well this year was pretty awesome. Not to take away Dale's show down in North Carolina, but it was so nice that it was close enough for us to ride our bikes down to the event, rather than the 8-9 hour car ride to NC. Sure some will talk about the heat, but the Cirques in NC have had their fair share of blistering hot heat as well.
It was really nice to have it located all in the same area, sure it is nice to get a little riding in between the events, but at the same time, most of the participants would have just driven their cars anyway. And it was mentioned previously that it would be great to have a shop like Cycles d'Oro there, but you would be hard pressed to find another shop like that in the country(or World), with that much eye Candy and the space to display it, and would be accommodating enough to allow a bunch of "tire kickers" just there for the free A/C and to gawk at the cool bikes.
I really go to hang out with the various people I only get to see once or twice a year. The showing of the bikes is always amazing as well. One of the biggest surprises was the white Cinelli Riveria. I owned the frameset for a couple months and then sold to Gary and he turned that frameset into a work of art. totally blows my mind! Such a beautiful bike!
I think I also got the score of the auction(well I assume everyone thinks they got the best deal, but I did ;)!). I won a 1937 Hetchins Brillant frameset and it is in my size. Dale was the one who put it in the auction and was gracious enough to make it a full donation! That was insane, gestures like that, and the numerous bidding up on items, allowed the auction to break the record again for the charity!
The swap meet and bike show were great, some say a little thinner than previous years, but it was in the 90s and very humid, and I know that kept some people away. I have to thank all the vendors that sold me a ton of awesome stuff, and for the people that helped put it all together.
Looking forward to next year to ride down again, most likely with a bigger group and maybe even get Curtis to ride down with us! All on On-Topic bikes! pictures can be seen at -
http://picasaweb.google.com/
they were taken by three different people, so some overlap, but good to see different views anyway.
joel ralph flood
philadelphia, PA USA