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

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

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!

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.

Royal Heraldry of Canada

Our fine Canadian neighbors to the north are breaking out their dapper duds for their very own Edmonton Tweed Ride!

This is admittedly not the first Canadian Tweed Ride — that honor goes to the  First Daffodil Tweed Ride and Picnic in Vancouver, British Columbia; however, it is the first in Alberta. I can only hope this means the Tweed movement is spreading eastward and we shall soon see Tweed appearing in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, Labrador and Newfoundland! Then if the dapper is strong we can hope to see Tweed migrate north to the lovely expanses of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut!

Edmonton Tweed Ride

May 24th

Start 6:30pm at the University of Alberta in the “quad“

This will be a social ride with a bit of style. The proper attire for this ride will of course be expected. We will be taking a leisurely ride through the city and will be stopping for mid-ride fortitude and cheer.

There will be Contests for:

• Most dapper chap
• Most dashing dame
• Award for most civilized behavior on the day

For more info visit A Lost Home’s Blog

East Bay Tweed Ride, June 4th (photo by Bryan Kiechle)

East Bay Tweed Ride, June 4th

6:30 pm – Sally Forth from Mosswood Park in Oakland

7:00 pm – Meetup with SF Tweed at MacArthur BART

End Point – Trappist, Belgian & Specialty Beer Bar

It of course goes without saying that there will be the most dashing of cyclists. As in past rides, we have more fun and games up our sleeves which shall be announced as we get closer to the date. I am certain that it will be a grand old time!

Whether you live here or there, I sincerely hope you do join us as we explore the wonders of the East Bay — in Tweed!

* During the Greeting and Salutation contests two people will step forward and greet each other like they both now each other but haven’t seen one another for a while. For an example of this I recommend watching this Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch from Beyond the Fridge. Both the Greeting and Salutation contests are elimination challenges which means the lesser greeter gets kicked off and a new challenger steps forward.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The East Bay Tweed Ride is being organized by the lovely and talented eastTweeds: Morley Roarly, Josie Pokiedot, and Nan Eastep, of B.Spoke Tailer. We at SF Tweed are ever grateful that these fine lasses have stepped forward to help make the first East Bay Tweed Ride an adventure to remember!

Sydney Tweed Ride

Following the fine style of London, San Francisco, Auckland and soon Chicago. Sydney is having it’s very own Tweed Ride.

So gather your most dapper or ladylike apparel and join us for a spin around the city and a fine cup of tea!

Charm over the orignal post or the Sydney Cyclist Events for more details!

Reed Unsettled, by Rubin

Get ready to toss your tweed caps in the air because SF Tweed Rides again!

April 30th Thursday Tweed Ride II

6:30pm — Gather at Union Square
7:00pm — Join with East Bay Tweed at Powell St. Station*
Ending — The Majestic Tosca Cafe!

Once again, we fine bastions of tweed bicivility will gather to show the city how to really ride in style! Fortunately, Spring is upon us, and the night has begun to be pushed back by the day. As such, the sun shall still grace our ride, giving all passersby a chance to bask in our grand tweediness!

Our last ride was a joyful time with games, contests, and of course the sharpest dressed company a cyclist could ask for. What does this ride have in store your ask:

• Will there be more jolly games? …But of course!
• Will there be wonderful contests? …I’m glad you asked — contest details will be announced later. Stay tuned through our fair web site’s RSS feed, our Jaunty Mailer, or our twitter @sftweed
• Will there be dapper chaps and smashing ladies? …You have to ask? Just look photos of all the dashing cyclists from the last tweed ride.

UPDATES!

Corpus Callosum, post-industrial-folk-noir

The route has been settled! We will be enjoying a fine ride around the city following the Embarcadero towards the Fisherman’s Wharf and then winding back to the majestic Tosca Cafe, with a secret location halftime performance by the fabulous musical stylings of Corpus Callosum!

Contests

Once again we will have contests! Along with the two old favorites Most Dapper Chap and Most Snappy Lass we have two fresh new categories:

• Most Dashing Neckwear — open to both men and women of course; not open to winners of either of the above contests
• Most Stylish Pairing of Habiliment & Steed — to properly win this contest you and your two wheels must work together to create a more fashionable (or strange) whole.

We also have a lovely new SF Tweed Ride flyer which I will be passing out at Critical Mass this evening. If any people would care to help pass out flyers please let me know. It’s fun and a great way to meet people!

SF Tweed Ride, April 30th

Sign Up For The New Jaunty Mailer!

Be sure to sign up for the Jaunty Mailer to stay abreast of future Tweed Rides and all things Tweedy!

* The earliest BART that allows bicycles from southern East Bay arrives at Powell St. Station at 6:39pm and the earliest train from northern East Bay arrives at Powell at 6:57pm. Also note that BART has an unfortunate bias against Penny Farthings.