Snakephonbia or Ophidiphobia is defined as an abnormal and persistent fear of snakes. I have been deathly afraid of snakes since I can remember as a child. I'm sure some of you readers feel the same. I may have inherited it from my mother when one day I heard her blood curdling screams through the window while she was mowing the lawn in the front yard. My sisters and I ran out thinking the worst: she must had cut an arm or a leg off accidentally while mowing! But as we ran down towards her all we could see was her uncontrollably shaking just standing there frozen, not moving, with the mower still on and her eyes staring wide open in fear straight ahead as if she had seen a ghost. My mother was in shock and it was frightening to see her that way and I felt helpless as to what to do to help her. We then noticed lots of wet stuff and little pieces and chucks of something covering her from head to toe. Later we find out that she had ran over a snake while mowing and went into shock. It took her days to get back to normal and she passed away recently still harboring that fear. Anyone that knows me personally realizes I'm a pretty strong person not easily intimidated but one thing still makes my knees weak and my stomach nauseous when I see them: SNAKES!

Over a year ago I started looking at choppers and discovered a wonderful new bike called the She Chopper built by Santiago Choppers out of Gibsonton Florida. Alan and Christine, the owners, had built the first she chopper for Christine since she also was frustrated with the fact that very few choppers were made for women. They all seemed to be big, heavy and hard to maneuver even for many men. I was feeling the same frustrations. The She Chopper frame is lightweight and easy to maneuver, has a Sportster Engine and can be built for under $30,000 and is perfect for women. I decided to both build a She Chopper and try to overcome my Snakephobia at the same time with it's design. Along with the Buell 1200 CC engine with 101 Horse power, some additional snake features include a snake eye head light, a custom welded snake tail on the fender, snake kick stand and custom snake paint by P Man in Bradenton Fl which includes metallic prism paint for the frame along with a snake pattern on both the gas and oil tanks as well as the back fender which reminds me of a glistening snake in the sun. My new chopper was delivered in January 2005 which brought tears to my eyes the first time I saw it. After waiting so long it even exceeded my expectations which were already pretty high. During construction the builders wanted to weld the rest of the snake including the head onto the gas tank but I stopped then for two reasons. First, riding to me is relaxing. With my Snakephobia looking down and seeing a snake's head all the time would only make me uncomfortable. Second, I felt it would make the bike a little tacky and I feel less is more sometimes. The synergy and subtleness of the snake tail, custom snake paint and snake accessories along with it's overall design makes the bike special. My belief was that by adding more, it would only take away from the bike's natural beauty and uniqueness. They suggested by adding more it may do better in bike shows. I told them that along with entering bike shows the primary reason of building the bike was for me to ride it and it has to match my personality as well. I'm not flashy or gaudy but I do love quality things as well as people in my life that take my breath away. This bike does that to me. It takes my breath away. Yes, many other bikes have more "stuff" on them and may win more bike shows but I believe that there are judges out there that might value the same things I do and will be able to see the qualities this bike has. They may even enjoy the uniqueness, class, simplicity and subtleness as well as the diversion from the ever increasing "MORE MORE MORE" theory in bike competitions these days.

The Rat's Hole Bike Show in Daytona Beach during Bike Week is always one of the largest bike shows in the world each year. Since I was going to be there anyway I thought it would be fun to enter my new chopper. At the least I could say I did it even though I never expected to win especially being my first Rat's Hole competition. I thought the experience would be good for me regardless of the outcome. Walking around all the bikes during the event was amazing. Isle after isle of incredible bikes. From bikes with rats all over them competing in the rat division to 24 carat gold bikes that must have been brought in Brinks trucks with armored guards!!! Most bikes were "over the top" and I wondered if some were even ridable even though that was a requirement of the competition that they must run. I wondered what the judges looked for being I was new to bike competitions and there was such a variety of bikes out there. As far as previous results with my chopper from bike shows prior to Daytona, it fortunately had won all three it had entered. But they were smaller shows and closer to home. So my expectations were slim to none that I would walk away with a trophy. The trophy presentation was at 5 PM and unfortunately I got stuck in Main Street traffic trying to return and was late. I missed the presentation completely then found out the incredible news! MY BIKE WON FIRST PLACE IN IT'S DIVISION! There are some things in life that you will remember until you die. That was definitely one of those moments. To think that the judges also appreciated and valued the qualities that are unique to my bike as I did was a wonderful feeling, something I will never forget. The bike is named SNAKEPHOBIA in hopes it will assist in conquering my fear of snakes. I doubt if I will ever conjure up enough courage to wrap a snake around my neck or have one for a pet, but it does feel good to get on my chopper and ride my snake around town. I even wear snake clothing and attire when riding her as well and had a custom air brushed matching snake helmet made in Daytona. In my own way it is helping me overcome my fear of snakes slowly but surely. Too bad my Mother wasn't able to overcome her fear before she died, but then again, she never rode a motorcycle. Who knows, it may have made a difference!