Shelby Bicycle Days celebrates the history of Shelby Bicycles with an annual festival where visitors can find food trucks, vendors, inflatables, games and entertainment. There are also bike tours, a Bike-In Movie, and the Shelby Bicycle Museum Open House.
2023 Date: July 7-8, 2023
Location: Downtown Shelby
Website: https://www.shelbycic.com/bikedays
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This post documents my experience on July 7, 2012.
Named after Kentucky’s first (and fifth) governor, General Isaac Shelby, the city of Shelby changed the world in 1890 when it gave birth to seamless steel tubing.
This new kind of tubing had much thinner walls then regular steel tubing, making it much lighter, but still strong enough…
…for the same bicycles Shelby would later produce from 1925-53.
Although the Shelby Cycle Company has been bought and relocated since then, Shelby has been remembering that sweet piece of history for the past 21 years…
…in the form of a festival.
Located in downtown Shelby, the Shelby Bicycle Days honors its theme via activities like the Big Wheel Race for kids…
…and a bike raffle at the information booth.
Among the row of vendor booths on the grounds…
…other raffles took place, offering massages, groceries…
…and apple products (Whippet Table)…
…while the Children Services booth had gifts (and popcorn) for free!
Elsewhere at the festival, there were ways to make use of your time…
…by means of face painting…
…rides…
…and musical entertainment.
But, honestly, I think the most impressive feature for me…
…was the festival’s enormous food area.
For a town (and festival) this size, I couldn’t get over how many food vendors there were in one large section….
…with the exception of this vendor who was down a side street.
From fish to funnel cakes, the festival had all the bases covered…
…except for the weather.
Unfortunately, that day, the thermometer was nearing 100 degrees, making anything fried sound like a challenge for my belly. It all looked good and smelled good, but there was no way I could eat it.
In that heat, just watching the volleyball showdown wore me out.
That’s why I decided to stop here before leaving…
…and get myself a milkshake for lunch…
…but it completely melted before I was even halfway done.