Hey Rudy Rude here,
"Take what you want," awesome joke!!!!! After reading the thread a little disillusionment on the block lol, I have to admit to a bit myself…3, wait 4 votes & counting lol (chalking it up to the blurry pics & improper pic upload), considering the time & effort that went into that ride - and the focus on sticking to the rat rod ethic. I literally saved & refurbed every single part & screw thus character of my 70 year old Columbia, with the exception of the rear inner tube, which blew out at the stem upon inflation & the front axel which was toast & the valve caps which I swapped out for a set of red dice. My design additions were minimal: PBR caps in the handlebar ends to replace the missing jewels, 1/4" spikes/studs from my bulldogs collar in the seat upholstery, bookrack, and rear fender, a period correct rearview mirror, an axel mount rear facing reflector, a lucky 7 dice seat tube decal, and hours of time spent in disassembly, ironing out fenders, racks, baskets, design contimplation, a dozen rattle bombs, wet sanding, pin striping, clear coat, relube & reassembly! That aside, whenever the opinions of 500 people are weighed, you'll have as many opinions, so in all reality, "it is what it is” - an opinion cluster you-know-what...bomb, yeah that's the word.
I dig the democratic (or socialist depending upon how you look at it) vibe of letting everybody have a vote, but don't think it works well in this context. IMHO, a build-off would be judged by a panel of 3-4 individuals, most likely the administrators, to best exemplify the vision of the build-off, or for the sake of total impartiality, a panel selected by the administrators, of rat rod aficionados, rat bike rag editors, etc. This would clearly set the vision for the build and add validity to the results. Of course anything & everything could be submitted. I personally didn't vote for my ride or tap my friends to vote as I felt this would be disingenuous. I think these two ideas should be disallowed at the very least. I could have nabbed 50-100 votes just by tapping my musician friends, as they / we all owe each other within the DIY punk rock scene.
From a judge’s perspective, I thought it was pretty clear who the front runner’s s/b (mine excluded): Naked 41, Grady Rocket, Broken Beat, CWC1, Boss Ross, Black & Wild, Lazy Rodent, Poore Man's Dream, Salt Shaker (awesome accessories in the Salt Shaker pic! Makes me want to move to PA!), Primed for Renewal, Stella Bread Racer, The Bandit, Widowmaker VI. All of these were instantly identifiable as bikes that have attitude and exemplify the rat rod ethos, which, IMO this build-off was designed to amplify. What "Rat" is or isn't really shouldn't be much of a discussion. Custom can be built in the rat style, or it can just be custom &/or custom & just kind of weird, and not really rat...
My judgment process went like this: However cool, I instantly excluded cartoon bikes, custom bikes that were not rat, themed bikes ala OCC chopper, clunkers, fixed gears, bikes that little or no work went into or bikes that fell outside the guidelines in some way. Next I eliminated bikes with accessories or design mods that really made no sense or were just completely ridiculous i.e. springers in places with questionable suspension benefits, randomly bolted on pieces & parts, heat deflector tape wrapped around triple trees, etc...in my mind, that left 13 clear front runners aside from my own to pick from. In the end, my top three were: Naked 41, Broken Beat & CWC1. All of my top 13 were sweet rides, and several could have swapped spots with my top three. Grady Rocket could have been my number two pick in retrospect.
It was fun, nerve racking to beat the buzzer, literally a sweat soaked last few hours on 8/2, but fun and the end results from the build perspective were very rewarding. I look forward to the next build-off. I'd like to see the format of the next one tweaked a bit, but no worries if not. I'll still enter a ride, probably a custom, in the rat style. All the best & much respect to everyone here. I'm glad to have found this community. See you on the streets!
Jeff aka "Rudy Rude"
