We arrived in Chicago as early as Tuesday, drove to Davenport and checked in to a so so hotel very close to the far east en of Locus st., the street which the Mississippi valley fairgrounds where the meet is held is found at the far west. Wednesday we learned to know Davenport, and in the afternoon we went to check out if there was some early action at the fairground.
Indeed it was, and we soon meet people we knew from earlier trips to the US. Now in those times of online lives on the www its kind of strange to talk to someone in another part of the world that know you had a ride on gravel roads the weekend before thanks to Facebook, blog or Instagram.
We did even buy our first parts Wednesday, not to bad.
Thursday, early out of bed. The hotel had advertised with continental breakfast, ehhh? We had a great breakfast along Locus instead, not continental but very good american breakfast.
think we hit the meet at 8 in the morning, loads of action and vendors must have arrived all through the night and even set up their vending spots.
Having used hours walking through just a tiny bit of the vending ground, we ran into John and Sheila, our Road Weasel friends out of Mich.
Cool, seems like we talked yesterday, even if back in 2011 in Wauseon.
John did let us have seats in his golf car, hey convenient to get around in the vending area by car while drinking beer. Umpteen stops later we had been through most of the vending area and had a pretty good knowledge of the location of both who and what.
Not so much parts bought, but a lot of talking.
Friday, another early morning out of bed, this time no continental at the hotel, we had learned.
Now when we thanks to John had been able to locate a bunch of vendors we spent the time looking and shopping until the races was due to start.
That is the time when we want to get to the pit area, that is where the fun and action takes place, my opinion.
To mingle with board track racers and hand shifters, talk to the riders and try to learn by listening to their experience, that is so cool.
unfortunately due to the track being a 1/4 mile rather than the usual 1/2 mile a lot of the board track riders didnt come this year, shame on those responsible for that mistake.
We did not get back to our hotel until late at night, worn out by the heat and the sun in the pit area, but HAPPY.
Saturday we found there was a lot of vendors that was tearing down their spots very early, and by afternoon the entire event was pretty drained. We did some good scores in buying some more parts before we went back to the hotel to get ourselves ready for a decent dinner at a Davenport restaurant.
Sunday, off to downtown Chicago to spend some time there, payback time for the motorcycle craze that Øyunn have to be a part off.
My reflections after this swap meet is that the prices for many bikes such as Knuckles and related parts have come to a point where the owners have to bring them back home because they dont sell.
The earlier parts for the IOE Harleys, I found there was a lot of parts and more decent prices.
Øyunn shoot such a bunch of great pictures, its hard to choose between them.
Enjoy a selection of her pictures below.
Good guys and gals:
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