59 Tiger Cub Motorcycle

FRS 106, Michael Littman – Spring 2013

Thursday February 14, 2013

Reading Assigment: Zen chapter 7, SoulCraft chapter 3

Book Notes:

SoulCraft:

=author is angry that creativity is deined as natural and “need[ing] to be unleashed,” when in actuality it must be cultivated

=labor in corporations is similar to labor in socialism (eg. Taylor: Science of Management — as important to Stalin as it was to the MBA) “labor has no soul”

=Henry Ford creates assembly line –> argument over discipline vs. play (“mindless workers”) –> hundreds leave factories –> Ford doubled wages, shortened work day, etc. to fight turnover –> mass production catches on –> craftsmen leave trades because they cannot compete with corporations

Zen:

=John is insulted when the narrator suggests using a beer can as a shim for his high-quality BMW

=narrator begins distinguishing art from science (“two realities”) and “romantics” from “classicists”

=narrator is a classicist — he cares about the inner working of the motorcycle; John is a romantic — only cares about what the bike does

=the narrator’s hallucinations return; revealed that Phaedrus had a habit of overanalyzing and disecting different aspects of reality

NEW TERMINOLOGY:

  • Chain Adjuster: backward facing bolt on rear of frame which pulls the rear axle back to tighten the chain
  • Flywheel: heavy metal disk on the crankshaft which stores mechanical energy to push piston through full four-stroke cycle (especially important for starting)
  • Connecting rods: connect piston to crankshaft (which must be allowed to rotate)
  • Cam: connected to crankshaft via chain or gears; runs at half the speed of the crank; times the opening and closing of valves
  • Push rods: bottom follows cam, used to open and close valves on engine head
  • Alternator: converts mechanical energy into electrical energy to for the spark plugs
  • Rectifier: converts AC current from alternator back into DC current to charge battery

What we did in lab:

  • Removed and examined transmission as well as side plates of engine block (TE, BE, CL)
  • (Professor had to grind off head of frozen bolt to free up side plate.)
  • Dismantled front suspension and forks (FW)
  • Used mock electrical system to tweak timing (using points) and observe electrical oscillations of the alternator (EE)