What Happen To T-Town?
 

Before flying back, we went over to the bicycle flea market at Allentown's T-Town Velodrome. I haven't been there in years. Years ago, it was the second largest flea market for bicycles. Today, that's a different story. Small (Almost 1/4 of a size it once was.) ,almost nothing that was notable was there. What happen? We saw a sad, rusted out, Schwinn Paramount that was on deaths door. Other then that, nothing. Sad, sad, sad.

I've never been to Trexlertown but Brazen Dropouts in Madison never disappoints.

Velofest used to be an awesome monster show about six years ago. COVID19, competing shows and lack of promotion by Lehigh Preferred Cycling Center (due to insufficient cash flow) took their toll.

I still got about 60-70% of what I was looking for, though.

After wanting to visit the famous T-Town swap for over a decade, I finally got the chance this past weekend. I set up a booth with my buddy who is the organizer of the Brooklyn Bike Jumble. For those of you who attended T-Town, I had the booth with the yellow Bridgestone track and the blue 3Rensho pursuit.

I gotta say, it was a disappointing turnout. There weren't many people shopping; at least half the crowd seemed to be other vendors killing time. The "vibe" was also kind of a bummer - you could sense the frustration from the vendors, and the pervasive topic at every table was "what happened to this event?" Someone did offer me a pretty sweet deal on a wheelset, and I figured it was so slow at the event that I'd wait a while and then see if they were willing to go even lower. To my surprise, it was gone, sold, when I came back. So, there were some deals to be had!

I don't think I will come back as a vendor again. Maybe the size and scale of the Brooklyn event has given me over-blown expectations of other events, but I have yet to attend another East Coast swap anywhere near as big. I was sure T-Town would be huge, but I suppose that's now a bygone era.

These have always seemed like a catch-22 to me.

Vendors expect the organizers to carry the load and the organizers expect the vendors to.

If the buyers don't show up, it doesn't matter.

The other issue (which Catnap touched on) was the notable absence of the big dealers. There were one or two at Velofest (with small booths), but that was it. No East Coast Tandems, no upsidedown13 selling close-out jerseys, no bike shops of note. The bigger outfits usually draw in more casual enthusiasts and the local Mennonite community, both of whom were also absent.

Velofest also has competition, even locally. The Kutztown campground has a swap meet twice a year, and the firehouse behind the Velodrome was hosting a multi-day meet on the same weekend - with free admission for buyers.