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Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
When in late September the Post all but announced the death of the fixed-gear bicycle fad with a 1,700-word primer on single-speeds, we wondered what would come next. Now we've got our answer -- the Tweed Ride.
Last week, the District's first ever Tweed Ride was announced. Scheduled for Sunday, November 15, the ride will see cyclists ditch the spandex and carbon frames and instead don foppish early-1900s era apparel while atop vintage cruisers. The ride follows the lead of similar events in London and San Francisco.
As a proud Lycra warrior, I won't take offense to the purpose of the Tweed Ride, which is largely to give cycling something of a stylish flair. (The UK-based Tweed Cycling Club sums it up as such: "Style not speed. Elegance not exertion.") For as the infamous BikeSnobNYC has observed, "If someone is too self-conscious to wear lycra they're certainly not going to be any more comfortable with looking like they're on the way home from a Grover Cleveland rally." It's for a good cause, too, and it's bound to be fun to watch. (Our friends at Project Beltway are very excited.) Yes, we performance-conscious cyclists do have a sense of humor.
The ride kicks off at 11 a.m. at H and 8th streets NE and will end at Marvin at 14th and U Streets NW. Don't know what to wear or what to ride? Check this out.
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Let the comment shitstorm commence!
So, you don't like the old timey bicycles, eh?
[kicks in face]
I'll be there with my riced-out pennyfarthing, my Bayer-brand Heroin®, and my Eggleston's Sensible Galvanic Truss®. Let's make whoopee! Hubba, hubba. Oh you kid!
I'm pretty sure you can't call tweed 'foppish'. Might be mistaking this event for the Asian Powdered Wig Stroll 'March of the Dandy-rions'
registration fee is a penny farthing.
I'll be seeing you.
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Cockpuncheteria = word o'the day.
Those f'ers are tough to pedal!! After just one mile I had a bad case of the vapors.
It isn't any good unless you get your anus bleached too.
Is this whole thing just an excuse for some kind of steam-punk convention?
At least we know where to find all the ruffians, blackguards, and rapscallions: having a private ether party at Marvin's. I wonder if they'll endorse miscegenation? If so, they're certain to lose the Know Nothing Party vote.
even if i had the necessary accouterments, i'm sure that my mountain bike would just make me stand out like a sore thumb...
Even in the contrived ground zero that is D.C., I doubt that the majority of the riders are going to be showing up with spanking new Rivendells and Omafiets, price tags still dangling from the handlebars. Sadly, I think A LOT will, but the majority will be riding period inappropriate steeds, which I think combined with tweed is much more fun anyway.
Besides you can laugh at them, trying to break in new Brooks saddles, butt-blistered all to hell, trying to pretend they are the most comfortable things known to asses, yet they'll be in so much agony they won't be willing to sit down.
This sounds AWESOME. I have no bike but I will dress up in my dandiest and cheer, most respectfully, of course.
Does this mean we'll get a remix of the "Performance" song?
All you dandies, you think you're so leet
With a suit of vintage tweed on your back
On a one-speed
Pressing hard on your coaster brakes
Down Capitol Hill
Don't catch your twill in your chain
And take a spill
Douchenozzles. Like people don't hate cyclists enough already.
I like to stay ahead of the curve on these things. So, then, I'm off to Kramerbooks on my unicycle--I will of course be wearing my hairshirt.
"The ride follows the lead of similar events in London and San Francisco."
I think it would be a little more honest to say the ride follows the lead of similar events in Philadelphia and Sacramento... which followed the lead of similar events in London and San Francisco.
+1 and touché
I would join, but I fear contracting Swine Consumption amongst all those people.
I blame illegal immigrants: the huns, the heathen chinee, the filthy paddys. But that's what you get with a bolshy like McKinley in the White House. I also blame the fat people. Look at that comic book fellow there, calmly eating candy like a Spaniard! Time for monkey to shine!
Not to be confused with the First Semi-Annual Washington, DC Twee Ride.
Actually, Twee Ride and Tweed Ride are completely interchangeable.
You know, I was all set to mock these guys like the Fixies, but I just can't. Obviously they don't take themselves seriously. It looks like goofy fun.
Two things we agree on!
Wow.
And they even seem less solipsistic than, say, kickball players or SUV drivers. Or oblivious cell-phone talkers or people pushing double-wide strollers! ;)
This has to be an analog to the red dress hashers. I mean, both dress in outlandish costumes and begin and end at bars. Right? WTF cares what others think!
That was EXACTLY the comparison I was thinking of.