Texas Scooter Times

..Kevin Turner, Judge for the Texas Scooter Times Winter Chopper Show had his work cut out for him as he, his jockey shift
shovelhead ridin’ wife Dusty and their high school Senior son Reese all jumped into working the show last Sunday morning at
the old Ballroom.
...Plum full, "sold out of space" with elbow to elbow bargains alongside a NICE Crop of Texas Finest Scooters, the Longhorn’s
neon bars literally sparkled back from the gleaming chrome as the Baytown motorcycle shop owner and family toiled at what
to them is a "labor of love."

...Working with Judging Sheets scoring each bike for it’s; wiring & cables, nuts & bolts, fitment & mounting of tank, seat, & fender, scoring for paint & chrome, and
looking at the angles and flow of the pipes, forks, sissy bars & handlebars and the overall appearance of each bike, Turner a certified NHRA Technical Inspector
and multi-time Motorcycle Show Winner himself meticuliously scored each bike as the Swap Meet went on around him. Later in the day as Turner calculated the
Class Winners, son Reese and his pretty girlfriend that made the trip with them counted the several hundred People’s Choice Ballots that were in the box.

...And the Winners were Michael Ryan (aka Greywolf) in Manufacturers Built with his 2007 Saxon tricked
out with paint by Johnny at Sycotic and assembly at Strokers only 5 days before the show. 2nd place in
Manufacturers Built was Burleson Texas, Phil Godbey one of Texas most popular Swap Meet Vendors with
his ‘01 Harley Davidson that he’s been refining himself for the past 7 years. He’s put about $25,000 in his
favorite ride, most of which after a spill on it in ‘03 cost him $70,000 in hospital bills.
......In the Shop Built Catagory, Harley & Amber Scanlon took the win with their ‘03 Special Construction
Redneck Chopper assembled by Kenny Odom at East Texas’ Biker Barn. The 2 month job at the Winnsboro
shop was augmented with a Volino Paint & Body $2000 paint job with special design flames & owner
picked color combination that worked well together and that along with the highest score of the show for
wiring & cables helped make the bike a trophy getter for sure.
...Paul Kniatt took the big trophy in Home Built Class, over the largest bunch of scooters in competition.
Paul’s 113" Ultima engined chopper won the show after being assembled for over a year and having 1400
miles on it. He’d spent only a very reasonable $13,800 on the project which took him only a couple of
weeks to put together after the parts came back from Hagen Kustoms who did the paint and Extream
Powder Coating that coated the other non chrome pieces.
...Eddie Maldonado took 2nd place in the Home Built Class with his 3 month project bike, doing the
assembly and painting himself and only spending $10,500 on the whole project. Henry Pedroza took 3rd
place in Home Built with his bike which took him a year and a half and $20,000 to finish. Henry had some
help from Bud’s Motorcycle Shop in Austin and the paint was by Rods by Rod. His scooter with now over
3600 miles on it is said to be one of the finest handling custom motorcycles around after Henry built it piece
by piece to reflect his own personality.
...In the special catagories, Pokey from Arlington took the much coveted Judges Choice with his Home
Built Big Twin Chopper. Finished in 2000, his well built scooter rolled into the show with over 90,000 miles
on it after the 4 month assembly done by Pokey & Wade at a cost of $10,000.

...And the largest trophy of the show, the Peoples Choice award was a ballot affair whose hundreds of ballots took Turner’s son Reese and his girlfriend Natalie a
solid hour to tabulate. Third place for the People’s Choice voting was a tie between Jeff Flynn’s neat 1957 Indian twin and Mike Storie’s 58 XLH. 2nd place was
the 1976 FXE put together by Dustin Snow. Dustin’s bike which had $300 worth of powder coating and a Rustoleum $20 rattle can paint paint job took him 5 years
and was very muchly appreciated by the crowd of gearheads that took the time to ballot for their favorites.
...But when the totals were done it was again the Swap Meet Vendor from Burleson, Phil Godbey, the bargain dealer, who only spent $800 with John Hay the
reclusive Itasca area painter on his ‘01 Big Twin. On the entry form for the Chopper Show there’s a question close to the bottom that reads ."Why do you think
your chopper ought to win?" Lots of the competitors at the Longhorn told all sorts of tails in response to that question, but Godbey simply put, "Look at It!!"
Evidentually - we thought as we handed the "BIG TROPHY" down to the smiling tall blonde dude - lots of people did!!!
....Texas Scooter Times will hold their Annual Summer Chopper Show this season as usual in the latter part of the Summer and has already posted flyers for the
next Swap Meet Dallas which will also feature a Field Meet and a Dyno Shoot