The recent TPC BOTM entries has sparked some interesting discussion regarding fairness of individuals/business entities entering contests like BOTM.
Guys like Nick (TPC) and (maybe to a smaller extent) me (SSC) often get some slack for entering BOTM with our personal rigs because it's obvious that our business entities sponsored those entires with their unlimited cash and resources not typically available to the individual collector. My initial response to this line of thinking was rather negative. I never felt that leveraging hard earned resources in pursuit of one's passion was somehow immoral or unfair. We've all earned our spot in this game and some have chosen to put more skin in than others, and for better or worse now reap the rewards or challenges.
However, as I thought about it some more I came understand why people who say it's unfair feel that way. I don't know what's in Nick's garage, but I know that I definitely amassed a large number of parts and things to support SSC and I can pull from those parts for my personal projects. So, I definitely have resources available to me that average collector doesn't have. That is unless they have a ton of cash and buy stuff just to have it case a build comes along. I guess I see how that be thought of as unfair, right up to the point that I remember that I got into this hobby with $500 plus some ingenuity. Now five years later I have a couple bins of parts and some cool (I think) bikes. So, that brings me right around to thinking that it just comes down to a matter of have and have not, or at least people's perception thereof. Somehow those who managed to build decent collections, are picky about details are now elitist and should excuse themselves from the normal everyday events of the rest. I think that's BS!
In the end I feel that BOTM should be about the bikes. I for one judge a bike equal parts of how cool it is to me and how well someone executed the build. I have seen awesome ass bikes that appeared to be put together by a drunk gorilla, which didn't do it for me. I have also seen rather common bikes that were put together with so much meticulous attention to detail that in the end they seemed superior to their much rarer counterpart. So, if someone ponies up for winning rig and puts forth no effort more likely than not they won't get my vote, but I on the flip side I won't begrudge them the fact that they spent a ton of cash on it, that's their business and doesn't change things for me in the slightest.
In the end it's the bike and the details, I tend to withhold judgement on the person or their means from the equation. There is always someone with more time and money, I bring my passion to the table and rest is outside my control. So, why bitch about it?
Guys like Nick (TPC) and (maybe to a smaller extent) me (SSC) often get some slack for entering BOTM with our personal rigs because it's obvious that our business entities sponsored those entires with their unlimited cash and resources not typically available to the individual collector. My initial response to this line of thinking was rather negative. I never felt that leveraging hard earned resources in pursuit of one's passion was somehow immoral or unfair. We've all earned our spot in this game and some have chosen to put more skin in than others, and for better or worse now reap the rewards or challenges.
However, as I thought about it some more I came understand why people who say it's unfair feel that way. I don't know what's in Nick's garage, but I know that I definitely amassed a large number of parts and things to support SSC and I can pull from those parts for my personal projects. So, I definitely have resources available to me that average collector doesn't have. That is unless they have a ton of cash and buy stuff just to have it case a build comes along. I guess I see how that be thought of as unfair, right up to the point that I remember that I got into this hobby with $500 plus some ingenuity. Now five years later I have a couple bins of parts and some cool (I think) bikes. So, that brings me right around to thinking that it just comes down to a matter of have and have not, or at least people's perception thereof. Somehow those who managed to build decent collections, are picky about details are now elitist and should excuse themselves from the normal everyday events of the rest. I think that's BS!
In the end I feel that BOTM should be about the bikes. I for one judge a bike equal parts of how cool it is to me and how well someone executed the build. I have seen awesome ass bikes that appeared to be put together by a drunk gorilla, which didn't do it for me. I have also seen rather common bikes that were put together with so much meticulous attention to detail that in the end they seemed superior to their much rarer counterpart. So, if someone ponies up for winning rig and puts forth no effort more likely than not they won't get my vote, but I on the flip side I won't begrudge them the fact that they spent a ton of cash on it, that's their business and doesn't change things for me in the slightest.
In the end it's the bike and the details, I tend to withhold judgement on the person or their means from the equation. There is always someone with more time and money, I bring my passion to the table and rest is outside my control. So, why bitch about it?
