Building a Custom Drifting Trike During COVID Lockdown for STEM Summer Camp
Written by Loxley Browne
March 2020: the COVID-19 global pandemic had just shut down the world. Athenian‘s program had been in the San Diego schools for a grand total of four months. There was such promise for what this program would be able to do. It was building a community of like-minded, STEM-loving girls.
We quickly did the pandemic pivot and took our entire program online. By April 2020 the plan was in place to move forward with a virtual summer camp FABcamp. FAB being short for fabrication, and yes, being girls we also say FABulous!
Our Board Advisor, Lance Smith, suggested creating a Drifting Trike, based upon what he had seen Collin Furst produce. He had extra parts and pieces around the shop, all of the tools to fabricate customized parts, and a space carved out in the yard where we could make the sparks fly! We gathered a small team that devoted themselves to avoiding all others so that the four of us could work together safely and got started.
“You only need three tools in life: your imagination, duct tape…. and power tools.”
–Lance Smith, Board Advisor
This was a new exploration into delivering content to our members. The pandemic had shifted everyone online and Zoom meetings became “the new norm” that everyone quickly acclimated to. Could we translate working in a shop to online? Would everyone “get it” or would their eyes glaze over with misunderstanding? Every teacher was searching for a new way to engage their students.
Our team realized the silver lining in the storm of Covid: the delivery of education was now following the path of a professional. Online meetings, flexibility in the day, learning how to organize life and a calendar, all skills that young adults get thrust into with a first job was now being taught to teenagers! Our members, our Athenians, would be the first generation to develop their professional skills during their tweenage years vs. their thirty-somethings.
The ideas that we gleaned from other creators helped us craft this amazing and fun vehicle. We spent 10 days total in the shop. We had to piece together, customize, and retool so many parts to make this come to life. The inability to get our hands on the specific items that we wanted and needed, was a new level of frustration brought on by the pandemic. But, despite the odds, we made it happen!
“We pulled off the impossible at a time when the world was in standstill. Anything is possible with the magic ingredients of an engineering mindset and determination.”
–John Hayes, Board Director
As we built our drifting trike, we filmed everything that we did. We took that trike apart six times and put it back together seven. New ideas, needed clearance for the chain, a better way to attach the body panel, how to get the air filter to fit under the seat, the “where did that noise come from?” looks. Typical discussions and experiences in a custom fabrication project. All the while crafting customized pieces for it. The Athenian member who was assisting, and I, had zero experience in building a customized vehicle. It was a first for both of us. Our team spent a lot of nights on YouTube watching other’s ‘how-to” videos!
The entire time we were building we were videotaping and talking through the entire process. In creating these segments we brought the virtual campers into the shop with us. We then created our reveal video, a fun skit with “the Stig,” with sideways slides, deep leans to make the trike more lively, and lots of smiles.
As we were loading up the trike, a security guard (who had probably been watching the fun from afar) stopped to ask us what we were doing. Not having a skidpad or parking lot of our own we explained how we were teaching our own version of “shop class” online. Smiles, high-fives, and a big sigh of relief followed. But, in my mind it made me more determined to establish our own HQ. A gathering spot for our Athenians. A place where they can imagine, create, build, and experience bringing an idea to life… then be able to power it up and zoom away!
I can’t wait to see the trike in person! It was so fun watching it be built. It made me realize that I could build something like this too!
~Samantha, 2020 FABcamper
