Cycling to celebrate our Underground Railroad history

On Oct. 29 at 5:30 p.m., Adventure Cycling Association along with the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance and the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission are hosting a meeting about their proposed Underground Railroad Route. There will also be updates on greenways and trails in the Detroit hub and the Freedom Trail Commission’s efforts to designate the Detroit River as an International Heritage Site.

The meeting will be held at Historic Second Baptist Church, 441 Monroe Street in Greektown. RSVP to Beth Petersen at 800.755.2453 x 211 or bpetersen@adventurecycling.org.

SEMCOG launches bike match service

Bicycle commuting can be daunting for people who have never done it, and sometime it helps to have a buddy. That’s the premise behind SEMCOG’s new bike match service, which pairs compatible cyclists together, much like it already does with carpooling and vanpooling. In fact, users can mix and match between the modes once they register. If you’re already bike commuting, it wouldn’t hurt to register to demonstrate strength in numbers.

Read all about and sign up here. Catch the Freep’s coverage here and m-bike’s here.

Beevis & Butthead

…er, Deminski & Doyle, two radio shock jocks made some stupid comments last week on-air about throwing things at cyclists. Unfortunately they’ve incited that lovely contingent of bike-haters that already like to yell and honk at cyclists. Several cycling organizations have contacted the radio station and its owner, Greater Media Inc., to talk about the hateful language the disc jockeys have used but have not yet elicited a satisfactory response.

The League of Michigan Bicyclists have started a petition to demonstrate to the owners and their advertisers that cyclists exist, are sane and have the same rights and, lest we forget, responsibilities as motorists.

Read more and sign the letter here.

Green Cruise 8/8/09

This Saturday, August 8,  join the Sierra Club’s Green Cruise. It’s a 21-mile ride from Ferndale to Birmingham intended to draw attention to non-motorized transportation — in the face of serious gas-guzzling taking place concurrently with the annual Dream Cruise on Woodward.

It starts at 8 a.m., but there is also a 5-mile family ride that starts at 9 a.m.

Both rides begin at the Green Alley located just west of Woodward Ave. at W. 9 Mile and Planavon St.

After the ride, there’s a bunch more stuff going on: a climbing tower, face painting, massages, skateboard demos and free bike check-ups.

Learn more here.

Complete Streets for MI

What are Complete Streets? They’re streets designed with not just automobiles in mind, but bikes, pedestrians and public transport as integral components of their safe usage. A coalition of health and cycling organizations are working to encourage the Michigan Department of Transportation to adopt a formal Complete Streets policy.

A petition for which they are currently collecting signatures reads:

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be designed for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. It is time that our state’s transportation planning agencies – including the Michigan Department of Transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, local road agencies, and local arms of government – Complete Streets policies and build a safer, cleaner, more sustainable transportation system.

This seems particularly apt today after getting yelled at by a DPD officer last night to “Get on the sidewalk!”

Sign the petition here.

3 Chances to Ride on August 1

It is obviously in our own self-interest to remind you that this Saturday, August 1, is our Henry Ford Birthday Tour led by Michigan Trails & Greenways Alliance’s Todd Scott. (BTW, his blog M-Bike is really, truly a must-read.) It’s going to be really interesting and informative, for sure.

But there are two other cycling happenings on the same day we’d like to share with you as well.

In the AM, it’s the City to City Kick-Off Ride! Join Kevin and Emily as they head off to Chicago, raising money for Cystic Fibrosis. Join them at Campus Martius and ride them out of town!

From Chicago, Emily will head to Denver. Read this:

Rocking cystic fibrosis so hard that CF will one day stand for “Cure Found” is Emily Schaller’s mission in life. In September, 2009, Emily will take her mission on the road. Heading west from Detroit, Emily will ride her bike on a month-long Emily to Ellen for Cystic Fibrosis campaign with the hopes of ending up on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Ellen DeGeneres is Emily’s hero and being on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been her dream for years. “Her show is the perfect vehicle to deliver my story,” says Emily, founder of the Rock CF Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to finding a cure for CF. “I want to educate as many people as I can about cystic fibrosis and emphasize how the never ending fight of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has made it possible for me to live my life to the fullest.”

Emily will ride her bike 1,400 miles from Detroit, MI to Denver, CO. The first 300 miles from Detroit to Chicago will be part of her Rock CF Foundation’s City to City Ride with six other riders. From Chicago, she will head west to Denver. Because Emily and her CF doctor decided that riding through the desert is not a great idea, her modes of transportation from Denver to Burbank, California will be adventuresome. A canoe trip down the Colorado river? A donkey ride through the Grand Canyon? A moped along Route 66?

Swallowing forty pills a day, taking breathing treatments and undergoing chest physical therapy are all part of her daily routine. And because her body can’t absorb nutrients normally, she expects her daily intake of 3,000 calories to almost double on the ride. Exercise has improved Emily’s lung function and has allowed her to complete two half marathons in one year. Riding across the country, she hopes to shine a light on what the future holds for the cure of cystic fibrosis.

Emily, you rock!

Read more about City to City and register for the send-off ride here.

Then, in the afternoon, you can hit up The Hub’s Safe Streets Youth Ride Fundraiser. It’s a 2:30 p.m. start time, and you’ll be riding with graduates of The Hub’s Earn-A-Bike program. The ride ends at the U-M Detroit Center for refreshments and snacks. Register online at http://safestreetsyouthride.eventbrite.com/.

Inspiration from other places

There are a lot of really good people working to make Detroit a more bike-friendly city. With that said, it is frustrating sometimes to see how far behind we are in terms of infrastructure compared to other places that have long realized that cycling is an essential ingredient in a well-balanced urban city.

Here are couple of really sweet biking amenities in places not too far away from us:

The Bike Train connects Toronto residents with cycling destinations in Ontario. They are talking about connecting it to Windsor, which would be wonderful for us here in “North Detroit” — although, we still have the annoying problem of how difficult it is to get bikes across the border (pet peeve!). Cycling Ontario wine country and/or Pelee Island should be on everyone’s list of places to go. Such great times to be had on bikes over the River.

(Amtrak, get a clue. Allow bikes on trains, especially between Detroit and Ann Arbor/Chicago. The Wolverine could blow up.)

Buffalo Blue Bicycle is a low-cost bike rental program targeting resident transportation needs — as opposed to ours, which is more focused on recreation — by creating hubs, so bikes can be picked up from one place and dropped off at another. The website is very informative, with great mapping. A similar system would be so cool here, with hub clusters in Downtown, Eastern Market, Midtown, New Center and Corktown…sigh. Well, it’s never hurt a girl to dream!

We Like Bike!

42 Below Vodka is sponsoring the 42Ride, in which — you guessed it — 42 cyclists are riding across the country from NYC to LA. The 21 riders that are taking a northern route were in Detroit last night, and we met up with them at their visit to CityFest. What a great group of people. Alex almost took off with them, we’re pretty sure.

We were particularly excited to meet Jacquie Phelan, three-time NORBA champ, member of both the US Bicycling AND Mountain Bike Hall of Fames and founder of WOMBATS (Women’s Mountain Bike and Tea Society), a group that works to increase the number of women in the sport of mountain biking. Us being a female-owned shop and she being an outspoken advocate for women in the sport of cycling, well, we hit it off. Hopefully we’ll be seeing her back in Detroit soon!

Read more about Jacquie at her blog.

Safe riding to all the 42Riders! We hope you enjoyed your stay in the D!

Tour de Revs

Three Lutheran Reverends are riding a bamboo bicycle built for three across America — 13,000 miles, 65 cities, 100 days. They arrive to Detroit on June 22 and they’ll be at Rivard Plaza at 11:15 a.m. Anyone interested is invited to join them for a short ride and lunch at the Southeast Michigan Lutheran Synod on E. Jefferson. RSVP to 586-321-1118. For more info, check out www.tourderevs.org.

If you need to rent a bike for the Tour de Revs ride, we’ll hook you up for just $10. Show up around 11 a.m. to get a bike.

Tour de Cure Fundraiser 05/09/09

This Saturday at the Park Bar (2040 Park Ave.) riders from the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure cycling event are hosting “RIDE it, PARK it, ROCK it”, a fundraiser to benefit the ADA.

Meet at the bar at 1 p.m. and then head out for a casual 8-10 mile bike ride around downtown Detroit starting at 1:30 p.m.  Discounted bike rentals are available through Wheelhouse Detroit.  The ride is being lead by Todd Scott of the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance and will highlight various trails and green spaces in the city.  Following the ride will be drinks at the bar.  The Park Bar is donating a portion of their proceeds back to the ADA.  There is a $10 donation per rider and each rider will receive one ticket for a post-ride drawing.  There are  several cool items to give away!  Additional tickets for the giveaway can also be purchased at the bar.  For more information please contact Anika Halladay at ahalladay@diabetes.org or 248-433-3830, ext. 6694.

Mark your calendars for the 2009 Tour de Cure on Sunday, June 14, 2009, at beautiful Island Lake Recreation Area in Brighton. REGISTER ONLINE NOW at www.diabetes.org/tour.