Date: November 10th, 2013

Chris and The Lovely Annalisa and I went to our very first Philly Bike Expo.

I’d never been to a bike show of any kind before, so I have nothing to compare this one to. Can you always grab a bite of cheese and a bottle of craft beer at these things? This is great!

Here is the Flickr set.

In our opinion, Bryan (Royal H) stole the show with the two bikes he brought. Each was done with a very retro build but it was the details that really stood out. Also, he had turned-wood hub decorations from his sister!

The bike I spent the most time ogling was the Schwinn Paramount 75th Anniversary. This bike was all modern but still hit many of my classic buttons. I don’t care for the build spec, but these are all custom orders so that’s easily changed.

The frame was really beautiful. The details were many without overwhelming the simplicity of the frame. The Paramount star was everywhere, but you had to look for it.

The polished stainless lugs and chainstays make this frame scream out for alloy Campagnolo bits and some polished H+Son wheels. Don’t you think?

We spent a good long time talking with the legend that is Ted Wojcik. He’s both a bike artisan and a motorhead! So we got along like gangbusters. Ask him about his hot rod pickup sometime.

Some of the most curious and unique things I saw were the work of Cycles Ed/CED Inc. This was my introduction to his work, and I came away impressed. It seems like if noone else wants to go there, he will. The Lovely Annalisa was inspired by the purple and the horticultural theme.

I forget who’s bike this was, but the stem caught my eye.

Bilenky had bikes all over the show and we finished our tour with his booth. His reputation is rightly earned and I am really appreciative of the work that he and his daughter Bina do to put on the show.

The Lovely Annalisa was thinking that a tandem might be fun, in Ti and purple.

The indoor valet bike parking made us wish we’d been able to ride to the expo.

I think we’ll go back next year.

-STEFAN