Philadelphia
Fall Colors, Valley Green
I grew up in Philadelphia, and used last weekend’s Philadelphia Bike Expo as an reason to fly home, visit family, and hang out with other bike nerds.
The show was great. The name is very similar to the local Seattle Bike Expo, but the show felt very different since a primary organizer was the custom bicycle builder Bilenky Cycles. The show had the normal mix of local bike shops, bike clubs, and organizations that fill the Seattle Bike Expo, but around half of the exhibitors were other custom builders where the Seattle Bike Expo might have 3 or 4 custom frame shops.
I didn’t take too many photos at the show, but I did talk to a lot of the builders. A few memorable ones were Drew Guldalian from Engin Cycles, Peter Weigle, Doug Fattic, Ahren Rogers from Bano Bikes, and Jeremy Shlachter from Gallus Cycles. Drew had a fun party in his shop on Friday Night and then a great booth with a photo backdrop from his shop at the show. I enjoyed a talk that he gave on Saturday afternoon about his business model and why it was beneficial to build bicycles and have a bike shop as one business.
Peter Weigle and I talked for about 15 minutes at his booth. He must be one of the nicest guys in the business, and freely shares information and little tricks and tips with myself and anyone else that will ask. I enjoyed his work at the show, which included two modified/restored mass produced bicycles from Raliegh and Motobecane, plus 3 of his own bikes. Most framebuilders aren’t interested in that kind of work, but I’ve always found to appealing to make minor or major modifications to an existing bicycle to make it better. I was sorry to miss his talk on restoring bicycles.
Doug Fattic showed me his frame fixture, which I didn’t take any photos of. It is designed to allow one to design the bicycle frame on a flat surface in a way that would normally require CAD. I enjoy drawing my bikes in CAD first, but can see why his approach makes a lot of sense for someone who is more tactile in nature.
Here are a few photos from the show. Sorry about the general image quality, I just wasn’t taking many photos or being careful at this show. Click on any of them to drop into the gallery with other photos.
A very nice mixte from Banjo Bicycles, with custom racks by "The Rack Lady". These racks are very ornate, but in a way that I find really appealing.
Front rack closeup
This Weigle frame was for sale at the show, but rumor had it that the bike was sold before the show even opened. The buyer is very lucky, it is a wonderful bike.
Peter Weigle explained to me that his centerpull brake bridges come down so far to add extra support for the back of the bosses. This really made sense since I had just installed similar bosses on my Ivy-T frame.
I usually don't get that excited about lugs or bilaminate construction, but got really excited about this bike from Johnny Cycles and the detail work on it.
Seat lug closeup from the Johnny Cycles bike.
I wish I rode mountain bikes enough to order one of these 953 lugged frames from Drew at Engin Cycles. There is a lot of work in making one, but they final result looks great.
The show was in center city, and on Saturday I was staying with my father who lives in Glenside, a suburb that is about 20 miles north. Philadelphia has a great park called Fairmount Park (one of the largest in-city parks in the world). More than half of the route to my dad’s house can be done on the trails inside the park. During my summers in college I’d ride from center city to Glenside almost every weekend, but I hadn’t been on that ride in at least 15 years. It was really nice to make the ride through Fairmount Park as the colors were peaking. I realized how much I’ve forgotten of Philadelphia geography when I got lost in a few major points and had to resort to using my phone GPS to find my way.
The Bike Friday service department had just done a bunch of upgrade work on my Tikit frame before this trip. I haven’t ridden it much in the last year, but this trip reminded me of how nice of a bike it really is, and I love having it when I go back to the east coast.
Riding through Fairmount Park on my Bike Friday
Later in the week I spent a few days at my brother’s house. He and his wife are rehabbing a 100 year old house in Fishtown, a couple miles northeast of downtown. I love going back and seeing the progress that they are making on their house, and how that neighborhood is changing. When I was in high school Fishtown just wasn’t an area that I felt comfortable in, it was pretty run down and rough. Now I visit Greg and Naomi about once a year, and every time that I go there are half a dozen new resturants and other local businesses that have opened within walking distance of their house. It is great to see the area turning around while keeping the original houses and some of the original grit.
Greg and Naomi's fancy new kitchen tile, plus a couple of the many cabinets that Greg and I assembled for his kitchen. It'll look great when it is done.
I ended my trip with a walk through Valley Green with my mom and brother, and once again enjoyed the color. What a great park!
Very nice! Sounds like you had a great week, and those frames are absolutely gorgeous! One day…one day I tell you…my kona will be just for grocery store runs
I did not recognize you at the show or I would have thanked you personally for all of your bikelist.org work. THANK YOU!
I met you while I was hanging out at Banjo (typo above).