because the iron has a higher permittivity than air. We also discussed how in our motorcycle, there are three sets of coils for the horn, lights, and starter.

BOOK DISCUSSION:

Chapter 22

Famous scientists mentioned: Poincaré, Euclidian, and Reeman.

Ways of describing nature: True facts and conventions.

We discussed how some things are unprovable.

Chapter 23

Previously, we saw the narrator separated from his family by a glass door. We discovered in this chapter that the glass door is a coffin and the person in the coffin is actually Phaedrus!

Note: Most of today’s reading was incorporated in the scientific discussions of class.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

LAB WORK RECAP:

All restoration groups are continuing to clean. The one non-cleaning note mentioned was that there was some difficulty removing the hub of the wheel. This problem was resolved outside of class.

SCIENCE:

Some scientific terms discussed include Faraday’s Law and the concept of a solenoid. Faraday’s Law basically says that a coil of wire will want to generate a flux to oppose any change in flux. This causes there to be an induced EMF in the wire when there is a changing flux through the loop.

Content: Video of a beautifully restored Tigercub. (Although, it did have the wrong carburetor.)

Demo: There was a lego demonstration using 2 lego motors and a lego generator. Interestingly, the Lego generator has a commutator to produce DC voltage instead of AC. A spark plug and an ignition coil were also brought in.

BOOK DISCUSSION:

Chapters 24 to 26

We discussed the idea presented by the narrator of gumption.

We described these chapters as the “self-help” section of the book.

One tool mentioned is a spiral screw extractor. This tool has reversed threads that bite into a screw or bolt pulling the stuck piece out as it digs in.

The combination of technology and art. (During this discussion, we saw the video of the restored Tigercub and agreed it was art and technology combined!)

Being stuck is an opportunity for growth.

The different types of gumption traps: the first is called “setbacks” when external forces cause problems and the second is “hang-ups” when internal forces (a.k.a. yourself) cause problems that delay the completion of a project.

We also discussed the monkey trap. When a monkey reaches in a hollowed-out coconut for rice and is captured when it is unwilling to let go of the rice to pull its hand out.

Week 5

Scribe: Mary Christian (MC) McCoy

Wednesday, March 1, 2023 

LAB WORK RECAP:

General Tasks for Today – Collect and clean parts (e.g. wheel hubs) that need to be powder coated

Electronics Group – Look at new distributor cap, needs to sandblast old one in order to make sure they match. Took apart old throttle and started to but it back together. Need a new spring for the throttle.

Engine Group – Cleanout all parts of the engine. Used flatheads to scrape off old wasp nests and oil. Cleaned off transmission

Frame Group – Cleaned out threads, reinstalled bolts to protect threads during painting, 

Suspension Group – Took spring out of front fork, finished up parts cleaning. Going to continue cleaning today

Wheels Group – Took bearings out of old wheels, needed to use some WD-40 in order to take it apart. Took at axle, pounded it through with mallet at first. Going to take apart rest of the wheel today. 

SCIENCE:

New Information about Gears, Chains, and Sprocket put into Science section of website

Stick-slip friction – if a weight is put on a surface, and the force needed to make it move equals mu x normal force. 

• Contact points – place whers friction occurs betweens two surfaces sliding past one another
• What matters is the contact between surfaces, not the roughness.

BOOK DISCUSSION:

Chapter 19

Discussion Leader: Joseph

• According to Chris,  the narrator spoke all night about the mountian, but the narrator doesn’t remember
• First mention of narrator’s other son, and all about his isolation from his family. Was this isolation caused by Phaedrus’ desire to figure out quality and rationality?
• They never make it to the summit of the mountain because they are afraid of getting too high. Higher elevation – higher level of understanding.
• Dilemna: Is Quality objective or subjective? Cannot be scientifically measured but also is not purely subjective
• Emotional response is separated from the big picture, the romantic from the classic. 

Chapter 20

• Quality is Tao. Tao is a rejection of all definitions. Quality cannot be defined. 
• What does it mean that “the Zen on top of mountains, is the Zen you bring there”? Class interpretation – Zen is the journey/pilgrimage to the narrator
• Narrator is scared that as he goes further on the road and in his thoughts, that something terrible is going to happen. He thinks Phaedrus will be at the top of the mountain. 

Chapter 21

• What does descending back down the mountain mean? 
• Narrator starts attacking the classical analysis instead of the romantic analysis. 
• Transitionary chapter to prepare for the next. 

Further Discussion

• Quality comes from comparison
• Phaedrus is always finding conjectures to his current problem
• Taking what works as true is questionable. 
• Trifecta of quality, objectivity, subjectivity – why are these three equal?

Monday, February 28, 2023

LAB WORK RECAP:

Frame Group – Sandblasted joints and cleaned up frame. Found caps to be utilized during painting to protect the threads.

Top Engine Group – Got rockers out of head and cleaned head. Took valves out with spring clamp. Keepers exploded out of the valve. One valve had to be tapped out with a mallet and a punch. Sandpaper had to be used to sand down where the valve mushroomed around the keeper. 

Bottom Engine Group – Took apart remaining transmission. Counted the gears’ teeth in the transmission in order to identify it. 

Electrical Group – Handlebars got new groups. Started to prepare for new cables

Suspension Group – Used parts cleaner to start preparing for their work. 

SCIENCE:

Friction in the Clutch 

• In low gear, the ratio of 20 revolutions of the engine caused 1 revolution of the rear wheel, therefore a 20 times increase in torque.
  • This helps figure out how many foot pounds (turning force) is needed to cause the rear wheel to slip

A Torque Indicator can be placed on an engine’s gear. The needle inside indicates when the clutch starts slipping.

• If the rear wheel locked up, the clutch would start to slip to protect the engine. A cable attached to the clutch through the handlebars frees it
• The slipping point can be adjusted by changing the clutch’s spring compression. 

Clutch Basket is made up of 3 plates

• Normal Force x Coefficient of Friction = Slipping Force
• By using multiple plates, there would need to be more normal force needed in order to cause slipping.
• Area between pieces flattens out of points of contact, and it increases with more plates (See Scientific American Article in DATA)
• With so many plates, there is a needed normal force from the plates and friction from the metal that would cause the clutch to slip at 10 foot pounds. Using multiple plates helps balance the force in the springs.

BOOK DISCUSSION:

Chapter 17

Discussion Leader: Maisha

No motorcycle or technical references

Content:

• Opens with a story about the narrator, his wife, and a bull moose. Symbolically, Chris is the moose.
• All relates to Quality, specifically in writing. Phaedrus was trying to find out and define quality.
• Through this discussion of quality, Phaedrus has realized through the ratings of his students that there is an objective aspect to Quality. 
• Quality to you is what quality is. It can be helped through tools like outlines to unity, footnotes to create authority, etc. 
• Phaedrus is still unsure on how to define quality

Chapter 18

Discussion Leader: Class Led

• Quality in relation to the field of esthetics, and how this philosophy can be invalidated.
• A Quality-less world is highly different from our own, therefore, it must exist. 
• Quality is a proof of God, in that Quality exists because Quality exists. It all boils down to an issue of existence, even if Quality is undefinable
• How do we know if something exists? Definitions limit what something is. 
• If Quality does exist, can you leave it undefined?

Week 4

Scribe: Conlan Diamond

Monday 2/19/2023

Science Content

-A new tab was added to the website called “Science”

-Principle of Virtual Work (work in = work out) – allows us to figure out mechanical advantage, useful for when using gears (number of teeth and circumference) 

-Work= force*distance

-See-saw – if the distance from the fulcrum is the same, force up is equal to force down, a smaller kid should be further from the fulcrum

-If you want to lift something heavier, you want a finer threat (can get a larger force);however, the finer the threat the more careful you have to be

-A brief discussion of coulomb friction → Horizontal Force = (Coefficient of Friction) * (Normal Force)

Recap of Work Done

Wheels – analyzed and documented the patterns of spokes on front and rear wheels, four different types of spokes, pattern of spokes have to be applied to the new wheels, started cutting off the tires

Electrical – unblocked cables, washed engine tank, started work on oil reservoir

Frame – disassembled to the base frame, many of the bolts were tricky getting out, learned about the versatility of tools, will start cleaning and sandblasting today

Suspension – started cleaning parts, especially the Triple Tree

Engine – started taking the head apart (there was a rusted bolts, so had to clean out the threads), got the barrel of by hammering down the piston (which is standard sized), took out the clutch cable, the transmission will come out today, got the distributor unstuck by using a hammer and a chuck

Book

Chapter 12 

Discussion Leader: Arlo

Motorcycle References – none

Technical References – he jiggles it, the problem was the switch and not a loose wire

Content : 

-At the beginning of the chapter, there is a sense of remoteness as he has a detachment from his emotions

-Studies in India —> studied eastern philosophy and didn’t get much out of it

-Separating subject and object → “Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom.”

-Chapter accentuates the narrator’s isolation, might not even be able to connect with his previous friends, this motorcycle trip is his way of finding meaning

-An interesting point was brought up – What does everyone else think of his shock therapy as we only get the narrator’s perspective? How have his relationships changed?

Chapter 13

Discussion Leader: Tasman

Motorcycle References – none

Technical References – beer signs – fluorescent light, illuminates gas due to high voltage, often neon

Content:

-Phaedrus does not believe his university should be accredited as it was only teaching people and was not conducting research, thus not making it a real school

-Accreditation – committee to make sure school is doing the right thing, like an audit, Princeton is going through this process right now

-Church of Reason – a church is not a church because of a building, bur rather what it embodies and the faith that is associated with

-In the same manner, a university is not the campus, but rather its goal “to serve, through reason, the goal of truth.”

 

Wednesday 2/22/2023

Recap of Work Done

Wheels – removed rear tire from rim, started taking off the spokes (used spoke wrench to loosen wheel nipples) in each wheel in order to save spokes for comparison, also going to save the hubs

Electrical  -sandblasted the entire oil tank, matched up the battery box and electrical box

Frame – washed off the frame and sandblasted to see if there was any damage (had to tape holes before sandblasting), trying to find cracks in frame, in previous years,  they sent the frame to the shop with holes and had to get it back, weld it, and then send it back again, trying to avoid that this time

Sandblaster – box with gloves, hose with compressed air that blasts air and sand, works same way as carburetor, can chip away little metal and paint, can use walnut shells which is less harmful, 

Suspension – started work with the Triple Tree, cleaned it up, there is a constriction where oil has to go through and gives you dampening along with the spring, got it apart to see the dampening (there are different types of dampening)

Engine –  had to get rockers out of the head but blocked by bolts, finally removed bolts on intake and exhaust sides, rockers have been removed, the crankshaft was removed, in the transmission now

Science Content

Coulomb Friction (Stick-Slip Friction) – Horizontal Force = (Coefficient of Friction) x (Normal Force)

– main sprocket turns clockwise, which pulls the chain forward, and the back sprocket turns the wheels clockwise, maximum friction occurs when the chain slips

– Our motorcycle has a 4 speed transmission, the demonstration in class was a 2 speed transmission, there is a mechanical advantage in the lowest gear

– The top speed of our motorcycle is 60mph

Book:

Chapter 14 

Discussion Leader – Brie

Motorcycle References – None

Technical References – Downshifting → lower gear to get more torque, also known as engine braking

Content:

– Art represents continual change and science is more about small individual units and assumes the progression of continuity, science is about breaking things apart

– When putting together instructions, this chapter stresses that there are many different ways to do so, forming a sense of creativity

– Peace of mind is required when working with motorcycles as anger leads to mistakes

–“‘Peace of mind isn’t at all superficial, really,’ I expound. ‘It’s the whole thing. That which produces it is good maintenance; that which disturbs it is poor maintenance. ….’”

-Welding brings the artist and the narrator together

Chapter 15 

Discussion Leader – Bri

Motorcycle References/ Technical References – None

Content:

-Main focus of this chapter centers around Quality – “Quality … you know what it is, yet you don’t know what it is.”

-Phaedrus is trying to figure out what quality is in writing, grading a writing assignment is difficult

-When do we know we did a good job, appearance or function, or is it a balance?

– The chapter displays the passionate and caring side of Phaedrus, he shows concern for his students

-Rhetoric – making an argument, there is an element of persuasion

 

Chapter 16

Discussion Leader – Tasman

Motorcycle/ Technical References – None

Content:

-Has an experiment without having grades – those with better grades liked delaying grades – findings show that A students have an interest and are motivated by knowledge, Arlo’s experience matches these findings

-Grades limit us, life has no rubric, someone pursuing knowledge itself can be more free without the constraints of grades 

– This is because grades can limit our ability to seek knowledge as sometime valedictorians/ those with good grades won’t take classes because they are risky and might negatively impact their GPA 

– Thus, grades are harmful as they sometime disincentive people from taking the classes they want

 

 

 

Week 3 Wednesday February 15, 2023

Scribe – Mia

Recap from Monday lab:

• Continuing to take apart the motorcycle 
• Had to use a locking adjustable wrench on an axle nut on the rear wheel that was frozen
• Engine group – separated the head off the engine (found a wasps nest) and took off the exhaust pipe. Started taking the clutch plates out and the simplex chain out. Attempted to get the adapter off but the inside of it was very rusted. Used a gear puller to get a sprocket out 
• Frame group – triple tree (metal plate with three holes for the fork and handlebars)
• Electrical group – took off break and accelerator cables and took off oil reservoir and emptied and took it apart
• Wheels group – sorted washers by diameter and lock washers/normal
• Suspension group – helped dissemble the front fork  

 

Chapter 9: 

Motorcycle references

• Battery for horn – uses a make and break circuit. If you push the horn button and it sounds then the battery is at least providing enough current, but it doesn’t tell you anything about the electrical system.
• Spark test – shows if the circuit is complete. Also look at the colour of the spark – bright and blue is good but dull and red is bad
• Engine misfires – lots of different reasons for an engine to misfire eg the mixture is too lean

 

Content: 

• Two kinds of logic – inductive (based on reasoning) and deductive.
• How is this logic related to the scientific method – it involves both theories of logic. Have to start your reasoning with ‘little questions’ to be able to answer the overall bigger question 
• Pheadrus’s obsession with a hypothesis – starts off being fascinated with a science then latches onto philosophy because he thinks the questioning is more significant 
• 6 categories for note taking? – was tedious throughout HS and college but when you find the meaning for it, the significance is greater

 

Chapter 10: 

Motorcycle references

• None

Content 

• Einstein – scientific truth is what has proven itself superior at any given moment in time 
• The more efforts scientists put into science, the quicker the hypotheses change – this bothers Phaedrus because there are an infinite number of possible correct answers.
• Hypothesis can ever be proven correct in science, it can only be what is most believed to be true at the time

 

Chapter 11:

Motorcycle references

• Engine braking – it can burn out your brakes when going down a steep hill, so can instead use a lower gear to slow down

 

Content: 

• Introduces idea of lateral knowledge ‘knowledge from a wholly unexpected direction’
• Views philosophy as a higher discipline than science because you can ask questions that the scientific system cannot answer 
• Lateral thought – ‘thinking outside the box’ – a more chaotic approach to thoughts than critical thinking
• Pheadrus reading on oriental philosophy – theoretic/aesthetic – similar to romantic/classical 
• Brings in Newton and Einstein as figures 
• Hulme (his perspective of a motorcycle is based purely on sensory data) and Karl (argues that people have a apriori perception of things) as characters 
• Apreory – deduction
• Apostreory – observation 

Week 3 Monday February 13, 2023

Scribe – Mia

Announcements: 

• Arrangements for Professor Arnold to come and speak (dean of innovation)
• Bill Becker – architect who restores motorcycles, will come in to teach about wheels 
• Updates to web page (chapter 8 background)
• Looked at maps of places referenced in the book 

 

Recap from lab last Wednesday 

• Frame and suspension group removed gas tank, seat and rear fender from the bike – problems = lots of rusted bolts difficult to take out, had to use a double wrench to get them out, seat was rusted so had to saw the nut off it 
• Engine team – not a lot done, mainly getting the engine set but the engine bolts wernt big enough to get the engine on the stand – had to make a spacer 
• Only found one piece of metal tubing for the spacer so had to use washers for the other side
• Working on the toolbox, labelling it and filling with tools
• Taking off the exhaust

 

Demonstrations 

• Aluminium rod – physically increases in length due to its heat 
• Delta l/l 

 

Chapter 7

Motorcycle references:

Critical bolts – loosen the rear wheel bolts so that the rear wheel can be held back and clamped in place

Blowout – road is very hot and so the tyre is losing treads, meaning that a blowout would be very dangerous

 

Content: 

• Learn more about Phaedrus figurative knife – a way to divide up the world – classical vs romantic understanding
• Phaedrus as a poor surgeon? – cutting his world into pieces without any reward for it 
• Pheadrus thinking process – not a machine but a hyper focus laser beam – laser beam is an intense ray that can only go in one direction, similar to Pheadrus only having one focus
• Only mad people ask why to cure a disease? Ghost of rationality – to phaedrus only rationality comes in his mind, but your mind can’t explain everything 
• At the end of the chapter they arrive at their destination – ‘i am a pioneer now, looking onto a promised land’ – narrator walking a new path that Pheadrus has not done before 
• Used sand as an example for classical/romantic thoughts 
• Bouta – neither classical nor romantic view, but the deeper meaning (will discuss more in the future)
• Introduces phaedrus insanity – he went through shock therapy so his personality is partly gone, but he still has some memories

 

Chapter 8:

Motorcycle references: 

Tappets – as the cam moves (turns), it opens and closes the tappets. Each cylinder has two tappets.

Cam – two lobes, one for exhaust valve, one for intake valve

Engine running rich – lower pressure at high altitude, so less oxygen in the available air and so there is too much fuel for the amount of air available. There are unburned hydrocarbons and sut is left in the engine, bad for lubrication and waste of fuel – modern cars now adjust automatically 

Connecting rod – connects the piston to the crank, 

Diagram on pg 97 – there are lots of different ways to describe motorcycle systems – there is not one best way to do it. Can separate in terms of parts/functions 

 

Content:

• What is the connection between motorcycle maintenance and rationality?

Talks a lot about systems, a motorcycle has many small systems, narrator thinks it rational to look after these systems

• Thinks that the systems are only relevant under the system of thought 
• System – interconnected and interrelated parts that have a function
• Steel – very forgiving and stretchy as a material, it yields before it breaks, especially compared to rod and cast iron 

 

Week 2 Wednesday February 8, 2023

Scribe: Jacqueline

Recap of shop on Monday

• Josh and Lucas – separated bolts
• Tim and Bakari – tapered table for motor group
  • Pitched for collecting oil
• Jackie and Heather – used drill press and milling machine
• Paige – took pictures of top-end and bottom-end group
• Conlon – organize tubs
• Tasman, Joseph, Bri, MC – removing motor
  • Check which bolts to remove
  • Use plastic bags, tubs, and drawers to label
  • Emptying the oil tank
• Threads
  • Righty tighty, lefty loosy – clockwise tightens and vice versa
    • Right-hand threads
    • Different for left-hand thread – pitch goes to other direction

 

Discussion of the Reading (Chapter 4)
Led by MC

1. Motorcycle References
   Plugs, points, headlight and taillight bulbs, chains, clutch and brake cables
   chain-coupling link with keeper, cotter pins, baling wire
   Chain-coupling link with keeper – chain engages with sprocket, separation of the teeth in sprocket matches chain pitch; lubricate chain rollers to avoid generating heat (stretch when hot causing plastic deformation, have to move rear wheel to overcome); chain masterlink connects chain into circle
   Cotter pins – prevent washer from sliding off shaft
   Baling wire – wraps around hay (for hay bale)
   Shop manual – specific motorcycle
   Chilton’s Motorcycle Troubleshooting Guide – about general motorcycle
2. Content
   Machines have personalities – new machines are like strangers
   Monday cars – doesn’t work very well since workers don’t work well on Mondays after Sunday
   Narrator vs. John – narrator made them wake up early
   Unreliable narration – “fish-eyed” “manic”

Discussion of the Reading (Chapter 5)

Led by Heather

1. Motorcycle References
   Shim stock – thin metal; aluminum beer can is sticky, pliable, good as shim stock
2. Content
   John is a drummer, narrator writes technical manuals
   John is concerned about appearances, but narrator cares about effectiveness
   John and Sylvia wonder why narrator brought Chris instead of his wife
   Narrator didn’t want to question his son’s mental illness – “kin” “kindness”
   Going south and over Missouri bridge – change in scenery (Indian reservation)

Discussion of the Reading (Chapter 6)

Led by Bri

1. Motorcycle References
   Systems, groupings
2. Content
   Romantic vs. Classical
   Classify world – shape reality
   False binary – balance between the two ways of thinking to live a fuller life
   Yin-yang – dynamic equilibrium, need understanding of both
   Phaedrus – court-ordered police arrest and permanent removal from society
   Appearance versus underlying form – analytic (breaking into parts), thinking of the whole
   Not appreciating life in the same way
   Fixed mindsets of each character
   Phaedrus’s skill is to separate ideas/modes of thought

Week 2 Monday February 6, 2023

Scribe: Jacqueline

Webpage updates:
On the Data page, links were added for Triumph Tiger Cub Shop Manual, Triumph Replacement Parts Catalog, Use of Tools, and Use and Care for Hand Tools and Measuring Tools.

Recap of what we learned from shop on Wednesday:

• Length Standards – defining speed of light and using known wavelength and frequency of an atom
• Old British motorcycles use an old standard called Whitworth (screw threads, nuts, bolts, etc.). Whitworth must be separated from Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and metric system
• Whitworth screws – 55 degrees compared to 60 degrees in SAE
• Threads and pitch of screws
  • Materials inform the pitch of screws (weaker materials require coarser pitch)
  • For fine pitch screws, easy to cross thread screws
• Wheels
  • Chroming is expensive and has questionable quality
  • Sometimes replacement is more cost-effective than repairing
• Science behind the tension affecting motorcycle spokes

Group information

• Top end, Carburetor 
  • MC, Tasman
• Bottom end, Transition, Oil pump, Flywheel, Engine case
  • Joseph, Bri, Josh
• Wheels, Chain, Breaks, Sprocket
  • Conlan, Maisha, Lucas
• Frame, Tank, welding, detailing
  • Paige, Jackie, Heather
• Suspension, Front forks, spring-shock, Nacelle, Speedometer
  • Tim, Bakari
• Electrical, Fluids, Cables, Oil reservoir, Battery box
  • Arlo, Mia, Isaac

Discussion of the Reading (Chapter 1)
Led by Arlo

1. Motorcycle References

Seizure – Piston goes into barrel. Alloy expands when heated. If heat is put into the engine quickly, the piston will heat up quicker than the barrel and can seize due to expansion. 

Piston – Pistons can be flat or domed. Doming affects compression ratio. 10.5-1 (heavily domed), 9-1 (slightly domed), 7-1 (flat). Notches in the piston are for valves.
Tappets – Push rods open and close valves. Tappets are the low-end of the push rods. Tappets are adjusted when the engine is cold to create clearance for push rods to allow valves to close properly when the engine is hot.

1. What’s happening in the chapter?
   Narrator used to be similar to John and Sylvia until the narrator had a very bad experience with the mechanic.
   Implied that the narrator has a relationship with the machine and the narrator criticizes people without a personal relationship with their technology.
   Narrator criticizes a separation between who man is and what man does.

People who work on motorcycles are not like John and Sylvia and love technology, but they don’t care about their work. This is shown through mechanics who are distracted by the radio.

Discussion of the Reading (Chapter 2)
Led by Joseph

1. Motorcycle References
   Speedometer – measure rotation of the wheel through a gear connected to the wheel.
   Tachometer – measure rotation of the motorWhat’s happening in the chapter?
2. What’s happening in the chapter?
   What are ghosts?
   – Awareness of how truths are different between cultures
   – Ideas in the world are constructs to understand reality
   – E.g., objects may attract each other, but does this phenomenon have to be described through gravity?
   Phaedrus
   – Ideas belong to a ghost inside of him
   – Narrator claims that he has no original ideas

Week 1 Wednesday February, 1st

Scribe: Tasman 

Paige will be our first photographer.

Course Learning Objectives 

• The use of hand tools, including specialty tools 
• CAD Experience (Computer Aided Design, Drawing 3D objects on a computer to export to a 3D printer to make an object), there are additive and subtractive process
• Computer Aided Engineering Analysis (stress analysis to see how it deforms, finite element testing)
• Basic structure of a motorcycle 
• How a four stroke motor works, intake stroke, piston goes down where bring in air and fuel, then compression stroke that compresses then and ignition, and a power stroke, and then an exhaust stroke (very efficient and compact engine, a jet engine has the same process but continuously) 
• Understanding evolution of motorcycle technology 
• Using hands-on tools 
• Troubleshooting taking things apart and putting them back together 
• Understanding the transmission (gearing) of the motorcycle ( our motorcycle is a 4 speed) (sprocket connected to a fly wheel that goes to a clutch basket and the whole basket assembly turns and goes on to the other side of the motorcycle … we’ll see the clever design later) 
• How to balance tires (we’ll look into this, we’ve never done it before). Flywheel is made out of two rotating discs with a shaft and if they’re askew the motorcycle vibrates like crazy so they need to be aligned). 
• Fuels and emissions ( how environmentally sound is the motorcycle?) orange motorcycle emits and aroma of gasoline (spitting out unburned fuel))

Aprilla

• Book on Motorcycle design and technology
• We have a chain drive motorcycle, there are also shaft and belt motorcycles

Discussion of the Reading (Chapter 1)

• 1. Motorcycle References 2. Content, pose questions to the class 3. What’s going on in this chapter 

Led by Jaqui

 

1. Motorcycle References 

Points – an electrical switch, part of an electrical system with an ignition coil (primary and secondary coil inside) and then breaker points with a capacitor across, When points open, you get a spark, a cam is turned and hits a plate. You should carry around a spare set of points

Kickstarter- page 12

Plugs- Spark Plug is a high voltage spark that triggers explosion (view there on course website under data) carbon fouled and fuel fouled are most common

Full Choke- Engines are pulling in air and it has to do with the carburetor, we have one with two jets and the pilot jet allows fuel to spew in the engine due to difference in pressure, but when closed the engine idles, the more you open up a throttle the more air you get. When its cold you want the choke closed 

What happened with John and the choke, John flooded the engine and got the sparks wet, and the narrator suggested taking out the plugs to let the gasoline evaporate. The instructions said choke when starting if its cold, but they had only been in the bar for a half an hour so it couldn’t be cold 

2. What’s happening in the chapter?

• Establishes the difference between the narrator and John and Sylvia, the narrator disagrees with John and Sylvia and believes that technology is just as holy as a flower on a mountain
• Connection to how Princeton is embracing Chat GPT 
• “You suppress momentary anger…” and how John and Sylvia can’t bear reckoning with technology 
• Narrator describes riding a motorcycle as very meditative and romanticizes leaving society ( Narrator scrutinizing cars) 
• Narrator emphasizes the journey and what they take away from the book 
• Layed out map on motorcycle and looked for squiggly roads 
• Recalling memories vs. making memories
• What’s new vs. what’s best, John and Syliva would see them as not the same whereas the narrator would -> What is quality? What is good enough in terms of restoring our motorcycle? … An inquiry into values
• In his memoir he is delving through finding what’s best

Week 1 (Tasman)

Precept Notes Week 1 Monday January, 30

Scribe: Tasman Moskowitz

 

Participation 

• 12 Scribes 
• 4 Photographers 
• All gets posted on Website

Webpage

• We post all information on our 1954 Tiger Cub Motorcycle Website
• We all have authority to edit using word press program
• Can find old websites as examples

Introductions

• Professor Littman: Experimentalist; Fun Fact: Antique Radio Enthusiast 
• John Pravo: Assistant for Labs; Characters in the Reading, which character am I?
• Joshua Greer: Econ; Fun Fact: Like to scuba dive; Had 1999 Honda Shadow 
• Paige Walworth: Classics or Politics -> Law, Prince; Fun fact: bilingual in Latin
• Bri: SPIA w/cos, works with manual cars
• Jacqui: Philosophy, Prince, violin 
• MC McCoy: Equestrian team, got head stuck in a boat 
• Mia: SPIA from Manchester, England 
• Conlan: Econ, identical twin at Princeton
• Bokari: Likes vehicles that go fast, fun fact: like to roller skate, linebacker in football 
• Timothy: From Florida, Religion, plays piano 
• Maisha: Architecture, Florida, track team
• Isaac: From Ghana, learning to play the guitar
• Arlo: SPIA, PRE rear wing, 
• Lucas: From Brazil, swimmer, Fun fact: can speak four languages 
• Tasman: MAE, PRE regen braking, fun fact: skier
• Joseph: MAE, lived in Brazil for 14 months, running team
• Heather: Social Science and loves learning languages, travels a lot 

Itinerary

• Seminar
• Break 
• Seminar
• Tour lab
• Class pic with motorcycle
• Start up last year’s motorcycle 

Readings

• Weekly readings that we will read closely 
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, first 3 parts before midterms, 4 th on own during midterms, book is really all about trying to understand aesthetics and the idea as quality
• Go through content and philosophy in discussion 
• Shop Class as Soulcraft, about doing meaningful work 
• Books are well-liked by students in general 
• Later today we will receive assignments for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Tiger Cub Bible

• Evolution, why design changes were what they were, all design changes are in the appendix 
• Example: March 1954, twin seat has white piping 
• Page after page of engineering changes 
• Doesn’t really mention fenders

 

*Motorcycles almost never have the original parts, they’re very Frankenstein

Groups & Teams

• Think about how you want to pair up
• A team will be two groups
• Last Year’s Groups: top end, bottom end. Frame/Forks, Carb/Electrical, Wheels/Brakes, Detailing/Tanks/Cables 
• Wheels get new rims, because the old ones are rusty and not possible 
• Every group produces a report 
• Presentation must include technical analysis; EX: diameter of wheel based off of forces on the spokes 
• NOT A LOT OF FLUIDITY

Precept 

• Lab reports in the beginning of each precept 
• Reading
• Demonstrations, discussion, and technical analysis for 60-90 min 
• Even if your group is one thing you will still learn everything else, just less hands on 
• Everyone will learn to drill and tap a hole with a drill press 

Data 

• Postings of various articles that we will read 
• Written by the designer and explains why he did what he did 
• Flywheel (big rotating mass with bearings that need to be located by pressurizing oil through oil passageways and accumulates in sump (bottom), oil for moving machinery and if not you get wear
• This motorcycle as a dry sump and article tells why 
• Some are only reference materials whereas others will be assigned 
• Location of Replacement Parts Manuals 

Success rate for Rideable Motorcycle 

• Terrier was really close 250 CC, something scraping 
• Cubs 200 CC
• Only 50% success rate 
• Is oil flowing -> overheating? 

Next Class and Lab

• Learn about tools
• Sort fasteners
• Talk more about grouping up
• Take apart motorcycle next week 

Work Load

• Mostly in class at the beginning
• Very important to do readings 
• We run precept 
• Short Essay about ourselves due on Monday 
• Online safety video that takes 15-20 minutes 

Lab Attire

• Close toed shoes
• No loose clothing 
• Hair must be tied back 

Wednesday Homework 

• Chapter 1 
• 5 Chapters every week, split between Monday and Wednesday
• 30 min Discussion 
• READ THROUGH CLOSELY

Discussion 

• 4 Characters: John, Sylvia, Chris, and Phaedras 
• Phaedrus  is the ghost, chris is the son, and John and Sylvie are motorcycle riding partners
• First person 
• Schizophrenia, shock therapy, and mention of his own mental illness 
• Phaedrus is his past self 
• He was a teacher of writing and grappling with issues of the subjective quality of writing
• John and Sylvia are artsy types whereas the narrator is a technical type 
• Idea of rethinking what’s on the page in the context of who’s saying it comes up a lot 
• A book about philosophy ( Mostly Western Philosophy) 

Editing the Webpage

• https://commons.princeton.edu/1954-tiger-cub/wp-admin/post.php?post=4&action=edit
• Word Press
• To upload media: Enter credentials -> page -> edit page -> add media -> select file