guest post by Aaron Muszalski
Polish your velocipede and pull Grandpa’s tweeds down from the attic – it’s time to return to a more elegant era of cycling!
Inspired by the recent London Tweed Run, in which approximately 150 impeccably-dressed Ladies and Gentlemen poshly pedaled their woolen way from Savile Row to Bethnal Green in London, San Francisco cyclist Colin Fahrion has created the Thursday Tweed Ride. The Tweed Ride invites local cyclists to don classic woolen attire, set their caps at a jaunty angle, and take part in an unforgettably stylish ride through our fair city.
The inaugural San Francisco Thursday Tweed Ride will be held this Thursday, February the 12th. After assembling at Dolores Park’s 19th Street Bell, the Tweed Riders will sally forth at 6:30pm (meeting up with East Bay Tweed Riders at 16th St. BART), en route to their destination: North Beach’s historic Tosca Cafe and its famous hot Irish coffees.
Appropriately classy prizes will be awarded in six categories, including “Most Snappy Lass”, “Most Stylish Vintage Steed”, and “Most Inspired Interpretation of Tweediness”. (Prizes generously donated by Velo-Orange, Manifesto Bicycle, The Freewheel Bike Shop, Refried Cycles, and Prof. NifNaks Fine Moustachios.)
For those at a loss as to how to assemble a winning look, Colin has kindly prepared A Tweed Primer, with links to local thrift stores and tips on how to quickly and easily get your Tweed on!
photos by M.J.S. & Jake Appelbaum
Here Are A Few Related Posts You Might Enjoy:
- Stylish Cycling On The Rise – Tweed Rides In San Francisco, Chicago & Sydney
- Chap Olympiad at the SF Tweed Ride
- New San Francisco Critical Mass Blog
- 15th Anniversay of Critical Mass, A Global Bike Convergence
- Raccoons Line Up To Ride San Francisco MUNI Bus
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
As a note to all you Tweed Riders: Thursday’s weather shows a chance of light showers. This is fine as Tweed’s great in rain — it’s made for the outdoors. Also, if its begins to really rain, we’ve planned spirit stops to stay warm!
Pfffth… F***ing hipsters. Gee, what could be more useless than my Roomie’s vintage scooter?
Dear Sir LostInDaJungle,
I don’t know what these hipsters are. Is this some new form of pants? We cycling gentlemen wear knickers — 4″ below the knees please. Judging by the name “hip”sters it sounds to be a rather uncouth (and cold) form of leg wear.
p.s. I don’t understand your use of the letter “F” and your proceeding overuse of punctuation. Also, what is a scooter?
A note to the beginner tweed cyclist: As our fair city by the bay is known for it’s hills, it has been asked whether our route requires prodigious application of low gears and muscled thighs.
Of course, I for one will never pass up a chance to ride with a gentleman or lady muscled thighs. However, it must be said that the SF Tweed Ride maintains a mostly flat route through the town of San Francisco. Thus, all dashing cyclists are welcome to join regardless of strength or number of gears.
…i like you colin.
Bah, does everything people do in SF have to be so smugly self congratulatory? It’s okay (sorry, I mean “OK”) to be narcissistic, but Jesus… Find a room!
Yeah, what Mo said. This is just a bunch of dudes gathering on bicycles to waste tweed in the sake of trying to reclaim the spontaneity of their fading youth.
Politics of the world wool supply aside, haven’t you seen bigger and better dogs than you (Tom Wolfe, Naomi Wolf, Wolf Blitzer, etc.) openly MOCKING the idiocy of vintage-attired cycling in past years?
You’re so defensive, you’d think you’d never posted anything on the Internet before the way you’re taking people’s opinion that your event was a dumb wast of indigenous plants such as blackberries, fuchsia, gorse (whins), and moss, used to create dyes… suck it up man and take your lumps when you post about stupid textiles.
Incidentally – I have to say – I’m somewhat disappointed that Aaron Muszalski got behind this being posted on LS. I normally look to Slim for the cool and interesting; and, this is neither – just more of the same rough, unfinished woolen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven that makes everyone else in the free world think that San Franciscans are a bunch of moronic, two-wheeled, Harris tweed loving Outer Hebrides refugees.
I rarely post to this blog that poses as little more than a forum for narcissism and self-promotion, yet the egregious nature of the Tweed Ride compels me to speak forth with the voice of distain. From my perch behind my computer screen, I have the clarity to truly apprehend the baser vein of amour-propre that motivates such vainglorious activities. This shameless act of smug conceit, daring to instill a touch of tweed and surreality to our fair city, must be condemned as the mere prop for a failed ego that it is! One should strive to attain the modesty of persons like Mo or I who dare not impose our creative energy into the public arena out of mere self-love . In fact, out of this profound sense of humility, neither Mo nor I would dare take such actions. Moreover, even if we were to do so, I dare say that the thought of promoting such an act would sear our cerebella with disgust. Naturally, any event that we were to instigate would be known of by all likeminded folks, and we would not have to sully our hand or beautiful minds with overt self-promotion.
As such, I am sure that we will limit our future activities to the most un-smug activity of pissing on other peoples events in the comments of a blog.
Verily. I remember with laughing squid was for art and intellectual pursuits rather than a forum for self-indulgent aging hipsters. For shame, Mr. Beale. For shame.
I remember when squid was for eating, and it never dared laugh in the face of man when lightly breaded!
What a waste of a Internet fuel. For all the talk about conservation, you hippy lefty loooosers never put your money where you mouth is. This post totally proves the TRUTH! If you didn’t Obama lovers stop doing crap like this, America wouldn’t have to rely on foreign Internet fuel.
Palin ‘12
The above exchange is hilarious. You guys crack me up!
Burstein, you’re right, we need to focus on culturally significant events like tomato fights.
Dear Monsieur LostInDaJungle,
I am terribly sorry to hear about your affliction with rheumatoid arthritis, and share your sorrow at the resultant uselessness of your vintage ’scooter’.
Yours truly,
Steve
Man, this YouTube video is such a fake load of crap. It’s like they wanted us to believe that events like the Pillow Fight are really Scientology Rituals to bring back Emperor Norton. I’m not buying it, even with 63,000 views.
Hi,
Wow!! nice ideas.Cycle riding is one of the fanciful arts,and with wearing some special it no doubt a unique plan.
Regards
Margareth
For those of you coming from the east bay: we will be meeting the San Francisco contingent at 16th St/Mission BART station at 7pm. Check http://www.bart.gov for schedules – bike friendly trains start around 6:30.
3 Cheers for the TWEED! This was an amazing night indeed! Thank you to all who organized and our noble volunteers who kept us safe at every intersection!
Oh Drat, I missed it!
Since I’m too old to be a hipster and too young to be a 1%er
I was hoping to make it and find my niche clique.
Then I could be persecuted by the mobs of angry citizens in
ironic T shirts and tight fitting pants.
Or worse yet, The Individuals in Faux furs and rhinesones from the southern parts of Nevada.
Sincerely, Bridge & Tunnel & Suburban Vinnie.