Robert,
James, Sim and Lisa with Bigfoot. The programme was first broadcast in the
UK on Channel 4 on Sunday November 3rd 2002.
photo courtesy
of RDF Media
Bigfoot Meets the Hammerlocks
I've long been a fan of the Scrapheap Challenge TV show. A combination of creative design, seat of the pants engineering and competition make for great viewing, and I've spent many an happy hour in front of the TV set shouting encouragement, or otherwise, at the teams. So it was a great thrill when I heard my friend Lindsay Keith had started working on the show as an Assistant Producer. When Lindsay rang me a couple of months later and asked if I'd appear in an episode as a Judge I, of course, jumped at the chance.
The plan was to build a couple of monowheels, an unusual device consisting of a large powered single wheel carrying a rider within it. To make the show work, the Producers need a Judge and two "Technical Consultants" (or TCs) in a relevant field. The TCs are asked to prepare outline designs in advance of filming, ensure their designs could be produced on time and with the resources likely to be found in the scrapheap, and work with the teams on the build. The team members have no idea of the task until the cameras are actually rolling.
RDF, the programmes makers, had managed to track down Geraint Owen, a vintage car racer and lecturer in engineering at the University of Bath. Geraint had built a couple of experimental monowheels for fun, and had found them crude and unwieldy devices. He had, however, volunteered to be a TC with one of the teams. The search for another TC was presenting some problems until RDF made contact with Kerry McLean. Based in Michigan, Kerry has been building monowheels for over 30 years and is probably the worlds leading expert on their design and construction. He also holds the world land speed record for powered single wheelers, set using his own V8 monowheel at Bonneville Salt Flats. Delighted to be offered his first transatlantic trip, Kerry immediately volunteered himself as the other TC. This presented RDF with something of a dilemma, for while one TC was a world expert in the field the other one had much less experience. Undoubtedly one team would have an unfair advantage. Unless Kerry became Judge, and I could be moved sideways into the role of TC....
 Dr.Rod, suited up in lilac and looking worried. Would you let this man loose with a hacksaw? |
 Kerry McLean, the world's leading expert in Monowheels and coolest dude on the set. |
 Geraint Owen's experience in Monowheel building should have given his team an edge... |
My first inkling of my changing role came in the form of an e-mail from Gabriella Pollieta, the Director, who asked me three weeks before the filming date for an outline plan for building a monowheel. I responded with a five paragraph e-mail outlining a proposed method and indicating some of the anticipated problems along the way. I also pointed out that, while I had built many custom bikes and trikes and tinkered with racing cars, I had never even seen a monowheel, never mind build one.
Gabriella rang me and invited me to a meeting at the "Challenge" site the following week. RDF had managed to borrow one of Geraint's monowheels, and would I like to have a go on it and give my opinion as to the feasibility of the design.
Now you may not have realised this, but "Scrapheap Challenge" is actually filmed in a real life scrapyard, albeit with some specially built props and sets, and located well away from the daily cut and thrust of business. My introduction to monowheels took place on the access road to the scrapyard, attempting to ride Geraint's prototype monowheel with no prior experience under the carefully watchful eye of a TV Director still debating whether to give the show a green light. Channel 4's health and safety people were concerned about the possibility of injury, and my self appointed task for the day was to show that, hey, these things can not only be built but are also quite safe to ride.
Actually, riding the thing was an absolute bastard. I soon learned that a monowheel is an unstable beast until it has picked up sufficient speed for gyroscopic effect to kick in. Geraint's wheel was a huge device spanning almost six feet in diameter, and trying to accelerate up to a stable speed on the access road without veering off into the wall proved well nigh impossible. Coupled with that is the phenomenon known to monowheelers as "gerbilling". Apply the power and the inner framework which carries you and the engine tries to ride up inside the main wheel, slow down or even (heaven forbid) brake and you ride backwards up the inside of the wheel. Getting the thing to move at all involves a lot of see-sawing back and forth, all the time trying desperately to avoid falling over sideways. This isn't helped by Channel 4's insistence on riders wearing full protective gear and crash helmets. Adjourning to Tesco's car park (where we hoped to have a bit more space) I did eventually succeed in riding the thing around in large, wobbly circles for almost four laps before finally falling off it in a heap. To my great admiration Sim, one of the Scrapheap team's technicians, jumped straight on and rode it faultlessly round the car park. Our combined effort was just enough to tip the balance and convince Gabriella to tell Channel 4 we should go ahead with the programme. On the train home my thigh muscles began to ache with the exertion and when I got home I could barely stand up unassisted for three days. But we had a show....
 Sim jumped on Geraints prototype wheel and mastered it almost instantly. |
 Kerry's beautifully crafted wheel was a revelation in both build quality and handling. |
 Kerry at speed in Tesco's car park. This is how it should be done. |
Much of the next few days was spent working out the fine details of my design and I kept in close contact with Lindsay and the Scrapheap crew to make sure our design could be built. Very little fakery goes into the making of Scrapheap Challenge, but the production crew will try to make sure that suitable bits can be found to build the design without resorting to obvious plants. Such items as running donor mopeds, for instance, are carefully identified in the scrapheap so the teams will not spend all their build time looking vainly for a non existent power source. However they are not tipped off about which ones work, or where to look. Kerry McLean offered his technical advice to both TCs in advance of the show, and I faxed my proposed design across the Atlantic before chatting on the phone with Kerry about the best approach to take on friction drives and counterbalances. For the technically minded, you can see my original drawings by clicking here.
The following Tuesday I rode down to the Scrapyard on my Harley and met up with Kerry and the production crew. Kerry had brought one of his superb hand built wheels over with him from the US, so we loaded it and Geraints wheel into a trailer and headed off to Tesco's again. Kerry is an absolute master at riding these things and caused a real stir amongst the shoppers as he bombed around the car park. When my turn came to ride it I was amazed how much easier it was to ride than Geraints, and was orbiting with something approaching confidence in only a few minutes.
 Kerry gives Producer Lindsay a quick lesson in monowheel riding. |
 Sod building one from scrap, I want to ride this one... |
That night in the
bar we met the teams for the first time and, despite several rounds of Stella,
managed to resist divulging the secret nature of the task to them. Majik and
Psycho from the Hammerlocks were convinced they were going to build some kind
of motorbike from my and Kerry's rather obvious interest in Harleys, but Geraints
presence threw them off the scent. To confound them further I spent a large
chunk of the evening discussing racing cars with Geraint, whose father had
restored Parry Thomas 1920s racer "Babs". Kerry meanwhile downed huge quantities
of Stella Artois, apparently convinced it was some kind of "light beer". Vigilante,
the third member of the Hammerlocks, arrived late and hit the bar with a vengeance.