I just can’t tell you how it feels when the deadline is looming, PR and marketing people are coming into the build area, telling you what time it has to be ready to fire-up and we can only do one job at a time, my heart is pounding, all the little jobs are falling off the list: Bleed the brakes, connect wiring for the lights, fit the seat, etc, etc.

At 4:45 it looks like we’re there, a final run through the final checks, a quick splash of fuel in the tank, wipe it all over to ensure she looks her best and we are ready to hit the button. At this point photographers and journalists are beginning to arrive. We are staking our reputation on what happens next – lets get the hell out of here – nerves get the better of us, it’s time for a few moments of solace and a cigarette outside. The whole Hawg Haven crew, joined by Michael from MCN, troop outside; much to the bemusement of the gathered on-lookers (sorry Rebecca).

Clearing the build area gave the snappers time to get a few clean shots of the bike, we’re feeling confident and ready to go – Three, Two, One – I hit the starter and (potato, potato, potato) she’s a runner, that familiar V-twin sound fills the Carole Nash stand (potato, potato, potato). Fantastic; kill the engine before the Health and Safety people realise we have a bike running in here.

After the photographers and show visitors had gone, we were left wondering what had happened to the past 14 days – we shut the shop in Norwich almost two weeks ago to get prepared for this marathon – now it was over, all that was left to do was gather our tools and load all the kit into the van; we had become rather attached to our goldfish bowl and the sense that we were finished was slow to sink in, but we did it; the first ever live bike build at the NEC international motorcycle show, (and I think I’m correct in saying) the first time its ever been done live in front of a public audience in the UK. What the hell are we going to do to follow this then…….. You just wait and see!

If you couldn’t make it along to the NEC you’ll be pleased to know that Hawg Haven’s creations, including the Carole Nash Old Skool Bobber, will be on display at Coventry Transport Museum from the 12th of December to the 22nd of January – get along there and take a look.

The Carole Nash Old Skool Bobber will be touring the country, attending many of the major biking events over the coming 12 months, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse of it. Remember to get your chance of taking her home, get a quote* from Carole Nash and enter the competition!

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

See the final Carole Nash Construct podcast below…

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

I couldn’t wait to get the protective wrapping off the tank and see how it looked; I really need not have worried, Jon has never let me down with his paintwork and as usual he had exceeded my expectations, laying down a base of Carole Nash blue to match the frame and forks, highlighted with hand pin striping and the Carole Nash logo flanking both sides of the tank – classy and subtle – The pin striping is continued through the oil tank and fender to tie the whole thing together. There are not many people capable of pin striping to this standard free-hand; it’s a dieing art these days.

As I mentioned in my Wednesday blog; Jon Fox had to modify the tank mounts blind - without seeing the way the tank would finally sit on the frame with the Springer forks in place – all the revised measurements had been relayed by phone, so this was to be the moment of truth, the build could have failed at this point with no way of rescue. No way, we weren’t going to have any more mistakes, the measurements were spot-on and the tank now fits without restricting the lock. 

Next job is fitting the seat pan, which hides the oil tank’s battery compartment and other electrical components away from prying eyes. The cut down and widened rear fender is fitted, it’s sleek lines closely hug the rear tire and the final look of the bike is clear for all to see – Terry taps me on the shoulder and whispers in my ear “Do we have to give this one to Carole Nash, I rather like it, it’s ok Jon we can build them another.” but no, this bike is already bought and paid for, the entries are streaming in thick and fast from show visitors and people getting quotes by phone and on-line, click here for a motorcycle quote,*  or ring us on 0800 804 7952 for your chance to win.

So we’ve come from a stock Harley frame to a full gooseneck Santee style rigid (hardtail) frame, widened the sportster tank, widened the rear fender, hand made the exhaust system, fabricated all the fittings, fitted the engine and running gear, built a hand made wiring loom and sent the metal work over to paint in the past 10 days – working 10am to 6pm each day at the show and the equivalent of six full days of paint shop time, preparing the fabricated parts, filling, sanding and spraying.

All that’s left to do is a long list of finishing touches, currently standing at 23 items in total, then we have to fire her up before the close of the show on Sunday; something could still hold us up, but we are looking good! 

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

We had a bit of help today as Peter Weston, our design consultant, joined us for the day. The extra pair of hands were very welcome, as I have been tied up grinding down the welds on the exhaust and polishing feverishly. I’m limited in what I can do with the restricted space at the show and can’t risk spraying the rest of the crew (or the bike itself) with polishing soap; and after a few hours we made the call to go for an antique brushed finish on the exhaust; this requires much more elbow grease, but the end result looks really fantastic.

The build has reached a major milestone today as Snowy completed the wiring loom. He wired up the 1.4 KW Motor Factory starter motor and installed the high output GS Yuasa battery shortly after 2.30PM. Terry couldn’t resist giving the starter button a cheeky flick; there was no fuel in the system when engine barked and tried to spin into life, much to the surprise of those people gathered around the Carole Nash Construct build area - most of whom jumped three feet back and cheered with delight.

The phone rings with the news that as of 2.38 pm Terry is a Grandfather and it’s a boy. Keyleigh has spent 15 hours in a difficult labour, but she’s doing well and so is 7lb baby Charley Dylan Clarke.

What are you waiting for? Get a motorcycle insurance quote*, enter the competition!

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

Work plan for day 10 – Saturday

• Tank comes back from paint
• Rear fender back from paint
• Rear light assembly
• Fit exhaust
• Seat pan

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

Get a motorcycle insurance quote* and enter the competition!

Here at the NEC, Terry has been fabricating the high level stainless steel exhaust system with two in to one headers; to speed things up a little we used pre formed bends, which where tacked in to position with the TIG welder then seam welded. The next stage will be to grind the welds back and polish the headers, I don’t know how I’m gonna polish this without covering the build area in black muck, but it should make good viewing for the crowd.

Snowy still has the wiring loom on his plate, but he’s getting through it alright, we had to fabricate the mount for the ignition, which he tucks away nicely just below the tank, next to the coil.

We have loads to do time is short and to top it all off Terry’s daughter Kayleigh is in labour………………….

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

Now if you have ever built a custom bike or tinkered with your own stock bike at home, you’ll appreciate that no matter how well you plan things, something will inevitably throw a spanner in the works at some point; this was one of those days.

We had mocked up the frame with the engine and transmission fitted prior to sending the frame back to Norwich for paint, as you will remember, at the same time I set about working on the custom petrol tank – all well and good – However, before breaking everything down, we forgot to fit the Springer front end and check the turning lock, big mistake, had we done this we would have realised that the mounting points are a little too far forward to work with the widened tank – so what does this mean? – well it means that the bars will hit the tank, not good; thank goodness we realised with a few days to spare – we’ll keep you updated on this over the next few days – it’s not going to be a easy fix as the tank mounts will have to be adjusted and the tank re-sprayed, again, Jon Fox our paint guru is not a happy man.

On a more positive note, the primary drive has now been fitted with polished aluminium pulley covers and the belt guard is now in place. We have also made good progress with the braking system, this is a disc set-up with a single Harrison Billet 4 pot calliper on the front and an RST 4 pot rear calliper with the brake rotors painted in Carole Nash colours. The braking system is very high spec; with all that horse power we wanted to be sure that the new owner could pull the bike up quickly in the event of an emergency. As we want to hide the modern components wherever possible, the old skool appearance is maintained by using black - colour coated - stainless steel lines from HEL, these high pressure lines will ensure that there are no brake fade issues. The lines are offered up to cheak the leinghts are correct, whilst we still have time to change things, we’ll leave the fluids until later in the build.

So, it’s not been the best of days overall, all the scratching of heads and frantic telephone calls have meant that Terry is yet to start on the exhaust fabrication, that will have to wait until tomorrow now. Snowy has been getting on well with the wiring though, which is a major plus.

What are you waiting for? Get a motorcycle insurance quote*, enter the competition!

Work plan for day eight - Thursday
• Continue work on custom loom
• Begin fabricating the exhaust
• Fabricate ignition switch mount

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

The next morning found me thinking that this shift change business is a good idea, Snowy is feeling the effects of the odd tipple or two as am I; but Terry - who has the constitution of an ox – soon rallies us back in to action.

We begin by fitting the one inch drag bars to the Springer risers and laying out the components for the custom wiring loom, a Black Box control unit feeds the electrickery to all the major components. Snowy starts the wiring process proper by fitting the chrome CCE switch gear to the bars, the wiring is run through the bars to keep it out of sight, maintaining the clean uncluttered look we are looking for. The control wires are then run into the Black Box via a hidden block connector. This job usually requires Snowy’s sole attention for a couple of day, but due to the schedule Terry and I will have to continue building the rest of the bike around him, lets just hope we don’t distract him too much and the bike fires up first time.

Whilst Snowy get on with the custom loom, Terry gets on with fitting the braided steel oil lines to the custom made oil tank and oil pump (which feeds the engine), the job is finished off with a return line which is run through the filter and back to the oil tank.

The next major task is fitting the CCE, 1950’s style, forward controls and connecting the linkage for rear brake and the 1 down 4 up gear change. Once the lucky winner of this bike is announced the controls will be tailored to fit.

Are you liking the sound of this baby - Somebody is going to win this £30k bike, guaranteed - why not you?

What are you waiting for? Get a motorcycle insurance quote* , enter the competition and save some money on your insurance – result!

Work plan for day seven - Wednesday

• Fit brake callipers
• Continue work on custom loom
• Begin fabricating the exhaust
• Finnish off assembling primary drive

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

I have to confess that we really felt like going home for a well deserved few hours’ kip, but we can’t leave Jon in the shop on his own – for health and safety reasons - one of us needs to stay with him. The decision is quickly made that if one stays we all stay, it’s not like we don’t have anything to be getting on with, the clock doesn’t stop to sleep; Terry takes a custom style cut down fender of the shelf and cut’s it straight down the middle front to back adding a one inch section to increase the width. Perfect, that will work. We want to keep the rear fender very clean and simple, hugging the fat 500×10 rear tyre.
It was 5am by the time we started carefully wrapping the painted parts, for the journey back to the NEC, talk about cutting it fine, it’s a 3 hour drive in the van, the tank and rear fender are left with Jon to be getting on with whilst we continue the build at the show.

Monday is a relatively straight forward day, we begin with a much needed coffee and then set about mounting the newly painted frame on the bench lift, first thing to go in is the 88ci (1450cc) Revtech engine block, followed by the 5 speed transmission and BDL open belt drive. These jobs seem simple after the past few days of hard fabrication, but make no mistake we’re tired, we’ve had no sleep and one slip will take a chunk out of that paint work and set us back 24hrs.

Next Snowy sets about fitting the Springer front end; by this time a TV crew has arrived to film the build for a one hour special, we try to appear composed as the questions flow and the spotlights burn down on us once again – somebody, please, feed me coffee and pro-plus!

What are you waiting for? Get a motorcycle insurance quote*, enter the competition!

Work plan for day six - Tuesday
• Begin making one off wiring loom
• Forward controls
• Fitting handle bar risers
• Brakes

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

 * Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

Now that the Santee style hardtail frame is looking sweet; we have to fabricate the rear seat mount and oil tank mount as one unit. The seat is a classic sprung type for an authentic 50’s style, which will offer enough travel to soak up the worst of the British potholes, this is not a show bike remember, and we will expect it to do some serious miles. The hand made custom oil tank is then offered up in to position; this will also hide the battery and major electrics away from view for a clean uncluttered look.

Next to start preparing the petrol tank, we’re working with a stock Sportster tank which will be stretched and widened, the stock tunnel will be used to save time. The grinder kicks sparks across the build area, much to the amusement of our growing audience, as I remove the old candy red paint in preparation for cutting. The next stage in the tank fabrication is to cut half an inch either side of the filler neck and tunnel and then weld in a two inch section of 16 gauge steel on both sides to achieve a four inch increase in width overall.

Whilst this is going on we have to start building the wheels, these are chrome spoke wheels on 16 inch rims, lacing the spokes takes a fair bit of time as each spoke must be tightened correctly to ensure the rim runs true on the hub; the wheels will be fitted with 500×16 vintage balloon tyres to fit with the classic styling.

All has gone well with the oil tank, and the mounts for the frame, so we can whip this back off and prepare it for paint along with the frame, all the welds have to be ground down nice and smooth along with any unsightly tabs created in the first part of the fabrication process. The paint can’t be done on site because of the fumes, so every thing will get driven to our workshop in Norwich, a skim of filler applied where required, primed, colour coated, baked in the paint oven and lacquered over night. Everything has to be back in the Carole Nash Construct build area by 9:30 Monday, any later and the NEC security won’t let us move stuff around the show halls and we’ll blow our deadline. We won’t get any sleep, but our paint maestro Jon Fox is poised and ready to go.

We’re a bit behind schedule and need to catch up over the next few days, but overall it’s all going well. Get a motorcycle quote and win this bike, click here*.

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

Work plan for day four - Sunday

• Fabricate seat mount and rear oil tank mount as one unit
• Fit oil tank
• Sportster tank widened
• Build wheels
• Prepare frame for paint overnight, this will be baked in time for Monday morning
• Oil tank paint
• Fabricate rear mudguard

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.

Funny how quickly you can get used to a new working environment. We’re beginning to feel comfortable in our shiny steel and glass NEC workshop, it’s an island in the midst of a crazy frenzy; of people rushing about, trying to catch a glimpse of the next big thing. Here we are, doing what we do best, whilst this all carries on around us – people watching is a wonderful thing – you have to ask yourself who’s watching who!

Anyhow, back to the bike - Day two has seen some real progress with the build; we began at 9am by triangulating the headstock in the frame jig for a stock rake angle.

Snowy cut and prepared the lengthened top tube, which will give the bike its gooseneck style, this was then scalloped to meet the headstock which will give the frame greater strength and smooth flowing lines. The top tube was then tack welded in position, the rake angle and final dimensions are checked, then the final stage was to seam weld it in to position. Now we’re cooking boys – Si and Dave (the Hairy Bikers) would be proud!

Time to sample the culinary delights of the exhibitors lounge for a bit of lunch, sounds really posh doesn’t it – don’t be fooled, I’d kill for a decent burger and fries right now. No time to ponder alternative restaurants - we have to wolf this down and get back to work.

After lunch we begin fabricating the new gooseneck tops for the down tubes; all the angles/ bends are calculated and double checked, then the sparks start to fly – literally – as the tube is cut to length, the scalloped ends give a two into one finish at the base of the head stock leaving room for the top engine mount bracing tube. Once these crucial structural sections are welded into place you begin to get a real sense that the build is progressing rapidly as the frames final form begins to take shape in the jig.

All the dimensions of new top engine mount then had to be worked out and these were then fabricated from two pieces of plate steel, the prepared plates are then seam welded together for strength, in preparation for tomorrows engine fit - 

Work plan for day three - Saturday

• Fit engine in frame
• Attach top engine mount to engine
• Make and prepare new top mount bracing tube and weld in position.
• Fabricate new hardtail rear frame tubes and axle mounts.
• Fabricate oil tank cross member.

See you at the show, Saturday is going to be a big day! Get a motorcycle quote*and win the bike!

Jon Quantrell
Hawg Haven

See more Carole Nash Construct images, click here

MUSIC CREDITS
TITLE: Total Burn Up COMPOSERS: Gavin Courtie (PRS) / Liz Radford (PRS) PUBLISHER:
Notepad Music PRS (UK)

* Terms and Conditions apply, click here.