iab

For us folks who are unable to attend please. Thank you.

repechage

I think you have to a member of the "club".
Rumor this may be the last one for a while. To much work for the attendance.

Ex Pres 

Noooo. Every year my schedule has interfered with a trip to Purcellville. This year work sent me to Des Moines. The only one I've made was the off year in G'boro (2011?). Say it ain't so.

bibliobob

Nuts. I'm actually in VA right now, but had to fly in and out of Norfolk. Was hoping to fly out of Dulles and pop over, but no such luck...

CV-6 

I had not heard that bit of info. But as you say, rumor. IIRC, Cirque was skipped one year. Dale had a mini event that year.

repechage

WB lamented in the past that the event did not break even. Under 70 made the "who's coming" list this year. I would expect that a few would dodge that list and or at a late date attend anyway.
This is about half of some prior years' count. A good amount of it can be attributed to the cost to travel to attend and or the economy. Or they just miss Dale Brown.

The Velo Rendezvous event on the West coast did not make it beyond 2007.

From a promotor's perspective it is precarious. Unlike classic auto enthusiasts, classic and vintage bike people lack free time, money or are just thrifty.

iab

Ha.

That's one way to put it.

satbuilder 

Put me in the "lack free time" category. Have wanted to attend for years but never could break away.

CV-6 

I can relate. The one time I did attend it was a convergence of many things. Airline miles being the primary factor. I do not travel as much on my job, so the airline miles are slow to accumulate. When they do accumulate, they get used for something else.

robtown

The bikes were nice. I did not find any bargains at the swap meet (besides last years Ts for $5)

I have some photos but the uploader seems to reject them.

Citoyen du Monde

In my eyes, only the shows in Greensboro were true "Cirques." Wayne made a valiant attempt to repeat the magic of Greensboro but fell short for a variety of reasons. The personality of Dale Brown is indeed one of the reasons. I also believe it is hard to be taken seriously when a brand new show (BAMF) blows you out of the water when it comes to quality of bikes shown in its first year. Indeed last year's BAMF in High Point, NC had one of if not the best selection of drool-worthy bikes that I have ever seen. Being able to attend only one show this year, it was simple for me to choose BAMF as the one that I wanted to attend.

daf1009

Bamf?

repechage

not a great acronym. There is a BAMF bike company in Colorado.

I think it refers to bicycle-artform.org

daf1009

Thanks repechage

photogravity

There was a letter/note in the information packet that said this would be the last, at least for a while. Reasons given were the redevelopment of the shop where Mel Pinto/Velo Classique reside and an imminent move resulting from that, along with the fact that MJ travels a lot with her work and will probably travel even more in the future.

In a conversation I had with Wayne, two years ago the show had the best attendance ever. Based on what I have seen over the years I've attended (I can't remember if '09 or '10 was my first Cirque), there does seem to have been a peak in 2012 with a small drop in attendance last year, but this year the attendance was way off, with considerably less bicycles being displayed in the show, lots of empty seats in the room where they do seminars and talks, and far less folks selling at the swap. I'm not sure what the reasons were, but I would not discount the possibility that folks may be throwing their support behind BAMF as a replacement/successor to Cirque.

It is very possible that I'll be at BAMF despite the distance from my home. (Cirque is less than 20 miles from where I live.) As CdM mentioned, Dale's personality is probably a big reason as he is very outgoing and, with his out-sized personality, I can see people with schedules that limit them to one show a year choosing to attend BAMF instead of Cirque. Mind you, Dale nearly ran me over with his van yesterday as he was backing up and, despite that fact, it's still likely I'm attending his show.

photogravity

You evidently didn't see the late 60's to early 70's 60cm Holdsworth frame that sold very cheaply, nor the Norman branded frame mount air-pump, nor the Simplex Tourist 303 derailleur (or was it the Champion du Monde?) that went for far less than half what they go for on eBay. There were some deals to be had, but I'm guessing they were outside of your wheelhouse.