Posted By Colin on May 1, 2009

The second SF Tweed Ride was a rip roaring success!

I am still overwhelmed by how warm and wonderous the entire evening was. Dashing cyclists waving cheerio to all passersby as we rolled down Market and along the Embarcadero.

And nothing can compare to the magical feeling of seeing Corpus Callosum play at the end of the Maritime Park Pier as dusk settled around us and the San Francisco skyline began light up.

Once again, we ended our ride at the lovely Tosca Cafe, who warmed us up with their delicious hot choco and brandy.

The chaps were dapper and the lasses snappy, with the most dashing awarded by the gracious and talented Sheila Moon, who donated several chic — and amazingly comfy — wool cycling caps.

Thanks Sheila for sponsoring the SF Tweed contest! I must say it was a pleasure to have you along for the ride, and I’m more than happy to promote your made in San Francisco quality cycle fashion — truly any cyclist would be doing themselves a favor by casting an eye on SheilaMoon.com!

What’s next?

We already have plans ruminating for our next tweed outings: an East Bay Tweed Ride, a Sunday Tweed Picnic (most dapper kidlet contest!), and more! So sign up for the Jaunty Mailer and follow @sftweed on twitter

Also keep an eye on the SF Tweed website for more tweed highlights. Over the next coming days, we will be showcasing some of the amazing tweed cyclists, photographers, artists, and more. We also have an eye out for guest writers, so if you have any tweed and/or cycling expertise you’d like to share please contact us.

Cheerio!

Posted By Colin on April 16, 2009

For those unaffected by the economic downturn I present to you the Rapha bespoke three-piece cycling suit! As mentioned by BikeRadar:

The garment is the result of a year’s work with Savile Row tailor Timothy Everest, and is designed to be at home “on the bike and in the boardroom”.

Bike-friendly features include the front flaps of the jacket, which turn back and button under the pocket so they don’t flap when riding and, along with the underside of the collar and sleeves, are pink for visibility.

For additional reach on the bike the jacket has a stretchy ‘action back’ and the cuffs turn down, making the sleeves longer.

This fine suit will only set you back a mere  £3,000. To match your suit I suggest adding a Rapha tweed cycling cap — though to be frank I find Rocket Fuel’s wool & leather cycling caps much more stylish.

Frugal Dapper Style

Of course, as we all know, you don’t have to be rich to dress in style. One can cut quite a stunning tweed look without hemorrhaging your wallet.

If you are in the market for tweed I recommend venturing into the Mission — specifically Community Thrift, Thrift Town, and Mission Thrift. If you don’t find exactly what you need there then head up the wiggle into the Haight: Held Over should have exactly what you need as they have an entire rack of fine Harris Tweed! There are of course other fine vintage shops on the Haight including Decades of Fashion and La Rosa.

For those of the DIY persuasion there is tons of potential in reconstructing your own tweed cycling fashion! Please let us know about your ventures into DIY tweed fashion as we’d love to showcase our dashing tweed brothers and sisters on SF Tweed!