VROOOM: Motorcycle Program Ratches up a Notch

BY CODY CATULLA
Contributing Writer

Tian Wong gets some expert help from teaching assistant Sara Simunovich PHOTOS BY COLLEEN CUMMINGS

When you come to one of the motorcycle classes at the Evans campus you can bring your leather jacket, but leave the attitude at home.

When people think about motorcycles and the people who ride them, they really get the wrong idea. “They think about the Hells Angels,” said motorcycle course instructor David Miller, but that’s not who he sees the program serving.

“Our target group are recreational cyclists … somebody you would live next door to and you wouldn’t know that motorcycles were their hobby or their life’s pursuit. It’s not a statement. It’s not an attitude. It’s a love,” said Miller.

Miller, who has been teaching at City College for 16 years, started the motorcycle program three years ago. He is excited because in Spring 2005 City College will offer two new degree/certification tracks: Custom Motorcycle Builder and Motorcycle Dealer Technician.

Students who choose the Motorcycle Dealer Technician track will learn the skills they need to work as a mechanic at a motorcycle dealership. Students who choose the Custom Motorcycle Builder track will learn metal fabrication so they can create custom gas tanks and other custom parts. They’ll also learn custom motorcycle design and assembly, and custom motorcycle painting.

Miller thinks the expanded program will attract students from throughout the Bay Area motorcycle community.

“This new system, with the classes offered for the custom side or for the dealership side is diverse enough that it should pretty much tickle anybody’s fancy if they’re even remotely interested,” Miller said.

Lisa Duke, the other instructor in the motorcycle program, is hoping to see more women in the classes.

“We want to encourage diversity, make more women feel welcome to become a part of the programs here,” she said.

According to Duke and Miller there are more women in the motorcycle program than in the automotive programs. Duke said that it’s because women motorcyclists are already gender benders.

“You are already crossing over in your gender identity if you are a woman [who rides a motorcycle], so you are more likely to want to work on your bike than if you are a woman who drives a car,” Duke said.

George Bainbridge worked all semester on the bike he finally gets to fire up and ride through the motorcycle lab.

Duke who runs her own business doing custom motorcycle restoration, defines gender bending as a person doing things that have traditionally been done by members of the opposite sex.

“It isn’t typical to be a woman who is a mechanic or who does any of the trade skills,” she said. “It’s like if you are a guy and you are in the nursing industry.”

The motorcycle program has been popular from the beginning. When the class was first offered, 57 students signed up. Now there is a waiting list to get in.

Scott Mays, 29, waited for over a year to get into the motorcycle/engine repair class.

Mays has been riding since 2001 and this semester he is working on a bike he picked up a year ago, a 1972 Honda CB 500.

Mays thinks one benefit of the class is that it’s both a structured and unstructured learning environment.

“It combines theory with hands on,” Mays said. “The environment is really constructive. Everybody is working on different things. If I don’t know about something like a clutch rebuild and someone is working on it. I can just go over and watch and talk to them about what they’re doing.” Mays said.

Students in the motorcycle classes often bring their own motorcycles to work on. In the area belonging to the motorcycle program at Evans campus, Miller estimates there are between 35 and 40 bikes. All but four of them belong to students.

“We have everything from scooters to full-blown custom $40,000 motorcycles. So come one come all. We don’t care what it is as long as it has two wheels,” Miller said.