


The Newcastle Tweed Ride was again an outstanding success with around seventy people showing up to display their bicycle and costume vintage handiwork. It was great to see a penny farthing in attendance again and also to see people getting penny farthing riding practice afterwards. One rider was quite proficient at riding it within minutes! Very impressive!

Bemused bystanders wondered what was going on.


Me with Therese Doyle, Greens Councillor and bike enthusiast.
Our master of ceremonies, Zac Watt, was entertaining and we were honoured to have such an auspicious person to entertain us with stories and poems about the art works which adorn the water frontage that we rode along. You can see him here riding his vintage American cruiser …

Equally wonderful was the attendance of so many tweed ride stalwarts. I was especially grateful to Iain who transformed the hacked fitting of my cheap K Mart vintage style light on my Speedwell to a professional looking installation. Such is the power of vintage bike aficionadoes, who are able to turn a hack job into a professional one. I don’t have any before photos luckily …

I was again impressed with the job Gareth had done on another roadside find this year, using driftwood as handgrips. So clever! And lovely and smooth to use. I think I have an idea for my own bike now …

The usual suspects turned up including the Georgetown Juggernaut with inbuilt picnic table, complete with flowers, teaset and tablecloth.

We had a special award category of ratbike this year for an impressively built cargo bike, made to carry musical instruments. I will try to get a photo.
Style was high on the agenda again, with so many wonderful costumes worn by both men and women, some of who were riding equally impressive bikes.


Everyone was taking photos …

The Newcastle bloggers were there, giving us great coverage. The Curious Novocastrian has some wonderful photo on her blog. You should also check Instagrams of Pink Patent Mary Janes, Curious Novo and the showbag for more and better pictures than mine!
One surprise was the Herald coverage, calling us all hipsters….
Although I have said this will be the last Tweed Ride I organise, there are plans in place for a successor, so stay tuned. The Vintage Tweed Ride was a Make Your Place community project supported by the City of Newcastle and Newcastle Cycleways Movement Inc.