Media release:

Young students to build mini motorbikes on forward-thinking Tertiary course

Petrol-head Murray Bowden is all the inspiration young students at NorthTec need to show them the heights that they can all aspire to reach.

A member of the Flying Kiwi team that broke the 1000cc side-car World Land Speed Record in Christchurch in 2009, Mr Bowden, a mechanical engineering tutor at NorthTec, wants to empower 16 to 17 year-olds as part of the Introduction to Trades and Technology option under NorthTec’s MyStart Programme, to accomplish several exciting projects this year, and will get them to build their own micro-mini motorbikes.

He says owning a Tru-test mini bike when he was younger was what he always wanted, but didn’t have the money to buy one or the required knowledge or skills then to build his own that he did not want his upcoming intake of students part of the MyStart Programme to experience.

“It never happened for me, but I want all my students on the course to have one because I couldn’t,” he said.
MyStart, formerly referred to as the Youth Guarantee Programme, but rebranded by NorthTec to fit the tertiary education needs of Te Tai Tokerau, is an education platform which offers 16 to 17 year-olds options to develop promising futures.

With free fees for 16 to 17 year-olds enrolled in the programme, and numerous introductory options available to them, students can get a grounding in a specific area that interests them, such as environmental studies, business and computing, or trades and technology, that they may then wish to go on and pursue either by way of a modern apprenticeship, enrolling in a NorthTec National Certificate or by electing a more suited career pathway.

As one of eight MyStart first year options, the Introduction to Trades and Technology elective encompasses elements of automotive and carpentry, as well as mechanical engineering, which is where Mr Bowden’s students will be afforded the opportunity, to build micro-mini-motorbikes as part of their course learning. The mini motorbikes will act as a solid project for the students to learn and develop their engineering skills from he said as well as the motorbikes offering distinct advantages like being cheap to run, practical in size, and offer easy parking.

The building of the micro-mini motorbikes will complement the three-wheel scooters that students engineered with tutor Leon Ducrot last year, which proved popular. He was unavailable to tutor this year, as he had taken up a new job overseas.

“The specific outcome of each of the projects is to show them what is out there and what they can do while they develop life skills.” – NorthTec MyStart tutor Murray Bowden
When he was asked towards the end of 2010 if he wanted to assist Dave Williams (automotive) with the programme, he says he thought about it for a nano-second before taking on the challenge that both men are looking forward to.

“I want everyone to be an engineer,” Mr Bowden said. “I’m looking forward to introducing our young ones to a trade even if they don’t end up down that road, at least I would have opened their eyes to some options because there is nothing worse than later questioning what if.”

He says when he was younger, he had an overpowering desire to own a manufactured Tru-test mini bike (pictured) capable of reaching speeds of up to 90km/hr that was essentially “bits of tube welded together with an engine plopped in the middle.” However, he didn’t have the knowledge or skills back then to build his own he says.

He doesn’t want his 2011 students to experience the same feeling of “hopelessness” and says he wants to empower them with the skills and knowledge to achieve what he was not able to do for himself when younger.

Mr Bowden says the three-wheel scooters will be made first, so the students can develop basic skills like cutting steel tubes to length and at different angles with a hacksaw, can practice the different welding techniques, and learn to read a basic design plan/drawing that they will need to build the micro-mini motorbikes later on.

In order to build them, the students will be required to cut steel tubes to length, lay them onto a frame and weld them up properly. The engines and components for each of the micro-mini motorbikes are being provided by NorthTec.

He says what his students will have in the finish, is something to be proud of that will give the teenagers an enormous amount of satisfaction that might even give them ambition to chase a future in engineering or something else.

Says Mr Bowden: “There are some [students] who have trouble getting out of bed in the morning and others who make the connection about where they can go with it once they are given the tools.”

A fitter turner by trade, Mr Bowden has used this qualification and associated skills to explore what he loves doing namely, racing and for automotive engineering, and he maintains there is no reason students under the MyStart Programme cannot do the same.

As an example of what his students can aspire to, Mr Bowden is currently building a $120,000 AC Cobra - a unique blend of a rounded English sports car with a V8 Mustang engine and independent Jaguar rear.

“What I want to get across to the students is that if I wanted to build it for myself I could, but I have chosen to build it for someone else,” he said.

Over the years, Mr Bowden has also been heavily involved with both super cart and side-car racing –machines he has built himself from scratch. He says that his passion for building these racing machines likely stemmed from him wanting a Tru-test mini bike when he was younger and not knowing how to go about building his own.

If there is 16 to 17 year-olds in Northland in flux about what they want to do for a career, but have thought about working with their hands, “MyStart is their start,” he said unequivocally.

Mr Bowden says the three focus areas tied to the Introduction to Trades and Technology option under MyStart, gives students entry-level skills that make them useful to an employer from day one.

From his five years tutoring at NorthTec, he has had the pleasure of seeing Pre-trade mechanical engineering students move onto apprenticeships, and watched them progress into becoming competent tradesmen/women which he finds most rewarding.

He says he hopes to discover the next Burt Munro of the World’s Fastest Indian fame, or the next John Britton while tutoring at NorthTec.

Mr Bowden will be speaking about the upcoming projects at a series of introduction days NorthTec is holding at Whangarei, Kaitaia, and Rawene between February 8 and 16, to educate Northlander’s about the benefits of the MyStart Programme. This will include demonstrations and displays from other tutors across the range of Year 1 options.

ENDS

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