When I got the call to go cover the Rhinebeck Vintage Bike Show & Swap Meet in Upstate NY, I had just returned from Sweden and seeing more bikes was the last thing on my mind for the weekend. I begrudgingly agreed to hook up with a few of my local buddies and take the short ride down from Home Base on my 1950 EL Panhead to check it out.

Sometimes, the things that you really don't want to do turn out to be the most fun you've had in quite a while. The Rhinebeck Fairgrounds was chocked full of just about every imaginable vintage bike ever made. Crockers, Excelsior-Hendersons, Vincents, Curtis and Villocettes to name just a few. Vintage Harleys and Indians lined the rows that seemed to go on forever. Trikes and side hacks, usually seen few and far between were also well represented.

Shiny clean bikes that looked like they just came off the show room floors sat side by side with old barn fresh running babies that looked like they have not been touched except to be ridden in decades. Parts vendors circled the rows of bikes and if you were looking for a shifter gate for an old WLA, it was there and not for the rip-off prices that you would find on the web.

The owners seemed to be speaking in tongues to the uninitiated novice when they gathered in enclaves representing their particular area of collectordom. They also were very accommodating to the novice offering their expert advice on just what part was original to any particular brand and year of cycle.

Next June if you happen to be looking for that impossible to find part to complete your restoration, or just happen to be in the mood to see a part of living history, be sure to pencil in this show on your calendar.

TBear

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