Diary

Monday January 27 class notes (posted by Amelia)

Exterior collector website: https://www.tigercubandterrier.com/the-princeton-cubs.html

  • You can ride the motorcycle once we finish IF you have your permit/license
  • Each group will do a presentation at the end of the class
  • We will be working on three partially completed motorcycles rather than a single one

Precept vs Lab

  • 1 hour of precept followed by 2 hours of lab (Athletes can leave early, not before 4)
  • Precept will be largely based on the 2 books we will read(Pirsig & Crawford)
  • Precept will also address technical motorcycle concepts, with demonstrations

Groups (for the semester):

(Jon) Engine (group of 4)

Sam) Electrical

(MGL) Bodywork + wheels

(Iris) Full bike assembly 

(Rihan) Leaks, Clutches, Cables (British cars/motorcycles have a tendency to leak due to poor design)

Leaks/Mechanical (Rihan) Engine (Jon) Electrical (Sam) Bodywork/wheels

(MGL)

 Assembly

(Iris)
Drew Bea David Eliot Evie
Nikki Richard Amelia Abigail Ava
Israel Pierce Atticus Maren
Alex
Kai

In Canvas, under modules:

  • Parts catalogues for each motorcycle 
  • Cub Body & Cub Appendix (“Tiger Cub Bible,” with technical data for each motorcycle by serial number)

Canvas (Perusall):

  • A PDF copy of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”
  • Go through split up readings in groups and flag references to motorcycles to discuss in precept

Objectives:

  • How to build a motorcycle 
  • How to fix
  • Understand how it works 
  • What tools do we use
  • How the motorcycle and motorcycle maintenance evolves
  • How to diagnose 
  • WHY ISN’T IT WORKING?!

MUST DO THE ONLINE SAFETY TRAINING

Pirsig Intro:

  • 2 errors, definition of “Phaedrus” and confusion at the ending over who was talking because of the two personalities of the narrator/Phaedrus
  • Phaedrus is the narrator’s “old self,” before electroshock therapy and personality change

Motorcycle references in chapter 1:

  • “The choke,” you don’t let any air into the engine in order to get more gasoline in so that it is easier to start 
  • “Flooded engine,”  too much gas wets the spark plug, so the fuel cannot be ignited
  • Pull plugs out so that the engine can be dried out

Content:

  • Traveling narrator and son with friends John & Sylvia to Montana
  • Motorcycle vs car, able to be in the scenery, not bound by the frame
  • John & Sylvia are anti-technology
  • Narrator is concerned that his son has shown early signs of mental illness, reason for trip
  • “It’s not looking at what is new, but what is best” (What does it mean to be “best”)
  • Chautauqua: Traveling lecture 

– Prof will create groups on Perusall so we can flag motorcycle references in the readings

Wednesday January 29 class notes posted by Amelia

Zen and… In Class Review:

  • Motorcycle “canting,” leaning into the wind, using body to turn
  • “Wide open” throttle, top speed 45 mph
  • 6 ½ horsepower cycle
  • There is a slide in the carburetor (opens/closes based on twisting the throttle), when it is opened it lets air through and the gasoline is drawn up and mixed with air
  • Spark plug screws into the “head” of the motorcycle
  • Glass insulator for one plug
  • 10,000 volts between the two contacts
  • Points: two small cylindrical surfaces, made of tungsten, a spark is generated when the “points” open 
  • Carburetor: Device base on airflow and fuel, atomizes fuel
  • Stopcock: one way valve, allows fuel to go through
  • Reserve tank: enough gas in a small compartment to get you to the next gas station
  • Air-cooled engine: uses outside air to cool the engine, avoids enlarged pistons, overheated fuel, “seizures” (locked engine and rear wheel, starts to skid)
  • Clutch separates the engine from the wheels
  • The head has an intake valve and an exhaust valve, opened by push rods (one on intake and one on the exhaust, made from soft aluminum)
  • Tappets: Hardened steel piece that sits below the push rods, gets pushed into push rod which opens the valve
  • Timing: retarded (spark comes late, engine runs cooler) or advanced (spark comes early), relevant to top dead center, where the piston comes up
  • Open-end adjustable wrench vs. spanner wrench
  • Mallet vs. ball-peen (softer)

Seizure:

  • Takes a lot of heat to raise the temperature of the barrel 
  • Piston can expand when heated 
  • Piston is more hot than the barrel, so it expands while the barrel does not

Content:

  • People were “spectators” of technology
  • Main idea of care and effort/time, to care for something requires time that isn’t seen anymore, in any situation
  • “Poisonous” 20th century attitude
  • Narrator wrote technical manuals for computers
  • Hints at schizophrenia with the storm?
  • Not an obsession with the past, rather a respect for the way things used to be done, slower pace, “off-roads,” etc. 

 

Monday February 3 Class Notes – Posted by Abigail Kolbe

New on website

  • In the Science section of the website: Thermal expansion table referenced in previous class when discussing pistons
  • In Data section: Motorcycle model articles, note design flaws & fixes

Chapter 3 Discussion

  • Speedometer needle: speedometer works as the spinning cable spins up a magnet, the conducting plate above is dragged along, moving the angle of the attached needle to indicate a different speed.
  • Tachometer is the engine speed, measures revolutions
    • Can have the same tachometer reading and a different speed based on gear
  • Content:
    • Narrator, Chris, Sylvia, and John continue their trip
    • Narrator’s relationship with/comments on ghost stories point to his past and possibly schizophrenia
    • Audience first encounters Phaedrus in the story
    • Narrator is ambiguous about Phaedrus’s identity, but describes him as ‘his ghost’. Narrator vaguely remembers a town they move through but feels as though these memories are from a past life.
    • Chris pesters the narrator with questions throughout the chapter, perhaps foreshadowing that Chris knows something we as the audience don’t
    • Philosophers can ask questions that are fundamental and ‘deep’ but annoying (Narrator’s soap-box speech on gravity only existing in the human mind)

Chapter 4 Discussion

  • Narrator shares his packing list
    • open-end wrench
    • cold chisel
    • taper punch: like a cold chisel; you can punch out a piece of metal
    • tire irons
    • bicycle pump
    • impact driver: if you have a screw rusted in place, can use to get unstuck
    • point file: when the points burn, you can use a point file to file them flat; usually made of hardened steel. Can’t use on aluminum because it is soft/doesn’t flake
    • feeler gauge: When you have to set a point, a feeler gauge can be used to determine thickness of a gap to the thousandths of an inch
    • test lamp
    • Spare parts:
      • Plugs
      • Throttle, clutch and brake cables
      • Points
      • fuses
      • headlight and taillight bulbs
      • chain-coupling link with keeper: connecting link used to assemble chains; the keeper secures the connection
      • cotter pins: secures fasteners in place
      • baling wire: tough material used to hold things together
      • Spare chain
  • Content:
    • Narrator & Thoreau (Walden)
      • Narrator has an admiration for the townspeople/farmers’ relationship to technology. He dislikes how John and Sylvia depend on technology yet simultaneously condemn it.
      • He explains that the farmers are those who need the technology the least (could survive without it) yet they value/have gratitude towards it and maintain it themselves. He favors this approach over John and Sylvia’s, who need technology (couldn’t survive without it) but have no gratitude towards it

Objectives today:

  • Troubleshooting group will see if they can get the motorcycle that wouldn’t start to start
  • Assembly group will start to figure out putting together the motorcycle
  • Engine group will start trying to take parts off the engine we’re rebuilding
  • Electrical group will work with Sam
  • Leaks/mechanical will work with Rihan

Wednesday February 5 Class Notes – Posted by Abigail Kolbe

Lab Last Time:

Engine group

  • Started off organizing the workshop
  • Answered:
    • How can we clean the engine using different machines?
    • How does the engine function?
    • Why are different metals used for specific functions within the engine?

Maintenance Group

  • Used milling machine to drill holes into aluminum
  • Learned how to make a starting ‘pilot’ hole
  • Learned how the milling machine works

Electrical Group

  • Learned to use soldering iron
  • Tested the power on the 6V battery

Troubleshooting Group

  • Tried to find why the ’50 Tiger Cub wouldn’t start
  • Removed & cleaned carburetor and jets
  • Checked the electric: Horn/lights worked, but motorcycle still wouldn’t start
  • Couldn’t get a spark, will investigate today

Assembly Group

  • Found as many missing parts as possible
  • Organized parts
  • Measuring which screws fit where
  • Used calipers to measure bolts and screws
  • Learned about how ball bearings work

New on Website:

  • Locations in book

 

Chapter 5 Discussion

  • Chain lubrication: if there is dirt/rust in the chain, there will be friction and it will heat up
  • Clutch: when you pull in the clutch, it takes the power away from the engine, so cycle will just roll
  • Socket wrench: pictured in class; 12 point sockets
  • box-end wrench: spanner wrench that goes all the way around
  • Handlebar clamp: when you screw it shut, the hole for the handlebars can only get so small; problem in book was that the handlebars were too small, clamp was too loose
  • Aluminum is a good material because it is soft, oxidizes but doesn’t continue to rust away

 

  • Content
    • How John being a drummer plays into his hands-off attitude towards technology
    • Narrator wishes John cared more about the maintenance of his own motorcycle
    • In a way John cares about the tech in his own way; didn’t want Narrator to use beer can to repair his fancy motorcycle
    • Narrator brings up Chris’s stomach aches as a beginning sign on mental illness, but is weary of getting him professional help
    • Narrator recalls ominous poem by Goethe about a father and his child who sees a ghost and dies; “the ghost wins”

Chapter 6 Discussion

  • The chain sagging:  narrator adjusts it; internal threading is stripped
  • Cotter pin: explained in last class
  • Engine & Power-delivery system
    • explained with kinex model T Ford engine (auto-cycle engine)
    • Pistons moving up and down, light represents spark
    • main parts: wheel, connecting rod, piston in cylinder, spark

 

  • Content
    • Classical vs Romantic understanding
      • classical: analytical, function, form, the way things work
      • romantic: outward appearances
      • For most people, these things are opposing sides. Narrator says that his trying to reconcile the two sides got him into trouble/contributed to his mental illness
    • Explains “Phaedrus’s world”/how Phaedrus thought
    • Phaedrus’s “knife” of analytical thought leading to his going crazy

 

Chapter 7 Discussion

  • The engine making “knick-knicking” sounds from overheating: If two parts expand from heat at different rates, the fit will be wrong and they will start rattling
  • ‘Blowing out’ a tire due to heat: If it’s hot outside, tires will wear faster, especially at higher speeds, making them more likely to fail

 

  • Content:
    • Talks about Phaedrus as a timberwolf ‘in pursuit’ of something, trying to ‘figure out’ the world, causing him to go crazy
    • Compares the concept of a Mark Twain knowing how to ‘read the river’ to a motorcycle driver being able to kind of ‘read’ the machine. However, says that this analytical approach necessary to ‘read the river’ makes the river lose its beauty
    • When wielding the analytical thought, the “knife”, something is always “killed” in the process (the beauty of the experience) but something is created too