When I was invited to enter Salsa Verde into the Autorama by the Vintage Bicycle Club of Houston, my first thought was; "Nah, it was built to be ridden. That'd be too much of a hassle to show it".  It turned out to be somewhat true as I live about 60 miles away from the venue that housed the four day Autorama.  However, Salsa Verde did wind up taking a first place award for my effort.
John Youens: Salsa Verde At Houston Autorama 2003
In which a plucky young KustomBike contender enters the ring for the first time- and kicks ass.
The next morning at the show, everything was finally set up.  After the judging was over, Salsa Verde had won a first place award, and I got to meet a lot of really cool people.  There are a lot of talented and dedicated folks who enter the show, and have some great stories to share about building their creations.  I learned not to be shy about tracking down the owners or caretakers of the vehicles and asking lots of questions.  The show turned out to be a great meeting place and definitely a good learning experience.
When I was invited to enter Salsa Verde into the Autorama by the Vintage Bicycle Club of Houston, my first thought was; "Nah, it was built to be ridden. That'd be too much of a hassle to show it".  It turned out to be somewhat true as I live about 60 miles away from the venue that housed the four day Autorama.  However, Salsa Verde did wind up taking a first place award for my effort.
The first step I took in preparing for the show was to build a display stand for the bike.  I built this stand for three reasons.  One was security.  Through our research, we found that it is impossible (!?!?!?!) to get a bicycle insured in America.  A bike would be covered under a homeowner's policy except that a typical $3000 deductible would negate any loss that was claimed.  However, if the bike is on display at a show, there is no coverage available, even under a personal articles floater which is usually used for jewelry or expensive single items.  There are European policies that are equivalent to automobile policies, but you must reside within Europe to qualify.  Add to this that the Autorama requires you to sign a release of liability for any damage or loss, and you are left with no insurance whatsoever.  The second reason for the stand was to prevent the bike from falling or getting knocked over during the show.  The third reason was purely aesthetic.  It just looks better standing upright.  The stand was constructed out of ¾" plywood with square tubing for the front wheel support.  There are holes in the base to allow a U-shaped lock to fit around the bottom tube of the frame and lock underneath the base.  There is also a hinged foot under the base to hold it up while the lock is being operated.
The stand had to fit onto our trailer with the rack that we use to transport stretch cruisers.  I added a couple of hidden eye hooks to tie the stand to the trailer floor.  Obviously, there also had to be enough room left over to accommodate Salsa Verde.
The wheel support doubled as the method of rolling the stand into the show.  By attaching a quick release 700c wheel from my road bike, I was able to get a friend of mine (thanks Blake) to push the stand from the parking lot while I rode Salsa Verde in.


Finally, after getting everything set up and waiting through the confusion surrounding where the Autorama officials had designated our display to be, we set up Salsa and the vintage bikes.  Since this bike was built to be ridden and not necessarily shown, I honestly didn't think about cleaning up the bike until it was securely mounted on its matte finish base.  Oops!  I bummed some great chrome polish from my vintage bike friends
and we started polishing the chrome, aluminum, and cleaning the paint.  It wasn't until I stepped back to look at the display that I realized that the tires were chalky and dirty from joy riding around the parking lot and inside the hall.  What a rookie!  After a few trips to the bathroom for water and paper towels, the tires looked reasonably good.

As I walked around the show I noticed all the cool signage and photos that the other entrants had.  Sheesh!  These folks are serious.  That night I created some plaques to show the build process and various specifications of the bike.