This was my second Cirque and I had a blast! My wife joined me this time and although she is not really a bike geek, she had a great time on the JT tandem on the Saturday ride. This is in spite of the fact that we flatted about mid way through the ride, found that my spare tube leaked, but was rescued by one of the locals in Dale's club who donated his spare tube and provided pleasant conversation for the rest of the trip back.
On Friday Mark Poore, Mark Agree, and I decided to ride from Dale's shop to his house for the lug demo. It was a cool rolling ride especially on a 77" fixed and the cool Coronas were a nice reward. With beautiful framesets scattered around the yard it was hard to concentrate! I left a bit early only to break a chain again midway back. This time I was rescued by Paul Lee with his van. Thanks Paul!
It does take a while to realize that you can actually talk to people about neat old bike stuff without their eyes glazing over! I really enjoyed meeting so many CR members. I discovered that Ray Etherton knew the complete history of a Hetchins frameset that I recently acquired and recited from memory the complete component list down to the tire brand!
I was most impressed with the American builders...so much so that I may sell some bikes/motorcycle to order a new one. It is obvious that the best builders love what they are doing and put a bit of their heart and soul in each bike.
My wife felt that the weekend was a success as well since we came home with a precious 10 week old Welsh Corgi that she has been threatening to buy recently. I thought that I had postponed the purchase a bit longer until Trina was talking to Dale and he related what great dogs his Corgi had been! I did not have a chance at that point!
A great time was had by all (now if I can just touch up the chew marks on the JT fork blades I will be real happy).
Paul Raley Leonardtown MD
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