Photo courtesy: Bina Bilenky-Trahan
PHILADELPHIA – The 10th annual Philadelphia Bike Expo is taking place this weekend and a Lewisburg resident is involved with keeping the event going. Bina Bilenky-Trahan has been the Event Director since 2016 but has been involved in the event since it started in 2010.
Bilenky-Trahan’s father has spent a large part of his life building bike frames and she would travel to shows when she was younger and had the idea to start their own expo on the east coast, “My dad’s a bicycle frame builder in Philadelphia and has been for the last thirty plus years. I worked with him back when I was a teenager and in college. We used to travel around and go to bike shows, we were always kind of looking at each other like ‘why isn’t there anything like this on the east coast?'”
Bilenky-Trahan says the event takes a lot of planning but it’s worth it when the time comes, “I start pretty shortly after the year wraps up and I usually have a week of wrap up and then about maybe a few weeks of unwind and then I start all over again. It’s very rewarding to have something to kind of culminate each year.”
People are encouraged to come out and participate. The event is open to everyone who has a passion for biking and everyone is welcome. Bilenky-Trahan lives in Lewisburg and has helped with the local bike race unPAved of The Susquehanna River Valley that was held in early October, “Living in Lewisburg, I was able to help with some logistics and liaison a bit with some of the bike companies that were coming up for that.”
The Philadelphia Bike Expo is one of the biggest bike shows on the east coast and will take place November 2 and 3. Register at their website https://phillybikeexpo.com/.
