SALEM Project puts teens on road to marketable skills

Several seniors will be transforming the 1971 motorcycle into a work of metallic art.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- When Matt Peters, machine trades teacher at Salem High School, was scouting for a project to instruct his students on the use of metal-working machines, he wanted something that would go beyond teaching basic skills.
Peters sought a task that would capture his students' imagination and enthusiasm.
He found it when student Ryan Wadlow said that he'd been given a 1971 Honda 350 motorcycle and that he wanted to transform it into a show-quality chopper -- a customized bike known chiefly for the extended forks that hold the front wheel far out to the front.
The boy's shop companions asked to help Ryan, and Peters agreed, letting them shoulder the task as a senior project.
Peters calls the project a "real world" type of job in that it teaches how to apply classroom skills to reach a practical goal.
Seven boys are involved in transforming the motorcycle into something that will only remotely resemble the original machine.
Besides extended forks, customizers typically do other things such as build or buy new frames, handlebars, seats and gas tanks. A special, eye-catching paint job often completes a transformation.
"It will be lower and longer," Peters said.
Challenging task
The seniors have their work cut out for them.
"It was a pretty ugly bike," Peters said of the appearance of the motorcycle when it was first brought into the shop. "It had been sitting around for 15 years, and had two flat tires and a couple of hornet's nests."
Since that inauspicious debut, the bike has been stripped, dismantled and most of its parts have been deposited in 5-gallon plastic buckets. The old Honda's frame leans against a wall like a skeleton picked clean by vultures.
The seniors are now busy using the skills they've learned in class to rebuild the original engine.
The boys also are designing new hand-grips for the bike and are fabricating them in the school shop. A new frame also will be assembled.
Peters displayed a couple of the ideas and said he was glad to see the work and imagination that has been put into them.
"In machining, there's not always a chance for creativity. This gives them a chance to do that," Peters said.
Plans are to have the motorcycle finished by spring in time for graduation.
The aim of the two-year machine trades course and the senior project that concludes the curriculum is to teach students a skill so they can "go out and get a job," Peters said.