Tom Reingold has his outfit planned. For the recently-announced South Orange Maplewood Bicycle Coalition's First Annual Tweed Ride on Sat., May 15, he'll be sporting a "flat cap and tweed jacket, and my ironic facial hair. Perhaps a bow tie."

Tweed rides, say Reingold, one of the group's founders, "started in London in January of 2009." Very simply, participants will dress in their Victorian-style finest for a group ride through the Montrose section of South Orange. Such rides have, as Reingold explains, "spread like wildfire around the world."

Reingold will ride his 1966 English 3-speed bike, though participants can ride whatever they choose, vintage or recent. Bikers will meet at Mountain Station, at the corner of West Montrose and Vose Avenues at 10:00 a.m. on May 15th. The ride will lead bikers through the streets of Montrose, where the annual Montrose in May historic house tour, sponsored by the Montrose Park Historic District Association, will be in full swing.

The Tweed Ride heralds the South Orange Maplewood Bicycle Coalition's Bike to Work Week, which officially begins the next day. In preparation,interested bikers can attend a bike care workshop hosted by Tom Reingold after the Tweed Ride. The event takes place from 1:00 p.m. until 3 p.m. in the parking lot of the South Orange Public Library.

The following day, Sunday, will see at 10:00 a.m. bike ride, leaving from the Baird Center parking lot,  with elected officials from both Maplewood and South Orange.  No word yet on what they'll be wearing, but for the well-dressed local biker, tweed is in.