By Marty Baker
Editor

High school field trips can be more than just “fun and games”.  For Neil Mansfield’s Assabet Valley High School students, it is a learning experience on many levels.  On a recent visit to two world-class bicycle-building companies, Independent Fabrication, Inc. and Seven Cycles, students have seen how Tour de France-quality racing cycles are constructed.

Independent Fabrication, Inc. of Somerville, Massachusetts, is an employee-owned company that builds titanium bike frames.  IF works with the most cutting-edge materials and techniques in existence, from the finest steel tubing to the best titanium, to an array of custom carbon fiber tubing made just for IF. 

“Every frameset we build is custom-built for an individual customer, from start to finish,” says Matt Bracken, President.  “Custom means every tube, every length, every angle, and every option is selected to meet the customers’ needs and desires.  We are not just welding pipes and tubes… we are welding someone’s dream!”

Each bicycle frame is built from a very detailed blueprint from start to finish

“My students learn and understand the level of skill that is required while welding .030 wall thicknesses as well as producing a perfect weld,” says Neil.  “They also get a clear understanding in how important blueprint and shop math are to become a titanium bike frame welder.”

“It is important for companies to take time out of their day for the students,” continues Bracken.  “It pumps the students up and shows them that hard work and a good attitude will not go unrewarded.  It allows them to see an application of welding beyond the school setting and makes the students better.”

Seven Cycles of Watertown, Massachusetts, has a staff that includes designers, engineers, welders, and finishers, along with marketing, sales, and a general administrative staff.  Their welding team’s mission is to produce exquisitely welded titanium and steel frames while meeting Seven’s target for labor hours per frame and capabilities development through team camaraderie.  Their production welders need an artistic sense of craftsmanship with an obsessive attention to detail. 

“We appreciate the opportunity to give students a chance to see a real working environment,” says Matt O’Keefe, Production Supervisor at Seven Cycles.  “Students can understand and relate to bicycles and see that there are unique opportunities for them if they pursue welding as a career.”

“My students find this field trip is one of the best that they attend for the school year,” Neil continues.  “Both places have young and alternative employees that produce some of the world’s best racing bicycles and that are seen in the Tour de France bike race.”

Learn more about these companies at http://www.ifbikes.com and http://www.sevencycles.com   

Neil Mansfield is Metal Fabrication Teacher at Assabet Valley Vocational High School and a graduate of the Combination Structural and Pipe Welding Program at Hobart Institute of Welding Technology.