East Bay Tweed Ride!

Saturday, May 23rd, 2013

1pm at the Pillars, Lake Merritt

hosted by B. Spoke Tailor

Facebook Event

EastBayTweed

Who: Everyone who loves cycling, merriment, having fun, old-timey tweed outfits, and dancing to old-timey music

Where: Beginning at the Pillars at Lake Merritt, 577 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA and ending at B.Spoke Tailor, 989 40th St, Oakland, California

When: We will be gathering at 1:00 PM and rolling-out at 2:00 PM on May 26th, 2013.

Why: Bicycles are awesome, cyclists are awesome, Tweed is awesome, and the three are

What (we’re doing):  We’ll be cycling to UC Berkeley with a stop at a Pub on the way. We’ll go up Telegraph (once we get near downtown), and stop on the campus to dance and socialize. Afterwards we’ll go back down Telegraph and end up at B.Spoke Tailor for beer and music; there will be a live band or two.

Here they are playing their classic song William Howard Taft…

Rubin, photo by Morleyroarly

I thought I’d take a moment to talk about bike safety and helmet use. This topic has come up a few times and I thought it was time to address it for a number of reasons. Reason #1 being that Rubin Starset one of the main organizers, and my good friend, was sadly recently hurt in a bicycle accident — one in which his helmet definitely saved his noggin from potentially serious head injury.

As evidenced by the jolly Tweed Ride photos, many tweed riders choose to cycle sporting fancy hats rather than helmets during our rides. The tweed rides are safer than normal urban riding seeing that we cruise at tweed speed and are protected from traffic by riding in a group. However, this is of course is not a guarantee of safety.

Personally, I am a stickler for wearing a helmet and advocating helmet use whenever I ride — except during the Tweed Ride*. This may be bit hypocritical but I feel that encouraging cycling is better than discouraging cycling by laws or rules enforcing mandatory helmet use. Bike safety is more than about helmet use. Some studies have shown that fatalities decrease the more cyclists there are on the road so encouraging more cycling is important. Also, oddly “countries with the most helmeted cyclists also have the highest rate of cycling head injuries.” (sources: Bicycle Safe, Cycle Helmet). All this said, wearing a helmet is certainly better than not wearing a helmet, and I am a strong advocate for bicycle helmets — I am also a strong advocate for haberdashery and I often bring a fancy hat along that I don immediately at my destination.

Whether you yourself choose to wear a helmet during the tweed ride is up to you — protecting your smarts certainly the smarter thing to do. I nor anyone else will look upon you as uncouth for wearing a helmet rather than wearing a snappy cap during the tweed ride, nor will anyone chastise you for being unsafe for not wearing a helmet. If you want to be both fashionable and safe Yakkay makes great dapper helmet covers, or better yet make your own style’n helmet cover!

* This is all of course only the opinion of myself, Colin. The other main organizer Rubin most likely has his own opinion on the matter of helmet use.

Don your best caps and hats! It’s the SF Tweed Summer Ride!

Our Summer Ride contest will be for best limerick about hats and bicycles (or helmets).  Remember presentation counts! Prizes sponsored by Goorin Bros. Hat Shop!

SF Tweed Summer Ride 2012
Saturday July 28th
1pm — Sally Forth from Justin Herman Plaza.
5pm-ish — pop-in at North Beach Goorin Bros. for drinks and revelry!

UPDATE: The wonderful and talented McPuzo & Trotsky have offered to play for at Saturday’s Tweed Ride! Hip hip hooray!

What an absolutely splendid bicycle wedding! Such fashionable class and style too! We at SFTweed congratulate the lovely couple Mel & Greg on their lovely ceremony!

Found via SFist – Painfully cute bicycle wedding.

First Tweed in Ages
Sunday June 3rd, noon
Justin Herman Plaza, near Embarcadero BART station in San Francisco

I know this is last minute but we want to ride! We have more full fledged at Tweed Rides both in SF and East Bay later this summer, but don’t let that stop you from coming to this one.

Spring is upon us! It’s time to ride through our fine Bay Area in the finest duds!

Come join your fellow tweedsters Sunday May 1st at 2pm for a lovely ride in the East Bay.

East Bay Spring Ride 2011

May 1st, 2pm
Jack London Square, Oakland

At 2pm we sally forth from Heinhold’s First & Last Chance in Jack London Square, Oakland.

Midway stop in Preservation Park for games and contests!

Ending with quality ales at a fine Oakland pub (location to be announced).

Facebook invite.

Contests and prizes sponsored by B. Spoke Tailor!

Photo in flyer is copyright Gordon MacKenzie

SF Tweed Autumn Ride!

Sunday Oct 17th, 2010

2:00 pm ~ Convene at Justin Hermin Plaza in San Francisco.

2:15 pm ~ Sally Forth!

3:00 pm or so ~ Refuel with some fine libations (Our midpoint stop will include an option for those underage or those more interested in partaking in tea rather than ale or spirits)

5:00 pm or so ~ Jovial shindig at Rickshaw Bagworks with the musical stylings of McPuzo & Trotsky!

As always the ride will sport your fellow dashing riders!

Ending Festivities & Contest Hosted By Rickshaw Bagworks

The ending festivities and contest is sponsored by the San Francisco based Rickshaw Bagworks, makers of fine stylish bags — including their quite dapper tweed messenger bags! Rickshaw Bagworks is a supporter of the SF Bicycle Coalition and makes their bags right here in San Francisco. The SF Tweed Autumn Ride festivities will be hosted at the Rickshaw Bagworks location on 904 22nd Street, San Francisco, CA.

McPuzo & Trotsky

The Musical Stylings of McPuzo & Trotsky

During the festivities, the fabulous McPuzo & Trotsky have agreed to entertain the tweed brethren! This local Bay Area banjo and fiddle pair have been writing fine Songs which Satirize and Amuse since 1917. Before that it was pretty much all crowbars and playing with leeches.

original photo used in the flyer by Gordon Mackenzie

East Bay Tweed Riders photo by flickrawwwr

Last Saturday was a beautiful day for a ride! The sun was out and citizens of Berkeley all waved graciously as the East Bay Tweed Ride traversed the streets in style. The marvelous Corpus Callosum once again played for us, but this time they actually played while we rode! Thanks to the ingenuity of Rubin Starset, each member of the band was pulled along the route with their instruments either in a trailer or on the back of a tandem. It was quite the feat and I thank the band and every bicyclist who wore out their legs towing a musician to make it happen!

Cesar Chavez Park, with it’s amazing view of the bay, turned out to be just the spot for a picnic and concert. We also had a contest for the most graceful mount and dismount of their steed with prizes graciously donated by Nan Eastep of B. Spoke Tailor. Nan donated two wonderful recycled tweed tube top covers and a lovely pair of tweed fingerless gloves. Local to the Bay Area, B. Spoke Tailor is well known for their fitted and fashionable bicycle wear and I encourage everyone to follow them on B. Spoke Tailor facebook page and come to one of their fittings.

We ended our day at the Albatross Pub, Berkeley’s Oldest Pub, which was the perfect spot to wind down after the fun filled day. Who can argue with a pint of beer, darts, popcorn and such well dressed company.

The SF Tweed photo pool has been filling up with some wonderful photos from the ride. We have also due to popular request created a SF Tweed Facebook Fan Page.

But really don’t take our word for it. Listen to Joe P., one of our most dedicated and dashing riders who sent us this lovely letter…

Joe P. dashing as always, by Greg Hefner

What a Wonderful Ride That Was!

I had a wonderful time! It was so good to see old friends as well as all the riders from SF make it over to Berkeley, starting not one mile from my house. The seaside was beautiful in the warm afternoon, bridges and sailboats in the distance. And the rolling musicians of Corpus Callosum were the perfect touch (The toy piano was especially charming). Waltzing to the band mere feet from the palisades below at the end of our great promenade could not be topped but only by a visit to the Albatross pub with the most stellar company.

Ah, so far away it seems when looking back from the rain filled morning presently; I say let the rains come and have their time, that we may have ours come April!

Joe P.

Thank you for the letter Joe. It is always such a pleasure to see your smiling face on the rides!

Till next time tweeders, Cheers!

p.s. Our next ride will be in San Francisco and should be in late April. Stay tuned through either this website (rss), our Jaunty Mailer, Twitter, or Facebook

East Bay Tweed Spring Ride

March 27th, 2 pm

2 pm — Sally forth from Ohlone Park (near North Berkeley Bart)

Midpoint — Cesar Chavez Park (games, contests, and a special performance)

End (5-6 pmish) — Albatross Pub (libations & darts!)

[facebook event page]

Spring is the air and the rain has let up, so it’s time to dust off your smoking pipes and take your tweed out of mothballs! Put that dapper cap on your head, oil your chain, and get ready to pedal with panache!

Join us for the first SF Tweed Ride of 2010, this ride will take place in the lovely town of Berkeley, CA. The ride will be anywhere from 6-8 miles with a break midway through. We have plenty of enjoyment planned for you all including games, contests, and a special performance by the wondrous Corpus Callosum! As always, the tweed ride will end at an establishment that offers libations and cheer.

Photo of the J.D. as the fabulous Twettle, the Tweed Beetle by the excellent photographer juicyrai

Update: We will be flyering the Critical Mass on Friday Mar 26th. If you’d like to help you can print your own flyers to hand out: East Bay Spring Tweed Ride March Flyer-6up [pdf]

It’s been a while since the last SF Tweed ride—but we sure ended last year with a bang didn’t we with the SF Tweed Olympics! I’m looking forward to the fine tweediness that 2010 will bring.

Seattle Tweed Ride (photo by ericshalit / www.tubulocity.com)

In fact, it does seem that we here in the dapper Bay Area have already been shown up by a number of cities across the country. This past February has seen most excellent Tweed Rides in both Seattle and Vancouver! Riding Pretty has an excellent writeup on both of the rides: February Tweed Rides – Seattle, Vancouver, and more. Also find out more at Seattle Tweed.

The fine folks of Sacramento Tweed had their very own Sacramento New Year’s Day Tweed Ride. And most excitingly already have their second Sacramento Tweed Ride planned for March 28th! I’m sure the dapper will be turned to 11 as most recently, the most talented designer Nan Eastep from B.Spoke Tailor was in Sacramento for a fabulous tweed tailoring event at Hot Italian. Eco Velo has a great writeup with photos from the Pizza & Tweed event.

Tweed Ride PDX by Kit Crenshaw

Also back in January, Portland had their 1st Annual Portland Tweed Ride. I highly recommend you hoist your eyes upon the lovely photos from the PDX Tweed Ride. Also check out the video from the PDX ride!

More Tweed Rides are also upcoming around the world:

• SF Tweed Ride March 27th
• Sacramento Tweed Ride planned for March 28th
• The 1st Annual Kansas City Tweed Ride is scheduled April 3rd.
• April 10th is the great London Tweed Run!
• Memphis Tweed Ride, Memphis TN, March 17th
• Coral Gables Tweed Ride, Coral Gables FL, March 20th
• Los Angeles Tweed Ride, Los Angeles, CA, March 27th
• Big Apple Tweed Ride, NY, NY, Spring 2010

One would think any film with the word bike in the title would be innocent. But no the lot who crafted this moving picture are beyond immoral! I’ve never seen so many bicycles and bicyclists so tied up and violated! People ridden like bicycles and bicycles ridden like people!

My friends and I were so shocked by it all that we must have been overcome by paralysis—that is the only excuse I can offer why we did not run from such a debauched assault of our senses.

The film is playing one last time in the East Bay, 9pm tonight at the Roll Up Bike Shop in Oakland. The price is $8, and is of course a 21+ event. I urge all decent people to stay away for you may walk away never looking at a set of handlebars the same way again!

For those who doubt me what follows is the trailer for this movie. I warn you ladies and gentlemen, the trailer is nearly as explicit as the movie.

]]> http://sftweed.com/20091117-washington-dc-tweed-ride/feed/ 2 http://sftweed.com/20091026-chap-hop/ http://sftweed.com/20091026-chap-hop/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:21:52 +0000 Colin http://sftweed.com/?p=403 Oh my! What dapper rapping! We must bring to your attention the amazing MC skills of Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer… Thirty years of hip-hop history. In five minutes. On the banjolele.

More Mr. B Gentlemen Rhymer ~ “Straight out of Surrey”

More Mr. B Gentlemen Rhymer ~ “Let Me Smoke My Pipe”

If you like this I also recommend the amazing Teacore rappers Elemental.

We sally forth at 1pm from the Civic Center Bart

Ride up the wiggle and onward to the Conservatory of Flowers

There we break for a lovely picnic so bring your picnic goodies, and bring your sporting spirit for the Tweed Olympics (in spirit with the Chap Olympiad)

SF Tweed Olympics

• Umbrella jousting!
• Pipe lighting relay!
• Cucumber sandwich discus!
• Mustache Tug of War!
• and more!

Prizes donated by Minnehaha Bag Co. and others!

As no tweed outing is proper without a bit of pedaling, we will be meeting up at Dolores Park at the Bell near 19th St at the far tennis courts at 18th and Church. for an slightly abridged tweed ride at 6:30 pm. From Dolores we will pedal off through the Mission with a quick stop for libations before we arrive at 8pm for the SFBC Bike-In Movie (Parking lot across from the Good Hotel, 112 Seventh Street, at Mission).

Note, due to the need to get to the movie on time there will be no scheduled BART meet up with East Tweeds. We still would love to see all our East Tweed cousins and encourage all to show up for libations and the movie!

UPDATE: we have changed the start location to the tennis courts because the Bay Area Derailleurs Bicycle Dance Troupe has asked the dapper SF Tweed riders to be extras in a short 10-15 minute filming session with their troupe!

Tweeds of Belleville

Wednesday Sept 16th

6:30 pm — Sally forth from Dolores Park at the Bell near 19th St at the far tennis courts at 18th and Church.
7:15 pm — Libations sojourn (location TBA)
7:55 pm — Arrive for Triplets of Belleville Bike-In Movie (Parking lot across from the Good Hotel, 112 Seventh Street, at Mission)

Tweeds of Belleville Whinnying Contest

In spirit of the cyclists in Triplets of Belleville, we will be hosting a Whinnying Contest.

With prizes for both first and second place, the top horse imitators will win a beautiful canvas bag graciously donated by  Minnehaha Bag Co.

Whether you choose to use it as a bicycle bag or feed bag is up to you.

We know it’s been a while but we hope to see all our tweed friends at Tweeds of Belleville!

SFBC Bike-in Movie Night: Rad

July 29, 8:00 pm : Held in the parking lot across from the Good Hotel, 112 7th Street @ Mission St
Don’t miss the first of the SFBC’s free summer bike-in movie series with your fellow bike lovers! We’ll be kicking off the series with the beloved BMX cult classic Rad, featuring the amazing and infamous bike dance scene with a young Lori Loughlin (best known for her role as Aunt Becky on Full House). Help us transform an ordinary parking lot in to a fabulous movie theater under the stars, complete with complimentary bike valet!

Brainwash Bike-In/Walk-In Movie Festival

July 31 &  August 1, 9pm : 1960 Mandela @ 18th (American Steel building)
For more information check out the Brainwash Movie Program

California Academy of Sciences’ Nightlife Series,
with pedal-powered sound system!

Aug 6, 6–11pm : California Academy of Sciences

Next Thursday we’ll be pedal powering California Academy of Sciences’ Nightlife Series, including a 4-hour DJ set with Energy 92.7′s Jeff Stallings. He plays a style of danceable yet relaxed house music he calls “Chillhouse”. Should lend itself nicely to the creative, intelligent crowd and inspiring space.

Cal Academy has an awesome downstairs Aquarium Space with incredible creatures like Leafy Green Sea Dragon. Right by the 15′ tall aquarium is where we’ll have our second music stage, featuring Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper, Mafiosa Felice, and Jared May.

The Chap Olympiad is brought to you by The Chap Magazine, which is a fine and dandy magazine devoted to… you guessed it Chaps!

The grey skies overhead have once again brought on my need for tweed! It’s been a long time coming but we know you want to ride again! The date has yet to be set but be certain that the plans have begun. More information will be forthcoming this week.

A pursuit across the city in 6 parts on the night of Saturday, June 20th 7PM.

Wear comfortable shoes, bring water.

The city spreads out before you. Rushing from point to point, lit by the slow strobe of fluorescent buses and dark streets. Stumbling into situations for a stranger's signature. Fleeing unknown pursuers, breathing hard, admiring the landscape and the multitude of worlds hidden in it. For one night, drop your relations, your work and leisure activities, and all your usual motives for movement and action, and let yourself be drawn by the attractions of the chase and the encounters you find there.

Journey to the End of the Night is a free street game of epic proportion, presented across the city of Oakland. Players will try to make it through a series of checkpoints, while avoiding being caught by chasers, many of whom will be pursuing on bicycles. Those who fall will become chasers themselves, rising to pursue their former friends and allies.

If a nice ride in the park isn't your cup of tea, you may want to take interest in this street game. Nothing beats the rush of being corned in an ally way with 3 cyclist ready to take your beloved flag.

More information at totheendofthenight.com.]]> http://sftweed.com/20090606-come-and-play-journey-to-the-end-of-the-night/feed/ 0