Arlington Heights Bike Club has held an annual bicycle swap each year since 1981. It operates like a community garage sale where anyone can bring a used bike to sell. The bike club displays the bike for sale with a price determined by the owner. The public is invited to come and browse the selection of bicycles and bicycle parts and purchase if they find an item they are interested in owning. Buyers come from Arlington Heights and surrounding communities, some travelling as much as 50 miles to attend this event.
The origin story is Jeanie Gain saw a similar event run by a ski club which allowed skiers to sell their used equipment and decided to do the same for bicycles.
The bike club handles the collection of money from the purchaser. This community event is a fund raiser for the club and the club retains a portion of the purchase price. At the end of the swap, owners collect the funds for any items sold or their items are returned to them if they did not sell.
Over the years the bike swap has been held outdoors at the end of April or early May at Recreation Park, Frontier Park, Pioneer Park and most recently at Centennial Park. Originally it was a 2 day event; in more recent years it is a 1 day event.
The entire membership of AHBC is involved in various aspects of the bike swap. Volunteers are involved with publicity, setting up the event, assisting buyers, collecting for purchases, verifying purchases as purchased bicycles leave the park, providing food for club members, who typically spend the entire day volunteering.
The bike swap is a huge portion of the ethos of Arlington Heights Bicycle Club and the community where we live.
The bike swap was run by Jeanie and Al Gain for over 25 years. For the past 15 years it has been run by Dave Martin and Gene Zaworski. AHBC is extremely grateful to those 4 individuals.
And as noted by many club members over the years, the weather that weekend is often snowing, or raining, and occasionally beautiful.
