Wyatt Harwood is a fish out of water, the only junior in a class full of seniors, for the Student Build Challenge chopper class at Sturgis Brown High School. But he is confident that he will do a good job and is looking forward to the bike build project challenge, as building motorcycles is not a new task for him.
Harwood is currently working on building a motorcycle with his dad, so he has known for a while now that he wants to go into the welding industry and work on more bike build projects. After attending Spearfish High School and hearing about Sturgis’ welding program, he and his dad looked into the program and the class and he was accepted into the class after taking the prerequisite classes. Even though he is only a junior and just attended his first chopper class last week, he is still looking forward to getting his hands dirty and learning all he can.
“I just like to look at how it all goes together and see how the bike becomes completed,” he said.
Harwood and his dad are currently building a café racer at home from a ’78 Honda Hawk 2, though it will be a different style than usual. They lowered the bike quite a bit and cut off the back half of the frame and will be adding a CVR9000 rear suspension system to it.
Even after just his first chopper class, Harwood said he is learning a lot and the bike build project program is one of the best programs he’s seen and is a great opportunity for students looking into the welding and auto industry.
“It seems other high schools only focus on college prep and some of us don’t want to go to college,” he said. “This prepares you a lot more. This is really starting to be a growing industry. More schools should offer entry opportunities.”
–from the Buffalo Chip
