Larry, if you're ever back this way, you should e-mail me first and let me know.
Yes, Budget is another place I want to visit. Especially the "used" showroom. I've talked to them on the phone, but it's hard to get a sense of what they actually have there without visiting.
I just don't get into Madison too often, even though it's just 45-60 minutes to the east. When I go, I usually have specific places to visit. So . . . I guess what I need to do is make a list of bike shops and go into Madison with that specifically in mind.
The bike shop I go to is Backroad Bicycles in Richland Center, WI, 30 minutes to the west of Spring Green. Nathan Duhr is the owner, a young fellow (just 23, I think!) who bought the shop early this year after working there for a few months. He's a Trek dealer, but he's very interested in vintage, CR-approved bicycles. I know he's visited the Classic Rendezvous site, and we talk about lugs and steel and old components. When something comes into the shop in trade or for repair, he gives me a call. That's where I picked up my '84 Schwinn (Panasonic / National) Peloton last month; even with the new tubulars he glued on the Araya rims, it was just $200 with the Sugino Aero Mighty crankset, the SunTour Superbe Pro derailleurs and hubs, and the upper-end DiaCompes. (I wish I could remember what the previous owner had traded it in for--I don't even remember if it was a road or mountain bike, just that it was a Trek.)
Nice thing about Nathan: last year I was rebuilding an early 80s (pre-Taiwan) Fuji and Backroad Bicycles is where I got all my bearings and such. The owner at the time was a nice guy, amiable and usually tolerant of my requests, but sometimes he'd say, "Why don't you just buy a new bike?" One time he said something like this, Nathan came to my defense, saying he understood my wanting an older frame, older components--and the fact that I wanted to do the work myself. So when I learned from Nathan that he was buying the shop, I was very pleased. Sure, he's happy to sell new Treks to folks, but I get the feeling he's even happier to look at and talk about old bikes, and find the parts one needs to keep it rolling.
So . . . there's hope, isn't there?
But one day I hope to get into Madison for the express purpose of visiting the same shops you did, Larry.
nath dresser
spring green, wi