Kennedy High School

The coming of summer means the end of another school year, including the school year at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, MN, home to the Build a Chopper Class with everyone’s favorite teacher, Kevin Baas. Before bidding all the students a nice summer, Kevin held his annual open house, which is a great opportunity for supporters and parents to view all the projects in the shop. The Open house also creates a chance for Kevin to give a little speech, thanking both the students for their good work and persistence, and the many supporters for their monetary and moral support.

The event turns into a mini bike show of sorts, as anyone who can, rides their bike. The bikes themselves tend to be a little out of the ordinary. This year the sidewalk display included a whole raft of Knuckles (hard to believe given Kevin’s fondness for Knuckleheads) including the ’39 his wife Amy rides, as well as his personal ride complete with side hack. Of course Matt Olsen, of Carl’s Cycle Supply Fame, showed up with one of his Knuckles, I think this particular bike is a veteran of at least two cross country rides.

The annual Kevin Baas Open House at Kennedy High School always turns into a very eclectic bike show – every thing from Knuckles and Pans to Donnie Smith customs.

The cast of motorcycle luminaries and guests included Donnie Smith, the man who Kevin thanked profusely for the phone calls that Donnie made ten years ago when the class was just beginning. By calling everyone in the industry Donnie not only helped Kevin obtain a bunch of parts for building motorcycles. He gave Kevin instant credibility.

The rainy day kept a few scooters at home, but did nothing to diminish the turnout for Kevin’s open house.

After the speeches the event turned into a good, old-fashioned BS session…. “they left me in the campground with a broken leg and rode to the bar for a quick beer. Well, an hour later I had to figure out how to start someone else’s Triumph with my hand, cause my right leg was the broken one. They were pretty surprised when I showed up on the Triumph with my crutches strapped to the handle bars, they all wanted to know, ‘how’d you start that thing.’”

Sometimes if you want to figure out how someone did something, you just have to get down on your hands and knees and have a good look.

The open house gave the students a chance to explain exactly what they did and why.

As Donnie Smith demonstrates, we can tell stories without alcohol, but we can’t do it without our hands.

A few years back we did a book with one of our local motorcycle celebrities: Kevin Bass. As you probably know, Kevin teaches shop class at Kennedy high school in Bloomington, Minnesota, just south of Minneapolis. Of course, the class that Kevin teaches isn’t just any class, the class Kevin teaches is the one I wish they offered when I was in high school – Chopper Building.

Kevin’s book, introduced in 2006, sold well enough, but like all books it eventually went out of print. And that might be the end of this story, except that used copies of Kevin’s book are currently selling for as much as eighty dollars on ebay. Which made my entrepreneurial brain think that maybe it would be a good thing to bring Kevin’s Bobber book back, with some updates and revisions of course.

Back by popular demand, look for a revised Bobber book in the spring of 2011.

The new and revised edition of How to Build an Old Skool Bobber will have at least 2 new assembly sequences, some new and simplified wiring diagrams, and new bikes in the Gallery section. I’ve given a long-time employee, Deb Shade, the job of organizing Kevin’s images. Early in December Deb and I took a trip to Kevin’s house to pick up some digital images and to talk about what else we need to bring this book together.

Kevin’s personal shop looks a lot like a two car garage. The kind where normal people park cars, kids’ bikes and lawn mowers. There are some bikes in Kevin’s garage of course, but these are bikes for big kids. And the walls are “decorated” with more old motorcycle stuff than you can imagine. While Kevin and Deb worked on an inventory of new material, I spent my time scanning the bench and walls, admiring everything from complete Flathead and Knucklehead motors to the proverbial head gaskets hangin’ on a nail.

Editor Deb Shade and Kevin Bass, hard at work on the revised edition of Kevin’s How to Build an Old Skool Bobber book.

Amidst the chaos of parts and motorcycle stuff, there’s a Shovelhead Chopper, almost finished, a bike Kevin is assembling in his spare time(?) for an overseas customer. Apparently teaching full time, fabricating part time, attending a whole raft of events each year, and raising a family with three small boys, just isn’t quite enough for Kevin.

Check ‘em out, two genuinely old and genuinely made-in-Milwaukee V-twins, with a nice backdrop of very interesting old motorcycle parts.

At any rate, Deb and I enjoyed a very productive visit with Kevin along with a couple of bottles of Grain Belt. We did collect most of the material needed to assemble the revised book, which means that with any luck this one might be one time – something new and different for Wolfgang. Look for Kevin’s new book in April of the New Year.

In addition to teaching, fabricating, attending events and raising three boys, Kevin does complete bike builds – this Shovelhead chopper is his latest project.