This weekend is getting too darned exciting. Rob ( I like speaking in the third person. It’s like there’s another, much more exciting, somebody impersonating me out there.) will be at two events, one on Friday evening and the other on Sunday afternoon.

Bike Bash in Kerrytown
Friday, May 18th, from 5:30 to 8:00pm, I’ll be at the Ann Arbor Get Downtown’s Bike Bash, part of the Bike to Work Week celebrations. I’ll have books strewn about for sale. Please stop by and tell me about the back roads you love to ride.

Rolling Hills County Park
Dirt Road Ride
Sunday, May 20th, from 1:30 to 4:00pm, I’ll lead a dirt road ride through Augusta Township. We’ll do a shortened version of the Augusta Route from the book. 16.5 miles of riding bliss at an easygoing pleasant pace. This area is relatively flat, filled with farms and wooded areas.

This is part of a dedication ceremony for a new mountain bike trail in Rolling Hills Park. The ceremony takes place at 1:30 and we’ll roll out promptly at 2:00pm. The ride should take about 1-1/2 hours. Come on out and get your pedaling in for the day.

It might still be called a Paramount if the world spun a little differently back in the early 90’s. Richard Schwinn and a couple of partners, including Marc Muller, director of the Waterford based Paramount factory from its inception, purchased the factory as the original Schwinn Trust sold off the remainder of its fading assets. Richard was the last Schwinn standing in the bike business.

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Joy Road

DRW Ride & Book Signing
Mighty Good Coffee
217 N. Main Street
Sunday, April 29
9am – 11am

 
Two Distances / Two Paces
12 miles @ 10mph average
18 miles @ 15 mph average

The Ride
Rob will lead a ride from Mighty Good Coffee in downtown Ann Arbor to give you a small sampler of riding the nearby dirt roads. We’ll leave along one of the scenic routes that lead out of town onto the dirt roads that then go for miles in all directions.

Since we do leave from the heart of Ann Arbor, there will be a combination of conditions including paved roads, a bike path, and, of course, dirt roads. And hills. This area has plenty of those and since we’re situated in a river valley they’re between us and the countryside.

Riders of all levels are welcome, though keep in mind that there should be a basic level of good fitness, since each route variation does require some exertion in order to scale the numerous hills. Figure you’ll be out for about 1-1/2 hours. Please bring water bottles and a snack.

The ride returns to Mighty Good Coffee for free cups of coffee sponsored by Sic Transit Cycles, plus Rob will sign copies of his book for those lucky purchasers. Ride maps will be provided.

85,000 miles. That’s a long way on one bike. But then, Mike doesn’t miss many days to ride, so he just keeps ticking them off. I used to see him quite often, long before we ever met. He’d be riding up Newport Road and I’d be riding down, or vice-versa. He wore a purple bike cap that distinguished him on the road. Plus, he had that GT mountain bike. Same bike every time.

Newport Road is one of the main conduits to the dirt roads from downtown Ann Arbor. It gets you out there quickly, onto Maple, Stein, Tubbs, Joy, Jennings, Northfield Church…

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I had a great talk–aired Monday, April 2nd–with Scott Dedenbach on his Bike Shop Show podcast. I explained why the world is a far better place with Dirt Road Washtenaw in your messenger bag. There are also juicy, never before revealed facts about the back road world. Don’t miss it. (If I didn’t mention any of those things, I meant to.) And, we talk about riding in Detroit. That’s always fascinating.

One word: titanium. Jason is enamored (perhaps another way to put it is obsessed, but I think enamored places it in a nice positive glow). He’s had close encounters with hand-built titanium bikes from some prominent builders: Quiring, Seven, Moots, are names not unfamiliar to him. It’s the beauty of the material and the longevity that turns him on.

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The Two Marks
Sometimes we’re fortunate enough to make friends with a skilled craftsman. Take two craftsmen with unique skills and it’s like setting off on an adventure that unfolds in amazing ways.  Mark Braun met Mark Nobilette back in the early days of the revered and somewhat mythical Cycle Cellar’s existence. (With two Marks this is going to get complicated so from here on, Mark Braun will go by what his friends call him, B. Mark Nobilette is now simply Nobilette.)

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CANCELLED FOR 2012

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There are a lot of deer in this area. I’ve seen up to 50 at one time milling about in a farm field. (There were probably more. I didn’t count them. I just look at the mass and say, okay, 50. Ish.)

Fields aren’t their only domain. They inhabit our space as well. Our space. Like roads. (We like to think of roads as “ours,” fields and forests as “theirs.”) As I pedal toward those deer standing in the middle of the road, they pause, stare at me, then flee as if they’ve done something wrong and I’m Dickens’s headmaster, Wackford Squeers, come to punish them. They often pause longer than I’d think wise, assessing me. I imagine, from their perspective, I’m an odd, garish animal. (“What kind of creature would wear those color combinations…together!?”) They dart off before I draw too near, rolling those massive, limpid 8 ball eyes.

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Grace Pang’s modified 2003 Stumpjumper fits into the tradition of the Stumpy perhaps more than a stock bike off the showroom floor. After all, the Stumpy was introduced to the bike world in 1981 as a steel off-road bike with part designs influenced by motorcycles (handlebars), and some components that were made for road and touring bikes (15-speed gears and canti-brakes). The front fork was rigid.

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