Above: Last year's People's Choice Winner, Ernie Dopp's
OCC-inspired "Fire Bike" now sports autographs of a couple
of OCC clowns. Left: Tim Thompson's aluminum -extrusion frame jig has free plans available, through his site.
Above Left: Wayne Spring on People's Choice winner "Double Deuce", even more beautifully detailed in person than it looks in its BR&K Gallery Page. Above left, John and Nancy Youens with First Place "Salsa Verde"..
The Louisiana Bicycle Festival continues to grow, as does our part of it, which we informally call the
Abita Springs Kustom Bike Meet. We use it as a testbed for the eventual IBRKA circuit we envision covering the North American continent and the world.               Photos: John Youens, Sam Lingo, CG Mouch.
In the past, BR&K has sponsored the People's Choice Kustom Bike Award. This year, we added several judged awards: Kustom Cruiser and Kustom Chopper.
Sam Lingo sponsored another new one: Junior Hot Rod. Wizard Bros- Dave and I, produced trophies this year, for all four categories. Also in the experimental category, the trophies were designed to be fairly inexpensive and simple to make. They lend themselves to
being made by organizers of other meets. They consist of
inexpensive chainrings for one-piece cranks, obtained
from BikeParts USA, fitted into slots cut into varnished wooden bases. Aluminum sheet was cut to shape for class-designation plates, with laser-print decals applied and clearcoated. to them, as well as the medallions with the BR&K logo in the sprocket center. Cost to make the trophies was about $10 each, without factoring in labor. The attractive plated steel GT chainrings we used for the larger trophies cost about $4 each.  Additional prizes were donated by ChoppersU.S., in the form of $100,
$50, and $25 discount certificates for the top three place winners in each kustom category. Tomax Ltd,  donated Turbospoke engine noise generator units to all entrants in the Jr. Hot Rod competition.
Sincere thanks to all prize donors; may their tribe increase.
Winners of the various classes are as follows:
People's Choice- 1. Wayne Spring, 2. English Craig,  3. Wizard Bros.
Kustom Cruiser- 1. Peter Danos,  2. Mark Manson, 3. Ernie Dopp.
Kustom Chopper- 1. John Youens, 2. Emily Danos, 3. CG Mouch.
Jr. Hot Rod- 1. Brandon Schneider, 2. Corey Hawkins, 3. Morgan Harney.

To the left is young Brandon Schneider with his prizes- the class trophy and a Nexis prize bike, donated by Sam Lingo, out of his own pocket...

In my opinion, the Jr.Hot Rod class is the most important one of all, since it
is designed to get kids involved in building their own bikes. This is in theory, of course. In practice, we need to formulate the rules of this class more tightly and specifically. My take on it is that the kids should do most of the work on their bikes themselves, and the bikes should be based upon stock frames.
Brandon's bike was a ground-up built chopper, obviously made by
his father, which he stated at sign-up. This is hardly a level playing field, since I know for a fact that the second-place winner, Corey Hawkins did most of his own work, and learned a great deal in the process.
Morgan Harney's bike was also  a scratch-built chopper. As I stated in the title at the top, the Abita Springs Meet is an ongoing experiment. As usual, we have learned much from this year's event, and that will probably be reflected in modified class rules next year.  IBRKA Street Rod class rules specify stock frames, with component switching encouraged.  In my opinion, this should be the basis for a Jr.Hot Rod, as well. Below: class judge Mark Manson interviews, from left to right, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place entrants.
Above Left: Wayne Spring on People's Choice winner "Double Deuce", even more beautifully detailed in person than it looks in its BR&K Gallery Page. Above left, John and Nancy Youens with First Place "Salsa Verde"..
Above, the crew from Florida. Left: Miss Stephanie, with matching hair and bike.
Left:Dan Duhon's front drive "bike". Above left: John Preble, in stripes, watches Wayne Spring on his Tall Unicycle.
Both above: a guy named Joe's bus and huge roadshow collection of whimsical bikes and his "stretch limo" bike on right.
Below left: Mark Manson tweaks his super-detailed "Street Rod", Below right foreground: Texan Joe Cartullo's kustom tricycle.
Below left and right: New Orleans tattoo artist English Craig, a festival regular, with some of his bikes. Right back is his new Keats Carletonesque cruiser, 2nd place People's Choice winner, forward is not a Bowden Spacelander, but it's factory stock,
Above left: Ryan and Courtney lowriding in style. Above right: CG Mouch and "Sooo Long", his 3rd-place Kustom Chopper.
Above: Last year's People's Choice Winner, Ernie Dopp's
OCC-inspired "Fire Bike" now sports autographs of a couple
of OCC clowns. Left: Tim Thompson's aluminum -extrusion frame jig has free plans available, through his site.
Abita Springs is along Tammany Trace, a 31-mile bicycle path that goes from Slidell to Covington, LA. Above: a typical section. Left: John Youens and Sam Lingo "running the trace".

Above: "Spandex, it's not just for making kustom bikes anymore". Below: Wizard Bros preferred spandex usage.
"2Much!!! Trike, took 3rd place in People's Choice. It served as parade vehicle for Miss Amber Hawkins, BR&K's "Bike Princess", below, who gave out awards and drew names for schwag prizes for lucky People's Choice voters. Her dad, David Hawkins is manning the cranks.
whatever it is.
Above:: CG Mouch recruited a guy named Bill Lea to do table stunts, with great crowd appeal. We don't know where the hell the bike is, in the photograph below, but it's a great shot.