Mark your calendars! Coming up on June 24th.

 From a few years back: 

Record crowd attends Canadian Vintage Bicycle Show

by Heather Ibbotson, Brantford Expositor
Monday, June 28, 2010

 Antique and vintage bicycle fans from across Brant County and beyond were drawn to a farm on Tutela Heights Road on Sunday for the ninth annual Canadian Vintage Bicycle Show.

Bicycle buff, Ryan O'Brien of Toronto, was one of the early birds and he was impressed by what he saw.

"This is beautiful. I'm surprised at the selection," O'Brien said. "There are some unique pieces."

O'Brien, a member of a Toronto bicycle club called the Devil Strip Rollers, said he enjoys antique bikes and the ingenuity that went into their designs.

"Cycling is so driven by technology these days," he said.

Show organizer Jamie McGregor was confident of a great crowd at this year's event.

"We'll have a record turnout. No doubt," he said shortly after 9 a.m. on Sunday. "I've never seen so many (people) here this early."

More than 50 vendors and their wares dotted the large well-tended property of Jody and Bonnie Varey, who have welcomed the bicycle show to Heritage View Farm for the past five years.

Two-wheeled treasures ranged from those made in the late 1800s to about 1975. "We've got a good range of all eras," McGregor said.

Vendors on the site displayed a huge variety of bicycles, from the so-called "muscle bikes" of the late 1960s and 1970s with their high handlebars and banana seats to the towering Victorian high wheel (or Penny-farthing) with its massive front wheel and tiny rear wheel.

Spare parts were also available in abundance and buyers weren't shy about shelling out the cash. One woman bought a vintage bicycle seat with mammoth springs for $65; another bought a sprocket for $10.

Roger Tupper, of Hamilton, displayed treasures including a 54-inch high wheel made in 1887 by the U.S.-based Columbia bicycle company.

With a leather seat perched atop a huge solid rubber tire, and with only a hand brake to slow down, the high wheel does not look like an easy ride, even if the rider did overcome the hurdle of figuring out how to get on top of it in the first place.

Tupper said high wheel bicycles are not as intimidating to ride as they look. "I got the hang of it pretty quickly," he said.

Still. the contraption is finicky and even hitting a stone can completely send a rider head over heels, he said.

Costing a hefty $100 in their day, high wheels were expensive diversions for the well-heeled. These antique bicycles can now run from $4,500 up to$20,000, Tupper said.

Admittance to the show was a $5 donation to the Stedman Community Hospice. For the past three years, McGregor has used the event to do a bit of fundraising to thank the hospice for the care provided  to his father, John, who died there four years ago.

Reprinted with the kind permission of the Brantford Expositor.