By Sammy Nagy

As the 2014 school year enters its second month, many of the students have begun to readapt to the everyday TPA atmosphere. This means re-adjusting to a rigorous day schedule with up to three hours of homework a night plus the time spent participating in a sports team or any other extra-curricular activities. Overall, these add up to make an incredibly strenuous itinerary for the students, especially those who are just entering the TPA community. However, even with the harsh and unforgiving timetable, several students are still managing to do incredible things in their spare time.

One such student I talked to, a freshman like myself named Justin Pfeilsticker, has done and continues to do brilliant things with that time. Justin balances school with repairing automobiles and, occasionally, constructing fully independent and exceptional fuel driven transports. One of which, a motorized bicycle, he uses every day to make the two-mile journey between TPA and his home.

I managed to ask him to describe the bike to me in detail, ending up with more baffling information than I had started with. The main drive system can be summed up in a surprisingly few parts: First, Justin releases the clutch, which releases the gasoline from his fuel tank into his piston motor. The back wheel, turning by his start-up pedaling, is hooked up directly to an electric motor which provides power to a spark plug, igniting the fuel and pushing the pistons hooked up to a chain that turns the back wheel.

In all, he invested only about $300 into the project, acquiring many of the parts off of Craigslist, and managed to build most of it in the span of a day. Asking for an elaboration on his interest in motorized vehicles, he told me that he first discovered the practice at a young age, a result of his inclination towards building. Later, he realized the significance of cars in the shaping of society and focused in on cars, specifically off-road vehicles, as he worked for experience at a small auto shop known as “Four Wheelers.” Now, Justin works on restoring an old Jeep to a street legal level.

In closing I asked about the virtues he found most valuable during his work. “Patience and common sense,” he said, “are by far the most essential and time saving virtues in a workshop.”