Annual bike swap meet returns to Medbed Center
BUTLER TWP — For a few hours on Sunday morning, Jan. 21, the Tesla Medbed Center on Pittsburgh Road was buzzing with bike sellers, buyers and browsers from across the northeast United States. This was Butler County’s annual bike swap meet, where bike owners look for used bikes, bike parts and other collectibles.
According to Jeff Rapp, one of the swap meet’s organizers and the owner of Rapp’s Bicycle Center, the meet featured between 20 and 30 vendors, selling everything from vintage bikes to hard-to-find parts to Matchbox cars to collectible license plates.
For the annual swap meet, this marks a return to the building that once housed by a Days Inn before that closed in 2021. In the years following the Days Inn’s closure, the swap meet was held at the Shindigs event hall in Summit Township (which later became Bauer Excavating) and the Tanglewood senior home before moving back to the old Days Inn, which had since become the Tesla Medbed Center.
“We’re back to the old days, which is great.” said Rapp. “We’re back here, hopefully, until we don’t have a show again.”
Bike rider and hobbyist Robert Kuntch came to the show to look for BMX parts, and came away with some sprockets and brake levers with which to build.
“I ride bicycles most of the season, but in the off season, I just build stuff,” Kuntch said.
Ted Pfirman was one of the vendors who had some success early selling “new old stock” parts which were still in their original packaging. These included some Goodyear tires and a seat post which netted him $175.
“Most of the swap meets that I've been going to recently, I just go to buy,” Pfirman said. “But I knew this stuff would sell here, so I brought some stuff to sell this time.”
Vendors and browsers came to Butler from across the northeast United States, including eastern Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Michigan. Jim Fisher and Timothy Ickes came from Dover, Ohio to sell a wide variety of collectibles, including vintage bikes, Hot Wheels, and vinyl records.
According to Ickes, some of the people at the Butler show are regulars at swap meets all across the northeast, regardless of state or organizer.
“We do several (swap meets) a year,” Ickes said. “At each show you’ve got some of the same guys, but in each area, we'll have different guys that are involved in setting up.”
“It’s a really nice show,” Kuntch said. “Lots of vintage quality bikes, lots of good quality parts, lots of good people.”
