So I went to the SF "Adventure Expo & Bike Swap this afternoon. Got there around 1:30PM after my Mazda's GPS seem to have resisted to navigate to the place as I guess the Navy used to limit access to the area.....
Nice venue, being a former WW2 Ford assembly plant, right on the Bay off Richmond Point.
But the Bike swap portion of the exhibit was a bit underwhelming. Only a handful of sellers present, and half of them picked up and left by 4:00PM..... The pickings were not that much, with about half having mostly ATB stuff. A lot of of the C&V road stuff was beat up and dirty, but thst's pretty much expected. There were a lot of early 90's used RDs and FDs in great condition in a couple of booths though, if you are looking for those. Hardly anything older, except for a few low model brakesets that were NOS
Only two things caught my interest. A set of lightly used aluminum Campy toe clips that were priced kinda high even for the light wear it already has, a polished 3 arm TA crank with very nice drillium rings and a Sugino Mighty drive side crank that looks more original, still wearing it's original satin anodizing and also sporting nice drillium finge with not that much wear. Too had I could not find the NDS crank arm as I might have bought it if it was complete. As for whole C&V bikes and framesets being sold. There was a nice Schwinn Paramount (?) From the sixties or early 70's , but it had a sold sign on it
. Next yo it was a nicely repainted older Peugeot PX10(?) Frameset. And what looks like an 80s Benotto and a late 80's /early 90's Bottecchia framesets. Otherwise, not too much C&V stuff, really. All the other stuff was modern.
I was worried that my visit was turning out to be a but I was able to buy a really nice Castelli cold weather riding jacket from "The Pedaler Bike Shop" booth for half its already discounted price. I guess that makes the 5 buck entry fee worth it!
Nowhere near what the old Cow Palace Bike Expo was like, but still worth seeing as these swaps seem to always have at least a few things to sell that are pretty nice. Just need to get there early enough before the few interesting items get sold in the morning.
The adventure vehicles on display were actually quite interesting with a giant Mercedes off road capable van do.insting the floor. No price displayed, but must be at least $100K as the build looks first class and well thought out. There was a booth also selling electric off road bikes, interesting but the design sure did not look that off road though because of all the pristine white motor and side panels, and the all white seat. Must be trying to attract the Apple owners....
I guess we can just hope that they continue to hold the Expo every year and maybe the bike swap portion might grow in quality, size and scope. We need it!