Chicago Bike Show sucked

[prolesunited]

I had gone before and remember it being pretty good. Skipped it last year and we went today.

There were hardly any vendors there and very little merchandise. And what was for sale was hardly great prices. I get better deals from Performance and Nashbar sales.

I did pick up some good maps and guides and event brochures, along with two water bottles and some degreaser.

It really wasn't worth the price of parking and admission.

:-(

[stop the bleeding]

1. Thats a real bummer

Oh well maybe next year



Some days peanuts, some days shells;)

[shrike]

2. Yeah, it did, didn't it?

We had a booth there and foot traffic was terrible. They used to have all kinds of cool things to look at, too, but the vendors are disappearing.

The guy who runs it hasn't been asking for reservations for next year yet, so maybe he's moving it or closing it down.

Get a lot of complaints since it was moved from the Rosement; parking's too expensive at the Pier, that sort of thing.

[prolesunited]

3. What booth did you have?

If we knew, we would have stopped by and said hi.

I never went to it at Rosemont. I certainly won't go back. Between parking and admission and gas, it was like $30s-something misadventure.

[shrike]

4. Our club, the Three Oaks Spokes, has a booth there every year

We did all right, but were all shocked at the state of the show itself.

It is about a quarter of the size it once was. A wine importer even used to show up and sell cases of wine; there was that much traffic.

Very few innovative gadgets; there used to be tons of those. A lot of people blamed the economy, saying bikers don't spend what they used to. But we always argue that the cost of actually getting to Navy Pier discourages people. Plus, there used to be a food vendor who sold sandwiches, chips and soft-serve at a very reasonable price. Now you have to go down and fight the crowds in the restaurants; it ain't worth it.