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Old 05-02-12, 10:11 PM
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753proguy
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There were some nuggets there, but it is always hit-or-miss at Ann Arbor, as the show is typically only about 5% C&V. The weather was perfect this year, so it was busy by 9 a.m. No mud! No snow!

I went with a friend, and we were very good - we didn't buy any bikes, and I only purchased a few items.

There was a stunning full-Campagnolo 1973 Jack Taylor tandem for sale. Too small for me, thank goodness, as the price was very reasonable and the bike was a time warp, in almost 'very excellent' condition, and had its original blue paint and pinstriping. Even (all of) the fillets looked great. About $1250 would have taken it home. It was a 22/21.

The most interesting bikes (except for the Taylor) were outside, near the entrance to Building #1. A guy (who has many, many early, award-winning Paramounts, that I've seen, and that are stunning) had a 1930s chromed six-day bike that looked almost all original. BSA parts, wooden rims, slider stem, all the right stuff. It had the lowest asking price of all of his old track iron (about $2500, iirc), but in my opinion it was the nicest and most valuable one. Maker was undetermined. It had 1980s Diamant decals on it, which were for sure wrong....

There was also an essentially NOS 1980s Columbus SL Razesa in chromovelato red with full Zeus bits. Unridden, supposedly, and it very well could have been. Asking $1000, but I bet $700 would have bought it. Too small for me (again, luckily, as I would really, really love to have a mint Razesa like that).

I found an NOS/boxed Sugino AT triple crankset in 175 for $50, plus a couple other small items. Sam Fitzsimmons had some crazy-large framesets like a 72.5 cm Witcomb, plus 26-inch Paramounts, etc.

Pickings were generally pretty slim, though. A beat-up early 1970s Raleigh Competition for $600 that looked like it was worth maybe one-third of that, and not much else, basically. It was still fun to spend a few hours there, though, just to see all of the colorful characters!
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