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A flat tire is not the most ideal way to start a bike-based pub crawl. It found me standing on the side of the road, waiting for a ride to pick me up and bring me home where I’d commit the sacrilege of driving the route in my car. As I waited, three people on bicycles came up the street. The women were wearing tweed skirt suits, and the third, a man, was just as decked out. Probably not the most comfortable outfits for a bike ride, but I knew where they were going. They were headed to the same place I was trying so hard to get to, the fourth annual Tweed Ride—a Minneapolis pub crawl where the participants indulge in the timeless fashion of tweed fabric and travel exclusively on two wheels.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I showed up at the first “bar” along the route, the Malt Shop in south Minneapolis. I found enough tweed-wearers to occupy an entire basement room, most of them opting for old fashioned malts at this stop. There were skirts; there were suits; there were shorts; there were bow ties, and eclectically paired pieces.

And there were bikes—lots of bikes. At every bar, bikes overflowed the space available and were as varied as the people who rode them. From the couple who rode a tandem bicycle, to Nate and Margarita, who whipped out the funniest little British-made bikes that could fold up into a compact little package.

For the organizers, brothers Tim and Thom Navarro, bikes were always part of the equation here.

“Every Friday or Saturday night,” explains Tim, “we’d get all of our friends together. The goal was, you get a bag, you get a bike, you have a sixer of PBR, and a little flask of whiskey—”

“—or a bottle of Jameson,” Tim interjects.

Thom has to laugh. “And we would just ride around and do that,” he finishes. “It just escalated.”

This year, “escalated” means joining the ranks of other tweed rides from around the world—yes, this is an international phenomenon—that have an event on Facebook.

This year, “escalated” means a pack formation of tweed wearers (at least 70 replied “yes” to the Facebook invite), biking a wandering route from the Rose Garden near Lake Harriet, to Northeast Minneapolis, and filling every square foot of each, generally already packed bar, milling about in a mass of tweed. The route comprised a wide-ranging selection of bars that in the end seemed balanced, everything from the old-timey Malt Shop, to the newly opened Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub to the fusion restaurant Ginger Hop. It’s hard to not find a favorite in there.

Some of the standouts –

Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub, which boasted a standing-room only crowd and the smell of amazing smoked meat wafting through the night. They brew their own selection, in addition to standouts by other breweries.

The also newly opened Devil’s Advocate, tucked away on the fringe of downtown, offered some surprises—like the tap list, and a late-night menu with a special selection of bites. A plate of poutine ended up in front of us, and we devoured the mysterious combination of french fries, gravy and melty cheese. Now that I know the dish is actually a Quebecois favorite, I appreciate the bravado of the chef.

The Stone Arch Bridge, where we stopped for a few photos, is a Minneapolis icon, but you appreciate it in a whole new way in the dead of night. The slow hum of the river flowing of the St. Anthony dam punctuated an otherwise quiet night and provided calming background music to couples making their way through the mill ruins, which are lit at night (on a side note: my new must-do).

Tim and Thom said the work required to pull off the Tweed Ride blindsided them a little bit. This was their first year taking the helm, and it took two solid months of planning, in the off hours when not running their Uptown-based You and Me, a boutique that features a range of locally designed fabulous garments, including their own creations. (You and Me deserves a lengthy review of its own, but that’s for another day.)

It took a lot of time,” says Tim “And it could have taken more time. It could have been better executed. I think next year will be a better event for sure.”

And for now, at least, it seems they’re interested in signing up for another go-round. Both brothers cannot conceal their love for the event. They wear smiles as they move throughout the crowd, talking with friends and making new ones, when they call out for everyone to move to the next bar, even when they stand around in the freezing night on the Stone Arch Bridge as they wait for everyone to queue up for a picture. This exuberance, of course, is a facet of their genuinely friendly personalities, but it’s easy to see they have a deep love of the Tweed Ride and everything it encompasses.

“The camaraderie is the best,” says Tim. “We just met a handful—if not more so—of people that I feel like we can really bond with in the future, and it’s not just us as individuals, it’s the whole group, collectively.”

There’s also the fashion to consider. As designers—who have coincidentally designed several of the pieces among the crowd—the outpouring of eclectic fashion pairings strikes a chord.

“People tend to look past it as just old and gawdy, but it’s very modern,” says Thom.

The hold that tweed has over this group incites everything from the classic ensemble worn by the anointed “Most Dapper Gentleman” to pieces like Margarita’s cropped red tweed jacket. Everyone took the maxim to the limit, incorporating tweed pieces into a look that was very much reflective of their unique sense of style.

After the fact, when trying to explain the Tweed Ride to a coworker, I was at a loss for words. I realize that’s because, in many ways, it’s not that remarkable. Of course, what I mean is, it’s not wild; it’s not a bunch of weirdos or geeky hipsters; there’s nothing to gawk about afterward. The Tweed Ride was at its core just a bunch of cool people who wanted to do a pub crawl, and that’s not really something that needs much explaining.