The month before last my friend Jim mentions to me that he is going up to Denver again with his friend to the
VeloSwap; this time to sell things as a vendor. I ask him when it is, how long the event goes on for and if it costs much to sell stuff. He answers my questions, and ends up alluding to me tagging along. I tell him that I would love to drive up with him and his friend (who I unknowingly knew) and that was that. Fast forward a month and I am back in town after having had an exciting, hurried at times, snail paced at others, delightful and informative experience In Denver, CO.
The company
My trip to the VeloSwap was with two down to earth, friendly fellows: Mike and Jim. Jim is a volunteer that I met and got to know fairly well at my current place of work (Esperonza Community Bike Shop). He is a super mild mannered guy in his late 60's who is an avid enthusiast of road, mountain and commuter bikes. His taste in bikes somewhat reflects his age, pedigree and overall attitude towards bikes; I say this with zero negative connotation. Suffice it to say that Jim has a comprehensive collection of bikes spanning the ranks of Lennard Zin, Bruce Gordon and Ben Serotta and Fastab, to Titus, Voodoo, Ibis and Yeti; and thats just scratching the surface. He likes bikes of all sorts, and it was undeniably evident long before I stepped foot in his bikeshop (I mean house). Jim is the kind of guy who can share a lot of interesting, heady information about bikes and their history without coming off cocksure and snobby in even the slightly way. We hit it off on day one and it has been nothing but good laughs, shared stories and info, and parts swapping ever since.
When Jim told me about his friend mike I didn't know much about him or what to expect. He talked a bit about his affinity for Schwinns and Cinellis as I began to paint a mental picture of the guy. Roughly two weeks before out trip I met Mike for what I thought was going to be the first time, only to discover that not only had I seen him around before, but I had previously sold him Campagnolo bits at a bike swap something like five or so years prior. Never the less I got to learn about Mike and his next-lever bike lust soon after. On the drive I was told of how he would often spend what sounds like over a year building one single bike at a time, often waiting patiently for the perfect parts for that era correct build or ultra-specific look to compliment the overall project. He told me that he once spent over a thousand dollars on a nearly one of a kind, Handmade, glass Cinelli stem badge (yes I said stem). The guy likes his bikes and he likes the to be very specific about what he buys (he also happens to ride a steel Ibis mountain bike like Jim). If there was one thing that Jim and Mike had in common it was their ability to come off as being completely down to earth about their passion for bikes while being totally inclusive and cordial regardless of differences in taste. I knew this was going to be a fun trip, and it sure as hell was.
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Getting loaded up as we prepared to leave from my appartment. A Mercian, Spicer, Zin, Bennoto and Pogliaghi
grace the back end of Mike's truck with bags and boxes stuffed in between. |
The Swap
The event was broken down for us into two days; the initial entry and booth setup on Friday and the actual Swap on Saturday that was open to the public. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me on the day of the swap but I was able to take a good amount of photos from the Vendor-only setup day of Friday. It was pretty incredible seeing the turn out for this event. I was told by some and read online that this was considered the biggest bike swap in the country. The event itself proved to be a huge with very small vendors juxtaposed with some of the biggest bicycle, component and accessory manufactures in the market.
The event was held in the huge National Western Complex Convention Center and was basically divided into two main rooms. The entrance room had huge dealer booths selling new and discounted offerings from their company in the form of complete bikes, parts, swag and promotional handouts.
The second portion of the event had all types of vendors selling used and new everything. Some came out with nothing but clothing and accessories and others with massive fleets of complete bikes. There were sellers with a table full of parts and a few bikes like ourselves as well as some very eager sellers who were in buy-and-flip mode, gobbling up good deals left and right. One guy was so caught up in his buying spree that he literally forgot his giant bag of cash on top of some old bike clothes as my friend Jim soon found the loot. Shortly thereafter he discovered who it belonged to and made it right. I was happy to see so many small local and domestic sellers with everything from purely modern, high end road/mtb kit for sale to old jerseys and bike parts, memorabilia, ephemera and paraphernalia.
It was a stark contrast to see many former bike shop owners selling the remaining stuff from their once-shop and share the event space with many of the proprietors that possibly helped put them out of business. But more on that another time, as for now: a much warranted photo dump.
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we sat in this line for what must have been nearly two hours just to get in, and we were
relatively early..good thing there was a dispensary just around the corner...joking.. but seriously
there was one right in front of the convention center |
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Before we even finished setting up we were met by Mike, the owner of Boulder and Rene Herse Cycles
(maker of randonneur style bicycles frames and used vintage parts seller) as he raided
our table with Campy boxes and small bits in hand. Jim on the left (blue shift) and Mike on the right |
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Two very friendly individuals who I discovered run a Denver community bicycle shop setup their
zone and discuss parts while some of the early vendors arrive. |
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| before long lots of carbon begins to appear... |
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the guy on the right and four or so of his local, Armature Enduro-Racer friends each had their own tent,
a few bikes to sell, tons of take off tires that were hardly used, and lots of parts.
At the end one of them offered me a lot of 10 or so used 27.5 x 2.6" tires for 10 dollars
just to get them out of his hair. I didn't have room in the truck.. |
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| a sea of moderately priced, vintage cycling caps |
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| The loneliest bike at the show |
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| this pooch about embodied my level of exhaustion by the end of the day.. awake and attentive, but just barely.. |
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our zone all set up.. mostly. The right side of the table represents my offerings as well as the bottom section
of frames, books and bits. The bikes in the back are all Jims |
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| A lot of early run 3-bolt White industries disc hubs.... wow |
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I don't believe that this guy was selling anything, but must have bought a booth
space just to get early dibs on the vendors setup day. Doing laps around
the event hunting those good deals |
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| this lady came from California with her partner to sell tons of stuff. They had multiple tents if I remember correctly |
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| more carbon begins to appear, the boingy varietal this time |
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| Nikki, the owner of Mobius cycles is now the owner of my once very loved Serotta |
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| yeti fox racing box |
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| A coupple of gorgeous Mercian builds |
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| someones really cool fleet of bikes for sale.. very reasonably priced |
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| omg so much wheelz |
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and then this vintage Retrotec appeared that I should have purchased.
1" head tube, segmented fork... what was i thinking :( |
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| Campy box and bike locks |
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| NOS oldies but goodies |
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| one of many former bike shop owners selling their remaining stash |
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| high dollar mtbs literally laying around |
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Justyne, owner/founder of Bike Recyclerly just before selling off the entire booth in one go to
a seriously ambitious buyer. The same guy bought someone else's entire booth as well. |
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| the second most lonely bike at the swap |
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| Nikki at our booth again. She also bought my Bontrager frame to build up for her own personal use. |
Overall the event was an incredibly positive and fun experience for a super bike enthusiast/nerd such as myself. I met a ton of friendly faces and saw some amazing, interesting, confusing, and unbelievably downright strange stuff. The reception was outstanding and the buyers were friendly and willing to play ball with lots of haggle factor. We all did some good sales and I was able to pretty much brake even on the trip. I came back with a few extra dollars in pocket, scored a couple of very cool bits, a very unique and useful tool that I have been seeking for almost two years well as some awesome memories I wont be forgetting anytime soon. Being a vendor was really fun but made the trips focus a lot more bike swap oriented and lacking in adventuring somewhat. Lots of driving and repeated loading/unloading took place over the four days of our trip and had the thing feeling like half work, half vacation. We all talked about doing the event as "buyers" next year so as to enjoy more walking around, adventuring, parts swapping and picture taking.
A special thanks to Jim and Mike for allowing me to tag along and putting up with my crazy ass! If any of you from the swap somehow manage to read this, a big thanks for helping make the event so fun. If so you know who you are!
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