What are your favorite paved or unpaved trails in southeast Michigan? I’m looking to get into cycling in the area and wanted to avoid cars completely if possible. Any suggestions?

Edit:Thank you so much everyone!

My husband and I are planning a visit to our 30 year old adult soon in Dearborn over Memorial Day Weekend. We are hoping to pinpoint the best location to use as home base to have an active adventure each day. Is there someplace we stay that would allow us to go on a few long bike rides, do a few good hikes, go disc golfing, maybe rock hunt along a beach shore, etc?

@ Pleasant Lake

Anyone know when the water fountains open on Hines drive, Kensington, Lower Huron, Willow, and Oakwoods metropark?

Love being able to just fill up on the road instead of finding a store.

Visiting NW Michigan (TC base) in a few weeks and am looking for some climbs!

Paved (low car traffic if possible), gravel, or MTB trails - you name, I’ll try and climb it.

Hoping for routes with 7k - 10+k ft of climbing and am okay with doing loops of 2-3k ft if needed.

Please let me know if there are any routes within 1 to 2 hours of TC that might work.

I’ll also reach out to local bike shops and post anything I learn here.

Thanks!

I have a 4 day vacation in two weeks and was thinking about loading my bike on my car and having a little solo road bike vacation. I am looking for destinations that have some stuff that I could check out over 4 days (might do more than one location). I have a decently high priority on safety. It would be nice to be in an area where there is fun stuff to check out off the bike (museum etc) too. I am coming from ann arbor. I have 25mm tires, so can't do gravel :(

One thing I was thinking of doing was doing grand rapids for two days, toddling around town and maybe doing the paved bit of the white pine trail. I was thinking of doing two days in traverse city, one on the Leelanau Trail not sure how bikable traverse city is besides that or if I would get bored.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

How well does Glacial Hills drain post-rain? Thinking of heading up there tomorrow and wondering how the trails will be. Yes I looked on the website and couldn't find an up-to-date trail status...

I have a week off work coming up and I wanted to take a long bike trip during this week, and I was wondering if I would get in trouble if I camp at parks and where could I find a good trails to take up north?

I will be visiting Detroit in early-ish May and I am planning to do the following ride while I'm there:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41351500

Does anyone here have experience with this route? Upon initial review, It appears that I would have to take the Walpole-Algonac Ferry to Canada, but the return instructions on the map RWGPS map is kind of confusing. It appears to be instructing me to take a tunnel back to Michigan but I do not think it would be allowed. I do not think you could bike across the Ambassador Bridge either (I would rather avoid crossing the POS bridge tbh). I cannot find a ferry or boat crossing back to Detroit as well. Any advise and/or pointers would be appreciated. Thanks!

Southeastern Michigan Metroparks. Hope everyone was able to get out today!

I got this weird folding mountain bike to use with my camper since there’s no easy way to get a rack mounted on the camper or on my Land Rover while towing.

This can just fold up, go in its bag, then go in the camper itself. My wife actually suggested this after I had told her the options I was contemplating.

I took it out for its first “real” ride today.

I was pleasantly surprised.

First off, it’s lighter than I expected it to be. I’ve been using my fat bike and my Marin Larkspur lately, which both are not at all light, and lifting this onto the rack was significantly easier. I’d guess it’s weighing in around maybe 27-28 pounds?

Out on the trail it suited me well. I’m mainly an easy trail flow style rider. DTE Green is my usual trail when I ride MTB. So I did 3 laps there with it today.

I had read that these bikes were solidly built, and in normal riding you wouldn’t really notice that they fold. I would say that is accurate. I’m not exactly light weight myself, and this felt just as solid as any other hardtail I’ve ridden the last several years.

Geometry is a bit dated, but I’m not sure that really mattered on Green Lake. The bike is smaller than most of my other bikes, and I’ve had very limited experience with 27.5” wheels. It felt downright nimble. There are only a few switchback style turns on Green, but I felt like I was taking them faster than I normally do.

Handlebars are a bit narrow, but that’s easily rectified…but for me unnecessary. I find most mountain bike handlebars to be uncomfortably wide, and I regularly trim them down.

The only issue I really had was the seat post slipping. When I noticed it was when I realized I hadn’t used any grease on it when I put it together. I tightened the quick release clamp up a tad and didn’t seem to have any more issues. I’ll likely get a non-QR one and get that on there. I feel like QR ones never work very well for me.

Only other thing I may do is get a tad bit wider tires. It’s got 2.10” tires but I think I could go up to a 2.35” with no issues. However…I do plan on using this as a gravel rig from time to time, so I may just use these tires until they wear out and see if they grow on me.

Front fork worked great, seemed pretty dialed after I put the air suggested for my weight in. XT breaks were excellent. XT drivetrain performed flawlessly. I’m normally a “1x or nothing” kind of rider, but this weird bike doesn’t bother me that it’s got multiple front rings.

Overall I’m happy with this bike, and think it will be perfect for what my use plans are.

Fellow Michigan Cyclists!!

I probably don't have to tell you that May is Bike Month. In order to celebrate this awesome hobby, there has been a group challenge proposed in the rMichiganCycling Strava Club (found here).

The challenge is to ride your bike each of the 31 days of May. The ride does not have to meet any length or time requirements. Just get your butt in the saddle.

Depending on interest or completion rate, I hear there might be tshirts or something to commemorate.

4/25 edit: corrected hyperlink in post. thanks u/symbi0nt

Just got done with my KalHaven trail pre work ride, which takes me past the local DejaVu strip club. I got this email. Happy Friday!

Hi! Considering moving out of Detroit proper for a little slower pace of life, to a smaller more rural town or on the edge of town. Not from Michigan originally, and have lived in the city the whole time, so don't have the best knowledge of nearby areas :(

Any town or area suggestions that fit the criteria below?

-Something with a cute/quaint downtown that's walkable/bikeable.

-Close to good roads for cycling (road or gravel - farm roads work!) and motorcycling

-A couple restaurants/bars, gym, and grocery store nearby or within a 20 min drive

• ~45min drive or less to Plymouth (work)

-Nearby greenspace (parks etc) would be a plus, but not required

Ready to embrace that front porch/windchime/gardening life lol. Looking to start checking some areas out, but didn't know where to even start!

Hi everyone.

One of my goals for this year was to do a bit more mountain biking. I’ve already accomplished that, as this was my second time out this year which exceeds my one time out last year. 😂

I finished Big Kame today. It was my first time riding that trail since I crashed there and broke my elbow back in June of 2021. That crash kept me off my bike for nine months.

Not going to lie, I’ve been terrified of trail riding since. I’ve spent most of my saddle time since I finally healed up on gravel. I’m actually fine with that, gravel is my favorite type of riding, but I did miss the MTB trails.

I ended up having to walk the bike past one of the rock garden sections on the downhill, which is where I crashed. I was nervous and wasn’t carrying much speed, then my tire got kinda wedged between two rocks which stopped me entirely. I got it pulled out, but then didn’t have an easy way to get back on the bike…so I just walked it down that section.

Hopefully I get back next week and finish the whole thing without having to walk at all.

The climb to the top reminded me how out of shape I am.

Felt good to get this one under my belt.

https://lmb.org/ride-calendar/mup-2024/

My wife and I are considering this tour. Any recommendations on bike/gearing/tires, etc? She has a 26" hardtail with 3x7 and rigid fork, which I think would be fine, though the flat bar might benefit from some ergo grips. I was thinking I'd probably want the same, though I also have a CX bike with 700x38, but it has a 2x9 so I'd be without a granny. I have tires so can go anywhere from city tread to full knobbies on the 26ers. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Anyone else concerned about this mod’s whereabouts?

I attended my first Dirty 30 this weekend and am still taken aback by how unwelcoming the town of Saranac was to our event. Between the protester(?) with his burn pile, angry residents at the main intersection in town all day, and the police and fire folks not actually giving a snot about rider safety, they made sure we knew they didnt want us around.

Am I the only one that felt this? How do we change it?

Surely we doubled the town’s population on Saturday and injected a fair bit of cash into their economy over the course of the weekend.