Welding & Motorcycles - Match Made In Heaven

Photo from here

A little something celebrating the importance of welding to society. With April being National Welding month, no better time.

The latest Welding Journal features welding education. In addition to listing various trade schools to choose from, there is also an article about the Harbor Freight program to recognize outstanding instructors and an article addressing the lack of interest of young people to entering the trades. The results of a poll of young people ages 18-24 said 56% said they're not, nor ever were interested in going to a trade school. 51% said they would rather work as a barista rather than a welder - I'd never even heard of a barista when I was in high school but I damn sure knew what a welder was. According to the figures cited in the article, the average trade school degree costs $33,000, compared to $127,000 for a bachelor's degree. In addition to all the facts and figures, the article also gives some background as to how this stigma against the trades came about starting with The Nation at Risk report back in the 1980s. Interesting take on the problem and I'd have to concur with the author, having seen most of what was stated first hand during my teaching career.

Photo from here

George Roeder as seen on the cover of an old Cycle World magazine. George was a factory HD rider and like all the old racers competed in all the various racing disciplines pursuit of the number one plate required. He also set a land speed record of 177 miles per hour at Bonneville in  250cc Sprint powered streamliner. The streamliner and the bike in the photo are on display at the HD dealership in Ohio. When the cooties die off I need to head over that way and check the dealership out and the AMA museum as well. Cuzzin Rick isn't really a motorcycle guy but he's a race fan and he's always up for a road trip. We're going to need to get out - we had some big plans for this year.

Parts showed up yesterday. They're in quarantine until this afternoon. I'll open the box and check the order but I want to finish up some parts for the side hustle first.

I'm going to have a box of parts when I finish the pieces on the left. They still need to be ground off and have the holes drilled and bent but that won't take too long. I'm getting better with my plasma cutter and since all the cuts on these pieces are straight cuts, I used a straight-edge to guide me along. Mostly I just need to clean the slag off rather than having to do much grinding to straighten out crappy edges. Finish these up and then back on my own stuff.

Stay safe.