"Bikes as art, bikes as recreation, bikes as alternative transportation - it all seems to be coming together," says Bilenky, who dreamed up the Philly Expo after attending several North American Handmade Bicycle Shows. And while there will be big and small bike companies on hand - Brompton, Jamis, Serotta, Surly, Waterford, ANT, and J.P. Weigle among them - this isn't just a dressed-up trade show.
Eben Weiss, better known to his legion of blog bookmarkers as Bike Snob, will be reading Saturday from his snarky tome, Bike Snob: Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling.
David Herlihy, author of The Lost Cyclist - the true account of Pittsburgh wheelman Frank Lenz's epic 19th-century ride around the globe (and his mysterious disappearance in eastern Turkey) - will read Sunday. Herlihy will bring with him a vintage Victor "safety bicycle," like the one used by Lenz.
Women and bikes? A seminar on "empowering women cyclists," with a panel that includes Georgina Terry, founder of the designed-for-females Terry Precision Cycles, is on the schedule. There will be outdoor demos on adjacent Ranstead Street, with fixed-wheel freestyle stunts (fodder for Bike Snob!), a mountain bike technical clinic, and, on Sunday, a giant swap meet - organized by the folks who do the bustling New York Bike Jumble.
"We saw a doubling in the number of bicyclists here in Philadelphia between 2005 and 2008," says Alex Doty, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition. "Basically, we want to see that that happens again and again. And the Bike Expo is about celebrating that resurgence, this explosion of bike culture in Philadelphia."
