My motoring inspiration: Daniel Ball

The Motorcycle Assembly Technician at Langen Motorcycles and IMI Student of the Year boosted his skillset to help power the future of two wheels.

What ignited that passion to get involved in the industry?

My Dad was heavily into motorcycles. From a young age I was on the back of his bikes, and my love of motorcycles has only grown over the years. When I was 15, I got an after-school job and saved up for a year to buy my first moped. As soon as I turned 16, I did my CBT and used my bike to commute all year round before passing my motorcycle test just after my 18th birthday.

What sparked your interest in engineering?

I’ve always had a need to understand how things work. When I was a young child, I was often building things out of Lego and K’NEX. When I reached my teenage years, I started to take things apart, like my pushbike, but not everything would go back together again. I really started to feed my curiosity of how things work when I got my first moped at 16. I remember taking all the plastics off it and feeling very proud of myself. I’ve come a long way since then.

Have you always worked on your own vehicles?

When I first had my moped, I was going to go out on it one evening and it wouldn’t start. I didn’t have a clue what was wrong with it so I rang a mate and explained the situation. He came and showed me how to change a spark plug and it came to life straight away – that was my first taste of satisfaction from getting a bike running. After that, my dad taught me the basics of using tools and servicing my bike.

Once I had that behind me, I took every opportunity to learn any useful skill I could. Every time something needed doing to one my vehicles I would give it a go. I made a lot of mistakes but learned from every single one of them and never made the same mistake twice. By the time I started my course, I had a good foundation for learning and picked most things up relatively quickly.

What’s been your biggest engineering challenge in your career so far?

The most daunting task I’ve undertaken was the first engine I had to strip and rebuild in college. It felt like such a massive task. However, once I started and tackled one part at a time, it soon became a much more manageable and rewarding task.

How do you feel about achieving an IMI qualification and achievement award?

I am very happy about gaining the IMI qualification for motorcycle service and repair, and feel a real sense of accomplishment – I’ve even framed my certificate!

To feature in our next edition, email james.scoltock@thinkpublishing.co.uk

This is an edited extract from IMI's new MotorPro magazine, received free as part of IMI membership.