steppinthefunk 

First and foremost I would like to apologize for my recent rant regarding the Velo Cheapo events. I do not wish to be the guy who demands a finish despite casualties. With that being said, I am glad that you are ok East Hill and I hope for your speedy recovery. The same goes to Purevl. I hope you are doing well and I wish you the best.

And now with that off the table, I would also like to apologize to the rest of the judges and participants. I still wish to participate in the competition since I have put alot into my submission but I fear that due to the recent events, I have compromised the judging process and possibly it's results. In leaking my build and my subsequent rant, I have made it difficult for the judges to perform a fair judging of the submissions. And so, I would like to request a formal withdrawal from the competition.

This decision does not stem from bitterness of the process but from a matter of principal. Like I said, I still do wish to participate.

I guess all in all I broke Pastorbob's overall rule for the competition - "don't take yourself too seriously".

judges, please let me know if you accept my withdrawal and I will formally reveal my entry to you.

Thank you,
Jason

East Hill

Don't worry about it Jason.

I still don't know, or care, which entry belongs to who, so I can still judge fairly.

All of us are human, and sometimes life plays tricks on us.

East Hill

pastorbobnlnh 

Missed this last evening.

Time always allows cooler heads to prevail and fun is always important! Let me say that the judges are closing in on a decision. I'm with East Hill, I don't know who built what--- with the exception being a certain tandem with a funky face on the head tube.

Let me say that all of the contestants' completed bikes inspired me over the last week to create my own Velo Cheapo build. As the results are announced, and time has lapsed for all to comment on our judgments and the contestant's builds, I'll post a picture of mine, not to show off, but to thank everyone for the inspiration!

treebound 

1. A plan was presented to have a buildoff for C&V participants with certain parameters to keep in mind such as creativity and cheap.
2. Three judges were selected and given a basic format for judging the entries.
3. People signed up and entry fees sent.
4. Competitors had one month to complete, document, and present their entrys (entries?).
5. Life happens sometimes and the original compiler/anonymizer of the entries had to take care of other stuff, so an interim compiler/anonymizer stepped foreward to compile and anonymize the entries and then send them off to the judges. The original compliler/anonymizer reappeared as well.
6. Life happens on many different levels and manners at times and one of the judges had a mishap but survived.
7. Currently the judges are reviewing and scoring the entrys.
8. Other stuff happened as well, along with divergent dialogs as people kept checking the progress of the build-off and talked about other stuff along the way to keep the thread sort of active but not always bike related. The original thread is now un-stickied and locked and is scrolling into the archives.

I believe this is a fair thumbnail sketch of the event and the events as they unfolded.

RobbieTunes

Jason, I missed anything you'd need to apologize for. I also have no idea who built what, paid little attention to that as I went through the pictures and the submissions. Once you get looking at pictures and reading write-ups, it's the farthest thing from your mind. And I still look at your stuff on Velospace.

I believe we've reached a decision and when Margaret gets mine and Bob's messages, she'll probably announce it. There was some agreement, some disagreement, but there was logic in the choices.

The one thing I can tell you all, is that the choice between any of the entries and a 149.99 Denali would be very, very easy. The ability of BF members on this forum to 1) find solid buys,
2) make them into something great, and 3) do it themselves at minimum cost is simply amazing. .
Congratulations to all the entrants for making this a great two months of fun. Any of you can build one for me, any time.

The entries were, above all, pragmatic. (Well, maybe except for labor, eh?)

I approached the judging from purevl's rule perspective, and then kind of went with a BF C&V attitude about it:

My friend rolls up on his new Denali. It looks nice, the shifters work, etc. I say to myself, "I can fix up an old bike, and have a better one, cheaper."
And the entries are a great illustration on that attitude.

And I tried to keep a sense of the kid in all of us, i.e. "what would riding this be like?" Kind of the grin variable, either because it looks cool, runs great, or just plain smacks that Denali down.

and lastly, my apologies to cudak888, because I know he really likes his Denali....