Here's my from the heart from last year's build-off, the first I participated in. This might sound silly or childrish for a (at the time) 34 year old, but this is how I recall it.
I was building a bike I wanted to build for myself and the build-off deadline gave me the motivation to stay up late nights and actually finish something. As the start date came I was planning in my head and had a general idea of each part I would be making, colors, tricks, ideas, and even how I would record my progress. I took as many photos as I could during the work instead of just before and afters, I even used my timer to get action shots of sparks flying or action welding shots. I had my first entry already written, an introduction to my build and when Steve opened the forum I quickly copied and pasted it in and had the first build-thread posted in the forum figuring that I needed as much exposure as I could get. I decided to stick with my "76er" theme throughout by posting facts from the year 1976 on each official build entry, trying to maintain readership and a following. I knew I didn't have the coolest frame or the best parts, but I was showing heart and getting a lot of views. I was proud of my work and thought it was worth all the efforts of modifying or making nearly every part that went onto the bike. Even though I didn't care if I won or not I felt like I had a pretty good chance based on the "work" that I was doing compared to the assembly of parts that others were doing. So I kept my build updated and my updates regular. I replied to everyone who commented or asked questions on my build, because I was proud of it, I wanted to answer questions, and it kept my build up top in the forum. Whenvoting started I was excited... until the results started coming in, I saw a trending towards favorites, sure they had cool bikes, but I couldn't see the same amount of "work" put into them as mine, and I saw more money/available assets in theirs. It was kind of heartbraking and I kept waiting for a rally in votes for the 76er, but it never came. About halfway through the voting I just kind of gave up and enjoyed the ride and tried to stay out of the drama. At that point I understood what was going on here and I just dealt with it. I was never the popular kid in school and I watched those kids get the class president and other awards because they were well known... I'd been there before. In the end, I had what I wanted, a finished bike, and over 8000 views on my build thread meaning that people all over the world had seen what I did. Losing was a hard blow, but I'm willing to lose again for another cool bike that belongs to me and won't be scavenged for parts for another build or sold off for a profit.
The end. :mrgreen:
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