There were four great seminars this year, and the house was packed!
The first seminar was by Charles Andrews (above) and Matt Gorski (below).
To restore or not to restore - That is the question! Matt and Charles talked about the various issues involved in restorations, a subject on which they have a lot of experience. They had some great slides, but unfortunately I wasn't thinking ahead and didn't take any pics of the slides. If anybody has them please let me know.
The second seminar was by Peter Weigle. That's Peter in the background, being introduced by Cirque organizer Dale Brown.
Peter gave us a very entertaining talk, complete with bikes, slides and very humorous anecdotes.
This is Peter way back when - but he still remembers breaking a toeclip in this race. You can see it on the left of the photo.
This is Peter in England. That bike was his main transportation, and the blue one on the right was pal Richie Sachs' bike.
This is the Witcomb USA shop.
That's Peter on the right, Chris Chance on the left and another work mate (I forgot his name), outside the Witcomb USA shop.
This is the first frame Peter helped build at the UK Witcomb shop.
As many of you know, Richard Sachs apprenticed with Peter in England. Here is a young Richie at the Witcomb shop.
If I recall correctly, Peter and Richie did some traveling and selling for Witcomb here in the US, and when they were stuck in some boring hotel, they would pass the time drilling holes into chainrings.
With this!!!
This is the site of Peter's first solo shop. It's the small structure next to the hangar. On nice days like the one when this photo was taken, Peter would work outdoors. Yep, that's him working between the BMW and the Moto Guzzi LeMans.
Some of the different designs that Peter came up with for his logo. In case you don't know, the one on the far right was the winner.
Peter has gone on to national recognition as one of the foremost frame builders today. Bicycle Guide chose one of his bikes for this 1990(?) edition. Peter, however, was not the one who chose this paint scheme - his main contribution to the paint scheme was the clown face he painted on the pump peg! Hard to see, but there it is.
That is Ron Edmiston shaking hands with Peter. Next to Ron is Karen Rawls, and in front of her is the elusive Lou Deeter with his back to the camera. And bottom right is Jonathan Green.
Peter had this beautiful randonneur bike on display. If you look closely you will see something that will give you an idea of how funny and entertaining Peter's talk was. Do you see it?
That's right, that ain't no typo.
Next up was a white glove affair.
John Barron put together a "petting zoo" full of rare and almost extinct creatures. Here he is waiting for the break between seminars to end.
I wanted to have at least one shot of me so I could prove that I really had been to Cirque 2006, so I asked John if he wouldn't mind me taking a photo of both of us together, which I achieved with the help of a tripod and the camera's self-timer feature.
This is what John's awesome collection (at least the part he brought to share) looked like before his seminar started.
John passed around white cotton gloves for everybody to wear while handling the components, and then he uncovered his incredible array of rare parts.
Like kids at a petting zoo!
He had the good sense to put all the rare parts on leashes so none would try to escape.
The last seminar was Dave Moulton's.
As one of the most experienced builders alive in this country, Dave gave us an incredibly informative presentation, peppered with a great sense of humor, which you can gather from the title of his very first slide.
That's Dave on one of his early time-trials in the UK.
Dave is a Renaissance man - besides being a master frame builder, he is also a musician, songwriter and published novelist. The book in his hand (a semi-autobiographical work), was available for sale for $20.00, with $5.00 of that going to the Operation Smile charity.
Dave's typically dry British humor was a hit. He also had early examples of his work on display. In case you don't know ( I didn't) Dave was one of the builders at the Carlsbad, California Masi facility in the early 1980's.
Despite the momentary trance-like and heavy-eyelid appearance of the two attendants at the forefront of this photo, most of us were really interested and awake at all of the presentations, much like the guy in the back :)
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I enjoyed the seminars tremendously, but this was my first Cirque and I was a little shell-shocked, so my reaction times were slow and I did not get all the pics I should have, and I am sure I have some of the names and dates wrong. If you catch any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.
