daddystheman

Used to ride Kensington and Island Lake quite a bit, but I've been developing some good routes in Livingston county over the past year. The roads suck a$$, but traffic is pretty courteous and there is some really pretty scenery in that neck of the woods.

Anybody else find themselves riding out thatta way?

outashape

I cycled from S. Lyon Rail Trail to Kensington and back (28 miles) yesterday with the Ann Arbor Bicycle Club and today I cycled from Stockbridge to Mason and back (42 miles) Check out aabts.org. They have rides in the morning - usually the retiree group pace about 15-17 and the Far East Group out of Plymouth, pace about 18-20 with a break away group about 22-24. They have a lot of routes posted on the website.

Michigander

I sometimes ride out in Island Lake, but lately I've been road riding with these guys,

https://www.lmb.org/wsc/

octaneTom

Michigander -

I mostly ride alone, but I've only done the Royal Oak to Belle Isle 3rd Saturday loop w/ Wolverine (around 60 miles). I've heard the Tue/Thu rides from Beverly School are pretty good—have you gone out on those? Any feedback?

Tom

Michigander

I've only gone on the monday and wednesday rides. I've got sufficient stamina, but I'm not that stable or confident with my road bike yet because I've done almost pure mountainbiking for the past 8 years, so I'm trying to work my way up to the faster rides.

Maybe you can tell me, how is that saturday ride through detroit?

octaneTom

The Belle Isle ride is at a pretty casual pace. It's around 16-18mph with lots of chatting—very laid back and easy going. Once it hits Belle Isle, they do a loop around the park and you get a chance to crank it up for a mile or two, then everyone regroups at the Starbucks across Jefferson after a coffee break for the return trip. Huge groups of riders.

It's been fun the times I did it.

outashape

I cycled on the Bell Isle ride with Benjamin (he also posts here on BF as Caadman). It is an easy ride. I've also cycled on the Tues and Thurs rides. They are not a problem. They ride though subdivisions blowing stopsigns, etc probably around 17-19 mph. Once they hit the mile roads, they crank it up a bit. They do about a mile sprint with speeds up to 27-28 mph on flat. I am overweight and female, and I had no problem. They have harder rides, but I have not gone on them. I live in Novi, and the traffice on 696 around 5:00 - 6:00 is not worth driving on to ride with the Wolverines. A group that rides out of Northville, is quite fast with a lot of racers who ride out in Waterford. One time I rode with them, and a couple of the guys took turns putting their hands on my back to help me keep up. I think they ride around 21-23 mph in the hilly areas between Northville to Whitmore Lake. They have a yahoo group that you can join. They also have a lot of rides on the east side of town.

outashape

The Bell Isle ride was cancelled last saturday due to rain and is rescheduled for this saturday. In addition, the ride next month will be on the 4th saturday so it doesn't conflict with some other ride the Wolverine club supports. I only did the Bell Isle one time because I work midnights and have to work on the weekends so it is hard to cycle 30 - 50 miles during my regular sleep time. It was fun, the people of Detroit beep their horns at you----not to get you off the road, but to wave. Being downtown with all the tall buildings was great, there is not much traffic on the main streets.

outashape

Correction, the Bell Isle ride is usually the 3rd saturday of the month, August and September will be the 4th saturday of the month. For August, that was yesterday. Sorry! I never know what day of the week is the current day. Am I working on Friday for Thursday, or is it really Thursday because I am working for Friday**********?See what I mean. Plus they keep changing my non-scheduled days from Tue/Wed to Wed/Thur or Thur/Fri, so I am either working 7 days in row or only 4 days. I am really lost.

Michigander

Sounds fun. When I first heard about it I thought riding through that area of detroit would be insane, but safety in numbers I guess. Maybe I'll do it next month.

octaneTom

Yeah, no worries on the Detroit thing, it's all perfectly safe. (I might be the wrong person to ask because I went to school at WSU and have my business right downtown so I'm pretty familiar with the city.) There's not many dicey locations you go through—the worst I suppose is coming back north you're going up Second Ave. most of the way and that goes through some bad neighborhoods, but nothing that will make you feel unsafe—especially not with 50 other riders around you. Like outashape said, everyone you pass seems pretty into it — lots of honks/waves and cheers.

Michigander

About the 3rd saturday Detroit ride. My brother is coming to town for a wedding on that weekend, so he and I were thinking about doing the ride together. The problem is, he doesn't have a servicable road bike. He has a very nice Trek mountain bike though. Keeping in mind he's in good shape and 18, could he easily keep up on his mountain bike?

TomMc1

Just found this regional forum... when did they add these? Anyway, I live in Livingston county as well and ride regularly at Island Lake and Kensington, did 45 miles between the two this past Saturday morning before the afternoon rain.

see you on the road!

octaneTom

The times I've been on the ride everyone was on road bikes, but the pace isn't too fast—can he keep a steady 16-17mph pace on his mountain bike? If so, he's probably fine.

brotherdan

I bike out to kensington from Ann Arbor on occasion. But I'm usually biking out there to play disc golf.

caadman

Hey there octaneTom, outashape and Michigander, I'm glad I cliked on these new regional forums. Pleased and surprized to see the belle isle ride being talked about here, but that's cool, it's really become a popular ride over the years.

Michigander, I know it's past the 4th saturday in the month of sept now, but you can keep this in your "for information" file for the future, I would say that people who don't have road or cross bikes but who are at least reasonably fit and can do 17 or so on any kind of bike, will do just fine on this ride. I know most people that come on the ride don't know the route unless they have been doing the ride for a while and have memorized it, so I can't drop anybody in either direction, so you can keep that in mind if you ever want to bring people to the ride and are wondering if they can make it or not.

There is one more belle isle ride for the year, that's the 3rd saturday of this month (october), we'll start it a bit later than we normally do, this month it'll leave from beverly school at 830am and 915 from royal oak, and as outshape mentioned, the wolverien's have a yahoo forum to keep in touch, if you join that, that is where I post the notices for these rides. It'd be great to have all of you on the ride!!

Outashape, I haven't talked to you in quite a while, how are you doing??...I remember you from TOSRV, so did you do that this year?? I went down and did the whole thing, we had no rain on saturday, and dry weather up untill the lunch stop, then it was all rain like was forcasted for the whole weekend from chillicothe all the way into columbus, most of the wolvs. didn't even come down for it the forcast was soo bad, but I HAVE to do that ride every year, so nothing stops me, well snow will, but so far that hasen't happened to me on that ride.

Take care,

Benjamin