Simple Things

Bicycles as Advertising Props

I'm sure you've seen them, advertisments with models, usually female, astride or leaning against bicycles. In the ones I've seen (and I don't watch TV or read magazines), the advertisers are promoting clothes, and sewing patterns.

Yesterday, while at the Children's Hospital Booksale, I saw this one in an adjacent shoe store.

I wonder if all this bicycle porn increase ridership, sell more bicycles, or do people simply not see them because the bikes they are simply very pretty props?

A Marvelous Sign

A great sign to remind people they have a choice. A good sign that times are changing.

And I Missed It!

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Trade shorts for knickerbockers

By: Carolin Vesely

Steven Stothers and Joan Padgett will take a jaunt back in time for the endearingly old-fashioned Tweed Ride, which co­incides with Ciclovia on Sunday. (DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Cyclists have long known the importance of wearing proper attire when putting the pedal to the mettle.

"If you have a wheel, gentlemen, you need a Bicycle Suit," reads an advertisement from a popular Winnipeg retailer. "You need it because it is proper to be becomingly and fashionably attired, but chiefly because it will greatly add to your comfort while riding."

The days of $5 Hudson's Bay bicycle suits may be long gone, but a day of very stylish, old-fashioned bicycling is just up ahead.

Don some classic woollen duds and pack your parasols, ladies: Winnipeg's first-ever Tweed Ride takes place Sunday, and that means we're going to pedal like it's 1899.

A tweed ride/run is when hundreds of impeccably dressed ladies and gents wheel across town on vintage and vintage-inspired bicycles because, well, it's jolly good fun.

London reportedly had the world's first tweed ride in January of 2009, when 150 dapper cyclists pedalled from Savile Row to Bethnal Green. San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Sydney and other major cities have since followed suit.

The chap in charge of Winnipeg's inaugural event is Steven Stothers, 48, a software manager and cycling enthusiast who also likes "history and old things," and who decided it was high time we all went for a slow ride.

"In this fast-paced world of Spandex and Lycra, it just seemed like a kind of goofy and traditional thing to do," says Stothers, who writes a dandy blog on the subject at www. winnipegtweedride.blogspot.com.

The 10-kilometre ride will sally forth from Assiniboine Park Pavilion at 2 p.m. sharp (come early to hear some old-time banjo tunes) and conclude at 6 p.m. with libations at the King's Head Pub.

Tweed riders are encouraged to pack a snack for a scheduled stop at Memorial Park, which will also include a croquet game. Popping into the Fort Garry Hotel for tea is another option.

The Tweed ride coincides with Ciclovia, the city's second annual bike-and-pedestrian festival, but is not officially part of it, Stothers says.

He invites riders to meet at the replica streetcar on Broadway at around 4 p.m. to pose for group and individual photos, which will be included in a Tweed Ride photo gallery to commemorate the outing.

As for what to wear, leave the fleece and stretchy shorts at home and opt for such fashionable (circa early 1900s) attire as newsboy caps, vests, knickers, pantaloons, cardigans and bow ties. Pipes, monocles, mutton-chop sideburns and handlebar moustaches are also a nice touch. Ladies will look sweet upon their bike seats in full-length skirts, high-necked blouses and flapper-style hats, perhaps twirling a parasol.

Vintage clothing stores and second-hand shops are your best resources. Visit Stothers' blog for inspiration. It has links to photo archives that show what free-wheeling SSRqPeggers wore back in the day. (Yes, bike helmets tend to clash with tweed, but safety first. Don't be a rapscallion.)

If you don't have a vintage bike, weave some colourful streamers through your spokes.

"It just has to look like a period piece; it doesn't have to be a period piece, says Stothers.

"But if someone could bring a penny farthing bike, that'd be awesome."

carolin.vesely@freepress.mb.ca

EVENT PREVIEW

Tweed Ride

Starts at Assiniboine Park Pavilion

Sunday, 2 p.m.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 11, 2010 C6

I'm Noticing a Trend

A few years ago, most people riding bicycles, including me, were on mountain bikes. Given Winnipeg's rather...interesting...streets, they seemed like a very good choice. And I enjoyed off-roading and playing in the mud as well. My knees liked the geometry of a mountain bike while increasingly, my neck did not. So, while I can still think when my knees hurt, I am totally bazooey when my neck hurts. Enter Eselin.

While perambulating about the neighbourhood on my lunch hour the last couple of days, I noticed that there is a shift happening. While it may well be that I am ambling around the granola parts of town, there are many more classic bikes than mountain bikes.





















What do you think?

Pixie BIkes

No better thrill on wheels, say pixie bikers

By: Carol Sanders

17/05/2010 1:00 AM

Kent Anthony rides his pixie bike Sunday afternoon on Garbage Hill. (DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

THEY'RE grown men on tiny bikes.

Not circus clowns, but daredevils who say they're young at heart.

Meet the pixie bike racers, the latest, weirdest and likely the most well-balanced breed of Winnipeg cyclist.

On Sunday, they raced full bore on their tiny homemade wheels down the steep grade of Garbage Hill, vying to be the first to make it between the pylons two feet apart at the foot of the hill.

They'd grab hold of the jersey on the person in front of them to slingshot ahead. The prize for the winner of the "death race"? Survival and the sheer fun of it.

Jean Madore, 42, has been organizing the races for two years, and wants to "take it big -- as much as BMX."

There are anywhere from a dozen to 22 pixie bike racers in Winnipeg, Madore figures. Most are male and many are bicycle mechanics.

The transplanted Quebecer is a proponent of the homemade novelty bike as well as being a mountain biking enthusiast. The tricky little pixie, though, is dearest to him.

"I'm like a kid again," said the Canadian Forces driver and driving instructor.

"I have no kids -- I'm the kid."

The bikes may look childish but require a high level of balance and co-ordination to operate without popping a wheelie or wiping out.

The pixie riders make it look easy.

Paul Dixon, 31, whips around the Garbage Hill course near Polo Park well-protected with a blue cape, shin pads and a full-face downhill helmet that says "Got Jesus?"

His bike is a hybrid of scavenged parts, including a pink L'il Princess handlebar and a boyish black banana seat.

Sometimes the bike mechanic will go for a spin down Broadway during the lunch hour.

"All the people looking grumpy see me coming and it makes them smile," said Dixon, who has a three-year-old daughter.

On top of Garbage Hill Sunday, the pixie bike racers warmed up on their "steeds."

"If you hit a gopher hole, you're gone," said KMO, a 27-year-old bike mechanic who wouldn't give his real name.

He said there are no real mountains or big hills in these parts, so to make the hills feel bigger, they make their bikes smaller.

The sport isn't for everyone, he said.

"It's for someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously."

Madore said they're planning more races later this summer with the dates and times posted on his Facebook wall.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 17, 2010 A5"

Cycling the Tour de France

After reading my post on The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Richard suggested I read French Revolutions by Tim Moore.

Mr Moore, with very little recent cycling experience, and in not the best physical condition, decides he is going to cycle the route of the Tour De France. He buys himself a new road bike, and, without master the locking toe-clips or the bicycle's gears, sets off on his adventure.
I found Mr Moore's writing style highly entertaining and he critiques and praises everyone and everything, including himself, with the same degree of honesty and humour.

The book gives a good overview of the route the tour takes and the history of this race.I am not inspired to try the same feat, but I enjoyed Moore's take on the caper.
It was a very enjoyable read.

Different Approaches

Bicycles are mixed with scooters and motorcycles in the parking areas of Playa del Carman. The bicycle, I was happy to see, was used extensively in this city.

Some people had greater security concerns than others, and the salty air played havoc with the finish of many of the bikes.

I wish I had seen the person who rode this bike. The geometry of the handlebars is amazing.

These were the types of helmets worn by most people on scooters. Cyclists didn't wear helmets, but I think they would make a cool alternative for people on bikes in other parts of the world.

A Bicycle Named Gladys

The last few days have given us temperatures of-35C with a -45 windchill (-31/-49F). Since there is no pressing reason for me to go outside, I have been bundled up inside with the books I received for Christmas.

I am currently enjoying The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I cheer for the protagonist, 11-year-old detective Flavia de Luce, as only a former 11-year-old detective (and not her mother) can.

Flavia rides her late mother’s three-speed BSA Keep Fit bicycle, L’Hirondelle, (the swallow) which she found “languishing for years in a toolshed”. She rescues her from “rusty oblivion” but her tires were flat and “her gears bone dry and crying out for oil”. She restores L’Hirondelle, and renames her Gladys.

Gladys carries Flavia on her investigations and allows her the freedom of movement and imagination we all relished at that age. “...I let Gladys have her head, swooping down the slopes past the rushing hedges, imaging all the while I was the pilot of one of the Spitfires which, just five years ago, had skimmed these very hedgerows like swallows as they came in to land at Leathcote.”

I wasn’t surprised to find an online ‘Flavia de Luce Fan Club’ as I’ve only read a few chapters, but I can’t wait to find out what she does next.