Ben Sanford and I drove up this morning from the DC area for the swap meet. We left at 0420, arrived at 0720, 180 miles or so (Trip back took much longer). Some initial impressions:
1) was great to see a bunch of CR fellow-suffers from the past (Thom Adams, Joe B-Z, Martin Gold, Larry Osborne, Curtis Anthony, Steven Maasland (who had some incredible pre-Bivalent eye candy, among other show-stoppers), and to meet or re-meet lots of others (Martin Hanczyk from Boston, David Salovesh from DC, Steve Kinney (?) with the same weakness for Ted Williams (Sears) campy bikes).
2) Weather was much better than Fall, but crowd seemed substantially smaller.
3) Lots of nice things scattered about, depending on how your budget lined up. One chap brought 3 Curly Hetchins framesets for sale at $1800(Magnum Opus, I think) and they were just stunning in the sun. Whether they are amazing or amazingly overdone, they are incredible artifacts, and seemed to be in like-new condition. I saw lots more "I want that" parts than vintage "Must have" bikes, other than the Hetchins.
4) Thom Adams had been the first to respond when I posted a Gitane TDF a couple of months ago, and it was great to see him and complete the sale. Thom, if it is just too dirty, you can still return it at Cirque for a full refund! It did come with bugger panniers in the ever-popular orange, and a pair of very large but only slightly moldy cleated shoes, included at no extra charge.
5) I think the take-away lesson for Ben and me was to be sure you either get adjoining booths or share one; it's a lot easier to leave the boot that way (Thanks, Thom, Larry O, and all the others who have shared with me over the years).
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programs.
harvey sachs mcLean VA.
PS: Since I know so many of you have been waiting for these, I'll bring a fresh supply of dirty TDC freewheels to Cirque. Doesn't everyone keep a 3-spline puller in the tool box? :-)