Edmontonians opting for bicycle pedal over gas pedal line up for return of the Alberta Bike Swap

An Alberta couple created a bike swap for buyers looking for quality wheels at a decent price. CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg has the story.

The return of Alberta Bike Swap was a welcome one for Edmontonians who were looking for a healthy and relatively inexpensive commuting option this summer.

Chris and Laura Grant started the swap in 2012 as a way to buy and sell reputable bicycles and gear within the community.

Hundreds of vetted bikes for any and all purposes – from kids’ rides to mountain bikes – lined the Alberta Aviation Museum on Saturday.

“This place is sort of like the anti-Kijiji, the anti-Facebook Marketplace. If you don’t want to go there, we are here for you,” said co-director Chris Grant.

Laura, who was one of three women in her math and computer science program in the 80s, created a software that taps bike registry databases for stolen goods as a mechanism of keeping thefts out of the system. Chris, who has an engineering background, makes sure the bikes go through a mechanical check.

That means their team is busy screening bikes that show up at the swap and sell – Chris says they have about a 12 per cent rejection rate.

He also said, given the record number of bikes and early lineups Saturday – some had been waiting since as early as 6:30 a.m. – he’s willing to bet more Edmontonians are interested in a quality commuter bike, both for the health benefits, and given the rising cost of gas amid the ongoing Iran-U.S. war.

“That war, the increase in the price of oil, when it starts to hit people in their pocketbook, it has an impact,” he said. “When pricing for downtown parking goes up, you find people parking on the outskirts and riding downtown, avoiding that.”

The event has also become a popular channel for swapping and donating bikes through various charities.

“We’ve got a lot of bike donations already that are going to Hearts Centre and Bike Edmonton,” Laura said Saturday afternoon.

Hearts Centre fundraises and accepts donated bikes, repairs them and donates them to kids and families in need. Founder Teresa Rocque says the non-profit has donated 3,000 bikes in the last six years.

“I was a pediatric nurse for 30 years, so I believe in children’s health, being active. It’s social, opens up their mind … They get to feel like they’re accomplishing something,” she said on Saturday.

Bike Edmonton, which has partnered with the Alberta Bike Swap for 15 years, runs a volunteer-based community workshop that helps people repair and maintain bicycles at discounted prices.

Laura expects 300-400 bikes to be donated from Saturday’s event alone, not including the hundreds at swaps across Alberta.

She and her husband are also both advocates of Can-Bike, the only nationally recognized cycling education program in the country.

“We always say it’s education, enforcement and engineering … One of the reasons we’ve started the bike swaps was to get more people interested in the standardized cycling education and riding the roads safely, because we’re in this together,” she said.

Although Saturday’s swap ended at 6 p.m., donated bikes are accepted year-round.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg