A beautiful day in Madison for the Cronometro swap meet -- too nice to stay inside long. I envied the Madison residents who could ride to the event. I arrived around 9AM and there was already a line; the doors opened promptly at 9:30. This was my first time at this event; in the past I've always had to work on the weekends it's been scheduled so this year I jumped at the chance to finally attend.
It was a refreshing change from the swaps up in my area, where items tend to be a) Mountain bikes -- nothing wrong with that, just not my bag; or b) gas-pipe junk, or both. There was a fair amount of vintage stuff, and I managed to bag some nice bargains: a set of 165mm TA Cyclotourist crank arms with 43/36 rings, a bunch of my favorite Michelin Supercomp HD tires in 18mm width -- just right! A bunch of Campy and Stronglight chain rings for reasonable price; a shiny new 41T TA ring for 144mm BCD from Greg Parker -- he even threw in a free "Deputy Sheriff" badge! A NOS pair of cleated Vitoria shoes in my size; a nice messenger bag from the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin and a couple bottles from the show sponsor Cronometro.
A nice event, even though I spent far more than I intended, and I didn't even buy a frame, just bits and pieces here and there.
I took some pictures and have uploaded them to an album here:
http://www.os2.dhs.org/
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-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA