Seersucker Ride!

We at the Alpena Tweed and Bike Club are pleased to announce that we will be organizing a Seersucker Ride over the Father’s Day weekend (that’s the third Sunday in June in the US), 2012! Now this Seersucker Ride is the same idea as our fall Tweed Ride, just held in the summer hence naming it after the classic summer suit material, seersucker (a type of cotton cloth once popular in the south).

Now we will have more details in the near future, as this will be tied to some exciting events for bicyclists and Alpena in general, but for right now we just want to give you a heads up to save the weekend. Additionally we would like to point out that this is THE BEST TIME to find summer clothes on sale! Check your local thrift stores, and on line for people dumping summer cloths!

Now do you have to wear seersucker? No! Other cotton and linen cloth are great summer materials too, and for the brave or cool-blooded you can still ride in tweeds and wools.  Just think of something you can ride comfortably in during the month of June.

This ad kind of makes me want to ride around make "vroom, vroom" noises like I did as a kid.

Bicycles in the News

Here is a cool article we ran across from the Detroit News, in part about bicycles in Michigan.

A bicycle built for 10 from 1896. This tandem bike is part of the collection at the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village.

How the bicycle put Detroit on wheels

By Vivian M. Baulch / The Detroit News

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=21

"This fast crowd of cyclists were the first Detroiters to complain about bumpy potholed dirt roads and began lobbying for smooth paving. Historians attribute the automobile's explosion of growth in Detroit to the network of superior roads built for bicyclists."

Bicycle enthusiast Harry Shaw of Saginaw rides his new bike in 1880.

Adopt an Old Bike

First off I know we have used this photo of Buster Keaton riding a "Dandy-horse" in Our Hospitality before, but this last weekend I actually watched Buster woo his actual wife Natalie Talmadge (the first of three) in this great silent film. Though many people have pointed out that the Dandy-horse would have been rather old fashioned in the 1830's, when the movie is set, the thing that amazed me was how much fun Keaton made it look!

Another great fact is that when Keaton couldn't find a real Dandy-horse to use, he and his crew decided to make the one shown in the film! They did such a great job on it that it now sits in the Smithsonian Institution in a display for bicycles and not film history. This made me realize two things; first that I would LOVE to ride/have an old bike (or proto-bike), and second that there is no way that I have the skills to build something like that!

What I can do is beg! So if you have an old bike like a Dandy-horse or a Penny-Farthing just lying around... with its sad puppy-dog eyes begging for someone to love it and take it for walks... just let us at The Alpena Tweed and Bike Club know and we will give it a good home! (P.S. This would be out of the goodness of our heart, no money need change hands... P.P.S. I would also give that motorcycle pictured above a good home)