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Wait, what ?? Simon ain’t gonna shake my hand when he presents my participation ribbon ?? Darn it, that was my whole goal from the get go !!
I'm not rich but if you get my way I'll buy you a participation drink of your choosing 😂
 
Besides that, in previous years I've found that if I vote early I can't stop refreshing the screen over and over every day to see how the vote count is going! :21:
Guess what I'm doing now after I cast my vote... 👇🔃🤣
 
I usually browse through the voting booths, have a look at the bikes and then let it rest for a few days.
This time we have less finished bikes to choose from, however this time there are much more bikes that I like. It won't be easy to narrow it down to a few.
 
Somebody has to find more votes. There's no way I should be beating these guys. One guy's lunch was better than my thread, for Pete's sake!
Let's face it, there were some pretty stellar lunches and dinners represented during the build
 
We had some killer builds, and I really enjoyed following along. Some of you are real artists and/or build bikes I’d really like to ride. Some were so pretty I’d be afraid to ride. It was very difficult to not vote for some, but I didn’t want to vote for all…
The part that irks (replace with stronger language) me the most is that you guys and gals have been doing this for a long time and I was completely ignorant about RRB’s existence.
 
We had some killer builds, and I really enjoyed following along. Some of you are real artists and/or build bikes I’d really like to ride. Some were so pretty I’d be afraid to ride. It was very difficult to not vote for some, but I didn’t want to vote for all…
The part that irks (replace with stronger language) me the most is that you guys and gals have been doing this for a long time and I was completely ignorant about RRB’s existence.

Now you're in the know!!! Build on!!!
 
GREAT Build Off everyone. Did we ever get a final tally on how many international (non-US) builders we had this year? It's the most that I can remember in a long time.
 
It's super cool how international the top 5 of Class 2 were.
1st - Australia
2nd - France
3rd TIE - Russia and USA
5th - Philipines
 
First let me say congratulations to @CruJones for the big win with Rocky! Great job! :41:

And thank you to everyone that voted for my RadRot X53!

I had much lower expectations than the 2nd place finish for my bike. Apart from cleaning the bike and replacing the wheels and tires, most of the work was not evident unless you had followed the build journal. And even if you had followed each entry, things like restoring a rusty chain or straightening a bent fork or even realigning the chain guard are not the things that seperate one bike from any other in the same way that 'Rocky' did. Yet in the end almost 50% of the voters cast one of their votes for it. So what did seperate it from the majority of others? I can't say for certain but I have my own theories.

This contest is visual. It is about artistic expression and design and bicycles are the medium. In the end when faced with deciding on how each individual devides their votes [no matter how many], it is based on the visual gratification that they discern. (By the way, the photograph also plays a big part in this.) Everyone has their own ideas about what looks pleasing but there are certain design principals that transend opinion. There are whole fields of study on things like the golden ratio and fibonocci numbers, etc. that help to explain why certain things 'feel' pleasing while other things do not.

So it is my opinion that even though I played a very small part in making my bike appealing with a couple of modern touches, and adding a couple of things that make you feel nostalgic, the real reason that it placed high in the voting total was due to the original design by a celebrated designer in the 1950s and the warmth of the faded and rusted finish that only time can produce. Therefore the second place award for the X53 actually goes to the late Viktor Schreckengost (Murray-Ohio’s chief bicycle designer) and Mother Nature. I'm just happy to be the current steward of such an iconic bike!

-Jim Henderson
 

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