>> ♪ We've got two days to get this straight ♪ We got a challenge just won't wait our eyes are on the prize ♪ Two engineers just set the date ♪ We got this client can't be late oh, no, it's go time ♪ Build it, test, fix it debug now and kick it ♪ Got to get it off the ground yeah ♪ Stick around and you'll see what teamwork's supposed to mean ♪ It's so key Design Squad Design Squad!

♪ >> That's very hard to play.

>> That is a little hard to play.

>> Sounds good to me.

( bell ringing ) >> What's this?

>> Hey, you guys.

>> Check it out.

>> Check out my new ship.

>> Is that a SCUL bike?

>> Yeah, it is.

>> What's a SCUL bike?

>> "SCUL" stands for Subversive Choppers Urban Legion.

>> They're this urban bicycle gang, and they take cycling to new heights.

This week, your client, he's from SCUL, and his name is Skunk.

You guys should check it out.

>> Let's roll it.

>> Hi, I'm Skunk from SCUL.

SCUL is a Boston-based bicycle chopper gang.

>> Wow.

>> SCUL takes civilian ships and modifies them into fighter ships.

We cut them apart and put them back together in a new and fun way.

This is Cloud Buster.

It's my favorite ship.

It's made from two broken ships put together to make one big one.

This is Abandon All Hope.

It's the U.S.S.

Constitution of SCUL.

It's one of the most difficult ships in the fleet to pilot because of it's really long forks.

This is BRC Summer, one of the oldest ships in SCUL.

It's a BMX with an extended hull, and it has an onboard blending system.

Okay, Design Squad, here's your challenge this week.

First the specs.

Each team has to build a modified ship using no more than three existing civilian ships.

Each ship must be space worthy and fun to pilot.

The more creative of the two ships gets to join the battalion of SCUL on a top-secret mission.

Good luck.

>> All right, pilots, this week, before we start brainstorming, we're going to head over to a place called Bikes Not Bombs.

Each team is going to choose three bikes.

You get to use those bikes, chop them up however you want, and create the ultimate ship of your dreams.

>> Now, remember, the team with the winning ship gets 100 points per member.

You have to make them cool and crazy and wacky enough to go on a SCUL mission and yet still be rideable.

>> All right, you guys got it?

>> Yeah.

>> All right, let's head out.

>> Let's go.

>> Welcome, Design Squads, to the Bikes Not Bombs warehouse.

Hi, I'm Carl Kurz.

We work with inner-city teens here in Boston to develop bicycle culture.

You're going to be, you know, helping build that culture in Boston by building one of the spaceships for SCUL.

As you know, that's your challenge.

So basically, at this point, have at it.

Pick your bikes.

>> Wow.

>> It's like Mount Bikemore.

>> Look at this one over here that we got.

>> This is, like, older than my grandma.

>> That frame's a little higher.

>> Yeah, but the wheels are what matter.

>> It's not a mess.

It's beautiful.

It's art.

It's got... this frame is just... it's a long frame, which is good, and it's got pretty cool wheels.

>> Are we really taking that yellow bike?

>> Yeah.

We got the green one, this yellow one.

>> Yeah, we got our three.

We're all set.

>> I think the bikes were chosen a bit irrationally.

Since we didn't really have anything on paper, you know, we kind of just, like, picked whatever seemed right.

But I think it's going to work out fine.

I mean, we got one of the best bikes out there.

>> We definitely want these two frames.

>> Hey, how about this wheel, guys?

I think it should be our third one, yeah.

>> Plus, it's already blue.

>> Oh, word.

>> Oh, nice.

>> What should we name our design?

>> Quadracycle.

>> Yeah, do quadcycle.

>> Okay, so what kind of bike... were we thinking of like... >> Do you want to brainstorm before we design?

>> We want something weird and wacky, so we don't want it to look like a bike, a normal bike.

>> I like the two-man idea, but we were... >> Side by side or... >> I was thinking back to back.

>> Let's look at our bikes.

>> What are you looking for?

>> No, just, like, look at them for ideas, I guess.

>> There's a silence.

>> I think we should brainstorm before we start designing.

Right now, we started right off at designing.

>> Yeah, brainstorming by looking at the bikes.

>> But right now we're talking about what it's going to look like.

That's designing.

We need to brainstorm about... >> No, but, like, you're looking at what we have in order... all right, whatever.

>> No, but if you don't know what I mean, then don't do it.

I want you to understand it.

>> I think it'd be really cool to have two bikes, two whole bodies of a bike connected, and instead of having two wheels in the front, which you would, like, expect to see, to have one.

I like that idea.

>> Yeah, I like that too.

Could we do that?

>> So we kind of have this trike.

Trikes are for little kids, but we want to make it the bad boy attitude.

So let's start dismantling.

The whole Blue Team could be like... it's like the Starship Enterprise.

These are our spaceships we're going in, so... >> Oh, that's nerdy.

That's nerdy.

>> The voices in my head were chatting with each other, and they said some ways to be funkay-- with an a-y -- have multiple riders, because that's kind of funky.

It's been done, but it still looks pretty cool.

>> What do you mean, multiple riders?

>> Like, two.

>> Okay.

>> More than one.

But I think a good idea would be to steer with your feet and then pedal with your hands, have, like, a handlebar up here that you pedal like that, and then you steer with your feet.

That'd be pretty funky.

>> That would be so hard to balance.

>> You think so?

>> That's very hard to balance.

>> I think it's easier to do back to back, because if we have limited space, it's easier their feet not to get caught... >> Right.

>> ...not to be banging knees if they're, you know, back to back.

>> So we need to think of a way to connect two frames.

We need to pick our frames, then connect them.

>> I think our two best frames are this one and this one, the green one and the old purple one.

If there's going to be two people, we're going to have to elongate one of the frames at least.

>> Cut off that end, and then cut off this end and conjoin them in the middle.

You can just weld those pieces together.

>> Red Team plans to make one long tandem bike by combining the front end of one frame with the back end of anther.

The rider in the front steers but doesn't pedal.

The rider in the back pedals using the rear bike's drive train.

But since the riders sit back to back, the rear rider must pedal backwards.

>> So you're going to put this seat up here?

>> Yeah.

>> So I don't get why we have to move the seat down.

>> Do you see where the pedals are right now?

>> Yeah.

>> They're behind my bottom.

This is going to be really hard to put my feet up and pedal.

If we move the seat back to here, the pedals are in front of you now.

It's going to be easier to pedal.

>> Because I don't see how that's problematic.

But it doesn't matter.

You're still pedaling, right?

>> It depends on the... >> No, you're still pedaling, aren't you?

>> Giselle, sit on it.

>> Sit on the bike.

>> But, you guys... >> Just sit on the bike.

>> Sit on the bike.

>> Oh, my gosh.

>> No, you'll... it's good, it's good.

>> All right, now put your feet behind you.

>> All right, now put your feet where the pedals are.

Put your feet... >> Put your feet behind you.

>> Yeah, exactly.

>> But someone's going to be sitting behind you.

>> No, look it.

Lean back like you just were.

See where your feet are?

>> They're not where the pedals... >> Yeah, yeah, you can't... >> See how your feet are in front of you?

Now put your feet behind you.

Hold on.

Put your feet behind you.

>> But I'm leaning back.

>> No, you were leaning back because your feet were in front of you.

>> But that's how you're going to be pedaling.

>> Only if we put the seat behind the pedals.

Look down.

>> Okay, okay.

>> Hold on.

Look down there... >> Extend your foot as far as you can backwards.

>> But that's... all right, you know what?

Forget it.

Forget what I said.

Forget... no, no, no.

>> If we're going to have at least three riders on it, we can weld the fronts of this to the back of this.

>> Do you want to weld, like, a bar back here?

>> That's cool.

>> So this is basically what our design is going to be.

What I would like to do is have it so there's the option of one person riding it by himself.

But there's also the option of two people riding it together, and they can both steer.

>> We're also probably going to need to put the pedals on here and let's see what range of motion we have.

>> I just realized that because the red bike can't go backward, that's the braking system right there.

>> Yeah, it can't pedal backwards.

So if you backpedal, it just brakes it like a regular trike.

>> We need a to-do list because I'm really lost on what we're supposed to be doing.

Guys, can you hear me?

We need to make a to-do list.

>> We need to make a what?

>> To-do list.

>> I don't think we need a to-do this.

We all know what we need to do.

>> I don't.

>> We got to be flexible.

I mean, we build it.

We encounter a problem.

We build around the problem.

But you solve the problem as we're building.

We don't have to talk about our problems the whole time.

I feel like we have a lot of disagreements.

We don't... we're not really splitting up work well.

>> I totally agree.

I think we need to expand on our to-do list.

That way we can be more productive.

>> I don't think we need a to-do list.

This is that teamwork thing.

>> I think we do need a to-do list.

>> I think you're wrong.

>> You know what?

I think we should take this inside and make a to-do list.

>> This is my worried face.

I'm not worried.

>> Can you explain to me, Tom, what the frame's going to look like?

>> Here's what I'm thinking.

We have this bar right here.

>> Right.

>> That's where the seat goes on the green bike.

>> Right.

>> We could put these two bars from the purple bike and weld them to this bar right here, substitute that bar for that bar.

>> Pretend that's the green bar.

>> Nate or Deanne are going to weld our bikes for us.

>> Can we figure out where the pipe's going to connect, the back pipe?

>> Back pipe?

>> Because we need to file the paint away.

>> So start filing right here.

>> File it down here, here, and get that over here.

>> The teams first need to file the pain off their bike frames because bare metal ensures a strong weld.

Then they're use tungsten inert gas or TIG welding to join their bike frames together.

Here's how it works.

The welding gun's tip discharges an electric current through the air forming an arc that's so hot it melts the steel tubing together.

Metal filler is fed into the arc by hand.

The filler melts in an instant, thickening the weld and strengthening the joint.

>> Because we want to maximize the elongation of the bike, I'm thinking that to get this in farther, we can take this out.

>> So basically, there's 15 minutes left in day one, so that's not quite enough time to weld our bikes together.

So right now we're trying to figure out different things in the shop that could trick out our ship.

>> Time's up.

Wrap it up, Design Squads.

>> That was easy.

>> Not.

>> All right, guys.

>> So who's working on what?

>> No, no, no, we need to finalize the frame before we split up anything.

>> We don't have separate jobs right now without... >> Yeah, okay, so you guys or whoever will do the frame and then... >> But without our frame, we don't have any other jobs to do.

>> We don't know what our frame is yet.

>> We want to cut the head tube of this bike, cut in half, and then we want to put it on directly to the seat tube on the green bike.

>> Okay, so it's basically going to be welded like that.

>> That way we just extend it.

>> Extend the frame of the bike?

>> Extend the frame of the bike.

>> All right.

>> You guys are having some trouble with the hacksaw, huh?

>> Yeah.

We just, like, wanted to hacksaw, but it's not working at all.

>> It's really tough.

>> Yeah.

Well, okay, look at this head tube.

What you actually have going on in here is two cups.

If you put your finger in there... >> Oh, yeah, yeah, I feel that, yeah.

>> Okay, so these cups right here are hardened steel.

So what you need to do is get some kind of screwdriver or something and pry those off, just to kick these two out, and then it'll make it a lot easier to saw through the rest of this, all right?

>> Thank you.

>> All right.

>> Do you want to use a chisel?

>> Don't use a chisel, Giselle.

>> Why not?

Well, explain.

Why is it a bad idea?

>> That's not going to get it out any faster than a screwdriver.

It's just going to break the chisel, break the edge of the chisel.

>> Can we try, then I'll look stupid?

>> But it's going to break the tool.

>> I'd rather try.

>> I take no responsibility for what's about to happen.

>> I'm more of a risk taker.

I like to try, and if I fail, fail fast, succeed sooner.

>> I can feel the cap coming off.

>> Keep going, keep going.

Just keep going.

>> Yeah, I think we're breaking the chisel.

>> Are you serious?

>> Yeah, very.

>> All right, hack away, Giselle.

( cheering ) We don't need any power tools.

We got our hands.

>> Before we start welding, we have to file off all the pain on the spots we're going to weld.

Otherwise, the paint's going to weaken the welds, and that's a bad thing when you're riding a bike.

>> We cut the steering tube on the old bike in half so that we can fit it nice and snug on the seat tube in the newer bike.

>> So let's get the pedals off of this now.

>> Since our middle bike is not going to be pedaled, it's not going to have any kind of power to it, we're taking off the pedals just so that there's less on the bike.

>> Lift it, yeah.

>> Wow, you guys have been getting off a lot of paint.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> So this pipe back here is going to be connecting this part of the bike right here to this part of this bike.

>> I think it's about time to start welding.

>> Whoa!

>> Check out your sweet ride.

You like the welding?

>> That's perfect.

>> Looks good, huh?

>> Amazing.

>> This thing turned out really well.

I think, structurally, it's fabulous.

Cool, let's take it outside.

I want to see your little test ride.

>> It was really nice.

It works really well.

It's a lot of fun to ride.

>> All right.

Hey, Red Team.

How you guys looking?

>> We need to be weld... we need to weld.

>> You need to weld?

>> Yeah.

>> So we're going to need a weld here.

>> You guys make it too easy for me.

It's going to be a really good, strong joint right there.

Um, I'd say the only thing that you guys need to do is kind of improve how the tubes sit in relation to each other before they're welded.

It's going to be wanting to pull itself apart.

You're going to have to squeeze it together a little bit more.

I would just pull this guy out and crank down on these together in the vice, and then you're pretty much ready to go.

>> All right.

>> Ready there?

>> Screw it.

Make them touch.

>> And they're touching.

>> Cool, much closer.

We're ready.

>> All right, let's go.

>> We are making a horn.

>> I have an idea that's going to blow them away, literally.

( buzzing and beeping ) ( honking and beeping ) At they rate we're going, Blue Team's going to have to get out of our way.

>> Hey, guys.

>> Hey.

>> Your welding is done.

>> Good job.

>> That is a cool-looking bike.

You guys can do whatever else you want to it.

Just a few hours left, so have at it.

>> You want to steer and I'll pedal?

>> Huh?

>> Let's see how two people fit on this.

>> We should have two separate seats or one really long seat.

>> I mean, you and I fit on there with room to spare.

>> All right.

>> I think it's fine.

>> I call driver then.

>> All right.

>> I can't believe this works.

>> Are you okay?

Are you okay?

It worked.

>> The duct tape broke right where I was sitting.

Yeah, so other than, you know... >> It works.

>> ...the pain and the near loss of consciousness... >> How did it... other than that, how did it feel in the back?

>> It felt... no, it felt great in the back.

Yeah, we'll just have to find something stronger for that.

>> Yeah.

>> But other than that, it's awesome-- awesome.

Well, Natasha had heard me singing before, thought I'd sound better as a soprano, so what she did was she put little cuts in the tape so the seat would fly up onto myself.

>> The duct tape failed is what happened, basically.

>> So what we're doing now is we're going to make sure that never happens again.

>> For Tom's sake and every other male who ever rides this bike on the back.

>> We took this bar off the Cactus Flower.

We bolted it to the seat, and then we're going to weld it to the frame of the bike.

>> I didn't really have anywhere to put my feet, so I'm going to be working on pegs for the front.

One of the pegs is going to go right here on the fork, and it's going to be welded just right on, and there's going to be one on the other side too.

>> Yeah!

>> What I'm going to do with this, I cut out rims for both sides of the front wheel.

We can use nuts and bolts to hug it to the actual wheel.

>> Mike, check it out.

>> Oh.

>> This is the front wheel?

>> Yeah, that's the front.

>> Now that we've gotten the seat welded in place, all we have to do now is mount our death ray and we're basically done.

What do you think we should name it?

>> Um, I don't know.

How about Mo' Riders, because it's got mo' riders.

>> I like it.

>> Oh, I like it.

Let's just stick with that.

>> I like that.

>> It's rock and roll.

>> We've only got about 30 minutes left, so it doesn't matter what you do, just do something.

>> We probably don't have that much time, so we'll find a way.

>> Now, where is this going?

>> ...do all this wiring still.

>> I need the soldering iron.

I need the glue gun.

>> Go, go, go, go.

>> I think this could be kind of like our license plate.

It doesn't even have to be the name, but it is a wide load compared to other bikes.

( horn honking ) >> On and off.

>> W-i-d-e L-o-a-d!

W-i-d-e L-o-a-d!

W-i-d-e L-o-a-d!

>> Happy you know how to spell.

>> Put your tools down.

It's the end of day two.

>> Are we done?

>> Yeah, we're pretty much done.

>> Good.

>> One, two, three, Mo' Riders!

>> Just keep it moving, guys.

We don't have all day.

All right, it's the moment of truth.

Almost ready for blast off.

Blue Team, tell us about your ship.

>> It's called Wide Load.

>> You can have one person use it as scooter.

You can have two people ride it.

And you can have a person in the middle or you can have a person on the back too.

So you can have up to four people on it.

>> Up to four people.

>> That's fantastic.

>> Watch the maiden voyage.

>> Five, four, three, blastoff!

>> Where are your brakes?

>> We didn't forget.

>> I guess we'll find out, because if they don't have any brakes, they're going to crash into it.

>> We're about to find out.

Here they come.

>> Coaster brake.

>> Coaster brake on it.

So it is space worthy it seems.

Fantastic.

Nice work.

( horn honking ) >> All right, great job, Blue Team.

Red pilots.

>> This is called the Mo' Riders ship.

It's fit for two people, one to steer and one to pedal.

Our death raider.

( horn buzzing ) >> All right, let's see this Mo' Rider in action.

>> Nice.

>> No hands.

( horn buzzing ) >> I behold the horror that's attached to it.

>> Fantastic job.

>> All right, well, the three of us are going to have to go decide who gets to go on the SCUL mission, right?

>> Going to be a close call.

>> Yeah, let's huddle up.

>> What do we like about the blue one?

>> I like the fact that you can put the whole team on there.

They got, you know, a unified color.

That's cool.

I love the battle plating.

>> Just look at them.

>> Look, they said the word "red."

>> They said the word "blue" too probably.

>> And the Mo' Riders, that thing... the backwards action is really cool.

>> Yeah.

>> I think it's just comedy.

I love it.

>> Yeah, I didn't think they were rideable until they tried them out, so... >> The suspense is killing me.

>> Let's go tell them.

>> All right.

>> They're coming back.

They're coming back.

>> Skunk, give them the news.

>> You guys both win.

>> What?

>> You guys both did great bikes.

They all meet the criteria.

>> I hope you're kidding that we both win.

I want one of us to win.

>> No, you all win, I'm afraid.

>> No.

>> I have never heard anybody complain about winning-- ridiculous.

>> There's no point in winners if there's no losers.

>> Exactly.

>> The outcome was... >> Yeah, we don't like the everyone wins idea.

>> Just let it slide.

>> I mean, all right, the idea's nice, yay, everybody wins, but the whole point of Design Squad is competition.

>> It's wicked corny too.

It's like, "You're all winners."

>> Yay!

>> Fly over rainbows.

>> I want that scholarship!

>> I'm in charge here.

I'm Fleet Admiral Skunk.

You guys both win.

I'm saying you're all going on the SCUL mission.

That's an order.

>> All right!

>> Yes, sir!

( cheering ) Yes, Admiral, sir!

>> All right, Red Team and Blue Team, you both won.

( cheering ) >> Having a ball!

>> It's awesome.

Are you kidding me?

>> Slow down!

>> Yeah.

>> Look at my tattoo-- SCUL!

( cheering and applause ) >> That was an impressive show.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> Ah, that's so fun.

>> Since everyone wins 100 points, the scoreboard stays the same.

So after three challenges, Kim and Joey are tied for the lead with 300 points apiece.

All right, Deanne, here's a new challenge: describe the Design Squad Web site in ten seconds.

Go.

>> There are games, photos, new challenges, videos, quizzes, scoring updates.

>> Time's up.

>> Ugh!

Just go to pbskidsgo.org.