Where are all the 'Tradies and blue collar workers.

acotrel · Dec 19, 2019

acotrel said:
I might be a bit different from many other professional scientists - I can actually use my hands. I was a kid in the 1940s and 1950s. I had an uncle who was like a brother to me. He had a 1953 Triumph Thunderbird which he rode from Melbourne to the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland. When he returned I helped him rebuild the bike. In 1954 he took me to a road race meeting at Fishermens' Bend where I watched Geoff Duke ride the Gilera fours. I just had to do that. When I was working, I manoeuvred so that whatever I did was associated with manufacturing hardware. I've had motorcycles since I was 15 - about 1955. In those days bikes were as cheap as chips. I had two given to me. I can drive a lathe and a mill and I can weld a bit. I have rebuilt many motors and gearboxes. In the four factories in which I have worked, there was sufficient expertise to build the best motorcycle on the planet.

I was watching a TV programme on the ABC a while back. There was a panel of experts and one of them said 'I wish I could fix a gate'. They went around the panel and none of them had any manual skills. Why would you be born with hands, if you were not going to use them ?

acotrel · Dec 19, 2019

Craig said:
I read somewhere that some very smart people did a study on happiness/satisfaction in work place and beyond , it was discovered that using your hands in combination with mental challenges results in happiest most satisfied workers .... was explained that manual work of some type is in our DNA and that it very healthy for all to try and do something with tools you born with .... I’m sure it has been proven false by now ...

I was lucky that I found motorcycles when I was very young. During my life, they have always been in the background motivating me. The best jobs I've ever had, have been where there was opportunity to make foreigners. In one factory in which I worked, it was said that the best quality products we made, were the foreigners we smuggled out the gate. Most professional scientists in Australia, do not work in factories. The best job I ever had was in the Government Aircraft Factories. My racing motorcycle benefitted greatly from that. I had to leave because they hired a lunatic to become the boss. I then moved to a better job at Ordnance Factory Maribyrnong where you could have your foreigners made as a legitimate job through the system. However I was too busy to exploit the situation to the max.

acotrel · Dec 19, 2019

While I was in Ordnance Factory, one of my friends made a crank for a 1200cc Vincent. He had the main shafts electron beam welded into the flywheels. However the pins pulled skew. So he took the whole assembly to another factory and had a cut taken over the whole assembly. Seems butcherous to me. In those jobs, thinking about foreigners keeps you sane.
Sometimes I think I am mad, but then I think it might be everybody else. Some people never have the joy of making something which is really good, then proving it by making a motorcycle go really fast. In most of what we do in our lives, we each do our little bit which contributes to the end product. With motorcycles, you can build them from beginning to end. The reason I road race is more about proving the bike, than it is about winning.