By Mike Eliasohn
Sunday, Sept. 21, was the 9th annual Royal Oak Classic Bicycle Swap Meet and the second I have attended.
It mostly appeals to collectors of old cruisers and banana seat bikes, but even for people who don't collect such things, there were bikes there of interest. "Swap" always strikes me as an odd term, since the goal of vendors there is to sell bikes – and parts – not to swap them for other bikes or parts, though likely some of that goes on.
And for people looking for just transportation or bargains, there were some. Toward the end, one vendor had two kids bikes for sale (rideable, but not perfect) for $10 each.
Dante Fields was riding this burrito bike around at the swap meet, but it wasn't for sale. He said he helped his grandfather, E.J., now deceased, build the bike in about 2000. Dante lives in Detroit, but only rode the bike from wherever he parked his car. "Burrito" is one term used for long, very low, stretch cruiser bikes.
The first two bicycles here, and probably more, are Elgins. Elgin was the brand name for bikes sold in Sears, Roebuck stores from the 1920s to 1945, when Sears introduced its J.C. Higgins brand.
Some more cruisers for sale.
Most bicycles for sale at the Royal Oak event were in two categories, banana seat bikes, such as the ones displayed here, and cruisers, such as in the two photos above this. I didn't write it down, but recall the price on one of the bikes in this photo was $2,850.
A 1972 Solex; price $350. The VeloSoleX company manufactured its mopeds in France from 1946 to 1988, with about 7 million being produced. Production then moved to China and Hungary, before returning to France in 2005. There are now three models, two electric and one pedal and electric.
No comment.
Among them was Brian Pikielek, owner of Bike Tech bicycle shop in Detroit, who kindly let me use some of his space to display a partially complete BMX bike I wanted to give away, some small parts, and books and magazines.
Someone took the bike, best suited to be a rat rod or scrap metal, and I sold a book, so I went home to just north of Port Huron happy – but very wet. On my third and final trip taking stuff back to my car, it was pouring.
(jbi.bike) , or one could make a seat. I don't know if anyone bought the EZ-1, but I know someone who regrets he didn't buy it.
Having moved in October 2023 from St. Joseph in the southwest corner of Michigan to just north of Port Huron, how could I not go for what would be my first time to the 8th annual Royal Oak Classic Bicycle Swap Meet on Sunday. Sept. 15, 2024?
So at 9 a.m. I was in my car and about an hour and 61 miles later, I was there. (For any non-Michiganians reading this, Port Huron and Royal Oak are in southeast Michigan, north of Detroit.)
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