Impressed by the choppers seen at The Hook Up present, Hannah Meakin’s 1977 Harley Shovelhead chopper is a imaginative and prescient in cotton sweet pink.
Began by a few buddies who felt that South Wales was in determined want of a very good chopper present, The Hook Up will have fun its tenth, and remaining, version subsequent 12 months. However though its decade-long run is drawing to an in depth, it’s going to all the time have a particular place in Hannah Meakin’s coronary heart.
The inaugural Hook Up show additionally occurred to be the primary chopper present that Hannah had ever attended. “I knew, after I noticed the bikes there, it was one thing I needed to become involved in,” she says. “Towards the recommendation of principally everybody, I chopped my first bike—a Suzuki Marauder 125—in my buddy’s storage, and by no means regarded again.”
Satisfied {that a} hand-built Harley chopper was in her future, Hannah started gathering elements earlier than she even had an acceptable donor—beginning with a basic Wassell gas tank. Then, one New 12 months’s Eve, the celebrities aligned.
“My companion, James, got here bounding out of the toilet (the place else do you scroll Market and eBay?) and shoved an eBay itemizing in my face,” Hannah remembers. “The itemizing was for an enormous, stunning, vibrant orange 1977 Shovelhead, which I referred to as ‘The Tangerine Dream.’ We spent New 12 months’s Day driving to Telford to choose it up.”
Hannah rode the bike in inventory kind for a few years, primarily to familiarize herself with it and to ensure no issues had been lurking below the floor. However customizing it was all the time on the playing cards, so she and James finally stripped it down and kicked the mission off.
“I knew I needed to go for the basic 70s-style chopper,” Hannah explains. “The lengthy entrance finish, 21” entrance wheel, and tall sissy bar.”
True to the style, the Shovelhead body was modified with a weld-on hardtail equipment from Craig Home within the UK. Stretched 35 mm forks went onto the entrance, held by the yokes from an Ironhead Sportster.
A 21” hoop was laced to a drum brake hub for the entrance wheel, with an 18” disc brake wheel on the again. Hannah specced the Shovel with Harley-Davidson Softail rear caliper, a Wagner grasp cylinder, and Wagner brake strains. The tires are an Avon Speedmaster (entrance) and an Avon Security Mileage (rear).
The Shovelhead’s laid-back stance is complemented by a set of mini-ape bars, fitted with inventory H-D controls, and grips from Pedro’s Components. Decrease down, Hannah put in Anderson foot pegs on 4” risers that James fabricated. She additionally simplified the wiring, getting rid of the switchgear, speedo, and switch indicators.
The sturdy previous Shovelhead motor was handled to a CV carb and a brand new consumption from Jicaya Machine Store. There’s additionally a four-speed ratchet high transmission, a pair of gorgeous aftermarket fishtail pipes, and a lever-action starter solenoid.
Transferring to the bodywork, Hannah fitted the Wassell gas tank, a Lowbrow Customs rear fender, and a modified horseshoe-style oil tank. Then she began work on the bike’s key options—its beneficiant seat and sissy bar.
“I had the thought to include a flail into the sissy bar one way or the other, however I simply wasn’t fairly certain on methods to do it,” Hannah explains. “James and I’d placed on a document within the evenings, brainstorm, and doodle designs collectively. I toyed round with the thought of suspending the ball by a series or simply having the ball as a topper, however none of those concepts felt fairly proper.”
“One night, I noticed a size of barley twist metallic in our workshop that James had used for a sissy bar on his Shovel construct the 12 months prior. I assumed to myself, ‘That would seem like rope for the mace!’. I additionally took inspiration from these satan tail-style sissy bars for the form of the barley twist, which James and I bent into the fitting form utilizing a bender.”
“The ball itself was a little bit of a head-scratcher. I settled on buying a hole metallic ball, first planning the place the spikes would lay to look proper to the attention, earlier than drilling and tapping every gap. I then bought stainless-steel studs, and a few threaded bar that may match the studs and the holes I’d already tapped into the ball. The method was fiddly and lengthy however so, so value it.”
Your entire sissy bar meeting was despatched off for chroming to present it a cohesive look, which then left Hannah free to deal with the seat. She began with a cardboard template for the pan, earlier than slicing it out of sheet metallic and hammering it into form over a wood buck within the form of the rear fender, in order that the entire thing would sit flush. It then went off to Baz Kay in Margate for the extravagant upholstery.
The sissy bar and seat trim may seem to be small particulars to some, however they’re key options so far as Hannah’s involved. The bike is loaded with small, irreverent touches—like its valve caps and customized pushrod collars. After which there’s the cotton sweet pink paint job.
“I knew I needed to go any colour apart from black,” Hannah says. “There’s one thing I’ve all the time liked in regards to the combo of pink and purple—it’s prefer it shouldn’t work, however, for me, it simply hits the spot. I additionally took inspo from artists like Linda at Creepy Gals, who nearly solely incorporates that colour combo in her artwork.”
“I spent a whole lot of time with the women within the native auto physique store mixing samples of the fitting shades of pink and purple earlier than I lastly settled on the fitting combo. After hours and hours of filling and sanding, and filling and sanding, all the pieces was prepared for paint.”
Since this was the primary time that both Hannah or James had painted a bike, the couple first practiced on an previous Sportster tank whereas figuring out of an area firm’s spray sales space. A pink base coat went onto the bodywork and body, adopted by purple flames and silver stripes.
“The silver paint is now just a little tousled, as I spilled petrol down it actually the primary second I crammed the bike,” Hannah provides. “I nonetheless haven’t bought spherical to sorting it—and who is aware of if I ever will at this level, as I’ve been too busy having fun with driving it.”
“After ending the construct, James and I took a visit to the South of France and spent two weeks driving alongside the Côte d’Azur—which, contemplating my bike hadn’t been off the ramp lengthy, was a hell of a shakedown experience!”
“I used to be additionally fortunate sufficient to win the ‘Punters Decide’ award on the Early Hook Up again in Might, which was a full circle second and one thing I’m extremely grateful for. Massive because of James Bull for encouraging me to point out my bike, for the chance, and to everybody who voted.”
Hannah want to thank the women at The Panel Store, for taking the time to make sure I bought the precise paint colours I used to be in search of, Worle Glass & Joinery for letting us use their spray sales space, Craig Home, S&T Electroplate, Beans Paint and Components, Baz Kay (B.M.Okay), Jodi (for being my private cheerleader at each alternative), Chris H, everybody whose brains I picked, all the assist, recommendation and help I’ve acquired and to James for all of the late nights, the issue fixing, the infinite help and serving to me construct one thing to be pleased with.
Hannah Meakin Instagram | Pictures by, and with gratitude to, Del Hickey
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