CHOPPER CHALLENGE

So CMT has their new show, Chopper Challlenge where builders get a crate load of parts and are assigned a client to build a custom bike for. Not sure how many have seen this new show but I've seen a couple of episodes. I kind of like the format of 30 days to build the bike and they're told who their client is. Not sure about the parts being semi mandated although I understand them wanting to use parts from sponsors. I'd say if they want this to happen then it needs to be mandatory they use all of the parts supplied since the people sending their parts are sponsors of the show and should get their name mentioned and parts shown.
I saw the first episode where Kirk Taylor built a bike for Geico. Nice enough bike and it seemed to fit the theme. I was a little disappointed that Kirk seemed to think he needed to dress a certain way and portray some sort of a personna for the cameras.
I missed the second episode where Scott Long built the Incredible Hulk bike. I did however see the bike in person in Santa Maria a couple of weeks ago and I have to say I was very impressed. While it may not fit the whole Hulk theme with huge parts and beefy chunks of metal I did like the paint they did. The paint is really done nicely and the bike tends to fit Scott's building personality. I didn't see the show but I somehow doubt Scott did anything to play up to the cameras, just doesn't seem like that kind of guy to me.
The latest episode was Cole Foster building a bike for the Roadrunner internet services from Time Warner. I've always like Cole's style, understated and very clean. He, like myself likes to see the mechanics of the motorcycle. He's not one for massive body panels and tedious superfluous crap on a bike. He builds clean hot rod bikes and I've always liked that style, probably why I tend to build my bikes that way most of the time. The bike was done nicely although there were a couple of things that disappointed me.
First was that somehow Mike Rouse from BMC seemed to think he needed to be in the epsiode even though he didn't do a damn thing except take up oxygen but then again that's pretty much his specialty. I wonder if he's figured out what kind of oil goes in his bikes yet. I love the story I tell anyone that knows Big Mike about how he didn't know what kind of oil went in his bikes he was building when he was the "Master Builder and Designer" at American Eagle. I think most Master Builders would know what oil goes in the bikes they're building. Sorry Mike, you're not really a builder in my book, master or otherwise.
Second was the lack of color used on the bike. The Roadrunner's colors would be purple and grey and could have been done in a really clean paint scheme to add something to the bike. Instead they went with what looked like a black frame and oil tank while the sheetmetal was done in silver. It just didn't do much for me. The rest of the bike was really pretty cool, well the pipes could have been something a little better but the bike was more than decent. I'd have really liked to see something done in the color area though. A little color would have gone a long ways to add a little snap to the custom work Cole did.
That's enough for now.
FTF