2011-04-09 Sat - The London Tweed Run 3

Especially when he's a tailor (AFAIK).

Yeah, that's what I meant. Might be a nice project!

I was more trying to distract from kiwimikes ignorant sanctimoaning! Have tried so hard not to bite.

Teddy was always going to be consulted for the gillet project.

This sort of thing?
http://www.gumleaf.com/products/gents-morston-tweed-gilet/

This is a Messenger in Brimingham, 1914 (the US, not the UK one);

Link to full size image.

Constant downhill.

Ed, can you draw that diagram about riding in drops?

I'd love to do a modern take on the (t)weed thing, my bike is really not right for the full vintage malarky.

ftfy

He needs some organic camouflage

^^^ The Weed Run?

lols

I'm sure Jah Tim would attend..

Vegan gin?

Ed, can you draw that diagram about riding in drops?

The person who originally posted my name very kindly edited it out of his post yesterday and I have no hard feelings.

I feel I ought to point out, for Kiwimike's benefit, and your own should you have any doubts, that I mentioned your name (now edited as requested, by the way) because you had linked to your facebook group in several places, and your name was of course all over it. I did not consider it to be anything other than public information. Nothing creepy in it, I assure you.

Most especially when your forum name is your name.

The ancestral barbour jacket which I wore on the first tweed run has finally disintegrated over 4 months of savage hedgelaying of blackthorn and holly this winter, meaning my favoured 'dodgy whippet breeding, grouse poaching, grimy woodsman cunt' look is currently looking a lad unlikely for this ride.
Oh, well, might have to start dressing like a gent instead of the help this year.

Also, @kiwimike --- Yawn.

Also, would be fairly sweet if whoever is leading from the front this year(alien did a fine job last time iirc) was dressed in full Hunt master regalia. Although it might associate us with fox hunters. Who aren't cool....

Insert caption.

Unless a fox hunter is the new name for a male 'Cougar'.

Unless a fox hunter is the new name for a male 'Cougar'.

^ like!

Dat's bare jokes my good chap.
I believe it will be from now on.

I hadn't considered the Tyrolean angle, but I do own some splendid goatskin lederhosen (don't ask).

I might have to rethink my approach to this....

Or are Tweed Run PLC now the only organisation in London with a mandate to organise fashion-based cycling events?

Certainly not. The Tweed Run is but one manifestation of what I might call the 'tweed cycling meme', for which I share some responsibility for spreading, however inadvertently, as a founding member of the Tweed Cycling Club.

In its turn, the Tweed Cycling Club was - and still is - inspired by the ethos of the excellent American Lake Pepin 3 Speed Tour:

[INDENT]The Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour is based on cycle touring in pre-war England. It was a gentlemanly time; few people owned a car and recreation based on automobiles was extremely limited. To get away for the weekend they would pack a few things, mount up and head to the country. Most every farmstead had refreshments or a room to rent, every little village had a family-run restaurant; just look for the “Cyclist Teas” or “CTC Recommended” sign. It’s a romantic image to be sure but firmly based in reality. It’s a reality that is fairly easy to reproduce given the right scenery, equipment and most important: attitude. One cyclist in a thousand will understand what I’m offering and that person, as you, will glaze over and say “I simply must go!”.... English cycle touring in the 1930s was punctuated with many stops for food, water, tea and sometimes a pint at the local brewpub. Scenic overlooks were an invitation for a brew-up or a nap in the grass and were seldom missed. For weekend tourists, traveling light was the order of the day and most people simply carried a change of clothes and rain gear. Devoted club cyclists of the 30s also enjoyed "pass storming" and "rough stuff" cycling. Fast forward 80 years or so and it still makes sense.[/INDENT]

As I see it, the Tweed Run veers rather closer to a 'Toad of Toad Hall' vision, rooted in misplaced nostalgia for the English Upper Classes, The Chap magazine and all that. Rather less egalitarian or historically accurate in the context of the social history of cycling, but if that's what sells product, and if you're in the business of LLPs and Trademarks, and don't think or care too much about history or authenticity, I can quite understand.

And each to their own. Anyone who can get 400 people riding around London drinking cups of tea is to be welcomed, whether or not they look as if they're off to the Hunt Ball.

For the record, the Tweed Cycling Club is not involved in social media. Expressions of interest are by post only (enclosing a stamped addressed envelope).

Before I met him I was really impressed by the way CoppiThat was dressed at the tweed run. Then I realised he kind of dressed like that all the time, the dapper lad.

Well, there was a certain shellsuit ... ;P

Tweed not for a day, its a way of life.

@prancer: the Dress Doctor is keen on altering things into other things, and will visit you, but I just realised I don't know if she does men's tailoring. maybe worth a quick email? http://www.thedressdoctor.co.uk/ (the website is new and unfinished)