Bike Cottage

After much consideration, I went with nlerner's Raleigh Sports. It looked most like the image that popped into my head when the Velo-Cheapo contest was first mentioned. Not to take anything from the great work all around though, there were some excellent saves for sure. Honorable mention would go to the Gitane save and the Legnano clone. I'm totally loving the Titanium as well. Honestly, there's not one here that I wouldn't ride.

By the way, big thanks to whoever voted for my build and kudos to all who took part. I wasn't able to put all of my ideas to work on this one, but I'll save them for next time.

Murray Missile 

It was a hard choice, some damn fine bikes guys! You can all be proud but I had to go with 'lotekmod's' Sears because he made a box store bike look so damn classy.

MielleCondor72

Three times reviewing all the pictures and stories and I still can't pick one bike I like the best. I'm truly impressed with the skill, and detail everyone has put into their entries. I thought this would be easy to pick one bike as the best, then I look again at another going that's a nice bike!! I hope sometime in the future to have a small subset of the skills demonstrated in this contest. I've got it down to four..... Still trying to find "THE ONE".

MielleCondor72

Well it took three days going back and forth for me to make my choice. I like to say bravo to all contestants it was not
an easy contest to pick just one bike that I liked. You all brought your A game and it showed.


My four choice were Lascauxcaveman, nlerner, Lotekmod and rgver (Gitane).


Lotekmod and nlerner those are two very nice bikes. They are works of art. Classy and ethereal.
How you took what you started with and produced those bikes blew me away.
rgver and Lascauxcaveman also built two great bikes. They reminded me of bikes I saw during the bike boom.


My choice is Lascauxcaveman

lopek77

CliffordK's is the winner to me....and here is why. It's a very nice looking bike, and THE ONLY ONE with lights on it.
LasCauxCaveman's, the most popular so far, is a beautiful bike, nice colors, awesome picture quality and the background...is this why it's winning so far?
I wish all the bikes pictures were taken with the same lighting and background.

I should add that I don't own a classic/vintage bikes...but I rode many of them if that makes any difference
Restomod is what I like...Vintage /classic base with a modern touch. Good luck to everyone who entered!

CliffordK

Uhh... Ohh.... I didn't put that taillight on the spreadsheet!!!!!

But, a friend gave me that little taillight along with a handful of silicone rubber taillights for FREE.
She always has many odd jobs whenever I visit

I should probably have added my headlight visible in these photos as I wouldn't have been able to crank out mid-winter the miles without it.

Velo-cheapo before or as found thread or lipstick on a pig (My Snow Photos, taken after the 15th)

mountaindave 

Someone will win more votes, but there are no losers in this contest. Kudos to everyone.

MielleCondor72

CliffordK's bike is very nice..... I voted for Lascauxcaveman's as I like that style of bike. As I stated my second choice Lotekmod would have been my first choice if Lascauxcaveman had not participated. Lotekmod took an average bike and made it into a work of art as did nlerner. They did bikes in a style that was popular before I got interested in bikes. As I stated earlier they are both beautiful examples of that style of bike. nlerner's tribute to a 1936 Raleigh is stunning. I appreciate the attention to detail it definitely looks like the bike its supposed to represent.

As with any contest it comes down to whatever the viewer likes as to what they voted for.

To all the participants bravo and well done.... Skills displayed are those I wish I had. Anyone who thinks voting for a winner was easy hasn't really looked at all these bikes. All of them are great especially when you look at the rules for this contest.

willydstyle

Are we voting based on the extent of the rebuild or based on the final result or either?

CliffordK

Hmmm...
Looking back at the rules... There apparently were several categories:

Votes, however, I think fall under "People's Choice".

Hmmm....

A lot of the bikes might qualify for the "Frankenbike" category.

Certainly on mine would qualify, with itty-bitty skinny tires on frame made for 26" wheels, and nearly every part being a different brand.
Did I post both right and left views? I'm quite certain the cranks don't quite match (although both are 175mm).

No doubt the "retro-style" bikes include a collection of parts that weren't quite intended to be with the frame.

Nice to have 5 categories (skipping electric)... As we will have at least 5 winners!!!!
Not that I wouldn't call every bike a winner.

Mileage?
Hmmm....

However, what I will say, while some people were experiencing a mild winter, others a harsh winter, the mid-winter mileage does define some of the differences in the bikes.

Bike Cottage

It will be interesting to see what the final points tally will be. People's choice appears to be a runaway and for good reason.

David325

Apologies for the slow updates from the judges - final points tallies and winners will be announced this evening!

David325

Results are in! The people's choice is Lascauxcaveman. Other favorites of the judges (pastorbobnlh, noglider, and myself) were:

Best Road --- TIE: rgver's Gitane and wrk101's Schwinn
Best MTB--- bluesdaddy
Best City--- Bike Cottage
"Frankenbike"--- CliffordK
Best Implementation of Recycling --- nlerner

And, the final points breakdown is as follows:

Cliffordk: $390.51 (-240.51 points), 846.5 km (846.5 points), judges: frankenbike (10 points), 6th in poll (10 points). TOTAL: 625.99

Wrk101 Sierra- $29 (121 pts), 100 miles (321.8 pts), 7th in poll (8 points). TOTAL: 450.8

Lascauxcaveman- 114.76 (35.34 pts), 133.7 miles (215.2 pts), 1st in poll (20 points). TOTAL: 270.54

Rgver Gitane: $87.34 (62.66 points), 64.4 km (64.4 points), judges: best road (10 points), 3rd in poll (16 points). TOTAL: 153.06

Lotekmod: $80 (70 points), 32.2 km (64.4 points), 2nd in poll (18 points). TOTAL: 152.4

Rgver trek: $30.4 (119.6 points), 16.1 km (16.1 points), 3rd in poll (16 points). TOTAL: 151.7

Wrk101 orange Schwinn- $46.20 (104.8 pts), 5 miles (16 pts), judges: best road (10 pts), 4th in poll (14 points). TOTAL: 144.8

Bluesdaddy: $78 (72 points), 13.1 km (26.2 points), judges: best MTB (10 points), 5th in poll (12 points). TOTAL: 120.2

Dweenk- $90 (60 pts), 0 miles. TOTAL: 60 points

Bike Cottage: $131.49 (18.51 points), 14.5 km (14.5 points), judges: best city (10 points), 6th in poll (10 points). TOTAL: 53.01

Osiris419- $110 (40 pts), 0 miles, 7th in poll (8 points). TOTAL: 48 points

Barchettaman: 165.8 (-15.8 pts), 45km (45 pts), 5th in poll (12 points). TOTAL: 41.2

Nlerner: $147.99 (2.01 points), 0 km (0 points), judges: implementation of recycling (10 points), 3rd in poll (16 points). TOTAL: 28.01

Mrv: $263.8 (-113.8 points), miles unknown, 7th in poll (8 points). TOTAL: -105.8


As you can see, the final points results were heavily influenced by mileage (which also had a temperature factor included for some).

Great builds all around and congrats to everyone!

CliffordK

Thanks,
It was fun.

What happened to "ROAD"?

I don't think we had any EVs this year.

David325

Good point, I forgot to add that in! It was a tie between rgver's Gitane and wrk101's Schwinn. And yes, the 'use of electricity' category was eliminated.

Bike Cottage

This was a blast to do. Thanks for all of the good work from everyone involved (spectators, builders and judges too). I'm beyond happy that my build got voted "Best City" despite getting soundly trounced otherwise.

rgver

It was fun, the Gitane sold on that auction site this morning, pretty much untouched since the cheapo build. The Trek has had a little more done to it today, I replaced the BB and the wheelset was replaced with a matching pair. Still squeaks in under the competion budget.
I love how both my bikes turned out, I just wish they were larger. The Trek is my favorite, it was the most work, most changed and most rewarding project I have done for a while. Both the Gitane and Trek are on the small side for me, I have to drastically downsize my hoard for an international move.

Anyway thanks to @David325 for organizing and all the work in overseeing the contest. Well done to everyone who entered, some great bikes came out of it.

Posts about changes to bikes are never complete without pics, here is the final final version of the Trek. Look out for it on a Craigslist near you, well actually the Craigslist near me.

lotekmod

Yes, lots of fun and some great builds. I'm waiting for the weather to clear up a bit so I can start riding the Sears some more. I thought about selling it but it's so cheap and cool that I think I'll just make some more room for it.

Thanks again to all the organizers!

Lascauxcaveman 

Yeah, that was fun. Thanks to our organizers and judges for giving me an excuse to take on a major repainting project. I learned enough to make me want to do it again on - a better bike. (Maybe for next year's contest?)

If any of you fellow contestants want one of my atrocious, utterly ridiculous Velo Cheapo 2015 commemorative waterslide decals, give a me a holler and I'll print some more up. These are free of charge, but only to folks who entered a bike.

Now available in Regular . . . . . or Mt Vesuvius:

CliffordK

Thanks for the offer. My head tube badge needs some touching up, but I'll probably choose either a true Litespeed badge, or a customized version of it.

I had fun with both the project and cranking a few miles on the bike, including exploring the mountains mid-winter.

And it was an informative project, especially trying to get smooth shifting with parts that weren't designed to work together, as well as looking at the overall budget.

nlerner

Yesterday, I re-purposed the Raleigh Sports yet again and made it an even cheaper Velo-Cheapo in terms of total costs to me: 700c wheels, 32mm Pasela tires, coaster-brake rear hub, steel drop bars. It'll hopefully get sold off once the snows melt a bit more around here.

dweenk

Caveman,

I would like one of those decals - it matters not whether it has Vesuvius or not (whatever you have on-hand).

PM me for my mailing address.

noglider 

Thank you, @David325 for all your work, especially in nudging me and Pastor Bob through the judgment process. You managed to do it all even with your exams and everything.