Find love on your bike

Vintage Velo is all about supporting the Bristol Cycle Festival, and more importantly, having a jolly good time on bikes! So for those of you who wish to find a cycling paramour, we wholeheartedly recommend attending Madame Melski's Cycle Speed dating

Back for St Valentine's Day, Madame Melski's Cycle Speed dating is a jolly way to meet people and perhaps even find love on two wheels. Bristol is brimming with comely, witty, brilliant, single people riding bicycles - let Madame Melski bring you together on 14th February for an evening of relaxed pedalling and friendly chat.

Advance booking is essential as places are limited, with an £8 entry fee. The exact start point will be emailed to you when you book along with more information about what to expect.

Email Madame Melski to secure your place now!














Lovely picture courtesy of http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com

Vintage Velo is back for 2012

Ladies and Gents its time to hold onto your monocles and party like its 1899 - The Bristol Vintage Velo ride will be back in April 2012!

We'll be posting the official date, how to buy tickets and much more in the coming weeks.

The Vintage Velo team x

p.s. missed out last year? Have a look at the photos and video of last years event

Tweed up for Bristol Cycle Festival and Carnivelo

Attention, Tweed Army - Bristol Cycle Festival is almost upon us!

Running from 17 to 25 September 2011, it'll feature a huge variety of events, aimed at everyone from velocipede ingenues to seasoned wheelmen.

Carnivelo is back again after a successful first outing (as the Freewheelin' Carnival) in 2010. A rolling party on two wheels, there's talk of a "tweed troupe" being formed for 2011 - keep one's ear to the ground.

Organised by the same team as the Vintage Velo, WeLoveBikes promises to be a spectacular knees-up at the accommodating venue of the Mother's Ruin. The theme is "Vintage Velo vs Lycra Lovers" (although we understand that "lycra louts" will not necessarily be turned away either). Park up your steed, quaff some fine Arbor Ale, and shingaling to the grooviest in vintage sounds.

The Two Wheeled Drive In cinema also makes a welcome return for 2011. Vintage Velo-ites of a more dandyish stripe have the chance to show those pesky new romantics what's what at a screening of 80s cheese-fest Lost Boys. Or wearers of the classic tweed can take advantage of their resemblance to Lord Summerisle at a singalong screening (yes, you did read that correctly) of folk horror classic The Wicker Man. Summer is ycumen in, indeed!

Bike Olympics promises to be as thrilling as its Greenwich based namesake, only with a much wider participation and none of that tedious ticket lottery nonsense. Who will triumph at the long jump, the high jump, the mounted shot-put and and egg and spoon? There will also be some contests of speed and bike handling for our knobbly tyred brethren.

For the lonely of heart, Madame Melski's Cycle Speed Dating affords the chance to meet like-minded companions.

The Dundry Drubber is a challenge that will make even the hardiest of velocipedists blanch - an assault on local bete noire Dundry Hill from all four faces. Extra kudos to anyone attempting it on a vintage machine!

The event programme is currently having the finishing touches put to it so please do keep an eye on their website, their Face-tome and their Twitter for further missives.

Photo by Bristolbikes on Flickr

Well, that was marvellous!

"Rad", "da bomb", "un-fun" and "not sunny enough" are all phrases that could not possibly be used to describe Sunday's inaugural edition of the Bristol Vintage Velo.

The sun shone, the riders came, ginger beer was quaffed, delicious cake was scoffed, lovely scenery was enjoyed, pedal-powered Ella Fitzgerald and the marvellous Hot Potato Syncopators entertained everyone, friendly marshalls ensured everyone's safety and Posh from Taylored Cycles kept even the most motheaten of bicycles rolling smoothly. An enormous round of thanks to everyone involved.

There are some more photos from the day here:

Colin Davies' photos on Flickr

Katie Aartse-Tuyn's photos on Facebook

Billy the Lens' photos on Flickr

Lizzie Thal-Jensen's photos on Facebook

Drew Batchelor's photos on Flickr

Deborah Jones' photos on Facebook

Roger Harbord's photos on Facebook

Martin McDonnell's photos on Facebook

Catherine Hicks' photos on Flickr

Kirsty McGaul's photos on Facebook

Ben from Better By Bike has also made this rather snazzy video. Enjoy!

We're stuffed

Unfortunately the entry list and the reserve list for the ride are now full. If you know someone who won't be able to attend, drop us an email and we can transfer their entry. Otherwise, that's it!

Unfortunately we can't sell any tickets on the day due to insurance and capacity of the destination venue. If you've not got a ticket and were thinking of "tagging along", please don't for the same reasons.

Spectators for the grande depart are welcome.

No time to make do and mend before Sunday?

Don't worry, help is at hand. Take your shillings to St Nicks market and avail yourself of a beautiful vintage outfit at Custard House Clothing. Already chosen your finest apparel? You could win a £20 voucher that they have kindly donated to the Vintage Velo grand raffle!

Not only that, but the lovely people at No 1 Harbourside have been good enough to offer a meal for two in their historic waterfront setting, and the Lanes have donated free bowling for a lucky winner and five friends!

Heartfelt thanks to all the local businesses who are supporting the Vintage Velo. Toodle pip!

We're full up!

It gives us great pleasure to announce that our event has reached capacity. Congratulations to those that got a place, commiserations to those who didn't.

If you would like to be put on the reserve list for the event, or volunteer to help out on the day, send us a missive at Vintageveloride@gmail.com.