Detroit Bikes?

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Two-wheeled travelers are challenging assumptions about motorless transport in the Motor City.

It wouldn’t be such a big deal that there’s an apparent groundswell of biking organizations and activity if Detroit wasn’t so uniquely anti-bike. Groups like beathetrain, the nationwide pro-bicycling group Critical Mass, Detroit Bikes! and the Michigan Mountain Biking Association are coming together to kickstart urban biking in what would seem like an unfriendly environment to riding bikes. In Detriot we’re blessed with multi-lane thoroughfares, glass-strewn and pothole-riddled streets and, of course, a pathological attachment to the automobile. But that doesn’t mean exploring Detroit’s sites and sights without the aid of a motor isn’t possible.

Detroiter Andy “Beat the Train” Staub earned his nickname racing trains—on his bike. He’d clock out of work at Olympic Steel, jump on his bike and make for home.

“Every night in a rush to punch my time card, I would exclaim that I had to beat the train on my cycling route,” Staub says.

So, of course, every time his co-workers saw him in his helmet and biking gear, they’d ask “Did you beat the train?”

Staub had been “urban mountain biking” in the city for years “but don’t blame me for the name,” he says.

Eventually he started sharing his passion for biking with other friends and family under the banner of Beatthetrain.com. The group is a loose affiliation of bicyclers sharing tips, tricks, event news and other info about getting around the Motor City sans motor. They meet up every Saturday morning at their “trailhead” in the parking lot of Historic Fort Wayne (6325 W. Jefferson) and head out on rides of 20 miles or so.

Better still, Staub and company are part of a larger network of bicyclers that includes several organized groups that sponsor regular rides through Detroit’s historic downtown and nearby areas and organize awareness of biking in this most automotive-centric city.

In fact,

Groups like Detroit Bikes! – part of the larger Motor City booster group Detroit Synergy – have gotten more active recently.

Two Wheels Rolling

On a recent Saturday, members of Detroit Bikes! met at the Millennium Bell and rode to historic Elmwood Cemetery where the groundskeeper gave bikers a tour of the east side memorial garden. Rides like these are part activism and part exercise with a healthy dose of fellowship.

“Our last ride through Elmwood Cemetary, which we worked together with members of Critical Mass, especially planner Greg Gromaski, I think was the best ride we have had based on the destination and the limited stops that we made,” says Detroit Bikes! spokesperson Alexander Froelich.

“Our Mexicantown ride was good too……. the opportunity to stop and smell fresh tortillas made in the morning, and chat on several occasions about cycling or the sites that we past by is something that I think we should try to put together for a more formal tour of sites and rides.”

“I think the commonality between any urban group, be it "spelunking " or "Urban Mountainbiking" is the exploration aspect,” reckons Staub.  “The photo opportunities are all over the place and people see things differently.  Also history has a huge part of it.  We all know Detroit has great stories and you can really feel it while out there looking at the architecture.  Another thing is people are trying to record these structures in film because the landscape is changing so fast.”

Back Alley Boon

Urban bikers praise the non-profit bike shop Back Alley Bikes. Back Alley – located at 3611 Cass Ave. near Martin Luther King Blvd.–has been a hub of biking activity since it opened as part of the Detroit Summer project two years ago. The shop offers bicycle building classes and advice as well as repairs for bikers who have found themselves on the puncturing end of a piece of glass in the street. Much of their work supports cycling among low income and inner city kids and adults who make biking part of their everyday life.

“Back Alley Bikes has been an extremely helpful resource with their excitement, their will to do good things within the city, and their drive to promote cycling in the city,” notes Froehlich.

“They do a great job with maintenance, are always willing to help others out with the typical bike issues, and manage to do this during a busy schedule of providing quality bike maintenance and repair with little to no charge.”

Civic Biking Business

Detroit Bikes! is also positioning itself as a central clearinghouse for bike activities in the city. It was born from a series of coffee talks at Café De Troit last year. Since then, they’ve organized more than half-dozen rides through various parts of the city and, according to spokesperson Alexander Froelich, have begun the process of offering a biking perspective on Detroit’s development of both informal and formal bike trails for recreation and commuting. They are reaching out to groups like the Greenways Initiative, the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy, the Riverfront Conservancy and other civic organizations to that end.

On the civic side, Detroit could learn some bike-friendly lessons from another industrial midwest town, Chicago. The Windy City has come a long way toward accepting bicycles as part of daily life, even going so far as to provide valet bike parking at major festivals in downtown’s Grant Park.

Detroit’s not totally behind the 8-ball, though. SMART busses provide bike racks for commuters, bike racks are popping up in front of enlightened businesses in the Central Business District and there are the odd bike lanes.

Of course, the much-ballyhooed Riverwalk project could be a boon to bicyclists. As it stands, the riverfront is a destination and starting point for many urban biking expeditions. When (or rather, if) the project is completed, it could be a a vital artery for cross-town two-wheel traffic. It’s one end of the proposed Conner Park Greenway — the other is 8 Mile Rd.

Events like the monthly Critical Mass rides (held on the last Friday of every month starting May 27^th, raising the kickstands in Grand Circus Park) give an activist angle to the everyday bike ride. Critical Mass started in San Francisco as a protest against automobile culture with bikes creating two-wheeled gridlock. In Detroit, the autos still far outnumber the bikes, but awareness is still raised and endorphins are still tweaked.

The Beatthetrain group will take part in the annual Ride of Silence to memorialize those bicyclers who have been injured or killed by automobiles. It’s a 12 mph silent ride that this Staub reckons will draw as many as 2-600 bikers.

Saddle Up! – Detroit Biking Resources on the Web

If you’d like to get involved – or just get some exercise, visit the following websites for more information: