2nd Annual Tweed Ride

The 2nd Annual Tweed Ride is this Saturday, September 15th beginning at 3:30pm at Blue Phoenix Books!

Hope to see you there!

Changing of the Guard

Dear Readers,

We are having a changing of the guard (well, bloggers) here at Alpena Tweed and Bike Club. So as I sign off I would thank you for reading, and hope that you have found the blog both entertaining and informative. I am sure the new bloggers will continue this tradition, and build up a great resource for Tweed Rides all over the world.  I hope to see you on the road. P

Buster Keaton, 1924 Sherlock, Jr.

Famous Riders

We got these from the Brooks England Facebook page, normally we don't steal things to repost, but they were just too funny. See if you can come up with some better captions.

'I can not tell a lie; I love this ride!'

'I pity the foo' who don't like my bike!'

'It's the Empire's ultimate ride, the Death Star'



'I spin for a hobby'

Good Time at the Ride

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our Seersucker Ride for making it a great day!

There are a few more pictures from this event in the "Past Rides" tab.

Seersucker-eve

Well tomorrow is the day! We will have our Seersucker Ride on June 16^th, 2012. The ride will be from 3:30-5:30 starting in Downtown Alpena (in front of Blue Phoenix Books) and finishing at ACC (Alpena Community College).  

"Last fall The Alpena Tweed and Bike Club held its first Tweed Ride. It consisted of a group of cyclists who dressed in traditional cycling attire, particularly tweed suits, to recreate the spirit of a bygone era. Since we have many more friends in town in the summer, than the fall we decided to offer an additional Seersucker ride that is happening this weekend. This was a family friendly event with the goal of taking bicycling back to the day of a fun family adventure. We ask all to attempt the dress of the early 20th century, no matter what kind of bike you ride. If you don’t have the clothing, we ask that you bring your sense of fun, and participate in this ride that is geared to even our slowest riders."

We should have a few friends from the League of Michigan Bicyclists who will be in town for the Sunrise Bicycle Tour. Please come out and show these individuals how friendly Alpena can be.

Two Days Away!

We only have two days before the ALPENA SEERSUCKER RIDE!!! We can't wait to see you there!



Seersucker Map 2012

After long last we have the Seersucker 2012 Map! It is a nice combo of roads and the Bi-Path (that's Bike Path in most other lands).

Rules of the Road (or Ride)

Rules:

Please give the bike in front of you a little room. We don’t have bike on bike pile up.

Stay as a group (There is safety in numbers)

Ride no more than two abreast and stay on our side of the road (we will take the full lane, not the full road)

When on the road, we will follow the traffic laws as a group.

• The first and last bikes will signal for turns
• Once the first bikes leave a stop sign, following bikes should follow to keep the group together
• We want to avoid bike/car contact (or intermixing)

If you are worried about your riding skills, we suggest that you stay to the middle of the pack. Let more experienced riders guard the front and back.

Think About the Weather

We have less than a week before the Alpena Seersucker Ride, and you may have noticed that the weather has been on the warm side. Please, think about this when figuring out what to wear! We don't want people frying their bacon out there!

Shenanigans

Posters!

Here is the poster for the Seersucker Ride! Feel free to print them off and post them around town or send them to anyone you think might like one!

Or you can try to print off this pdf (you may need google docs to get it to work).

The End of the Month

Goodbye Bike Month!

We will miss you, but we will still enjoy the ride!



18 Days

Eighteen Days till the ride!



Dust Off Your Ride

Time is getting short, it's time to dust off that old ride and get it ready for the Alpena Seersucker Ride!

It doesn't matter what you ride, but check your tire pressure, chain and brakes. Make sure your bike is safe to ride BEFORE you try to ride with a group.



Happy Memorial Day

In Remembrance to our Fallen Soldiers.

Thank You

Super Capes

Cool Lids

Some ideas...

Wear the Hinny Meets the Saddle

While many people spend hours sweating over what kind of bike to ride or buy, sometime you can improve an old friend (or a slightly used new friend) with a few accessories. The two most important to my mind are quality tires (which we shall leave to another post) and a quality saddle (that’s a bike seat to the novice). Remember this is the part of the bike that makes contact with some of your most interment parts. You deserve something that will give you the support you need.

 

While I love the feel of a classic, leather Brooks B17, many other people would say the old girl is as uncomfortable as she looks. While you can read online and print reviews till your eyes fall out, the best way to make sure something works for you is to see if you can borrow one from another rider. After all, your hinny is probably not exactly the same as mine (and you are lucky if it is not).

Our 100th Post!

  We made it to 100 Posts!

Thanks Everyone!

Nothing to Wear

Time to start thinking about what to wear for the Alpena Seersucker Ride!



Some Nice Caps

I have done a few posts about things that “look” cool, but in fact I have not used… well this time I am going to talk about a few things I have. So here is my ode to caps.

Cycling Caps:

If you want to go with the classic cycling look, something you can tuck under a helmet, and is still easily look stylish in at stops, you can’t beat a cycling cap.

First I will go with an obvious call and say Walz Caps makes wonderful caps… but I feel like that's saying Pepsi or Coke make wonderful colas. Walz, who seems to have their ads all over the place, carries two basic styles, a three panel that makes ones face seem thinner, and a four panel style that gives a great rounded look. They all seat deep on your head, and I find the wool sucks up a lot of sweat on a warm day. If you aren't a wool person, they also have cotton, hemp blends, and wick away poly caps.

Three Panel

Four Panel

A lesser known maker is Alloneword, a small shop out of California, that makes custom caps. While the cotton cap I bought doesn’t really fall into the Tweed Ride style (it is really on the loud side), Mary Elizabeth the owner/operator of this Etsy shop will pretty much make you anything you like. Her cap fits well, and rides higher on my head than my Walz Caps, something people with smaller heads may prefer. Half the fun of this cap was that the owner made me exactly what I wanted. So while you may buy yourself a sweet Our Lady of Guadalupe cap, I am sure it will not look just like mine. Now if you want something more tweedish, there are also wool caps (see below).

Flat Caps:
Unlike cycle caps, flat caps (in their vast array of styles) need to be tried on before you buy them. There are many makers, but they are not all equal, not only is there a difference in quality, there is also a difference in shape/fit. While some are cut to fit someone with a round head, others are cut to fit someone with a long, thin cranium like the author. It is also important to think of the look that you want to pull off. Some caps are intended to have "puffy" side, while others to give a streamlined effect.

My original venture into the Flat Cap arena was with two high end caps from TLS Classics. Both were form there Harris Tweed Collection, made in the USA, and of the classic Ivy Cap cut. While many people make similar caps, I have found none that fit my head as well.

A few years later I picked up two Pub style caps from Stefeno, and while I also like these caps, the main selling point at the time was that they cost about one sixth of the price of my  originals so I didn’t care if they got used or abused. I did not realize until I started writing this post that Stefeno/TLS are apparently the same company. (I don't think this was always true, but it is hard to find info about the hat/cap market.) All four caps are well built, and have gotten many complements over the years.

Ivy Cap

Pub Cap

While I personally think the Ivy Cap cut is more sophisticated, and I will almost always wear this with a suit coat, the Pub Cap, with its deep seat, works better while riding your bike fast, or on windy days. Lately I find myself choosing the Pub Cap more often than not.

I have also picked up a nice pub cap from New York Hat Company. The wool is much lighter then the above listed caps (definitely nice on hot summer days) and also has an elastic hat band that gives it a more universal fit. Where the elastic on most cycling caps is pretty obvious, this hat hides it in a way that you are the only one who knows it is there, but it adds to the security of the hat on a windy day.  (This seem trivial until your hat is blown in a multi-lane road,  then it's not as funny).

While most warm days I don't mind a light wool cap, there are those days were fashion is not worth the heat. For this reason I picked up a 100% linen Ivy Cap form Cavanagh Hats. While they are better known for their wool/fur felt hats, I really liked this linen hat not only because it is light, but because unlike many cotton/linen/summer Flat Caps, it kept the streamlined look of the wool caps that I love.

There are other great hat companies that people have recommended to me like Scala, Kangol, Broner, Bailey and others that I don't recall off the top of my head, but so far I have not invested in their wares. Feel free to leave a comment about types you have tried! 

Biking Big Time

Beautiful Sunshine

So today was a beautiful day to go on a ride... but I forgot one thing about beautiful days when you are a little paste...

...that sun will burn you something fierce!

So now my nose looks like I have been on a 20 year bender (cycling caps don't cover big noses well I guess)...

... my neck is defiantly a little red...

... and the back of my hands look a little splotchy! I hope I just earned a few more freckles, and not skin cancer! So learn from my mistake, besides a little Seersucker this summer, you probably need a little sunscreen too!