On Friday night the sidewalk outside Doyle’s Public house will fill with bicycles.  Many of them will be unusual bicycles.

On Friday night the tables inside Doyle’s Public House will fill with people.  Many of them will be unusual people.

One of them will be TW (T-dub to his friends, Todd William Smith to his mom) a plus-size man with plus-size plans.  He is to thank for the crazy bicycles and the costumed crowd.  And the calendar girls.  And the giant accordion-playing squirrel.  He is to thank for Tacoma’s inaugural Bicycle Prom.

I first encountered TW outside the Parkway Tavern during the annual IPA Festival.  Transporting his three-bills-plus bulk on a shiny blue, banana-seat Schwinn that shot flames, he was hard to miss.  And once he started talking, he was impossible to escape.

He’d just moved to town a couple of months ago, he told me.  He used to work in the produce industry in Seattle.  His girlfriend was a vegetarian, which pretty much made him a vegetarian.  He builds bikes in his garage, fabricating the custom parts himself, and he’s the only vintage bicycle customizer he knows of in the US.  He was planning a party, a bicycle party, where everyone would dress up and ride from Doyle’s to the Robert Daniel Gallery.  Bands.  Beer.  Food.  You name it.  Oh, and he had a squirrel lined up.  And calendar girls.  (He was shooting a calendar to promote his bikes.)  He also had a sweet pair of vintage skateboard trucks he’d be willing to part with for maybe $20.  Or if you wanted to trade. ...

TW quit his job in the produce industry last March, loaded up his El Camino and moved from Seattle to Tacoma.  Like a lot of Emerald City expats in T-town, he was lured by the cheap real estate.  TW wanted to make his bicycle hobby his job.  He knew his new business, Renagade Muscle, wouldn’t pay the mortgage up north.

TW hasn’t wasted any time making friends, and waves, in his new hometown.  A gift for gab and a flame-shooting bike will do that for you. 

So will throwing parties like the Bicycle Prom.

“I need to get to know people.  I need to be a part of the community,” TW told me recently during a visit to his shop.  “So what better way than to throw a bicycle prom?”

The party, which will benefit the Boots ‘n Breeches therapeutic horsemanship charity, will begin at Doyle’s Saturday at 6 p.m.  After a round or two, everyone will jump on their bikes and ride to the Robert Daniel Gallery.  Big Al Brewing will provide the beer.  Cycles Gladiator, a bike-themed cabernet sauvignon, will be the vino.  The Fucking Eagles, James Hillborne and the Painkillers, and Naked Bacon will provide the tunes.  Volunteer chefs will deliver the food.  TW will deliver the calendar girls. 

Accompanied by Miss July (aka Nicole Gray) — a lovely young woman in a black leather miniskirt, tight red top and black necktie — TW gave me the tour of Renagade Muscle World Headquarters.

He showed me vintage cruisers he’d restored to perfection, even leaving parts outside after painting to give them a slightly weathered look.  He showed me the bike he was building for Miss July, a chopped three-wheeled ice cream cart. 

Frames and handlebars hung from the ceiling.  Tools hung on the wall.  Mariachi played on the stereo.  Golf balls littered the yard, along with some broken glass.
“A bad late-night chip shot,” TW explained.

He had an appointment to meet with a television producer to discuss doing a custom bike show, he told me.  He was also planning an erotic ball for Halloween.

He hopes his hustle will help him sell bikes, or at least some calendars.  But there’s more to it than that.

“They used to call me the King of Georgetown (in Seattle),” TW says.  “Now I’m just some guy in Tacoma.”

Maybe, but not for long.

[Doyle’s Public House, Saturday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m., 208 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.7468]

[Robert Daniel Gallery, The Fucking Eagles, James Hillborne and the Painkillers, Naked Bacon, Saturday, Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m., $15 (includes show and food), 2501 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.227.1407]

[Renagade Muscle Custom Bicycles: www.renagademuscle.com]