The self-described “largest consumer bike show in the United States” will be running Saturday and Sunday at the Smith Cove Cruise Terminal.

What can I expect from Cascade Bicycle Club’s Seattle Bike Expo (which, full disclosure, has been advertising on SBB)? Great question! Basically, the Seattle Bike Expo is an overwhelming display of bike stuff and bike culture ranging from classic, practical, brilliant and completely unnecessary. It’s fun whether you are into high end bike stuff or not. (see our post from 2011)

In addition to the stuff, there are lots of speakers and performances, including talks by these rad women:

• Mia Birk is President and Principal at Alta Planning + Design, as well as Principal at Alta Bicycle Share, Inc., with 22 years experience in sustainable transportation focused on pedestrian, bicycle, trail and greenway planning, design and implementation. She is also Adjunct Professor at Portland State University, where she co-founded the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation in the College of Urban Studies. Mia was the City of Portland Bicycle Program Manager from 1993-99, where she led a period of rapid growth of Portland’s bikeway network. Mia lives and rides in Portland, Oregon.
• Cycling advocate Amy Walker is the editor and co-writer of the book On Bicycles – 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life published in October 2011, and is a co-founder of Momentum Magazine which reflects the transportation-cycling lifestyle. Since 2001 Walker’s work as a publisher, creative director, editor, photographer and writer helped create a model for accessible, encouraging transportation cycling stories and images – a trend which continues to grow in other bike publications and in mainstream media.  Walker has delivered presentations and spoken on panels covering many aspects of the new transportation cycling culture – and the way cycling can change people’s lives.. In 2010 Walker presented alongside David Byrne and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson as part of Byrne’s series entitled “Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around.”
• Elly Blue lives in Portland, Oregon, and writes about bicycle transportation. Her work has appeared in Grist, Bitch, BikePortland, Momentum, Reclaim, and the Portland Mercury. She is co-owner of PDX by Bike, a business that helps people find their way around Portland by bicycle, and has co-founded the Portland Society, a nonprofit business alliance for professional women who are passionate about bicycling.She publishes Taking the Lane, a quarterly journal about feminism and bicycling, and runs the blog takingthelane.com. She has two forthcoming books: Everyday Bicycling: How to ride a bike for transportation (whatever your lifestyle), and Bikenomics: How bicycling will save the economy (if we let it), due out in December 2012 and June 2013 respectively. When not writing she can usually be found riding her Xtracycle conversion around southeast Portland.

Other highlights include a two-person unicycle act by Nick Harden and Wendy Allen, a performance by the Laurelhurst unicyclists, a BMX stunt show, a talk by master frame builder Kevin Sayles, DIY bike crafting demos and a talk about the first major US cycling team, Team 7-Eleven.

Here’s the schedule.

But wait, how the hell do I get there? Another great question! Biking to the Expo entrance isn’t super intuitive. You know the Magnolia/Interbay entrance to the Elliott Bay Trail at 20th Ave W? You know how the trail actually goes both directions, but you always go left to get to downtown? Well, to get to the Expo, you go right!

Confused? Check out the map to the right. Still confused? Here’s a Google Map. There will be signs and stuff, so don’t worry about that. But a word of advice: Don’t expect walking there to be very easy. It’s not.

Details:

Hours
Saturday, March 10, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 11, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Tickets
Adult admission:  
$10 – single-day pass
$12 – two-day pass

(Kids 15 or younger are free!)

And as though that weren’t enough, Go Means Go is hosting a big afterparty in Fremont Saturday. Drink donations go to The Bikery, so really you have no excuse not to go (unless you are under 21):

Seattle Bike Expo is this weekend as you well know.  For our third year in a row, Go Means Go is hosting an afterparty on the Saturday of Expo weekend.  This year we’ve teamed up with the great people at Good Sport Promotion and Filmed By Bike.  We’ve had amazing support from a number of businesses including Hub and Bespoke, Fremont Brewing and Wright Brothers Cycleworks locally- as well as support from Ibex and Primal Wear.

A 21+ event, Pedal Party will take place in the heart of Fremont- at the Doric Lodge (619 N 36th St.)  We’ll fire things off at 7:30pm.  We’ll have a DJ (Jackson from the Party Tribe Trolls) spinning music, prizes for the first folks to arrive and projections that Filmed By Bike will be bringing up from Portland.  It’s a great place to kick up your heels, have a few beers (which will be poured for donations by the wonderful volunteers at The Bikery) and meet the fine folks locally and not so locally that make cycling as great as it is.

Here’s a video I shot at last year’s Expo. Kids on unicycles is basically the cheeriest thing since… well, kids on bicycles!