The Cirque was great! I've only missed one since 2003 and already reserved our room for 2010. I'm an old steel bike fan, but what brings me back year after year are the people who are so much fun to hang out and ride with. Many thanks to Wayne, MJ, John, Holly, Dale and all the volunteers who made this year's Cirque what it was. There were a lot of people there making it all run smoothly. Folks who couldn't make it to this year's event were the one's missing out.
>From seeing major award winner Peter Koskinen pulling in with the biggest bike repair rig on earth Thursday, Wayne, MJ, John and Holly's tea party at Velo Classique', it started off with a bang. Kevin Kruger and Bill Talbot were the only ones riding to Purcellville Thursday, but managed to convince Paul & Rita, Scott Goldsmith and me to brave the rain Friday morning for another ride to beat the heavier rain predicted later, and what a pleasure riding with them. Thursday had a small but nice crowd show up for the tea party enjoying MJ's Barbeque and all the cool stuff in the front and back rooms of the shop. Wayne has built a little bikers paradise to hang out in. Now I just have to work up the order for the bits and pieces I found that I must have (please pull out a set of the Bluemels fender stays and hardware for me Wayne). Mikey Schmidt kept bringing up a certain tennis bracelet to Barb regarding a bike I was supposed to have brought home from T-town. ... I don't have the bike, but by Sunday, it was up to three tennis bracelets and Barb was egging Mike on. Arriving late back to the hotel, all was quiet and there were no bikes in the lobby or hallway of the Best Western. Opening an outside door, music spilled in from Peter's truck and a small gathering was inside keeping the party going. Peter had just finished welding a broken dropout alignment tool of mine while I waited (well worth the wait!).
I managed a first ride on my recently acquired Frejus track bike Friday, set finally right only that morning with a lockring from Ken Sanford. Kevin traded his Swiss Condor town bike with me for a couple miles, a very nice ride that managed to flatten out a couple of the grades. We returned wet, happy to have gotten out and warmed up from the effort, though with a major cleaning required in the room (room service did a journeyman's job cleaning up my mess). Another crew went out later in virtually the same light rain on schedule for the official Sheldon Brown memorial fixed gear ride. Some really nice stuff was auctioned off that evening, and a few managed to get some really nice bargains. Peter Koskinen got a chrome Paramount that then won best of it's class on Sunday. With too many projects at home, I wasn't shopping big. I managed to surprise Barb with a bottle of red 'Last Syrah' acquired in the silent auction. My big surprise was winning a raffled box of stainless fasteners and hardware from Bob Freitas' donation. A real prize as I'm always looking for the one or two washers, etc. in the parts bins to get that one part mounted and working. I did miss Pergolizzi working the crowd. There were a few other notable faces missing, and this is such a great time to see everyone.
Saturday's ride was a real high as I was able to ride with and get to know a few people better. The first stop sign echoed with the screeching of Mafac brakes! At least one of those Weigles were so new that the brakes hadn't been 'tuned'. Ron Gurth was waxing at dinner one night about how the Mafacs proudly made an 'announcement' that you were coming. Eric Elman had his 'Elmanized' brand new Peter Weigle randonneur looking so shiny, I thought all the parts were chromed. We managed to talk quite a bit more and I really enjoyed his company on the ride. I also managed to get some time in with Dave Wages of Ellis Cycles. Dave's a really nice guy, and I'd been admiring his bikes since last year. I got to hear some of his history with Serrotta & Waterford, and what the riding was like near his place. Sounds like a great place for riding. I also met Chuck Lathe, the builder for Coho Cycles on the ride. I'd just heard of Dave from Bob Wagner, a local Baltimore Randonneur I'd met on 'ride your bike to work' day this year, and who also made it to this year's Cirque for the first time. What a cool way to meet people! I managed to get dropped when the pace picked up and caught up in Purcellville as we got back to the rail trail.
With only about five miles left on the long ride, I made a mistake, and went down. An easy one, but costly. While spending the afternoon in the emergency room (and MISSING the seminars!) I found I'd broken my collar bone. The weekend was still gearing up and my Cirque riding was pretty much done anyway, so the fun didn't have to stop. Apologies to those talking broken bones I walked away from. Keith Anderson's talk was very cool. Earlier, I'd admired his bike on a stand at Peter K's truck, and mentioned I'd never heard of the guy until that weekend, but he sure did nice work! "Thanks" came from Keith, who introduced himself to me then. That night was the only part I was bummed about. Mattie Bowne's first build, and many other bikes were there for the riding and I could only watch, though it was still fun to hang out.
With lots of loading and unloading help from so many volunteers (thanks), I showed four bikes including Barb's Jack Taylor ladies frame with it's latest tweaks. With the gray area between period correct and restoration, I entered 'em all in the open category. Barb scolded me for working on the Frejus to switch the bars & wheels for the show, with Larry Osborn helping, and us looking like Mutt & Jeff as bicycle repairmen. Tom Adams with some great bikes at the show (loved the contemporary build on the silk hope), caught us on film. I was having so much fun talking and hanging with everyone, it was late before I really took the time to check out all the bikes. I see now I missed the Umberto Dei entirely. Paul Raley showed up at the Cirque with his RRA restoration, and we got to talk with him. I was disappointed not seeing Peter Kohler ride in on something cool. Steven Maasland brought a really cool display of four very progressive bikes by a little know Italian frame builder, sorry I can't remember his name, with build dates covering decades. This was the first year one of my bikes even got a mention, and the Frejus won it's open category.
So many people we were happy to see that didn't get mentioned, Barb & I had so much fun, and we still didn't talk to as many folks as we'd have liked. It's nice seeing wives (husbands?) along for the weekend too. Really a very special Cirque. I did take some photos of the tea party at Velo Classique. So many others take better photos than me, I really didn't do it myself at the Cirque hotel or fairgrounds (that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it). Follow this link to the Tea Party: http://sports.webshots.com/
Happy trails,
Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland USA