Great Lakes - 2008 Tour de Troit

This is one very unique, not-to-be-missed bike tour. The Detroit Police block all the streets and vehicle traffic as our huge group of bicyclists slowly tour the urban environment. It definitely puts style over speed, fun over fast. And for out of towners, we have arranged a sweet deal at the local Motor City Casino hotel.

Here's more info...
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Last year over 600 of us cycled around the city in the 2007 Tour de Troit! This year's tour takes place Saturday, September 20th at 10:00 am in Roosevelt Park, Corktown, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

This is the seventh incarnation of the tour, and our organizers have been hard at work planning yet another new route for 2008 which includes Downtown, Eastern Market, Brush Park, Boston Edison, University District, Palmer Park, Old Redford and Grandmont-Rosedale areas. A short rest stop is planned at the newly-renovated Northwest Activities Center to allow riders to eat, drink and learn about community development and greenways planning in the city. The ride will end at Roosevelt Park where cyclists can remain from 2-6 p.m. to enjoy music, food and drinks.

You can keep up-to-date with information about this year's tour and click through to our Active.com registration page at: http://www.tour-de-troit.org.

This year, for those visiting the city who wish to stay the night before, after, or both; Motor City Casino Hotel is offering a special, deeply discounted rate of $139 per night for Tour participants! You can even bring your bicycle (up to two) to your room! More information at http://www.tour-de-troit.org/lodging.

We strongly encourage advance registration. If you register before September 13th, you will be guaranteed a T-Shirt with your registration. New this year will be a pre-ride packet pickup, to be confirmed in future correspondence. Advance Registration is $25, $15 for students. Day-of-ride registration is possible for $35 from 8:30-9:30 a.m.. Help us plan ahead and sign up early! Don't be stuck in line Saturday morning!

Tour de Troit would not be possible without our sponsors. Please check them out at our site -- and support them with your patronage! On that note, thanks for your support of cycling in Detroit! The Tour de Troit and Greater Corktown Development Corporation look forward to seeing you on the 20th!

Yours in the celebration of the power of the bicycle,
Aaron, Andy, bil, Jack, Karen, Kelli, Todd and Woody http://www.tour-de-troit.org

Count me and my wife "in". What do you consider a "student"?

WSU student.

Count me and my wife "in". What do you consider a "student"?

WSU student.

It's more or less an honor system. We're just wanting to make the ride more affordable for students.

Hey, I've heard of this, and it sounds really interesting and fun. Thanks for the post, fishtoes2k!

I'm going to get schedule clearance from my wife today and get registered. I'm excited!

I've always felt that I should know Detroit better, and this will be a great way for me to see and learn more about it. I've driven around it quite a bit, but can never piece it all together; perhaps the bike-level view will help me assimilate and process the geography better!

Awesome, Chaadster. I'm quite confidant you'll enjoy it.

While the press release mentions most of the sites/neighborhoods along the way, it doesn't mention that we'll be going past the first factory Henry Ford owned. It's the birthplace of the Model T, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. It's also the birthplace of the automotive mass assembly line.

We'll also go past Henry Ford's old Detroit home, the magnificent Fisher Building, and the old GM world headquarters building, and the largest house in Detroit: the Bishops Residence in Palmer Woods.

What's the approx. distance of the ride?

It's about 40 miles with a major rest stop at the halfway point. I had non-biking friends come out last year and they didn't have any problems. It's not a fast ride.

What a shame this happens the same day as the PEAC Celebration of Cycling. I guess we can't have everything.

If it's not a fast ride, I'll probably make this my maiden voyage for the Schwalbe "Fat Franks" on the Mountain Cycle. I have this fantasy wherein they're the ideal tire for the rough streets of downtown Detroit. Make sense, fishtoes2k? It's geared pretty low--just for huckin' and grindin', really--but I think I can spin it fast enough to avoid goin' OTB.

I'm not back from Italy until the 17th (okay, 18th effectively); is that too late to pre-register?

Chaadster. Fat Franks would work. Most of the roads we'll be on are in good shape, but there are always unforeseen hazards in an urban riding environment.

What a shame this happens the same day as the PEAC Celebration of Cycling. I guess we can't have everything.

AH, that's right! Sorry Fishtoes, I can't miss the PEAC ride. I usually ride in the morning and volunteer the rest of that day.

PEAC is a great program that gets 100% Support from me!
http://www.bikeprogram.org

Too many rides, not enough weekends!

I've been wanting to do this ride for a few years now, but it permanently conflicts with the ride that my Friends of the Clinton River Trail group puts on (http://www.cliintonrivertrail.org). But this year I did my work for that event in advance and told them that I wouldn't be working on the day of the event. So I'll finally make it down to Dee-troit for your ride!

I have done numerous runs in the city over the years (Detroit Marathon & Half-Marathon, Corktown 4-Miler, Heat the Streets 10K, etc.) and always enjoyed seeing parts of the city in more detail than what you can see when driving around in traffic. So I'm really looking forward to an interesting ride next Saturday.

I signed up just a few minutes ago (no t-shirt, but at least saved 10 bucks!). So how will I recognize you down there? I'll probably be wearing my BikeForums jersey (the one in my avatar), and riding a silver Giant Sedona.

I'm registering right now. Any idea on the approximate turnout numbers? I'm curious how big it will be.

I'm registering right now. Any idea on the approximate turnout numbers? I'm curious how big it will be.

As of now, we have 709 riders pre-registered. I expect we have at least 1,000 riders by tomorrow morning.

Thanks to all who came out today. We had about 1,100 riders and raised a lot of funding to help build a 13-mile bike network in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood.

Thanks to all who came out today. We had about 1,100 riders and raised a lot of funding to help build a 13-mile bike network in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood.

You did an AWESOME job! It was very well organized. I had a great time! :)

It was a good time! :thumb:

Well, it certainly was a perfect day for a ride, and my friend and I enjoyed it immensely. We were both seeing parts of the city up close for the first time, and my wife (who grew up in Detroit and attended St. Mary's of Redford), was amazed when I later showed her the map of the parts of the city that we covered in our 40-mile ride.

I tend to be early for things and don't like waiting in lines, so it was a good thing that we were near the front of the activity all day. We arrived when they opened registration at 8:30, were in the first wave at the rest stop (no line for refreshments), and were also early arrivals at the finish (again, no line to get a good portion of that great food (and beer!)). The only problem was that we outran the escorts a few times in the first part and had to wait for them to catch up so that we didn't miss a turn or get too far ahead.

After getting our refreshments, it was hot standing out in the sun and we didn't know how (or when) they planned on getting the "peloton" moving again, so we decided to just head off on our own, armed with the route map and assisted by my Edge 705 (very handy to have the GPS map on a ride like this). This was also an interesting trip even though we were mostly alone on the route, as it gave us even more of a chance to look around at the sights.

So we saw it all: old grand houses that were on the verge of collapsing in on themselves; old grand houses lovingly restored and well-tended; empty fields "returning to nature"; new housing and condo developments; old decayed shopping strips with store-front churches; new strip-malls with current chain eateries and stores; gritty urban scenes with pawn shops and payday-loan emporiums; people waving from their front lawns; neighborhoods from upper to middle-class, to near-poverty. A real eye-opener for those of us who mostly see Detroit only from along the freeways as we're heading into downtown to the theaters and sporting arenas.

Another thought I had along the way: The city of Detroit is, I believe, about 80% African-American. Yet the riders in this event were probably 95% white and mostly from the suburbs. This goes to show that there is still a lot of interest in this city, and if you give people a place to go, something to do, and make them feel safe doing it, they will come and support the activities here. Maybe the future of the area is looking brighter these days.

I'm glad you guys had a great time. Together we raised $10,000 for the new bike lane network in Corktown, which with a little luck will start construction next year.

DougG, Having a diverse cycling group in Detroit is a goal. I think we're doing a bit better but still have a long way to go. Having more bike shops in the city would help. We're also discussing cycling outreach efforts for Hispanic and Arab-American groups. And I believe a recent Portland study shows that adding bike lanes to a city encourages more female cycling because it's safer.

The future is brighter for biking in Detroit (http://www.m-bike.org/blog/2008/09/21/detroit-welcomes-mayor-and-cyclist-ken-cockrel-jr).

The unconfirmed amount of money raised is now $12,000 (and we drank 93 gallons of Arbor Brewing Company beer.)

The unconfirmed amount of money raised is now $12,000 (and we drank 93 gallons of Arbor Brewing Company beer.)

I had some of that. So who drank the other 92 gallons? :D:D