Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Trexlertown firehouse swap meet Sunday October 4th 2015

     The annual swap meets in Trexlertown, PA. happened over this past weekend, Oct 2-4th. The swap on Saturday was inside the Lehigh Valley velodrome in Trexlertown, PA. The weather was miserable. Cold and rainy. We were there at 6:30 AM scouring the landscape for wheelin' and dealin'. The fall swap is generally the bigger one as shops are trying to get rid of stock they did not sell over the summer season as well as individual vendors cleaning out garages and basements. This year though the weather was a huge factor in limiting attendance. The infield was only half full of vandors and the riders pits were also not very full. Last year was much the same in terms of attendance and weather. A bit overall disappointing. We got a handful of good items, Sometimes poor weather works to your advantage as there is not so many people competing for stuff and vendors do not want to load the cold steel and waterlogged cardboard boxes back into their cars at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I have no pictures from that day. I did see some cool bikes though. an Aplehans track bike, a pair of Frejus road bikes, Nagasawa track, and Yamaguchi track, as well as many others!
     The swap next door at the firehouse ran from Friday through Sunday, and has been an annual event since about 1984. It used to be held in a close by town called Macungie. It is mostly antique bike stuff including muscle bikes and balloon tire machines as well as some lightweight stuff. You never know what will show up! Again, vendor turnout was low because of the weather. Two days of rain made the grass field a soggy mess. We were there again at 6;30 AM and got a bunch of bikes and some small parts. I remembered my camera this time! So all the below photos are from the Sunday swap at the firehouse.


 Schwinn Paramount tandem, very clean.

 This bike is a one off made as a tribute to the French company aluminum bikes (see poster below). The owner spent  a whole year machining and polishing parts to assemble this amazing tribute! the only vintage parts are the rims (also purchased at this swap a year ago, the chain, and the saddle, which is a ladies model and will be replaced with a mens model. Lots of attention to detail all over this thing. A true labor of love!












Rene  Herse like treatment on the axle nuts!

 Schwinn Cycle Truck with New Departure basket!


 A bunch of bikes.

 Schwinn town & Country tandem


 Nice Old School BMX bikes

 Drillium campy crank set. Speed holes!

 Flasks to help keep the cold away.
 Nice Bates with Cantiflex tubing. This photo was taken before the new owner found a Chater Lea headclip headset, ASC rear hub with correct trigger, and proprietary Bates screws for the fender stays! Score!


 Fat Chance mountain bike. Badass 1990's!

 Very cool 1929 Rollfast with some unique features.
 Nice spoon mouth attachment of the arching top tube.


 Never seen this Rollfast stamping on the chain ring tabs!


Whizzer Jr.
    

4 comments:

Horse said...

Let's see those proprietary Bates screws!

Unknown said...

Wow.
That aluminium bike is something.
And the bendy forks.
Cool pix.

Anonymous said...

Dig the fat chance!

Unknown said...

Bates was mine too! Loving these posts! guess we both got good taste.
shouldn't have sold it lol