Travis: This month's interview features Stephen Christina, a skilled craftsman whose degree is in metal sculpture, and that led to him building the successful and highly rated Arc Academy Welding School in Chicago.

Robin: What do you say should we do this entire episode and interpretive dance sure we'll be like the jelly people from Ryloth 7 with no mouths speaking movement everybody this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is Travis Burleson and this is the writing obsession podcast. What do you say should we do this entire episode and interpretive dance sure we'll be like the jelly people from Ryloth 7 with no mouths speaking movement everybody this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less scripted Robin Dean this is a much less script their designated episode. Their contributions are put towards bettering the program's content and recording equipment.

Travis: If you're not in need of advertising but are willing to donate regardless, it's worth noting we're always accepting contributions via PayPal. Our beggars email is easy enough to remember. It's donate at T-R-O dot email. That's donate at T-R-O dot email. So Robin, what's new with you this month?

Robin: Let's see here. I just made notes this time instead of actually writing out what I was gonna say. I just made notes. So there was everything in the IMS show. You know, I did a walk through my favorite part was the product bazaar because I don't know. It's the little guy and the new ideas that don't get over promoted that I feel like there's always something there. I'm like, oh this has to go big. We got to talk about this. And of course it started out with like the Appalachian Trails crooked riding maps and the dragon roars and back of the dragon. You know, I ran into that first right off the gates. That's the first thing I saw. And then I saw JNS jacks which looked pretty promising. I'm gonna check those out. Looks like a French motorcycle armor company came to town. I hope that's how I say it. It's Furygan. Saw them and I'm open to talk to them more specifically. Pharrell performance. They actually offer two-person track training or speed training on sport bikes and I don't know how they pull that off. I mean, how do you get the whole track to yourself? Gonna have to ask them about that. Got some new Tourmaster boots. Got a pamphlet for the National Motorcycle Museum which has some really cool bikes in there. Alright, let's see. Almost done here. Got the K-Tech suspension. They do mostly Yamahas it looks like. And then my favorite so far this Aeromotive. You ever heard of these guys?

Travis: No.

Robin: They wire everything back. They create like wiring harnesses.

Travis: Oh, so that's like aftermarket wiring harnesses for your vintage whatever?

Robin: Yeah, and they show an entangled wire spaghetti mesh and then just says broken connector, tangled wires, we can help.

Travis: If you have a 1960s Ducati where the guy in Italy just made it all with red wire.

Robin: Yeah, because it matches. Red matches the red frame that's got the red trellis and the red tank and the reddity red red. But this one looks good. The Africa Tours 2017.

Travis: Monkey.

Robin: We are gonna be offering guided tours starting this year.

Travis: In Africa?

Robin: No.

Travis: There will be a monkey though leading the tour.

Robin: I resemble that remark. But this guy's it's an Africa Tour really great pamphlet and it was just humbling so I immediately swooped it up. I was like I'm gonna have to learn a thing or two from this guy. That's like all the stuff I grew up at the bazaar that I just could not ignore. As far as what's been going on in my house, yeah let's see. The Bandit's ready. De-winterized. Mr. Yamaha did my tires. I have to thank you specifically Travis for the tip on dielectric grease going on to the spark plugs because it fired right up way better than it ever has even mid-season and warmed up problem-free after a full winterization. It just kicked right on. I think that there had to have been something going on with the connectors there. Took my first ride about 117 miles up to Waterford and back. That maps on the site. You guys can check that out. I need to exercise. I need to work out like a personal exercise regimen because it was just painful. Once I got off the bike I was old and sore and I think I need to just bodyweight exercise period.

Travis: Like Pilates or something?

Robin: Probably not Pilates.

Travis: Pilates has like a women's workout connotation but it was invented by a Marine so he could work out without equipment.

Robin: Yeah when you first said it I pictured myself on yoga mats doing hardcore exercise and then just like staring at butts.

Travis: I mean if you need motivation.

Robin: The Hawk GT, I'm one step away from having the GPS speedometer installed. It just needs to be wired up and I got to figure out a couple more things for the mounting mechanism. Got to go to Arizona. I was surprised to find that there is no MSF dirt course anywhere near Phoenix, Arizona and it seems to be somebody should capitalize on that because I was ready dollars in hand to go learn how to ride in the dirt a little bit better. What about you man? You don't have as many notes as me but I'd love to hear what's going on.

Travis: Yeah well I've been you know it's been unseasonably warm here in the Midwest. Yeah 71. Mid-February in the Midwest it was ridiculous. So went out did some riding. Tuesday I did some work been doing some work on the on the big one still. Got the tank finished so I had stripped the tank and I'll do a write up on that but stripped the tank down to bare metal because it was terrible and hazed and chipped and you know that bike's had a rough life and you know kind of did a rattle can job but took my time with it and managed to buff it up to like a nice shine and then promptly screw it up with bad masking and then kind of and then kind of half fix it but it's still way better than it was when I started and then I also modified the tail rack so it had a Honda line tail rack that bolted on to the rear grab rail the handle there's a cast piece of aluminum but it forced my top case to sit really far back on the rack because of the way the the rail leaned back there was a lot of leverage from the mounting points I bought a new one of those cut it off they cut off the actual rail part drilled it tapped it screwed in a cross member of just flat steel and that let me move my top case in in board about three inches and reduce the put the more of the center mass over the mounting point on my top case so excited

Robin: about that I just remembered that you had leverage issues with your bike in the past I think when we were riding to Portland you know the subframe that was on the yeah I was on the BMW but yeah yeah subframes and leverage you got to be

Travis: conscious of yeah and then I lost I lost the bolt for the the tail rack on that on the BMW 2 had rattled loose somewhere in Oregon and I've had I've had the bolts come loose but not fall out on the on the big one as well so just one of those things well it's kind of been helmet shopping but can't decide if I want to spend the money on it the and then I just bought a set the aero stitch gloves the the competition ropers nice what are they about they're about 60 bucks link me I want to see a picture of these yeah they're uh they're really nice they're elkskin and they do like real glove sizes so it's not like medium large small medium large size it's like you're you're an eight or eight and a half or nine or nine and a half or ten or ten and a half so you measure your hand and you order it by half size that's nice they're not a lot of places will do that yeah and they're elkskin and they you put them on it's just like oh they're so nice they're heavy but they're comfortable which one is it again the aero stitch competition roper so they have three variations on their elkskin gloves there's the the super basic one which just has like a snap wrist closure the competition has a little bit of knuckle padding and then has a velcro wrist closure and then there's there's one that has like a full gauntlet that comes halfway up your arm that's cool they look like almost sort of

Robin: they have a construction glove quality about them yeah they're they're made in

Travis: America by a company that makes gloves for cowboys and people out west in like Montana and Wyoming yeah that's cool we need more of that so those are that's really good but I think what else oh I found I came in the mail today I found an FCR slide carb for the DRZ for 200 bucks on fleabay okay now is that a

Robin: carb slide that was designated for a different model nope it's so if you buy

Travis: the dirt only version of the DRZ it comes with the slide carb okay instead of the CV carb which but if you do even it's in cursory research on the DRZ it's like oh if you can get an FCR slide carb put it on there and you'll you'll get more power and it'll just be better than the CV carb nice and they're usually about 500 bucks and I found a guy on eBay that was parking out a bike and it was 200 bucks so I snapped it up sweet and so and it looks like it's in pretty decent shape I'll tear it apart and give it the once over because even if I don't end up using I can probably sell it for 400 I can it's it's worth more than I

Robin: paid for it gotcha nice and if you do use it you can just sell the old part and

Travis: if I do use it I'll keep the old one and then when I sell the bike I will swap it back because the carb is worth way more off the bike nice yeah it's one of those parts where you always keep the old one because yeah like it won't add to the value of the bike when you sell it but on its own it's worth so much more sweet I mean then I managed to totally jack up the headlight on the big one today that was well done sir well done digging with the windshield so we'll see if I can get that fixed I can't find my old parts and I will we'll see how that goes but yeah I did a little bit of riding today went out not motorcycle related but I did join the Madison home brewers and tasters guilds oh here we go and then they did they had a tour and drinking scheduled last night at one of the local

Robin: breweries this sounds like the opposite of a workout uh-huh yeah well I was

Travis: doing pint curls it was fine but yeah I know it was awesome because the the brewmaster really he's like oh here's a bunch of homebrewers so it wasn't like here's how we make beer first we take malt and we boil it this is called the boil it was like he was in-depth talk about quality and assurance and mitigating oxygen in their production lines and different problems that he had with some float regulators and his brew kettles and some screen filtering processes in his centrifuge and his bottling line and stuff is so it was cool and then he was like yeah so when we were trying to mess with the bottling line we had a whole run go short like all the bottles got short filled how does that even happen so the this there's a filter screen and in the bottling mechanism that actually sits on the bottle and they weren't working right they were getting clogged up or they're the wrong size or something so the bottles weren't getting filled as much as they should have been but they were capped right yeah but they the run the run was going so he had a whole pallet of bottles and he was like we can't sell them guys help yourself okay

Robin: that's one thing but I hope that they even kept a couple of them because if they go big at any point in time then that's gonna be like super collectible

Travis: like the beer can connoisseur no I mean it they're just it's just a bad production run it's like there there's 11 ounces in the bottle instead of 12

Robin: okay no that's lame I was thinking more like a third full no no no it's like they

Travis: look pretty much but he couldn't sell them so he just just like up yourself so people carrying out like flats of I've met I wrote the bike there's like it just took a six-pack but it was good yeah hey thanks for the growler by the

Robin: way you brought me that chocolate stout that just rocked the house yeah yeah

Travis: that's it from up for motorcycle stuff trying to think if there's any new gear gloves thinking about helmets stuff there's one of the local shops has an awry on clearance from last year mm-hmm so it's only like $360 okay well let's

Robin: just to put some food for thought here who was making that crazy helmet where the management went haywire oh the one with the heads-up display yes who was

Travis: making that some company that doesn't exist anymore and they got seed into the ground the Vizio or some something weird like that about Vizio the Vizio

Robin: never not sure Vizio is a company where yeah I remember we're like partying way

Travis: too hard yeah and they they were like a Kickstarter thing and then they never

Robin: actually developed the thing I think somebody picked them up I think somebody bought the rights to everything they had developed so far and they may have continued on I'm gonna look into that I'll look in it we'll talk about it next time but from what I remember I saw somebody had said like okay idiots we'll buy you out of you know basically we'll buy you out of bankruptcy and get you

Travis: out of jail and and and keep all your technology right goodbye thank you Craigslist this is by yeah now what it's funny so I've been I've been really hunting for helmets and trying to find a so my big promises that the no one I have right now I liked I went to the store I board around the store for half an hour seemed fine but then I bought it and after about two hours it really hurts my left ear really right and then I've kind of figured out that for whatever reason there's an asymmetry my left ear doesn't fit in a lot of helmets for

Robin: those of you who don't know this already Travis Burlson is an exceptionally just a generally ugly human being and an overall freak of nature physically and that's why we only do a podcast because of the heinous visual disgusting just

Travis: disgusting look yeah I have a face for radio we don't want to do that to you people uh-huh but yeah and actually what what did I tried on some shoe ease show ease and I didn't really they didn't really fit nice yeah despite you know being a top-level brand but there's the mid-level HGC actually seems to fit pretty good the FG 17 if you find your brand yeah so and then the I do kind of want to get an R for an R for 10 or an R for 11 pro but it's now this the wrong it's a sport bike helmet like it's made to be tucked in with like the aerodynamics of it so it's not really for me but that thing weighs nothing it's like 3.2 pounds it's ridiculously that's one thing I noticed when we were at the

Robin: show is how I forgot how lightweight non modular helmets are I love the functionality of the modular helmet but all that gearing and mechanism it does add to the body of it and it's pretty difficult I mean you put on a full standard helmet I just felt featherweight to me just even the big bulky one was

Travis: lighter than my modular yeah I want to get away from modular and I want to get away from the the integrated Sunshield oh okay because that adds weight and you can't get a snell rating with integrated Sunshield because you separate the shell from the EPS that put the inside Sunshield which is why Arai has that weird outside Sunshield oh that's okay they did that so they can keep

Robin: their snell rating on all their helmets now Arai tends to work better for an ovular so say it with the ovular head they're better for ovular yeah it's not

Travis: and best thing is like the thing with for me isn't that I need a weird crown shape it's it's the way that your cup is shaped might be set back too far that kind of thing too yeah which actually what seems to actually work really well is adventure or dirt bike helmets because they they have a really big ear cup in them but I just don't want all that they're super noisy I don't

Robin: want all that venting in the front well in your case there's also plastic surgery

Travis: I could just have an ear reduction I think we got off topic there somehow yeah but helmets oh I did look at scorpion helmets as well which seemed to fit good but none of them come with pin locks and it's they're tricky to get pin

Robin: locks for pin locks are kind of important those things work great yeah

Travis: they're there are scorpions all about their proprietary fog-free coating oh great but I want a pin lock because pin locks are mechanical and they just will always work fog-free coatings wear off you know that's how I ended up with

Robin: Sina using Sina products was because I tried out the what is it you clear and I wanted to have earbuds and instead of using a standard ear jack they went with this USB plug and it was a $60 set of earbuds 60 bucks for bad ear was was Apple making it pretty right and no they weren't they weren't even they weren't even at the quality of you don't want what you want you want what we

Travis: tell you who wants it wasn't even that good anyway so let's take a look at some of the updated features developments on the website at the right decision calm so I'll turn that over to our webmaster and editor-in-chief mr. Robin Dean thank

Robin: you it's down everybody calm down all right let's see podcasts are now interactive on the website comments are enabled it used to be that we had one podcast page and it would only show the most recent podcast and the other podcasts you want to listen to you'd have to use a podcast browser that would list them out for you that's now done and done away with you can actually see an individual page for each and every podcast on the site that has all kinds of features and links to stuff we discussed there was another bug of course with there's always a bug with weather preferences and the maintenance tasks that's been remedied updating weather preferences would blank them out due to a conflicting form value everything worked with maintenance except you couldn't actually add a maintenance tasks such as changing oil or cleaning spark plugs etc that's now fixed and remedy our Instagram account is now live it's a nice vent nice place to put the funny photos and all kinds of funny videos so I'm probably gonna send the login to everybody and pretty filters

Travis: pretty filters hipster hipster eyes look look I took this $600 you know 400 megapixel smartphone camera and I may look like a Polaroid from the 70s I am

Robin: gonna get you specifically the login because I think that you might be able to contribute to that if there is in fact an Instagram account or an Instagram app for Windows Phone Travitron yeah well I mean if I had a

Travis: newer Windows Phone I'm sure it would it'd be better but I'm not stuck on 8.1 but well to it I'm due for a phone upgrade but I just I don't want to pay

Robin: 20 bucks a month to get a new phone fair enough fair enough all right well the next thing is this coming soon the site is always open to guest contributed content but not everybody likes to write so I found some resources and I plan on installing this you'll be able to record by voice directly into your web browser anything that is a how-to instructional or a personal story of yours via that's about motorcycling it'll be through our website you'll be to record device directly and or optionally you can submit one of your videos from YouTube preferably it can be one the other or both well we'll transcribe your audio into an article and as for the video whether there are tutorials insights or route rides so long as you allow embedding in the video settings on YouTube we'll consider writing content that supports the video it's sort of win-win especially if you monetize but now that's that covers everything that's updated on the site we're gonna move on to the guest interview this month's

Travis: interview features Stephen Christina a skilled craftsman whose degree in metal sculpture led to the successful and highly rated Ark Academy welding school in Chicago

Robin: good to see you no I drove I parked up front oh yeah come on in yeah wow this place is a gotten crowded dirt well okay so I'll start off real quick what initially drew you to metal sculpture and when did you realize it was your

Stephen: goal I've always been hands-on I've always my dad was what is now called a maker he was a DIY or handy guy and we were also kind of lower middle class so if there was anything that was broken that he had to pay for he would absolutely attempt to fix it himself he's got about an 85% pile of fixing it himself and then that 15% you know he'd actually have to hire out a professional but it was usually for harder things but I grew up my brother and I were always helping him fix things we always were down in his work bench making things we were always creating things in 3d space and when I got to high school they had gotten rid of all the welding automotive workshops anything in the liberal arts except for you know art and generally you know it ditched all of it yeah they got right before I got there there was no more automotive the automotive classes were only being offered to juniors and seniors at the time and then right when I became a sophomore they eliminated the courses and you should have been looking forward to taking this yeah I really was I was that was one of the things that we had wood shop in middle school and wood shop was I loved it and I was trying to get more into the auto mechanics and welding and all that stuff and in high school and then they got rid of the programs we did have the opportunity to do like a vocational where we're bust out to another school and but you have you have to go through all these prerequisites to get to what I wanted to do and it didn't really work out but when I went to college my second semester of my freshman year somehow I was let into the metal sculpture program and I didn't have all the prerequisites for it it was just an oversight on the administrative part of it and I got to go into it and I man the first month of the class I had an oxy acetylene torch and a quarter inch rusty steel plate and I started cutting into that sucker and you had done this before or we was I had not this is my first this is my very first exposure to metal sculpture metal welding metal and I was 19 you know and I had done everything before that I had a cool anything cold connection you could think of like chemicals gluing staples screws nuts bolts pop rivets you name it I probably have done it even working on boats with fiberglass and all sorts of different cold or chemical connections but I had never at that point welded and then when I was in this sculpture class it's like I cut into that steel I knew right away fell in love with it it was love at first sight BAM I wanted to do it I was like okay this is what I want to do for the rest of my life I get this and at that time I was also had an emphasis in oil painting and photography but I started gravitating more and more and more toward the sculpture and welding aspect as I went through the program and I took so many of the metal working classes they says you know what you're just going to be independent at this point and you have to basically go to this one professor and he grades you

Robin: and so he kept a look over your entire criteria yeah your curriculum was based

Stephen: on that yes how many projects I did in a semester how many people I would have to help people in the shop and make sure people weren't killing themselves and all that fun stuff so I was a shop monitor and I was treated as though I was a BFA and I will say that I did not go and I didn't go into the BFA program it's interesting story because I went for my senior evaluation my fourth year at college I was I was a super senior I did the five-year plan I just really enjoyed college I just I enjoyed going to all the classes and I also worked all the way through school I typically held three jobs I I worked at two different bar restaurants and then one just straight-up bar and I also worked in a custom photo lab with photo processing that did all the local police police force and just the municipality photography and custom processing and public processing as well I did a lot more of that actually but so I worked three or four jobs all the way through college so I couldn't take the amount of credits that needed to get you out of college in four years honestly I didn't mind I was having a great time I really didn't have a path I didn't really know what the hell I wanted to do after college but they came up to me they're like yeah you gotta go and it was funny because they said you can graduate with a double minor but you're three credits shy from your double minor and your three credits shy from your major and then they started pushing me into the BFA program and then I looked at all the requirements and the BA program itself and I already I had already taken all those classes like my degree was the equivalent of a BFA but not ever saying or paying for a BFA when they asked me if I wanted to do it I went why would I pay another $6,000 to have the same exact education that I already gave myself so anyway I mean so I did another year and I got my credits online and then I graduated with a BA in fine art and then I double minored in psychology and philosophy but if you really want to know where I got my love for metalwork and sculpture and just welding and metalwork in general fabrication it doesn't have to be sculptural I I love doing all metalwork really would be my freshman year of college I just I just loved it and I just took right to it yeah yeah that's all I wanted to do yeah that's all I really wanted to do I just did this translate over to any bike

Robin: bills I mean you ride and you saw the Kawasaki what was it was a Z ZR ZR 1100 zero 1100 great bike that's awesome do you still have it oh yeah beautiful did that translate to any bills oh yeah I mean no you help me out like yeah I well

Stephen: I've done basic custom chopping for race bikes you know lightning load doing cowls for people for every shape and size crotch Rockets the cruisers the standards race bikes I made a mono tube a mono tubular aluminum frame kind of like it was based as the poor man's Confederate Hellcat and it was it had a Ducati 900 engine in it I did the entire frame and then that guy went to California work for Tesla because he was the engineer designer of it and he sent me images of the the bike actually running and the only problem we had with it was the the engine that he chose to go in it and that he designed around it had this computer module that would not allow the bike to be run without all the

Robin: exterior components Ducati yeah we don't talk about the cutting on our show yeah

Stephen: well it was we don't know because I told my wife's like why don't you just find something that's really abundant and really a standard mounting system and just work with that and in he just he had the Ducati engine he thought it would be an easy thing to do and anytime you get computers involved just don't don't try because you're gonna you're gonna be going through all sorts of wiring and wiring harnesses you've seen what it's done to my social structure oh yeah yeah well that's what I think that's why like the Shivan guys I think the Shivan guys really like working on vintage motorcycles and because they don't have all those computer ABS braking and all the crap that's gonna take what is a engine control modulator or whatever a CT or ECM or whatever it is if you have one of those it's like modern cars have you got to talk to your computer to find out what the hell's wrong with your bike I'm more of the fabricator and not so much a mechanic don't get me wrong I do the maintenance on my own motorcycle and I always fix my own bikes but I to tell you do I do a very good job at carb cleaning and balancing all that fun stuff not really I'm not the greatest at compression I know I can't get my carbs balanced right so typically if I screw that up I'll take it over to a friend or actually have a professional do it I'll pull them out but have somebody else do

Robin: it and put it back in for those of you listening I have seen this guy work miracles though there was a time when I accidentally I didn't know any better and I sheared my my oil filter cover you welded aluminum yeah in a way that if I right if I had the right o-ring yeah would have sealed it wanted to hold oil

Stephen: right yeah so yeah yeah that would have been fine yeah I got that pretty welded

Robin: it and got it pretty flat again but it was worth a shot you know you're not doing a disservice by not chopping bikes or helping people out with that you're

Stephen: teaching us you know what if you are gonna be chopping your bike and you're gonna do anything structural to the frame your frame takes a lot of torsion you know you go into a turn and your entire frame torques you know the the front tire pitches out and the rear tire pitches down and it's it's pressuring the entire frame now if you get into race bikes and crotch rockets and all the entire structure of the frame is engineered to brace that torsion and eliminate it as much as possible what I'm getting at is if you're going to be doing that a yeah you should definitely learn MIG first MIG welding first it's the easiest but it also gives you the foundation and understanding of everything else you're gonna go into in the welding world but you probably will want to get into TIG welding because TIG welding it's gonna be cleaner it's gonna be more controlled you're gonna be able to control the heat input going into the bike and the bike frame and you're going to be able to just weld it properly I'm not saying you can't make just a standard chop bike if you're you know making a hardtail or something like that you know you have a hardtail kit and you just all you're doing is basically you're sleeving in the kit and then you're welding around the sleeve you can use a MIG for that it's not a big deal but when you start getting into what a lot of the my friends are into like Steve Jacks and Anders and all that those guys you know they race old 1970s ish bikes for Chivin but at the same time when they're chopping a bike they have to reinforce it because of the torsion going through these bikes they have to make it more rigid more stable you don't want the frame to fracture or crack so usually when that happens they're gonna come to me and I'm gonna I'm gonna really clean up the material to weld it also going over those older 1970s bikes 60s and 70s bikes the welding on those if you ever take a look at them they're not that pretty they don't look that great they're not that great so usually if I see something that I think is gonna be kind of detrimental to their their riding or their safety I will typically say hey man I'm gonna go over this one well kind of dig it out just make it a little make sure it's penetrated make sure it's really fused together properly so not the time it was supposedly like

Robin: oh that's the new the 70s era this is how we're doing it now this is the new great but then by today's standards like no no no no no yeah we'll take

Stephen: care of this yeah well a lot of the the newer bikes are welded CNC welded you know so if they're doing mass production you're not gonna have thousands of guys or girls people sitting there and TIG welding these things are probably gonna be something if they're aluminum frames are probably gonna be something pulse and if they're steel frames they're probably gonna have some sort of TIG welding system where there will be a person manually feeding in the filler metal but they're probably gonna be on a weld positioner and the the torch is actually gonna be held still and then the weld positioners gonna do it something

Robin: like that so they'll move the frame around the torch not the torch around

Stephen: sometimes um I think it all depends on the motorcycle manufacturer and what it is there will always be positions that they cannot have a robot do so a robot probably will make your aluminum oil tank on some of the crotch rockets and the beads will be manufactured like press break all the material together and then the seams filled in and those those will be CNC controlled but maybe some of the tighter spots that need a professional touch human touch you're gonna also be TIG welded.

Robin: I hope that never changes.

Stephen: I don't foresee it I mean let's face it what's the the company Boston Dynamics or whatever those guys are getting in some crazy robotic stuff yeah well they also have Atlas who just walks around and picks up stuff and it's it's and that was years ago I can't even imagine what's going on right now and the new Dexterity they're making robots that go under cabinets that have hands that can make your those sides of a cabinet by themselves that pop out yeah so the one I'm thinking of is just two arms that are on a slide they go underneath your cabinet and then you lay out all the contents and you don't even have to tell them where the contents is and just starts making you whatever you program it for this doesn't

Robin: tell you but they did the same thing with drum machines it becomes a matter of it's not what you do it's what you do with it or how you do it right so what we might look at is damaging to an industry if we play our cards just right then it can be put to use for the better nobody gets hurt it all becomes a better industry all together but I guess my next question would be you know one of the what is a or even the top three favorite challenges you face creatively in metal

Stephen: sculpture as an artist the bill the biggest challenge for most people like myself going into this and I've been out of college for 20 years now but how much how much do you get paid based on your experience your talent and everything

Robin: your resources in this case you're actually you're a little bit more fortunate because this is a vocation as well I can only assume that those dedicated to what they've learned not only return but they become trained to do well at work have you run into any with a gift for the artistic sculptural side of the knowledge base that you provide do they have you seen a lot of

Stephen: them go on to become oh wow oh my god yeah I I have a few dozen I've been teaching here for a little over six and a half years the it's been our Academy for roughly two and a half years that's when we actually labeled it and I separated the fabrication part of it from the teaching part of it I kind of lost track or after 4,000 I think I think we're around 5,000 ish students at this point in six years somewhere in that somewhere in there I give you any

Robin: leeway towards like becoming able to give accreditation is it accredited you know

Stephen: I don't I don't really care to be accredited I want people to feel like they have access to this I want people to feel but that's a great number I mean that's a big it's a lot it is it is a lot I mean we did I think we did over 1,200 last year alone and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger out of all those I've had a couple of dozen people go in into the welding industry with a welding field they either you know touch their toe in the water at Arc Academy and then they go on to certification courses or they start studying under unions or something like that and then they get placed in jobs I mean I get emails I haven't had one in a while but last year I had a few emails from people that say hey man you changed my life I can't thank you enough I work I I'm now making a grand a year and I'm working up in Maine on on pipelines and stuff and that's great I mean it and I had another person that's a couple of people that were are working in wind energy business and they're they're doing on-site repair and welding for the wind energy and they're out and well they're all over the place actually they're they move around most of them are in California but yeah and I also have people that you know they sign up to be members they come in here and make they make stuff they sell it in our consignment store

Robin: and I didn't even know about the membership which makes me yeah what are

Stephen: your big plans for this year so we launched we launched memberships about about 10 months ago and memberships are 250 a month but you can come in here from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. you utilize the entire the entire place all the tools that you learn all the welding equipment that you learn in in class it's fair game and you just you come in here and fabricate stuff and I may I have people make everything motorcycle frames furniture sculpture wall hangings a lot of coffee tables I have one one of my students he was 13 when he first took my classes he took me when he was 13 when he's 14 he took my TIG classes and when he was 15 he asked me to do a not an apprenticeship but something for his school it was kind of like an apprenticeship for a month he went through a month of me training him and doing all this other stuff and he ended up making a oh man I can't tell you what it's called a spherical it's a stainless steel sphere that isolates the 111 isotope to create something that combats a disease within one of his friends that's out of control it was amazing I have pictures of it it's on it's on Facebook I mean if you look it up I think that was that was 2015 well so that guy's he's on to something what

Robin: about oh he's a genius I mean for sure yeah in my case let's say I come in there I'll get my membership I come in there and I'm still I am definitely the type of person that needs repeat information if you're on site are you

Stephen: accessible as the teacher as well as absolutely you know what we always have a shop attendant in there that is knowledgeable of welding and fabrication that I mean I basically live here so I typically am here to help people out but you know rich Kara Booker's here we have a staff that will help you out to do whatever fabrication you're gonna do yeah a lot of people automotive motorcycle world they'll bring in their frame and chop stuff off for racing purposes I mean I had a guy that was just in here one of our one of our members mark he actually made mounting brackets for his motorcycle and then he made luggage racks and the luggage carriers out of ammo boxes oh nice and he made these things out of ammo boxes and he's like yeah I'm gonna make these and I'm gonna tour and do this 3,000 mile tour around the United States and he got back he's like all right I'm gonna become a member because they work great and he did a bunch of other stuff with his bike so he comes in here and does little little things makes you know highway bars engine guards I mean a lot of this stuff that motorcycle oriented is small I had a guy last year bring in his oh man it was like an AMF yeah an AMF Harley in 1986 and he's and he said I just want to use the frame I'm gonna get a created engine and I was sitting there like all right whatever you want to do man and no he actually chopped the frame up made his own hardtail kit to make a bobber and it it turned out really nice you know what that reminds me I don't think I ever posted those pictures of his bike but for the most part yeah you can you can come in and do whatever you want I mean a lot of people just make furniture or they just practice I have another student Ken he's not a member but he comes in and just pays for hourly open shop all the time and he'll just come in to make sure he's still has his chops down that's so he'll do like anywhere from three to five hours a month and he'll come in for an hour and just lay down some beads on a TIG welder make sure he's stick welding okay he just took our stick class and then he came in for an open shop to practice which is fine we have scrap metal here you can practice on but yeah I mean I have a lot of a lot of people that go on to do a lot of cool things with not just metal sculpture but all things metal

Robin: fabrication welding it's a beautiful thing it's something that I think every dedicated motorcyclist should know how to do and not only are you providing a service to our little neck of a web but you're also helping people find work you're helping people perfect a craft I can't say enough about this I'll give you the details on where you can find out more right after this and thanks for being here thank you man if you'd like to learn more about Steven and Arc Academy you can do so at arcacademy.com where you'll find a class signup schedule and paid video courses for online review and now it's on to the listener questions this month we have listener Abby just one name she's like

Travis: Madonna or Tiffany or maybe it's like a cloister of monks there you go that collectively they live in an Abbey and they have a question yes well she's

Robin: putting her 2012 Ducati Monster 796 up for sale this is the 20th anniversary edition and she's wondering the exact question is what price should I be asking if I want to sell it fast without getting ripped off so I think we need to

Travis: hit the old eBay for one yeah well I did I did a quick KBB motorcycle search if you go to kbb.com slash motorcycles you can look up the Kelley Blue Book value okay I mean but that's also gonna vary by zip code so I don't know where Abby lives she's Cook County Chicagoland yeah Crook County here because it can be just pulled my location off my IP address is about seven and a quarter is what what they're listening for it'll probably be worth more in Chicago a little bit but yeah you just look look around you check eBay check Craigslist check some of the local dealer websites I might be dealing use in a similar model and you can get a good idea of what the pricing is of course if you want to sell it fast you know a low price will move something quicker than a high price will so you can also check with some some resources you know form resources enthusiast resources someone who's into Ducati someone who wants Ducati someone who's a Ducanista yeah well I might be more interested in a 20th anniversary a special edition bike and paying the premium for it to put it in their

Robin: collection the other part is that she plans on getting another bike she's interested in something with a little bit more of a vintage look and feel I don't know if she's going the Triumph route no decision there I actually made mention of the BMW racer the one with the it's got the bullet fairing yeah the R90 racer yeah what a great-looking bike and it's an R which they've been what making that engine how long 1906 more than a hundred years so I think the thought is that we would in the case of a bike like this do I sell it or do I trade it in and I'm coming to the conclusion that why not put it on Craigslist for like maybe two or three weeks and if you don't get the kind of bites you want and certainly don't let anybody test ride it unless they put cash in your hand and they have a legitimate m-class motorcycle license but if you don't get any bites that are up to your standards in terms of what you want to get for it then there's no harm trading it in at any dealership with that has the bike you want to buy though you might get significantly less for it yeah

Travis: that that's a trade-off you always get less for the trade-in because the dealership needs to sell the bike and make money so you might even be interested you know go to a dealership that has the bike you want a place where you would trade it in if you had to and see what they'd give you for it and that'll give you that'll give you a bottom basement price right is at the very least you want to make more than what you'd get on a trade-in if you're gonna sell it retail so you kind of know what the actual floor is where it's like where you're you're basically losing money at that point if you sell it for

Robin: less than you'd get on a trade where did we go when we saw those two f800 GTs

Travis: that dealership BMW cycle works in Barrington cycle works Barrington all

Robin: right that's a good outlet to at least connect with the bike she might be looking for if not the Triumph dealerships in Chicago I know Johnny chef that's a different cycle works yeah this cycle works spelled correctly uh one

Travis: of them's with a knee I don't remember which ones which way there's the one down on Southwestern Avenue that's that's Johnny and then there's the one out in

Robin: Barrington which is part of a and and and Johnny chef is like the nicest guy

Travis: in the world and that's the motor works on Southwestern though the place we went to was Barrington the place in Barrington which is not related to the cycle works that's in Chicago proper on Southwestern and that's Johnny show you never know that might be related only that they sell European bikes but yeah the guys down at cycle works though on on Southern Western you know they they're pretty they're pretty good they're good they're cool they'll point you in the right direction and if you're not looking for a trade if you just can't take the hit on a trade they might know a guy that's interested there's nobody

Robin: who I know socially who has ever forgotten who I am and walked by me so politely as one mr. Johnny chef he is a he is a he's a salesman he knows what

Travis: he's doing he's a good guy yeah also meets a lot of people and does a lot of

Robin: crazy stuff most definitely so that covers that if you'd like to ask us some of your listener questions email your questions and concerns to podcast at email that's podcast at email or you can call two to four three five eight thirty

Travis: ten and leave us a voicemail also if you're in the market for a 2012 Ducati monster seven nine six twentieth anniversary edition you just an email give us a call and we can hook you up with Abby we have our contact

Robin: information yeah that bikes got to go it's got to go and it's gotta go fast it'll go fast no matter what it's a fast bike it's gonna go fast and that brings us to this is incredible power okay the super slick ultra badass motorcycle mega posse of incredible power is super slick ultra badass and as a side note it's incredibly powerful little tip for you if you're ice biking and your bike gets away from you and keeps going and a buddy chases it on their bike hope they're smart enough to ride up along the right side of the bike reaching for the cutoff switch with their left hand just food for thought yeah have you seen

Travis: the viral video of the the autonomous bike that wouldn't fall down skip go

Robin: round and round around Travis you posted a slowed down high-speed picture of a cylinder operating with glass a glass lid so you could see the combustion taking

Travis: place yeah that was baddest baddest noise ever yeah that was from Destin at smarter every day and why actually wasn't he it's another guy who does motor stuff but it was an old vintage Briggs and Stratton motor was that was a flathead if you're familiar with flats with a valve opens up and down the same way the cylinder moves so it's kind of the perfect candidate yeah because because you don't need anything overhead you can see how the power explosion propagates from the spark plug is pretty cool video we can see all four cycles yeah yeah you can you can see it clearly and they they filmed it with a high-speed camera so you can actually see you can see the spark fire and you can see the flame propagate down the cylinder and then come out the exhaust yep and then

Robin: what about the Honda that won't fall over I didn't actually check that out

Travis: but I think I'd seen something like it before yeah so that was well Honda's doing a slightly different so I've seen non tip over two-wheeled vehicles that were usually some sort of weird car thing built in gyroscopics they had a gyroscope in it they had to run so a rotating counterweight that was nine degrees to the wheels but the the way the Honda works actually the head tube is mechanically controlled and so when you're going slow it makes the rake really long it makes the rake really low and the trail really long Wow I'm so it basically kind of drops it scoops pushes the front wheel out to make it more more stable and then does like very slight left and right turning corrections and then once you get up to speed it pulls the front wheel back in increases the rake and then it works gyroscopically like a woodwinds moving

Robin: yeah that is wicked the actual mechanics of that it seems like it would take a lot of power to make it happen so just to add that to the bike I wonder if it's

Travis: heavy probably not too much I mean you know electric motors are pretty efficient so a stepper motor simple to one moving part yeah it's really the it's really the brain that's the hard part yeah I mean it has like you know velocity sensors so it can tell which way it's pitching and then correct for it sure then yeah it's really just the the software and the brain that that corrects it so the other weird thing is about that is it's basically steer by wire until you start really moving nice which is weird for a motorcycle to be

Robin: like steer by wire yeah try hacking that with Wi-Fi well all right on to Chicago is Chicago's get Nancy up here to ride vintage bikes are popping up on the streets at 11 degree temps that was towards the beginning of this month we've had some warmer temps as of recent which has been great but I remember when I was that crazy go out and like I was new to motorcycling I'm gonna do it anyhow 20 degrees 15 degrees another note dear KTM dealership at the IMS Chicago show it's sport touring it's been around for some time I would expect a dealership to know this sports touring that's where the term ST bikes came along not sports tourers so make sure you do your research sport touring not

Travis: sports touring yes sports sports touring sounds like sports ball it's it's not sporting or sporting we're gonna go sport some sports ball at the sporting

Robin: match and then there was an iconic motorcycle poster if you guys look this up on Google just a poster of iconic motorbikes from movies I'm gonna have to get that from my garage and on that note it's time to go but we're always looking for sponsors for this podcast sponsors are given three focused mentions toward the start middle and end of their designated episode their contributions are put towards bettering the program's content and recording equipment and

Travis: that's our episode for this month tune in next time when our wives we're also avid riders interview one another regarding female specific rider topics along with things specific to sport touring or universal motorcycling in

Robin: general that's gonna be when you and I got to get out of the room we're gonna

Travis: have to run for our lives those have to set them up and then yeah let them go and then hope they don't talk about us too much nice and quick shout out to he

Robin: and Tran just look up voto cycling that's vo to cycling on YouTube and subscribe to her channel we hope to get together with her sometime down the line where opportunity allows for the riding obsession I'm Robin Dean and I'm Travis Burleson safe travels everyone

Travis: if you're not in need of advertising but are willing to donate regardless it's worth noting we've all we're always here's how we make beer