David325

Hello all,

This is a follow-up to the original thread. These are the rules for the "Velo-Cheapo 2015" contest. The premise of the contest is to build a usable bike with a low budget.

Each contestant will gain/lose points based on the following categories:

Buying the bike and parts:
-Approximate $150 budget for bicycle and all parts. Each dollar under $150 is +1 point, each dollar over is -1 point.
-The bike may be something you already have that has not been fixed up yet.
-Parts from personal bins are OK as long as the amount paid is remembered and cited.
-Parts you received for free (i.e. found in junkyard, in a dumpster, or otherwise gifted) are free.

Riding the bike:
Earn 1 point for each km you ride the bike in temps above 45ºF, 2 points/km for 21º-45º, and 3 points/km for under 21º.

After all entries have been submitted, there will be judging by a panel as well as judging by popular vote.

Judging categories (1 unique winner chosen for each, worth 10 pts each):
Best Road
Best MTB
Best City
"Frankenbike"
Use of Electricity
Best Implementation of Recycling

People's choice:
We will run a public poll, with a photo of each contestant's bike for a popular opinion result. Points distribution is 20 points for 1st, 18 for 2nd, 16 for 3rd, etc.

At the conclusion of the contest, the submission with the most points win the contest. Currently, the judging panel consists of myself, noglider, and pastorbobnlh.

Submission deadline is February 15th. Submissions can be sent to me via email (PM me for email). Submission format will be a price list of the bike and parts added, a short (paragraph or less) description of the build, and up to 5 pictures. The collection of submissions will be posted in one thread with a poll shortly after the deadline. Good luck to all!

Velocivixen

OMG. I just bought my bike for this challenge last NIGHT! So excited. Unfortunately didn't take many photos & it's almost done. Oops. Oh well.

Question. How many KMs can I ride for points? Is there a limit? Could I ride 100 km to earn more points?

Barchettaman

That is a wonderful set of rules. Well done chaps!

Narhay

Good stuff. The rule about riding could be abused if there isn't a cap. I could ride 1000km on the bike in the winter here and have 2000-3000 points.

oddjob2

Nice job by the rules committee. May I suggest you collectively run for Congress!

noglider 

Hmm, you're right that miles could be abused. What do you guys think of capping the points for miles?

Shp4man

I have a partially completed entry for the Frankenbike category. Sounds like an interesting competition!

noglider 

@David325, please update the title of the thread (by editing the first post) to use the word "cheapo" instead of "cheap" so that searches will work properly. Thank you.

--your friendly picky-details pedant

icepick_trotsky 

You could either cap the points at a fixed amount, or instead award distance points based on the single longest ride one takes on the bike. That would be inherently self-limiting and more challenging.

Bholio

Any extra points for properly keeping track of both metric distance and imperial temperature?

David325

I like this idea, but interested to see what others will say!

obrentharris 

Good solution!
Brent

-holiday76

glad to see you all pulled this together, and even incorporated riding! A few thoughts:

"Each dollar under $150 is +1 point, each dollar over is -1 point" - going over should be more of a penalty since this is the cheapo challenge. Like -2 or -5 for each dollar over.


"Riding the bike:
Earn 1 point for each km you ride the bike in temps above 45ºF, 2 points/km for 21º-45º, and 3 points/km for under 21º." - too hard to calculate and will be abused. What iif its hovering around 45 degrees? What if I don't really know how many miles i rode because this is c&v? My suggestion is don't cap the miles, but have one separate winner/category for most miles ridden in one day and calculate that number like this:

number of Kilometers ridden times (total bike score as you have calculated above) = x. Person with highest X number wins.

So the person who rides the furthest , on the best scoring bike will likely win, but maybe not. Either way this should be separated from the bike aesthetic winners so someone can't build a crappy expensive bike and ride it far, and win. keeping track of temperature will be too subjective and too much overhead. Also, this way people who want to participate but cant or have no chance of winning due to miles can still compete in the other categories.

those are my suggestions, obviously feel free to take them or leave them.

I'll likely participate in some form.

clubman 

Great rules if you lose the mileage...there's snow looming everywhere.

Thanks.

RobbieTunes

Great ideas.

I still miss steppinthefunk.
He was Yoda for these things.

bwilli88 

What about points for riding at temps above 95ºF

Lascauxcaveman 

Good point, this is Velo-CHEAPO, after all.

I'll be playing this game, and hope to do a one-shot metric century for the riding portion. (That's what made the $100 Clunker Challenge so much fun)

One thing that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the rules, is this supposed to be an anonymous submission thing, or are we supposed to show the build progress of our cheapos as we go from parts to complete bike?

tarwheel 

Is there a category for stolen bikes? That's the cheapest route!

non-fixie 

Yes, I was thinking about this as well. With the Clunker 100 Challenge, it was difficult enough to find or build a bike that would actually do the required 100km for less than $100. Seeing the competitors wrestle with that challenge, and sharing one's own problems was the biggest part of the fun ...

Competitor 1: "What is the FMV of these old Exage derailleurs?"
Competitor 2: "About $51 each!"

... and kept the thread on page 1 for months. Not many actually crossed the finish line, but that didn't really matter, I believe. Sharing the efforts and getting the typical C&V feedback on that was good enough for most, and made pretty good reading for the non-participants.

This seems to be a different kind of game, where keeping your plans secret may be a winning strategy (like in riding 2.000 kms on a €800 bike - at least until that loophole was exposed by @Narhay). Which may mean the thread will go black for two months.

Barchettaman

I have purchased my entry in this competition, if you could all refrain from telling my wife that would be great as otherwise she will castrate me for buying another cheap bike.

it's in my size (ish, looks a little big), is full Reynolds 501, and cost €65.67. I'm all in.

David325

No need to be anonymous. You can post progress in this thread, or even start your own build thread. It's all good.

I think we will put in a mileage cap. A lot of us will be snowed in during the contest and that makes it quite difficult to ride your bike!

RobE30

Maybe we could do a before (as found) and after picture comparison? Otherwise, I think there will be too many different threads to follow? Maybe have a united "as found" thread where each post contains a picture of the bike and a some brief stats (Price paid, estimated build cost etc?

I like @-holiday76 s idea for the heavier penalty of going over the budget.

I have pulled my contender down off the hook in my basement and will start a thread on it shortly (following my idea for a before thread)

orangeology

so many motivations* (*dubbed as "dark force") of going n+1+1+1+1... around this forum.
so dangerous.
so in.

running to CL now. happy hunting!

edit:
wait. i didn't have to go CL. realizing more than enough stuffs around to build more than one bike...
let me try to mix cheapest stuffs up.
it doesn't matter how the MSRP runs, right? how much "I" paid, correct?

Lascauxcaveman 

(Edited to move build content & photos over to the build thread)

I have a question for the judges and my fellow contestants. How should we value parts removed a whole bike we bought at some point but didn't actually pay for the individual part?

Case in point: I have have a slightly rusty Nervar steel crank I took off a Super Course I bought for $150.

Barchettaman

Caveman, just make up some random number, it's all good.

price = original rrp - number of rust spots + number of broken teeth / total chainring capacity x rear wheel sprockets.

comes in at $20 by my reckoning :-)