63-2 Tiger Cub Motorcycle

FRS 106, Michael Littman – Spring 2018

8 February 2018

Day 2—Grace

Reading for next week:

Due Tuesday: ZAMM chapters 3, 4, and 5

Due Thursday: ZAMM chapters 6, 7, and 8

Assignments:

Scribes:

  1. Grace

  2. Emily

  3. Noelle

  4. Eric

  5. Brendan

  6. Charlie

  7. Alex K

  8. Hannah

  9. David

  10. Jake

  11. Sarah

Quartermasters:

  1. Julianne

  2. Ricky

Photographers:

  1. Jordan (weeks 1-4)

  2. Connor

  3. Alex D

Groups:

Bottom end: Connor, Grace

Clutch and transmission: Alex K, David

Top end: Charlie, Julianne

Fork: Brendan, Jake

Electrical: Ricky, Sarah

Cosmetics: Emily, Jordan

Frame: Alex D, Noelle

Wheels: Eric, Hannah

ZAMM Chapter 1:  (Alex K as discussion leader)

Motorcycle terms:

  • John chose to buy a BMW for its durability (14)

  • “Choke”: gets gas into the chamber; related to the carburetor; use only in the winter

  • “Flooding”: When you use the choke in the summer, you “flood” the engine with gas, causing the plugs to get wet so there can’t be a spark

    • How to fix this? Take the plugs out so the gas evaporates

    • Hint: if you smell gas, there is gas in the chamber

  • “Plugs”: spark plugs, they are burnt out if they can’t produce a spark

    • If burnt out, re-gap the plug to make the gap the right size

  • “Points”: electrical contacts that get opened and control the spark, if the gap is corroded the spark is lost

  • “Dead reckoning”: navigating with a compass and stopwatch rather than a map

Plot content:

  • Setting: on a bike trip heading West, with son Chris (roughly age 13) and friends Sylvia and John

  • Disagreement with John over principles of learning to repair own motorcycle

  • Technology vs. anti-technology, classical (scientific) vs. romantic (artistic) theme

  • “Chautauqua”: an old-fashioned form of radio talk show that was replaced by faster-paced radio and TV; similar to comparison between narrator and John

  • “What is best?” as a theme is introduced

ZAMM Chapter 2:

Motorcycle terms:

  • “Seizure”: when the cylinder overheats, expands, and melts to the sides of the piston wall in air-cooled engines

    • How to fix this? Let it cool off, open up and clear the bearing

  • “Mechanic breaking cooling fins”

  • “Tappet”: the part of the push rod that rides on the cam, moves push rods; having proper clearance is important to properly open and close valves

  • “Overhead-cam chain tensioner bolt”: *our bike is gear driven by cam, not chain* to keep the chain taut so it doesn’t get too loose and skip

  • A 25-cent pin stopped oil from reaching the head

  • Gas tank:

    • Narrator checked the gas tank incorrectly and didn’t use the reserve tank

    • DO NOT get water in the gas tank because you won’t know how much gas you have and because it contaminates the fuel and reacts badly with ethanol

  • “Stopcock”: an on/off valve to drain the tank

Plot content:

  • Story with Chris in the storm, bike breaks down, didn’t check gas tank, gave up, inspired him to learn more about bikes

  • Storm coming

  • John and Sylvia interactions: lack of do-it-yourself attitude is their problem

  • Story with bad mechanics: attitude, must care about your work as a lifestyle, not just as a job (mechanics worked sloppily, listened to the radio, clearly did not care at all)

Work in the shop:

Finished safety survey

Split into groups to continue disassembly and labelling parts; took apart the engine, wheels