I distinctly remember the first time I spotted the Tweed Ride. Sitting in a window seat of a downtown café, I spied a group of bikers pedalling leisurely past, each dressed like characters out of a period drama. Woollen plus fours, impeccable tweed jackets, brogues, voluminous cycling skits and sporting chapeaus glided down Austurstræti, with bicycle bells chiming.
The event I happened to witness was an early iteration of the Reykjavík Tweed Ride, which had been founded by vintage bicycle enthusiasts Jón Gunnar Tynes Ólason and Alexander Schepsky in 2012. The duo would go on to found Reiðhjólaverzlunin Berlin, a Reykjavík bike store specialising in impossibly beautiful city bikes. Under the ownership of Jón Óli Ólafsson since 2018, Berlin has continued to invite fashionable cyclists out for annual rides around town.
Ahead of the 13th iteration of the Reykjavík Tweed Ride on June 8, I caught up with Jón Óli to get a better understanding of what the event is all about. “The basic aim of it is just to dress up and take out your old bicycles and join us riding around Reykjavík city — slow and nice,” Jón Óli says when asked about the event’s raison d’etre. Anywhere from 40 to 60 people participate in the Tweed Ride each year, with Jón Óli explaining that it’s a mix of people who have bought bicycles from Berlin and others who just have an old bike laying around that they want to take out for a ride.
Though the turnout each year large.