My daughter and I just came home from my first Bicycle Swap Meet. Speaking of meeting, across the parking lot was Sailor Benjamin. It was great to meet Ben and compliment him first hand on the pictures of his beautiful daughters and C&V bikes. We also did a little business (me selling at the steeply discounted C&V pal pricing! Great to meet up!

Since this was my first Swap Meet--- I didn't know what to expect. May I share my impressions of some of the characters I encountered?

The Attack Dogs: Before I could even back up to my space to unload, I had about 4-6 aggressive canines "barking" through the windows of my van trying to get a bite of what was inside. As soon as I opened the rear hatch, they were at the bumper drooling over my stuff. I had to say "Down boys!" when I came back for more boxes.

The Vultures: After I set up my tables and began arranging my parts, the Vultures began circling. And in true scavenger fashion, the brave ones would swoop in and begin to nibble. They made repetitive calls which sounded like, "howmuchforthis, howmuchforthis, howmuchforthis!"

The Parrots: There were three fellows who kept returning to my tables and fingering my best Campy parts. They tried to impress me with their knowledge. But like a well trained parrot who can speak, but is not necessarily intelligent, they did not lead me away from my one true mission for being there.

The Mission: My purpose in going was to earn the needed cash to buy this; the Campagnolo Comp 10-Speed Triple Groupset.



It will be used on the 2001 Cannondale frameset I won last month.



I had consulted with BigBossMan by PM and phone and decided this groupset would suit my needs the best. Thanks to the generosity and fun of doing business with all the normal shoppers, and even with the characters--- mission accomplished! And that was after paying my daughter a 10% commission for her help!

P.S. Mrs. PB was proud because I neither bought nor traded a thing!

I wish it hadn't been on the opposite side of the country. I love bike swaps!

This one, I imagine, was not quite up to CA Swap Meet standards.

Since I didn't walk around to check the other people out (except Ben's and the guy next to me), I'm not certain what others had. I'd guess that there were about 10 sellers. There was one guy asking for Muscle Bike stuff, and several hipsters out from Boston browsing for "fixie" gear on the cheap.

Just went to my first yesterday. The co-op is going to try and do another-with better advertising and hopefully better attendance.

Only 2 sellers, but I scored a nice set of lights.

Perfect description, Pastor! Sort of like the Yard Sale early birds, only with focus.

Those NH hills are toast! I think you'll be surprised by how well that thing climbs. Be sure to equip it with some decent wheels.

I used to sell antiques in Amherst NH many years ago. The guys asking the prices while we were unloading
were the ones paying the biggest amount of money. The show ran from 7 to 2 - Easily 50% of sales in
dollar volume were in the first 30 minutes. 90% of dollar volume was often collected before 8AM. We were
more or less on the wholesale end of things.

[QUOTE=P.S. Mrs. PB was proud because I neither bought nor traded a thing! [/QUOTE]

Despite my best efforts to trade everything in my van for that Paramount. I even offered to deliver! Seeing that thing in person in the sunlight is just a sublime experience.
It was good to finally meet you in person. Glad we had a chance to chat. Your descriptions of the clientel are dead on. They were a funny crowd.

Good descriptions on the characters at the meet. I was at one last Fall with bigbossman and my brother as sellers (mostly). Sounds like the characters who visited you at the swap meet have a lot of similarly behaving cousins here in Northern California.

Every swap meet I've been to has the same cast of characters. Sometimes I think there are about 600 or so of us that just swap/sell things back and forth to each other.

The best deals at the swaps I've been to go down a half an hour before opening time, and the Attack Dogs carry away the spoils.

I see BBM has lured you to the Dark Side, he has no shame.

Now he can add a man of the cloth to his book of conquests.

Welcome to The Dark Side, my friend. We've been keeping a seat for you, over here by the fire. Just step a little closer - it's right this way, right behind the curtain.......

Pastor Bob, if you keep conversing with him he'll have you unloading that nice Cannondale frame and tossing the Campagnolo group onto a nice Italian frame. He is rather biased towards that kind of combination you know.

Campagnolo + Italian just makes sense, and there is my bias.

Sweet job on the sales, PB, I wish I'd been there!

Psht, that Cannondale frame is sweet, the italians can stick a cork in it!!!

I'm still partial to the 'optimized' Cannondale 3.0 Frame.

Stiffest frame ever on the Bicycling Mag 'tarantula' test jig.

https://allcdale.com/cannondale-30

The funny thing is everyone seems to complain about oversize aluminum frames being too 'stiff' and over the years Cannondale has engineered additional concessions into their framesets.

However, with carbon fiber forks, carbon fiber handlebars, and carbon fiber seatposts isn't it time to reconsider the old notions of what is 'too stiff' and what is just plain inefficient in terms of pedaling? All I know is that when I pedal the old C'dale is a rocket.

I bought a Giant OCR1 w/Ultegra 9 speed STI stuff hanging on it. I'm just not impressed. Nothing compares to my Cannondale 3.0.

I still think an early Cannondale frame is almost impossible to beat from a performance perspective. To the 'steel is real' crowd I always wondered how fast they would be on a bike that wasn't wasting so much wattage due to a wriggly frame and loosey goosey bottom bracket?

Thanks for all the comments! It was a great deal of fun, especially so with all "the characters!" The next time I go, I'll try to at least put a price on the good stuff ahead of time. That way the dogs and vultures are less annoying.

Ben, thanks for the compliments on the Paramount. It definitely got more looks then the CF Fuji bikes next to me.

The choice of Cannondale really has more to do with the fact that I'm very pleased with the '03 comfort bike I bought after moving to NH, and I have family members who used them as there race bikes on the Univ. GA cycle team.

The consultation with BigBossMan had to do with Shimano vs. SRAM vs. Campagnolo, triple vs. compact double, and finally best prices. The triple ended up as a no brainer. Prices for the Campy group is better, especially if ordered from Great Britain. And the one piece of info that won the day for Campy, was this little, often overlooked component, which from IRD, comes with a 32 or 34 tooth big gear back there by the spokes! Oh how my legs rejoiced! Let me dance with the devil!!!

Very cool, PB. At my first swap meet at Monson a couple months ago, I was pretty shocked by some of those characters. There was a cluster of bikes outside the meet going for non-swap meet prices that I later found out had been purchased at the swap meet that morning. Umm...flipping to your own crowd on the same grounds?? Ugh. I guess I just don't have the killer business instinct.

Hope I see you at the next one in New England. Which is....

Dance, dance away PB!

After enduring a few very minor climbs with me (when I may as well have been walking), BBM also convinced me a while back to go the same route with the triple and the cassette with the big cog. I even had the good fortune of having him put it together for me and also shake it down. Hopefully, this week I can get out that way and pick it up.

I think I can see myself in at least 2 of the 3 "character profiles"...

Which two?

will this count as a confession?
parrot, vulture...if I had sharper teeth maybe I'd be an attack dog, too.

So, just where did this take place?
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At Recycled Sports of NH in Sea Brook on US 1. The owner started posting it in CL-NH about three weeks ago. If my wife had been home I'd probably not gone. He hopes to have another Swap Meet on Labor Day.

Not too far to drive, only about 2 1/2 hours or so.
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I'm trying to compile a 'Tout Mavic' group for my C'dale.

Just out of curiousity did you see any Mavic derailleurs (either road or mountain), Mavic seatposts, Mavic levers and calipers, Mavic cassette hubs, 180mm Mavic cranks, Mavic 8-speed cassettes, Mavic stems (anything over 130mm), or Mavic bars?

I'm curious how much of this stuff is floating around in other circles than eBay. Sometimes I wonder if this project is an exercise in futility.

I should have just picked an older Campy group. I always wanted one. I certainly never 'always wanted' a Mavic bike. I didn't even know Mavic made components until a couple of months ago (other than Zap or Mechtronic).

Regarding that Campy Triple set up, how does that work. I've never figured out how the Triple stuff relates to Chorus, Record, and the like. On the Campy website they make the triple stuff feel like the red-headed stepchild that no one wants to talk about...