Stevan/all,
That was my buddy, Glenn Kubacki, who was selling the Butler and Frejus at VeloSwap. He ran the racing program for a while at the Hellyer Park Velodrome in San Jose. Poor guy, he signed up for the booth at the very last minute and missed out on being placed in a highly desirable South Hall location. He was over in 'The Hell Of The North' Hall, a lone 10 foot square booth surrounded by barren concrete, stinking of horse manure and wee wee. They literally got that hall cleaned out with just days to spare before people started setting up in there. The Grand National Rodeo was just two weeks prior and the Cow Palace folks didn't bother to clean up after all the cowsies and horsies who'd left their calling cards in the stalls there. Pee-yewwwww!
Well, at around noon on the day of the big VeloSwap, it was clear that some vendors were not going to show up, so we had a couple of coveted South Hall booths available. I went over to Glenn's booth, admired the Geoff Butler and Frejus, then told him that he was invited to join the cool kids over in the South Hall. He was THRILLED, and I'd never seen anyone tear down a booth, load it up into his Subaru, and high-tailed it over to the Promised Land, where $20.00 bills flowed like water, and everyone had smiles on their faces. He set up shop in his new booth and I presume he did okay over there.
VeloSwap was a huge success in San Francisco. Better than any of us ever imagined. Here's the official press release, from VeloNews. The 2nd Annual San Francisco VeloSwap is already scheduled for November 13th, 2004 and we are looking into other venues with 100,000 square feet of exhibition space. San Mateo County Fairgrounds is a possibility.
I hope more CR folks can make it next year. I promise it will be bigger and way-better than this year. We're already predicting that San Francisco will surpass Denver in attendance (12,000) next year.
And the ride scheduled for the following day should become an annual tradition. It was big fun to cruise across the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear, sunny, and cool Sunday morning, zip down the hill into Sausalito, ride through Tiburon and along the scenic Paradise Drive loop then back to San Francisco. Many options are possible, including a ferry ride over to Angel Island for the very scenic loop on dirt roads around the island, stopping to take in the gorgeous scenery, and a great ride through Golden Gate Park.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Jan Johnson Portola Valley, California USA
--- Boulder, CO -- Some 6,000 enthusiastic cyclists swarmed San Francisco's Cow Palace Saturday November 15th for the inaugural PowerBar VeloSwap. Making the first trip to California in the event's 15-year history, the PowerBar VeloSwap featured 250 booths featuring manufacturers, retailers, tour companies, clubs, teams and individuals promoting and selling a wide variety of cycling equipment and services.
Founded in 1989 as a beneficiary event for non-profits, the Subaru VeloSwap Denver has grown to be the world's largest consumer cycling show at some 140,000 square feet; the move West with the PowerBar VeloSwap was well received by consumers, dealers, and manufacturers.
Dick Powell of The Bicycle Outfitter reports that "VeloSwap was a great success. We used the event to market our Tours in France and Italy for 2004, particularly the Giro & Tour de France. Also, our custom builder Jon Tallerico shared the booth and made many good contacts. In addition, we showed the very new hi-tech Santana Beyond Carbon Isogrid tandem which really got a lot of attention. We expect lots of sales to result. We will be back next year for sure!" Saddleco's John Neugent says that the San Francisco VeloSwap was the "best first event I've ever attended, and it had the best value for exhibitors of any show in the past several years."
The PowerBar VeloSwap San Francisco exceeded its initial crowd projections thanks to a blanket ad campaign on top-rated radio station KFOG, a substantial direct-mail campaign, and the active involvement of non-profit partners San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the Northern California Mountain Biking Association.
The PowerBar VeloSwap weekend kicked off Friday evening with a gala evening at the San Francisco Metreon with celebrated cycling authors Bob Roll and Graham Watson, presented by Maxxis tires.
About VeloSwap Founded in 1989 as a beneficiary event for cycling non-profit groups, VeloSwap has donated more than $150,000 cash to various worthy bicycle advocacy groups. Since starting in Denver, the event has expanded to Boston, a Spring event in Denver, VeloExpo , and the new PowerBar VeloSwap in San Francisco. A Chicago VeloSwap is planned for the Fall of 2004. Parent Inside Communications also publishes VeloNews, the world's largest bicycle racing magazine, Ski Racing, the world's largest competitive skiing title, and Inside Triathlon, the leading multisport title. The firm also publishes books under its VeloPress and Peak Sports Press imprint, runs the VeloGear catalog and Peak Sports Gear mail-order and e-commerce subsidiary, and operates VeloSwap and VeloExpo, the leading cycling consumer shows. VeloNews.com, launched in June 1994 as the first sports magazine with a Web site, delivered the highest audited traffic numbers of any outdoor sports magazine site last year -- over 50 million page views and more than one million unique visitors. ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ -----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of NortonMarg@aol.com Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 7:25 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Velo Swap Frejus story
Bob Freitas and I were sharing a swap space, so we were a little stuck in
the
booth (thanks be for cell phones! We could make brief escapes and still do
our duty) On one of my little trips, I met a very nice guy in a booth who
had a
Geof Butler (Claud's brother) track bike for sale, along with an old Frejus
that he'd set up for trail riding. The Frejus had a $170 price tag on it, he
didn't really know much about the bike, so while I was filling him in, a
very
cute young woman came by saw the price tag, and asked if it was a good bike.
He
was telling her it was too big for her (I was biting my tongue) and when he
asked what I thought, I said "why don't we just have her throw a leg over it
and
see". It was not even necessary to lower the seat, it was about as perfect a
fit as you could ask for! She was REALLY looking to spend $150, and we
convinced her to go the extra $20. After explaining that it was a late
1960s, early
1970s Italian (somebody called it a French bike in the middle of the
discussion,
"er...it was made in Torino...Italy...") road racing bike, comfortable for
riding all day, and as a "Campione del Mondo" model, capable of winning the
World Championship of the day, she got the idea it was a nice bike, even if
the
modern parts were a little trail oriented. All the better for her to ride
through golden Gate Park on her way to the beach.
So if you see a dark haired young lady riding a red Frejus (no chrome) in
San
Francisco, ask her if she got the bike at the Cow Palace Velo Swap!
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA