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)

Ride to Freedom – Yesterday and Today

We have already written a few posts about how bicycles help increase mobility for western women in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, but the bicycles impact on mobility is much more substantial. Not to minimize the importance of the steel steed on the fairer-sex, but the fact is that it increased the mobility of many people in that time. Originally personal transportation choice was horse or horse and cart, and then as times changed options increased with the car, truck, and motorcycle.  The author, as someone who has owned all four of these options, can vouch for the fact that none of these are cheap to keep in running shape and all take an experienced hand and specialized tools to maintain.

Here lies the beauty of the bicycle in its many forms.  After its initial purchase, little money is required in its maintenance. Note I said required, not desired; upgrades for performance are completely different from feeding a horse, or filling up a car. We all know people (or are ‘them’ ourselves) who have had bicycles for years and do little more than ‘push the pedals’ and still ride them for years. Still for those who do desire to work on, or repair their bikes, the tools for most jobs are very basic. Lastly bicycles take up relatively little space to store. A great feature if you live in large cities, and small living spaces.

Roy Rogers on a Bike talking to Trigger

This has made the bicycle the primary mode of transportation for the poor, frugal, young and many others since its inception.  Advertisers and society have often linked it to young love in song, think Daisy Bell (aka Bicycle Built for Two), and photos. With the exception of bikes sold to athletes, the people in ads either are children or a couple in some stage of courtship. Even though the majority of the West seems to be happy to leave the bike in this realm, I am sure we have all viewed pictures of people in Asia and Africa carrying large loads of goods and people on their bike.  The simplicity of the bicycle still fits the role of primary transportation around the world.

Rover Ad, c. 1896 (later day makers of the Land Rover)

Man trying to pick up the ladies.

Schwinn Ad from the 1970's

Still a man picking up a lady... but who rides a road bike into the pool?

So much so that many worthwhile groups are working hard on placing bicycles in the hands of the poor and disadvantaged in both the United States and around the world. Groups like Bikes for the World, The Bamboo Bike Project, and Bikes for Africa use different methods of collecting, building and distributing bikes to people, but all are trying to increase the mobility of people everywhere.  Without getting into specifics about any individual program (Note: we are not affiliated with any of these groups) each shares the story about how the difference between getting food to the market, children to school, water into a home or doing without one of these basic necessities is often the availability of reliable transportation. This is not an attempt to beg money for any of these groups. Just an illustration of how it is important to view the bicycle as the life changing tool, not a toy or some sort of sporting good. Viva la  bicycle!

We Hope to See You Tomorrow!

Just a reminder, we are having our first club ride tomorrow (9/25/11). No dress code. Just show up at the corner of 9^th and Chisholm a little before 5:00 pm, and we will find someplace to ride. We hope to see you there… and if you can’t make it this week, try to catch up with us next week.

First Weekly Ride: Fall 2011

The first weekly ride of The Alpena Tweed and Bike Club will start at 5:00 pm on Sunday, September 25th, 2011. We will meet in the parking lot of the Alpena County Annex Building (aka the “New Court House”) on the corner of 9th and Chisholm. Look for the people standing around on bicycles in the big parking lot.

Unless there is really bad weather, we will go for a ride. We really are not planning any particular route; we will go wherever the group decides.  If you can’t make it this week, we would love to see you the next. Come when you can, miss when you can’t. There are no fees or commitments, just friends (old, new, or future) getting together to enjoy ourselves.

New Look!

You many have noticed a new look and blog title; with the success of The First Annual Alpena Tweed Ride we decided to expand our goals a little. First (and most of you probably got this from the “annual” part) is that we are planning to have a Tweed Ride next year, second we want to start having a weekly ride around town. Now unlike the Tweed Ride, there is no theme to these rides, unless having fun is a theme… so anyway, the plan for this “fun” themed ride is just get together for an hour or so with some old, new, and future friends and have a slow cruse around the town. 

For the fall we will probably have the rides at 5:00 on Sunday afternoons. Next summer we may move them to a weekday night and push the time back, but with the days becoming shorter we figured we should try to get people home before dark.  We will post more details later in the week. Send us a message or leave a comment if you have some input!