# 23rd Annual Seattle Old Bike Swap Meet



## RMS37 (Feb 12, 2011)

The 2011 Seattle Old Bike Swap Meet is a go for our traditional date on the last Sunday in March!

This year’s event will be held on *Sunday, March 27th*, in a new location at the Meridian Park Elementary School in Shoreline, Washington. 






The change of venue from the old location is due to the fact that the National Guard Armory in Kent, Washington, which has been our home for well over ten years, has added training and drill dates to their calendar and the building is unavailable for rent until July of this year.  In light of the situation, several collectors joined the event organizer to find a suitable location to make sure our now 23 year-old event would not lose a year. Several new locations were considered, and my wife, Laurie, chased the paperwork on two of them and secured the Meridian Park School location for us. 

The 2011 location should work well.  We have plenty of outdoor space available for those who prefer it and the use of the school cafeteria for those who would like to vend from a heated indoor location.  The indoor spaces  will be 8’ x 8’ and outdoor vending space, in addition to parking lot spaces, will also include covered walkways so outdoor vendors will have cover in case of rain -  which was not possible at Kent.

The location itself is in the city of Shoreline, which is essentially the northern extension of metropolitan Seattle and is about twenty five miles north of our old Kent location. Meridian Park Elementary is just one long block west of the 175th street exit (exit 176) from I-5 so access is very direct and easy from the freeway. For vendors coming from north of Seattle the drive should be a bit shorter than it has been and for those coming from the south it will be about a half hour longer. 

While our hobby is somewhat self contained, it is likely that this location, along with the added promotion we intend to post and distribute this year, will attract a larger crowd of interested buyers from the lightweight collecting crowd and general public. We have plans in place to do extensive event advertising between now and March 27.

I will have the indoor floor plan and the associated space cost set by this coming Tuesday. To make everyone’s lives easier, we are setting up online registration and payment through PayPal and will have that information for you on Tuesday as well.  You will still be able to download and mail a registration form if you wish.  

To facilitate answering questions and handling vendor registration I have opened a gmail account: seattleoldbikeswap@gmail.com to keep all event specific email inquiries in one location.


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## rustyspoke66 (Feb 12, 2011)

Thank's for the post Phil, looking forward to being there. Looks like a even better location, much closer to Whidbey Island where we usually have a place to stay for free.


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## slick (Feb 12, 2011)

How many vendors typically sell at this event? I might make the trek up from California if it's worth the ride? I'll ask the wife if she wants to go sight seeing in another state and look, there just HAPPENS to be a bike swap that weekend too! What a coincidence.....!


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## militarymonark (Feb 12, 2011)

i have noticed about 2 dozen or so, and Im attending!! fo sho


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## Vintage Velo (Feb 13, 2011)

Slick, definately worth the trip! Mike


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## RMS37 (Feb 14, 2011)

Thanks Guys, I agree that it is well worth the trip, of course I live about a quarter mile from the site so that's not saying a lot on my part.... Vintage Velo's endorsement is worth more especially since he has an extra 25 miles added to his trip due to the event relocation.

The question has come up elsewhere in posts if I am planning to organize a bicycle history meeting for the same weekend. I was pondering doing so before I had the added weight of organizing this years swap in my lap. Still it isn't hard for me to wear people down for a couple of hours talking about bicycles so I am considering finding a local library space for Saturday, March 26th and holding sway. Even if I come to my senses and forgo a talk, our local group always has warm-up activities on the day before so if you are planning a trip and can book a night, consider connecting with us on Saturday for whatever we do.

I'm just recovering today from spending yesterday at the Pazzo Velo swap meet, this is the BIG Seattle lightweight bicycle swap meet with approx. 175 vendors. Surprisingly there is usually very little in the way of the classic stuff most of us are after at this meet. A few people I know brought a couple of balloon bikes but outside of that the only thing I saw (and bought) was a fifties 20” boy’s Schwinn Spitfire with the DX style frame, I’ve never been very drawn to sub-26” balloons (including Monarks!) but something about this one softened me. I may end up building it for my daughter (She turns Seven today) but it will probably be too small for a twenty year old which is about how old she will be by the time I do anything with it!

Anyway, I was able to circulate about 200 flyers for our event at the swap and got a lot of interest and enthusiasm in return. Many people were happy to hear the event was going to be closer to (their) home (sorry Tacoma and Portland!) and I believe we will sell out our indoor spaces fairly quickly and have better drop-in buyer participation than we have had at the more remote Kent location.

I believe the official vendor count has been around 50 at Kent for a number of years and I would estimate we have had about 1000 to 1500 people traipse through the event annually. 

My wife spent most of Saturday working on a website with links for downloading vendor forms and to PayPal to expedite sign-up. We are also talking to the facility people to answer any questions that come up so it will probably be a busy week getting the final details together, As soon as we have a couple more questions answered pertaining to the outdoor spaces we will activate the Website and post a link here.


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## RMS37 (Feb 18, 2011)

*Seattle Swap Website and Vendor information now online*

https://sites.google.com/site/seattleoldbikeswap/

We have set up an event Website with all the information you need for the event including links to download and print vendor forms and a link to PayPal to pay for spaces.There is also map link for downloading a map or getting driving directions to the site. 

Spaces are already selling so apparently the system works, we did notice that different browsers might affect what you see so if you have problems let us know so we can work you through it.

*Vintage Bicycle History Meeting – Saturday March 26*

I have also reserved a room at a local library between 3:00 and 5:00 pm for a Vintage Bicycle History Meeting. I’m still working on putting the complete program together but I have enrolled Brian Doan, an expert on the subject of Racycle bicycles to give a presentation on the topic.


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## scrubbinrims (Feb 18, 2011)

Phil.

Has there been any thought to a webex or conference call info for those that cannot make the Vintage Bicycle History Meeting?
Seattle is one of those cities I would love to see in person, and of course arranging a visit around an event like this would be great, but the distance combined with toddlers too young to make this type of journey has me grounded.

Thanks, Chris


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## fatbike (Feb 18, 2011)

Phil - Good work! Well it's definelty worth the round trip of 260 miles to go. Glad it's still going to happen. I'm sure for you it will be a little less stressful being a sorry of hop skip and jump or perhaps a bike ride away. Derek


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## MartyW (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm going to try and make it up for this. It sounds like it will be a great time and I can meet some of the Northern Guys. I ordered my CABE Shirt to wear while I am there.


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## militarymonark (Feb 18, 2011)

I'll be wearing my shirt as well! and I should make it to the history meeting


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## magpie (Mar 1, 2011)

*admission?*

Is there an admission fee for attendees (non-vendors)?

Can you recommend a bicycle route from Seattle?

Thanks!


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## RMS37 (Mar 2, 2011)

*Free Admission to the Public!*

Hi Magpie,

Entrance for non-vendors is free to both the indoor and outdoor areas. Our intent is to allow vendors to enter the building and outdoor swap areas beginning at 6:00 am (as soon as the school staff opens the doors and gates) and we will let non-vendors into the swap area beginning at approximately 7:00 am after vendors have had time to load in. The event is scheduled to run through 1:00 pm for the public with vendors having until 2:00 pm to load out. As always, swap meets start early and early-bird attendees often get the best deals and score the rare parts. 

As for getting to the event from Seattle by bicycle, the Seattle Dept. of Transportation provides this online map showing both dedicated bike paths and preferred bike routes in the city. 

http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/bikemaps.htm

We also have a link to a Google map on the website which shows the site and can be expanded to show the route of the Interurban Trail.

https://sites.google.com/site/seattleoldbikeswap/

Our event is being held at the Meridian Park Elementary School, which is located at approximately 173770 Meridian Avenue N. about two miles north of Seattle in Shoreline and within easy reach from the Interurban Trail on its route through Shoreline. If you pickup the trail shown at the north end of the Seattle Bicycle Route map (coordinates D-1 on the map) and follow it north over the pedestrian bridges at 155th and Aurora to its intersection with 167th Street (just before Top Foods) you will be about ¼ mile west of the school. Follow 167th Street east to Meridian Street and then take Meridian north to the entrance of the school parking lot on the west side of the street.

Look for the large gathering of guys in CABE shirts!

Hope to see you there.


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## RMS37 (Mar 7, 2011)

*Spaces are selling fast!*

We had a rush of vendors purchasing spaces today and over the weekend and we are anticipating the remaining indoor and covered outdoor spaces will sell out soon so I wanted to post an update for people who are considering a space. 

As I am posting this, we have:

Seven 10’ x 8’ indoor spaces remaining,

Six 8’ x 8” indoor spaces remaining,

And, Six 10’ x 14’ covered outdoor spaces remaining, one of which can be expanded to add approximately 400 sq ft of adjacent uncovered vending space.

We still have plenty of 20’ x 20’ uncovered park/vend spaces left at this time.

Also please contact us if you are bringing an oversize vehicle or have other special site or set-up considerations so we can adjust a space for you.


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## militarymonark (Mar 7, 2011)

omgosh I can't wait now!! hopefully I'll be able to come home with a bunch of parts to finish off my projects.


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## MartyW (Mar 10, 2011)

I just booked my plane tickets, this should be great time!


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## militarymonark (Mar 10, 2011)

im driving this time, first to portland to hang out with JRE and his wife then on up to seattle Phil whats the plan with the history thing?


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## rustyspoke66 (Mar 11, 2011)

So we should bring a rider to the history meeting or whatever?


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## RMS37 (Mar 18, 2011)

*Ride on the Swap Weekend?*

I’ll be posting more details about the History Talk and other Saturday events here tonight. So far there are plans to do a collection crawl before the meeting but no plans for a ride….unless we can talk Gary of the Skid Kings into organizing one?….


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## rustyspoke66 (Mar 19, 2011)

We'll bring some riders just in case.


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