AACA Hershey meet, 10/12 - Lots (and lots) of pics

[expjawa]

Kingfish's post on bikes he saw while traveling reminded me that I've been meaning to post about the bikes I saw at Hershey last fall. For those that don't know, every October, the Antique Automobile Club of America holds their annual fall swap meet and car show in Hershey, PA, on the grounds of what is now Hershey Park. This has been going on virtually forever; my father's been going to this even since the mid '60s, and I've been going since I was quite small. Anyway, the swap meet is primarily automotive, but its huge. And with all that stuff, a fair number of old bikes are dragged along as well. So without further delay, here are the photos.

This was one of the coolest things in the actual car show - a Mercer roadster with a period-correct track bike strapped to the running board.

Even the car's LH mirror was mounted to the old Mesinger:

Also in the show, a self-propelled quadracycle:

How about a Victor bicycle?

This Schwinn DX was a bit rough around the edges and more than I would've spent on it:

A chain-drive trike:

Anyone ever heard of a Davy Crockett? Note the skip tooth chain and radial spoked wheels...

I dig the laced wooden skirt and chain guards on this one:

This Higgins was cool, but again, too rich for me:

Neat little Monark boys bike, albeit with a wicked fork bend:

Parts is parts? The vendor told me that people don't buy projects, they buy parts. So he chopped these BBs out of frames rather than try to save them...

No price on this cool Lux Liner rat:

A "Bike Bug Deluxe" motor mounted on this Firestone Special Deluxe:

The sky's the limit when dealing with Krates, apparently. The price tag on this Apple Krate was $2600, IIRC...

A couple of neat little trikes. Check out the truss rods on the orange one...

A JC Penney tandem. I didn't know they sold bikes...

I wanted to buy this sign, but frankly didn't want to carry it around all day...

A rear-steer tandem:

Not sure what this was. Badge says "HWH". Interesting double taper on the head tube...

Maybe a Ross middleweight?

 

[expjawa]

I'm just getting started here. A Sonic Jet pedal trike:

How about a steam powered motorcycle?

Or a Monark powered by flat-opposed two cylinder?

I didn't catch what brand this tandem is:

CWC Roadmaster step through. A girl's Lux Liner?

A modified Silver King:

A whole pile of very early bikes:

Particularly cool was this Saturn, of Buffalo NY, with a Major Taylor style stem and drop bars:

A neat piece of bicyclemobilia, but too large to do much with:

The bars and frame on this one are particularly cool:

Overpriced (but nice) Schwinn middle weights:

More from the same vendor:

A Pierce Arrow motorcycle. Of particular interest, with the frame function as fuel and oil tanks:

This looks like trouble waiting to happen. A side-by-side double:

A lot going on this one. See the cycletruck in the center, behind the really odd tandem frame up front?

Warwick shaft drive. This claimed to be a Wright Bros manufactured cycle from 1896:

Matching his/her Packards, which look for all the world like repainted Monarks:

Anyone heard of Arrowfast? Neat frame, Iver Johnson like:

This Schwinn Pullman was quite cool, claimed to be 1890's:

And I'll round out this installment with a clean Evans step through:

 

[expjawa]

Starting part 3 here with an aluminum "Convertitrike":

The folks at Memory Lane Classics always put up a booth here. I bought my first cruiser from them, here, several years ago...

This 24" Sears muscle bike was cool, but I didn't see a model name on it:

A decent looking Jaguar:

And a Columbia Thunderbolt. Pretty clean looking, all the graphics were crisp.

You don't see many Manta Rays:

Or Huffy Radiobikes:

$125 could've bought you this red Phantom frame:

Lots more parts:

Apparently, Silver Kings aren't as rare as I thought, because there were a bunch at the show:

This is an aside - the bikes I brought to ride around on - my '38 Colson and my LHT - on my roof rack:

$1000 and $850 were the tags on this Hornet and Panther. Too rich for my blood:

I'm not sure what this was, but Joe can probably tell you:

And a nice looking Black Phantom. This didn't appear to be for sale...

 

[expjawa]

And the final chapter. This little streamlined trike was really cool:

A Coppertone Corvette and...I'm not sure...

A postwar Whizzer:

I'm not sure on this one, but it looks maybe Huffman built? I can't make out the lettering on it in the photo.

More parts:

The quadracycle shown before was also displayed with a matching track bike on a trailer. It isn't obvious in the photo, but all three were finished in a matching dark green, similar to PRR's Brunswick Green:

This Hiawatha was by far the coolest bike there. No price, and I didn't ask:

To counterpoint that, this Columbia was "allmost free" at $20. No buyer.

For the record, this is maybe a third of the photos I took there. A lot of the stuff not shown is more of the same. Lots of bits and pieces, lots of rough middleweights, and quite a few early wood-rimmed bikes. It takes several days to walk all of the swap meet and actually appreciate it, and even then, I probably missed stuff.

 

[Rat Rod]

Thanks for sharing those...looks like a great time.

Also looks like an abundance of bikes with bent forks. Next time bring a bike stand and fork jack and charge folks $10 to fix their forks...you'd make a killing. :lol: :lol:

 

[CRASH]

That's a 24" Spyder. Mine is a '69 and the frame looks the same. How much was he asking for it, and the 24" Manta Ray?

 

[expjawa]

I don't recall a price on the Sears. The Manta Ray, OTOH, had a tag of $550. That I knew because its visable in the full-res version of the photo. I wasn't going to, but I'll look at adding more photos later. I just have to go through and resize and adjust a bunch of them...

 

[CRASH]

Were the Spyder and the Manta both from that Memory Lane bike shop? I might give them a call.

Edit: Called. Those pics are probably a little old. They haven't had that yellow Manta in recent memory, although I did talk to them about their current stock.

 

[kingfish254]

Thanks for sharing all of those photos!!
Looks like a great time!!

 

[expjawa]

Were the Spyder and the Manta both from that Memory Lane bike shop? I might give them a call.

No, neither were. I can tell you generally were the vendor with the Manta was located on the grounds, it might be possible to track them down using a program listing (my father might have one). They're folks that bring expensive bikes regularly - restored Hop Along Cassidys (more than one), Phantom-based Whizzers, Color Flows, that Radiobike, etc. So they deal in rarer vintage bikes, and there can't be that many folks like that out there.

Regarding the Sears, though, I have no idea where I saw it. I mean, I can figure out which field it was in, based on the photo order, but couldn't narrow it down more specifically than that. Hershey is truly huge, as far as vending space goes. There are over 9000, IIRC. It literally takes us most of 4 days to walk it all...

 

[CRASH]

Well that explains it! :lol:

Nah, don't break a sweat. Yellow is like his 4th choice for a Manta. He really wants a green.

 

[expjawa]

Well that explains it! :lol:

Nah, don't break a sweat. Yellow is like his 4th choice for a Manta. He really wants a green.

I can dig that. Well, the yellow would be my second choice. But green is my first as well (particularly Campus Green). Probably a third of my bikes are green, and many of the others are ones I bought to flip anyway... :mrgreen:

 

[CRASH]

Well, if you ever run across a campus green Mantas, let me know.

 

[Rockit!]

That motorized Monark, the Pierce motorcycle, and the pedal-jet plane............ :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[expjawa]

OK, here's a few more. You might guess from my pictures that I went to some huge bicycle swap meet. But the bikes represented a small part of what was out there. As I said earlier, this event has over 9000 vendors, and only a few % brought bikes and parts. If you're into old car bits, though, this is still the place to go. Especially if you want to adapt those bits to a rat rod bike...

Parts is parts, again. Same vendor that hacked up frames to sell bottom brackets. Had buckets of parts, too bad there was no identification of any thing. There's no way to find anything good without digging through everything. So, I didn't spend any time digging through stuff.

Orange Krate for $2200...

Not a bike, but a very cool large scale model locomotive...

 

[expjawa]

 

[expjawa]

Here's something you don't see every day:

An exercise bike, couple of wheels and some tubing...got a lot looks...

A funky little trike:

Another jet trike:

 

[expjawa]

Real steam! Or someone had a dream of...

A Shelby go kart. The other kind of Shelby...

Another Silver King:

And who doesn't love dinosaurs?

 

[expjawa]

...?

OK, that's all I got that's worth anything...

 

[expjawa]

How about a pedal bus?