Shannon
Motorbike service stand
St Patrick's College, Kilbirnie
Year 13 Technology, Hard Materials
Full-year project
Teacher: Brian Allen
Shannon, a Year 13 student at St Patrick's College, Kilbirnie, Wellington races motorbikes. This year he was lucky enough to find a way of combining the "business" of his school work with the pleasure of his chosen sport. As a project for his Hard Materials technology class, Shannon was asked to design and build a portable stand that would allow a motorcross bike to be serviced trackside or in a home workshop. It wasn't enough for the stand to hold a bike steady, it had to let a bike's wheels spin freely; provide unimpeded access to the gearbox sump plug; and stand clear of a machine's expansion chamber and suspension linkage.
Shannon set about the task in an orderly way, using a set of processes he had learnt in his previous technology classes. Shannon's technology teacher Brian Allen says "It's about intervening in their world through the development of products, systems, and environments".
After resolving a design through sketches, Shannon set about building a prototype. This allowed him to test jointing methods to find the one best able to bear the weight of a bike (around 87kg dry weight). Prototyping allowed Shannon to consider the size and shape of the stand's components best able to withstand both the compressive and tensional forces acting on the loaded unit.
Brian Allen says the prototyping process had to be carefully planned, as Shannon's research into materials and processes was "quite extensive. The whole process was a particularly good example of technological practice".
Actually producing the prototype required Shannon to produce very accurate joints to allow the welds to hold. When asked about his welding, Shannon said: "I learnt to weld in Year 12 so that enabled me to apply a skill I had already learnt to my technology development this year".
As a finishing touch, the stand was plastic coated.
Shannon was happy with his finished stand. "It works great because it meets a real need for me and my client. It has been tested by my client and he is really pleased with how it works".
