The Philadelphia Bike Expo 2012 was held the weekend Sandy began moving into the Philadelphia area. Fortunately, Saturday was largely unaffected, though I suspect I wasn’t the only out-of-towner who didn’t hang around much after noon on Sunday.
The site was the 23rd Street Armory, and easy long block-and-a-half over the river from the 30th Street Station, home to Regional Rail, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit.
It’s an easy ride for out-of-towners, too, but there was a bike valet service, and I wasn’t keen to check Basil. Though, as it turned out, there was at least one Bromptons in a bin.
A very stylishly dressed Bike Friday cyclist opted for simply locking his next to the Armory side door. I like that color scheme; it looked familiar.
The Armory was packed with booths, and easiest to move through earlier on Saturday. Later in the day, and on Sunday, things got much tighter.
Trophy Bikes was present, with a stable of Bromptons, though I was surprised that not one was unfolded while I was there on Saturday. You have to already know what the bike is to recognize it when compact, but the frame is a real attention-getter whether you know Bromptons or not.
I was surprised, and fascinated, by the number of tandems present. Here’s one with a recumbent seat — a terrific option for riders of differing preferences or abilities (including, potentially, a disability).
This one’s from Tandems East’s booth — the friendly couple there have claim to have ridden over 170,000 miles together on tandems — and they’re definitely still smiling. The model is a Hokitika:
Note the flash paint job. This is not your grandma’s tandem!
Come to think of it, neither is this one, from Sterling:
This one’s from Bilenky, in powder blue:
I never thought of tandems as serious bicycles until I started reading chasing mailboxes d c, whose author and partner do randonneuring on their tandem. Obviously, though, there’s a whole world of tandem cycling out there . . . and a bunch of really cool bicycles-built-for-two.