Now that I hear NAHBS is moving to Texas, I guess it'll be another long time before us east coasters can easily drive (through driving snow!) to another one. I was lucky, just a little bit of white out a few miles from home then clear sailing to Richmond Friday morning. For the unlucky ones, highways were closed due to the blizzard keeping friends away.
Bikes were stunning! I've already found several good photo studies on line from the Fixed Gear Gallery and a couple links from Roadbikerider.com's latest newsletter today easily matching the ones I'd taken and thought turned out so well.
My best memories were of people I saw and talked with, starting with Wayne and his partner John in the MPI booth as soon as I arrived. Doug Fattic in front of his apprentice Herbie Helm where we talked bike building and his school at length. Cycle's Ed, a mechanic every year on Bike Virginia, now a framebuilder. Learning about roller racing from one of the judges, once state roller champion Jamie Swan after me bringing up the Hell Yes Sprint races to be held at the after show party Friday evening. Meade Anderson, more of the BOB list and a local, helped out a lot getting things situated and loaning me the wheel to my fixed rider brought minus it's front wheel sitting in our carport at home, and then later leading us to a really nice restaurant where I met the bartender, my nephew I hadn't seen in years. Kept running into Peter Weigle and Elton Pope-Lance through the weekend. And on Sunday I spotted an old bike shop mechanic/racer I'd worked with and hadn't seen since 1973, then picked up with him like it was yesterday. Many CR folk I ran into and more I missed, though Mattie did get the seat I'd brought for him.
Saturday hosted a ride to historic sites in town at a relaxed pace where I rode with Meade and his buddy Paul, one of the Bilenky guy's and Sarah, an editor of Momentum, a Vancouver magazine. I only had to walk two short hills with cobbles on my fixed gear. Sunday morning I was able to ogle some really pretty bikes while nursing a cup of coffee at the Marriott as many exibitors rode out for a hammerfest at 7 am to get back in time for the show at the convention hall.
I appreciated the raw frame at Bilenky's booth that had fancy lugs reminiscent of the Carlton International I'm trying to resuscitate myself (at a much slower pace). I also saw a few bikes I wouldn't mind owning. Ahhhhh! The bikes that struck me the most were single speeds/fixed gears, Chris Bishop's from Baltimore were a few I really liked, Dan Polito's orange fixed, the Dinuchi (sp??) town bike that one an award, and Dave Wages of Ellis cycles bikes were all very nice. There were so many over the top bikes and perfect looking paint that I'm doing an injustice not mentioning more.
Very many good memories. Dare I say it's almost as good as Cirque? As nice as it was, I'll be looking forward to Cirque, since we get to visit even more. Even when it was stinking hot that first year in Leesburg, I got to ride with friends every day. Life just doesn't get much grander.
Happy trails,
Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland USA