Calgarians line up early for 15th Bike Swap event

The Calgary bike swap was the place to be this weekend for anyone looking for a deal on a new to them bike. CTV News Calgary's Timm Bruch reports.

Those gearing up for the cycling season hit paydirt Saturday in the northeast.

The Calgary Bike Swap is a community driven built around bicycle recycling and it’s always a big hit with riders.

For the Gibbs family, it was out with the old and in with the new.

“I want a new bike,” the duo said in tandem.

They both spent Saturday morning at the Calgary Bike Swap.

It’s all pretty self-explanatory.

“We are a one-day bicycle by sale and donate event,” said co-founder Laura Grant. “We’ve been putting this on for 15 years.

“What you do is you bring a bike to us, we check it, make sure it’s safe to ride. And then we verify the bike is not registered to stolen,“ she said. ”We also check national and international databases as well. And (then) at 2:30, we open the floodgates."

So old gears go inside, where they’re tuned up, and where another person can eventually buy them for a lower-than-market price.

William and Halle Gibbs were there to swap bicycles.

“We can trade in,” said William. “People don’t have to pay top dollar. It gives this bike a chance to go to another good family.”

The self-funded non-profit began after its founders had a few too many bad experiences buying and selling bikes.

“We’ve spent our life savings to do this,” Grant said, “to do good in the world. Every single bike makes a difference.”

The afternoon sale is such a popular event that buyers line up long before access begins.

“I’ve been looking for a bike for about a month now on (Facebook) Marketplace,” said Kyle Cummins, “and haven’t had any luck. Saw this (event) pop up on Reddit, and heard that they get a pretty good turnout in terms of number of bikes here. Wanted to get first dibs, so we got here four hours early.”

And yes -- the Gibbs family did strike gold.

“It’s shiny,” said Halle, “and it’s got two gears and two brakes.”

Though at the pace kids grow, there’s a chance they’re right back at the Calgary Bike Swap next year.

With files from CTV’s Timm Bruch