Eugene Tweed Ride 1/16/10

by Lesli Larson

On Saturday, I'll be joining friends for the third Eugene Tweed ride. Here's my ride report from the Spring 2009 edition. For novice participants, I'm setting aside a few garments for your Saturday ensemble. Since the forecast calls for rain, I'm suggesting you layer with a Hilltrek ventile cycling jacket in lieu of the more traditional, heavy overcoat. For dryer conditions, substitute a Huckecote tweed shooting jacket: the Clunie for ladies or the Redford for gents (matching caps and breeks available).

Hilltrek ventile cycling jacket

Lavenham patchwork tweed vest

Fingerless mitts

Purdey shooting breeks

Quoc Fam traditional cycling shoe (courtesy Wallblog)

Brady Stour

Finished ensemble

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Addendum: day of ride photos here.

Eugene Tweed Ride 4.26.09

On Sunday, I participated in the second Eugene Tweed ride of 2009 (disclosure: I was not present for Tweed Ride #1 which took place, according to this blog report, in slanting rain). By comparison with the original London Tweed Run, the Eugene version lacked eccentric Brits in matching plus fours and cycling brogues. However, our ride, 15-ish, strong, sported a surprisingly deep range of tweed themed outfits. Several folks even created their own refab knickers from found, thrift store woolens (most notably, this pair of donegal tweed trousers).

There was also an admirable roster of bicycles on the ride including a Kogswell porteur, a pair of Winter customs, a Velo-Orange (mine), Sara's refurbished Bottecchia, vintage Raleighs and Schwinns, modern-brand uprights and a supporting cast of child bikes and cargo trailers. The optical center of the ride was this custom, wooden trunk-trailer which transported our tea and picnic provisions:

Full flickr set here.