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Philly Bike Expo wraps up ‘best edition yet’

  • Ron 

The ninth annual Philly Bike Expo concluded what most present reckoned was the best edition yet, on Sunday, October 28.

Bike World News will be posting stories from the show all week, but check out our Instagram feed for highlights from the weekend.

The two-day consumer show included 195 exhibiting companies and was attended by more than 4,000 cyclists, 96 percent of whom said they’d had a great time in a one-question exit survey. Several of the 33 custom frame builders reported strong interest, and some took frame orders during the show.

Show director, Bina Bilenky, said, “We’ve been working hard to build this show for several years, and it’s rewarding to have the kind of step-up in interest that we saw this year. The attendance was good, and I had a lot of positive feedback from exhibitors about that and the business they’d done here. And in the past couple of years the industry media has started to realize what a cool thing we have happening here, so we feel like we’re going through a growth spurt, and far from growing painfully it actually feels great to be in my shoes right now!”

Show sponsors Lagunitas Brewing (yay!), Bicycle Times, Haro, Jamis, and Ortlieb all reported high satisfaction levels with their show experience, based on sales and customer interactions, and all expressed strong interest in returning next year.

Among a diverse mix of large and small companies that displayed on a relatively even playing field in terms of booth space, SRAM was attending with a full booth for the first time. SRAM spokesperson Michael Zellmann enjoyed his customer interactions and said, “We will be back next year.”

Chris Chance, the famous frame builder from the 1980s and 90s, who is now having a second career running a bike company, commented on the relaxed, friendly atmosphere of the show, and noted that there seem to be a lot more custom frame builders in the market than on his first go-around.

The Philly Bike Expo does not make a big thing of show awards, but there is a Peoples’ Choice award. When all the votes were counted, Normal Bicycles was most popular among attendees with its wooden bike; Royal H was second with a steel road bike; and show co-founder Simon Firth was voted third with his Hanford road bike.

Next year’s Philly Bike Expo is slated for the weekend of November 2-3, in the same glass-walled hall in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

 

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