The Build.
"I don't want to know what you think, I want to know which one will work!"

The following morning brought a 6.15am call, and the teams were ferried down to the Scrapyard by mini-bus. I followed on my bike. Vigilante had overdone it in the bar and left his hotel room in something of a state, apparently not for the first time. After being kitted out in my lilac jumpsuit (!) I found myself next to Robert Llewelyn in the bacon roll queue, who proved to be a thoroughly nice bloke and completely mad as a hatter. And with radio mikes fitted and film crews in position, we were rolling. Half an hour or so to cover the announcement of the task to the teams (and the surprise you see on camera is genuine, folks!) and introduce them to their TCs, and the build is under way. My first job was to set out my design on the old car bonnet used for a blackboard, and convince the team that this was the way to do it. The TC is the only one who has an advance plan, and the team may choose to reject his idea and build something different. Half way through sketching out the plan it started to rain, and my marker pen would no longer make marks on the car bonnet. However I'd got the idea across, and the Hammerlocks immediately set about scavenging for suitable parts.

I'd decided to use an existing wheel rather than try and make one as I knew Geraint intended. Our design used a pneumatic tyre which would give us a wider profile and hopefully help stability. My concern, after my limited experience of monowheels, was that the team members would have to complete the challenge without the luxury of learning to ride their wheels first. I wanted to build something as easy to ride as possible, and therefore wanted as small a diameter wheel as we could manage. Gyroscopic effect makes a small wheel stable at a lower speed, and a wide pneumatic tyre gives a bigger contact patch (or "footprint") which I felt would also help. The downside of a wide wheel is that you lose forward vision, but I was willing to trade that for stability. After my experience with Geraints prototype wheel I also suspected that this challenge would be won on stability rather than speed, and I felt that using a small moped engine with a modest power output would help prevent the back and forth "gerbilling" effect when pulling away, an effect caused by an inexperienced rider attempting to find an optimum throttle position to cause forward motion. More engine power makes for a more hairline trigger effect as the rider juggles the throttle. Stability and ease of handling would win this challenge, I reckoned, and as long as we had sufficient power to make the thing move forwards under its own steam we could cruise gently to the finish line while the other team were trying to go fast and falling off.

Bigfoot in all its soggy glory, yet to turn in anger. Will it ever run?

Cold, wet and exhausted, but we have a running monowheel.

After last minute fettling and ready for the track, the moment of truth approaches.

I also wanted to get the centre of gravity right down to further aid stability. I envisioned the rider being sat right down into the wheel with the engine between his legs, and had even made provision to add lead weights below the rider. After having explained all this I found myself looking, with Majik, at two large tractor wheels scavenged by Psycho and Vig. The larger wheel needed less work to remove it's spokes, but was bigger and fatter than I'd really wanted. "Which one?" demanded Majik. "Well, this one would be easier to work with and I think ..." I started, when Majik interrupted "I don't want to know what you think, I want to know which one will work!". I looked him in the eyes and saw determination there and a will to win. The gauntlet was cast down, did I just design these things on paper or could I actually build one? "This one will work" I said, with a little more confidence than I felt. "Right, lets build this sucker". And with that the point of no return was passed and we set to work.

Last minute pre-challenge fettling at the trackside.

Majik suited up in lilac and looking worried. The effect is catching.

Psycho's last minute modifications released a couple more vital BHP.

Hasty addition of an ignition kill switch "for the Paramedics".

Scrapheap Challenge offers a built time of ten hours, and that's ten real hours to get a result. There's some leeway on details as, for example, coded welders have to check all the welds before the health and safety people are satisfied it's safe to ride. So under pressure you can get away with tacking something into place. But at the end of ten hours the vehicle has to be more or less complete and recognisable. Most of the time the cameras roam around the build area and you forget they're there, but occasionally work has to stop to film a "chat" with one of the presenters. We were also beginning to experience serious problems with the rain, which had become torrential and persistent. Not only were we getting soaked but the camera crews were too, and despite rain covers Lindsay was beginning to have cameras go down with misting lenses. Every now and again we'd have to stop and tell Lindsay over the intercom we were in the middle of an important operation, and no cameras were on hand to record it. On one occasion we were ready to offer the engine into place, and had to wait for forty minutes until a camera was available to film it. Consequently the production crew would keep extending our build time to compensate for camera downtime, so we got a genuine ten hours build.

But it was a tough ten hours. The rain was relentless and the only shelter an awning the size of a handkerchief. Everything was soaked and poor Psycho kept getting shocks off the welder which Nobby the cameraman found hilarious and went to great lengths to capture on film. As the temperature fell we were shivering with cold and at times it seemed the build was running on nothing but rain and adrenaline.

The headshield was a late but vital addition.

Nobby moves in for the close-up.

That speedo will never work, but it gives the rider something to look at.

Vigilante adds some lead weights for extra ballast.

The net result is that you lose all track of time. We had been asked to remove our watches, and the megaphone time signals you see on the show seem to come at erratic intervals. We did get a lunch break of around forty minutes, taken on the set and used as a frantic planning session for the next part of the build, and cups of tea and chocolate biscuits do keep appearing at the back of the set by the unseen hand of a production assistant. But pretty soon it was getting dark. Though we had some build time left Gabriella insisted we take an unscheduled break, and ushered both teams into a portacabin for hot coffee and cornish pasties, and to get us out of the rain for a few minutes.

Over in the Tunnel Ratz camp, a strange device has taken shape.

The Ratz wheel ready for the track. Note last minute revisions to drive set-up.

Going back out to finish the machine off was the toughest call of the day but by this time we had some confidence in our contraption. When we managed to get the engine started and felt it roll gently forward under its own power it all felt worth it, particularly in view of the problems we knew the other team were having over the barrier. When the final whistle blew we had a running monowheel, overweight, underpowered and lashed-up, but running. It was 10.45pm, we were cold, tired and exhausted. So of course it was back to the hotel bar for a couple more "light beers" to wind down on....

Next:
The Challenge