San Diego Velodrome Swap Meet

Who likes bicycles? This gurl, right herrrr.
Growing up a massive tomboy, I often rode bikes with my brothers on dirt hills and would try to catch major air with my Light Blue Sky Queen with a banana boat seat. We’d ride bikes to Imperial Beach when Buford’s Old Fashioned Candy Store was still in business, get triple scoops of ice cream from Thrifty’s and on more ambitious days, we’d cruise all the way down to the IB Pier for the sand castle competition. Good times and many cuts and bruises from my daredevil shenanigans I pulled yet I was proud of all the scars I accumulated during those years.
Fast forward to 2016 and my love for two wheels and a frame has yet to subside. If you haven’t heard of the SD Velodrome Swap Meet, now you know! There are vendors from all California and beyond that come to peddle their wares: deep v rims, custom frames, inner tubes, cycling jerseys and tees, bike seats and fancy helmets… you name it, they’ve got it! And since they only migrate to the Veldrome twice a year, you have to be in the know when those times come.
The directions you get through your navigation app are sh*t. You have to drive all the way around and look for the dirt parking closest to the velodrome. I don’t know any other way to explain it… forgive me. But for my bicycle enthusiasts, know that once you discover the SD Velodrome Swap Meet, your life will change forever. You’re welcome.

Great place to get some used biking equipment. I got a used helmet for $ 10 and a pair of fox downhill gloves for 15 brand new. Definitely worth the $ 5 buy in. Be prepared for a crowd and bring tons of cash.

The cover charge for this event is $ 5.00 (for buyers) and seemed reasonable since they said they had a lot of sellers. I was there as soon as it opened and realized that there wasn’t much deals.
My review is this: All the big store vendors that showed up trying to pedal whatever merchandise you couldn’t sell in your stores or were just looking for another opportunity to get exposure to a demographic that doesn’t normally visit your stores… SUCKED… All your stuff was overpriced at almost full retail. I had to snicker when one vendor had stacks of speedplay pedals (zeros, x5s, and light actions), and when I inquired about the prices they were about 10 dollars off what you could easily order on line with free shipping. I just paid 5 dollars to shop and this is the best deal you can give me… YOU SUCK and I would never buy anything from your store.
To all the smaller vendors out there thank you for showing up. I didn’t buy anything from you guys but your prices were decent.
The clothing stuff was not bad, the jersey’s were okay. But the used bike shorts… Someone else’s junk was on there sweating and funky. Unless it was washed in disinfectant… I think not. For you douches that bought the used shorts… Gross, and for the Douches that didn’t even wash them prior to you using them… I could only wish you a healthy dose of crabs followed by a vigorous course of penicillin.
One interesting phenomena I noticed was that the major sellers there had stacks of used tires that they were reselling… most of them were just crap and shouldn’t have been even brought to the event. This is just a sign of how desperate these vendors are to take your money while trying to make you feel like you got a good deal (e.g. $ 10 for a used ultra gatorskin… that was totally wore out with a flat spots and evident glass punctures. This crap should not have been brought here because 1) wheels like that are dangerous and 2) uninformed buyers are getting ripped off). People were better off buying the new $ 15 Zaffiro wheel than that crap. You vendors should be ashamed of yourself.

Well, I really enjoyed the Velodrome Swap Meet.
I got there about 930a and it was already packed. The swap meet had a small cover charge of 3 bucks which is nothing really. If you go to the swap meet for 3 hours, that’s spending only a buck an hour. What kind of deal is that? Most people came to the event in cars, so parking was kinda an issue (I think people took cars just in case they found a super awesome deal on a complete bike). There were really good deals. I was expecting there to be more deals on track bikes, cause, well, it IS the velodrome. I think there was a large emphasis on mountain bikes. It was like every othere person was walking around with knobby tires. I slept on some really good deals (3rensho road frame for $ 550.)(I’m an idiot) and a deep v front wheel for $ 50).
The food cart ran out of burritos before lunchtime, but was back in stock and available by like noon or something. Those things are worth every cent!
All in all, great event run by a great organization with great vendors and good food. Can’t wait til the next swap meet.