It’s an annual event that even armored car drivers now fear. It’s the emptying of the ATM machines at the National Western Complex in Denver for VeloSwap, the mammoth bicycle swap and expo. Now in its 20th year, each year VeloSwap attendees drain some $175,000 cash from ATMs on-site because they’d run out of money snapping up deals from the hundreds of vendors selling every imaginable bike, parts, accessories, clothing. Need a vintage-condition still-in-the-box Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur circa 1979? Or a new Litespeed? Or a barely used 6″ travel downhill bike? That’s what an estimated 12,000 attendees are in the hunt for.
VeloSwap was started in 1989 by VeloNews art director Dan Wildhirt because he and his friends had extra bike stuff at the end of the season to get rid of. That first edition was held outdoors at a Boulder cyclo-cross race. Over the next few years it became apparent that the swap had outgrown all possible venues in Boulder, so the event finally had to move to nearby Denver, where it found a home at the sprawling National Western Complex, famous for rodeo and stock shows. Filling some 140,000 square feet VeloSwap has developed into the world’s largest single-day consumer bike show and swap.
The show quickly became known as the place for killer deals and where you could buy from Tyler Hamilton himself that year’s race bike. Racers would blow out barely used $5000 race bikes for $600. Brand new Vittoria CX sew-ups went for the 1975 price of $12 each. And if you wanted to find a vintage De Rosa frameset VeloSwap was the hotspot for collectors. Bike shops used the season-ending VeloSwap to flush-out dead inventory that they didn’t want to carry over the winter.
Because the best deals were had by those first in line, lines would start forming before dawn, sometimes even backing up onto the nearby freeway. When the doors opened at 9am there was literally a wall of people running down the aisles scouting out the best deals. At 9:30am it was practically impossible to walk the aisles, prompting the fire marshal one year to threaten to stop new entrants from coming in because occupancy limits were in jeopardy.
The Subaru Denver VeloSwap is the world’s largest consumer bicycle expo.- VeloSwap is one of the biggest, most popular cycling events in America.
- The event attracted over 12,000 attendees, in addition to the 600+ vendors.
- The excitement is HUGE…the energy HIGH…the vibe OUTSTANDING.
