]]> http://sftweed.com/20091117-washington-dc-tweed-ride/feed/ 2 http://sftweed.com/20090522-tweed-bicycle-ingenuity-contest/ http://sftweed.com/20090522-tweed-bicycle-ingenuity-contest/#comments Sat, 23 May 2009 00:26:43 +0000 Colin http://sftweed.com/?p=282

photo by puck.ananta

Nothing tickles me more than a man or woman with a flair for Do-It-Yourself ingenuity! Especially when this cleverness pertains to transforming the everyday bicycle into something extraordinary! This could be some as simple and practical as an umbrella attachment or more inventive…

Crafty Tweed Cyclery

On our last SF Tweed Ride, the dashing and talented Lanky Joe transformed his two wheeled steed into the epitome of Tweed Cycling by elegantly wrapping his bars and seat in tweed fabric. The tweed was crafted from an actual tweed jacket and in a jolt of creative genius he used the jacket pockets as miniature panniers. Then with the remaining he crafted matching fingerless gloves.

Obviously with this much fine workmanship Lanky Joe won hands down the contest for Most Stylish Pairing of Habiliment & Steed!

Amazing DIY Bicycle Accessorizing

Bicycle Garden Box, crafted by FriendOfHumanity

One of the most genius bicycle adaptions I have have laid my eyes on in ages is the Bicycle Window Box. What could be more refreshing then pedaling along with your very own green garden on your handlebars. Grow strawberries for a refreshing treat or grow fresh herbs to make every ride minty fresh. And it really is perfect for hosting your own a mobile garden party!

You can build your very own mobile garden by following the Bicycle Window Box guide on the Instructables site.

There are more numerous amazing guides to ingenious bicycle adaptions on the Bikes section of Instructables. From a turn signal cycling jacket to how to build a bamboo bicycle to building your own fancy flower pattern twisted spoke wheels.

The SF Tweed Bicycle Ingenuity Contest

In celebration of the upcoming Maker Faire, we are pleased to announce the first SF Tweed online contest. For this contest we implore all you clever tweed cyclists to create a either a crafty bicycle adornment or amazing bicycle accessory akin to the examples shown above.

The Rules:

• Your creation must be specifically bicycle related
• Your creation must be appropriately tweedy/vintage/dapper (for ideas see below)
• Your creation must have been made by you
• Your creation can be something made specifically for this contest or can be something made recently (however it must have been built no earlier than April of this year)
• Contestant must submit photos of themselves with their Creation to dapper (at) sftweed (dot) com
• Contestant must also create a How To Build guide. This How To can either appear on Instructables.com or as a video on Vimeo/YouTube/etc.
• Contest is open to anyone in the world (however, international winners must pay for shipping & handling for any prizes won)
• Entrees must be submitted no later than Thursday June 25th 11:59pm
• Entrees will be judged on ingenuity, craftmanship, and the presentation of the how to guide.

Examples of Tweedy Ingenuity

Feel free to use any of the following ideas or run with your own bit of cleverness

• Tweed Wheel Covers
• Bicycle Bag made from a Tweed Jacket
• Tea Cup & Saucer Bicycle Holder (and teapot holder?)
• Portable Fancy Wooden Mini Bar (cabinets and fold out bar top?)
• Traveling Seamstress Stand (for making knickers on the fly)
• Side By Side Tandem Bike (way more proper then staring at your tandem partner’s behind)

The Grand Prize!

Minnehaha Canvas Shoulder Bag

A fabulous Canvas Shoulder Bag donated graciously by the Minnehaha Bag Co..

A simple canvas shoulder bag for commuting, running errands or as a basic briefcase. Cotton fabric is breathable for better comfort than synthetic messenger bags. The bag holds 15 liters worth of belongings with two small hanging inner pockets and key clip. It is built sturdy with leather reinforcements, a buckle system, and a lightly padded back and bottom to give some support and comfort while keeping a soft overall structure that conforms to the body.

There will also be runners up prizes to be announced at a later date.

International winners must pay for shipping & handling.

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.

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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!

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.

SF Tweed Riders roll, spin, and twhirl photo by Audrey Penven

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.

Lanky Joe and Nifer high on Tweed, photo by Audrey Penven

Sheila Moon, photo by neiltron

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!

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!

Winston's Tweed Ride

The spirit of tweed is spreading! The fine dapper folks of The Chainlink in the Windy City are hosting their own Winston’s Tweed Ride Saturday May 2nd at 1pm!

The 2nd of May 2009 marks the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s invention of his exquisitely dry martini: copious amounts of gin poured over crushed ice while he observed the vermouth from across the room. The route, designed by the Right Honorable Lee Diamond, is 10 civilized miles meandering past (and into) some of The Windy City’s most infamous (and still open) speakeasies.

The Winston Tweed Ride will leave from Jake’s Pub, 2932 N. Clark, Chicago, at 1pm on Saturday, May 2nd.

Like our first SF Tweed Ride, the Chicago Winston’s Tweed Ride will host contests for: Most Dapper Chap, Most Snappy Lass, Most Stylish Noble Steed, Most Inspired Interpretation of Tweediness, and Best Mustache (open to both lads and inventive lasses).

For more info, visit The Chainlink, Chicago Bicycling Online Community.

Rapha Cycling Jacket

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

Dapper Chap, by ms.matik

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!

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.