Bike-expo brings cycling community together in Colorado Springs

Mar. 25—Cyclists from Colorado Springs and surrounding areas gathered at the SoccerHaus on 4845 List Drive for the seventh annual bike swap Saturday.

Over 60 vendors and roughly 1,000 attendees came through the expo Saturday in pursuit of selling gear, catching a good deal on bike parts and accessories, and reconnecting with their community as the start of cycling season rounds the corner.

Gabe Alvarado, an avid cyclist and event organizer, is excited to say this year's expo has been their most successful event yet, selling out for the first time in event history.

"This year, we have 60 unique vendors, and around 1,000 buyers in attendance," Alvarado said.

Alvarado is a Colorado native and a lifelong cyclist. Alongside his wife, the Alvarados have been organizing the bike-swap expo for the past six years.

"This event just more or less fell into my lap," Alvarado said, "the guy that ran it the first year ended up moving out of the state in 2015, so he passed the torch onto me. My wife is an event planner by profession, and I work in manufacturing planning — so we're both professional planners and it kind of just worked out this way."

Although expos have seen a decline in attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic, Alvarado said the bike-swap expo has relatively been back to normal for the past two years following the nationwide shutdown.

"I don't know if the pandemic greatly impacted actual attendance. It certainly had a big impact on the number of parts we had here because of supply chain issues," Alvarado said.

"We skipped 2020 because of COVID, and in 2021 we had mask restrictions, as we worked to follow the state guidelines. As for '22 and '23, it seems to be back to normal."

This year, 100% of ticket proceeds from the expo will be going to Kids on Bikes, a local nonprofit in Colorado Springs with the goal of getting kids healthy and active through cycling. The nonprofit has been involved since the early days of the event.

"They (Kids on Bikes) said, how much money do you need next year because we really love the event, and I said we're not taking any money from you guys — we're going to give you money next year," Alvarado said.

According to Alvarado, they're expecting to donate $2,000 cash in event proceeds to the nonprofit this year, as well as any gear donations at the end of the event.

Daniel Byrd, the executive director of Kids on Bikes, said he loves coming to the expo every year for the community and the opportunity to "do more" within his nonprofit space.

"This is an event where you can just more or less, bring a lot of the bicycle community together to swap; buy and sell, and geek out about bikes," Byrd said.

"We (Kids on Bikes) support on the back end, mainly with volunteer help. People who don't end up selling what they came here to sell can donate that gear to us at the end of the day, so it's a huge benefit to us since we rely on donations in the way that we do."

Byrd said this year, they'll be putting funds received from the Expo toward expanding their spring programming.

"We're running more programs this spring than we've ever run before. It's about having the ability to buy helmets, pumps, bike locks — all that kind of stuff to provide kids who have earned a bike with us," Byrd said.

One of the more popular services offered by the nonprofit is their earn-a-bike program. Alyssa Secreto, the community engagement coordinator for Kids on Bikes, shared the importance of such programming.

"These are kids who don't have a bike or don't have access to a bike," Secreto said. "Within the program, they learn safety and skills and at the end, they get to take the bike home with them, it's all about access, education, and opportunity."

Seen weaving in and out of the vendor booths and merchant tents was cyclist Jesse Nordeen, a devoted member of the biking community in Colorado Springs.

"I'm not looking for anything in particular. I'm mostly here to see my buddies from the cycling world," Nordeen said. "It's really cool talking to people — seeing all the different businesses and startups in the area is awesome. I just love how easy it is to spark up a conversation, just because of the similar interests we all share."

Of course, finding a great deal on new gear is great, but it appears the heart and purpose of the event lies in the community that surrounds it.

"I like seeing people get gear and sell gear. It's cool to see those connections come into play, Alvarado said, "also, just the networking side of things — watching people getting connected with different shops and nonprofits. It's what it's all about for me."