Baldwin ? About 160 members of the Wheelmen, a national club for vintage bicycle collectors and restorers, on Saturday will ride their 19th-century two-wheelers up Massachusetts Street.

They’ll have to hike up their Victorian skirts, hold on to their knickers and try not to land on their heads during dismounts from atop the 50- to 60-inch wheels.

Steven Stevens, of Golden, Colo., inspects the hub of his 1887 Rudge brand Ordinary

Among them will be a 68-year-old Dubliner known as the world champion high-wheel stunt rider and a Colorado man who holds the record for the fastest time across the United States on a high-wheeler.

The national club meets yearly, but Douglas Countians haven’t seen the group since it came to Lawrence in 1993, said James McKenzie, Kansas Wheelmen president and Lawrence resident. On Tuesday, members of the group began trickling into Baldwin from around the country.

Events this weekend begin with a 100-mile ride around a loop that starts in Baldwin and goes through LeLoup and Wellsville. The century ride will take about 12 hours including rest breaks, said Paul Schmidt, a vintage bike owner from the Chicago area.

The bicycles, many of them refurbished antiques, don’t go much faster than about 10 miles per hour. Their massive wheels — with solid-rubber tires — are coupled, in some instances, to 50-pound frames, quite heavy in comparison with modern bicycles. And strong winds can topple riders trying to balance five feet in the air.

Among those in the area this weekend will be Peter Matthews, a 68-year-old from Dublin, Ireland, who has been riding a high-wheeler for 51 years and is the reigning world champion high-wheel stunt rider. If he hadn’t lost the title in 2002, he would have held it for 13 years straight since 1991.

His specialty: “Just getting up and down,” he joked.

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Matthews’ legs are long enough for a 50-inch wheel, and he’s only dismounted face-first once, he said.

The weekend events are a mere pit stop for Matthews and New Jersey resident Gary Sanderson, who embarked June 12 on a cross-country ride from New Jersey. They hope to reach their destination, Oregon, in another month.

The size of the wheel determines the speed the rider will travel, Schmidt said. The larger the wheel, the faster the travel. The length of the rider’s legs determines the diameter he or she can handle.

“Short people do better on hills,” he said.