Next Tuesday (7 April): No reading assignment; guest lecture by wheel expert Bill Becker
Readings for Thursday (9 April): Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Chapters 16-18
Next week’s scribe: Sydney
Recap of Tuesday’s lab
- Top end team finished with the rockers and completed work on the top end. They prepped to paint it and the cylinders.
- Electrical team looked at the electrical system on an older bike in order to figure out how to hook up the electrical system on ours. They also learned not to turn batteries sideways because they can drip acid. Our battery is wired correctly and it has positive ground.
- Mark continued work on the gaskets using CAD software.
- Bottom end team tried to reassemble the bottom end, but had some difficulties. There are now two inserts in the primary side cover (thanks to Glenn), as well as an alignment pin.
- Frame, forks, and wheels team worked to match up pieces of the frame as shown in the manual diagram. Some challenges: our fork configuration is slightly different than the one in the diagram; the new handlebars are too long (they have since been cut/ground down to the correct size); brake and clutch cables were fitting too loosely (that problem was fixed by adding sleeves to make the cables fit more snugly). Extra brake shoes and springs were cleaned, although new ones should be arriving before next week. Another piece of the frame was sanded, Bondo’d, sanded again, and primed.
- Clutch and transmission team continued work on the Terrier clutch, which kept slipping. The reason was that the cable was too long, so they were able to trim some of it and now it works.
Book discussion
Chapter 14: Narrator, Chris, and the Sutherlands arrive at the DeWeeses’ home in the mountains. That night they talk about a lot of things, including the idea of machine assembly as a form of art (this relates to the romantic-classical divide; DeWeese looks at his rotisserie in a different light after being told the assembly process is akin to sculpture). Narrator says that “peace of mind” is important in accomplishing technical tasks; this peace of mind seems to be something Phaedrus lacked. This parallels some of the ideas discussed in Shop Class as Soulcraft, specifically the need for peace and quiet when working in the shop. In a conversation with an artist, Narrator finds that welding is common ground for them, since it can be seen as both technical (classical) and artistic (romantic). We also discussed the idea of whether mathematics was invented or discovered, as well as the difference between rhetoric (intended to persuade/convince), debate (two parties with competing ideas; the more true idea does not necessarily win), and dialectic (trying to reach a truth).
Chapter 15: There is a motorcycle reference to a chain adjuster link. Narrator and Chris go to the college where Phaedrus used to teach, but Chris gets spooked and leaves the building almost immediately. Narrator continues into Phedrus’s old classroom and office. He meets someone who is likely a former student of Phaedrus. Back when he was a teacher, Phaedrus struggled with the concept of subjective assessment, which was problematic since he taught rhetoric. Narrator remembers the moment when Phaedrus first considered the idea of what constitutes Quality. Phaedrus was obsessed with the idea of Quality, which will clearly be important later in the book.
CMQ