Join a Local Bike Club

Many cities or regions are fortunate enough to have a cycling club. While some cyclists are elites and need to ride with fast groups, there are many organizations that cater to riders of all levels. My area is a great example of the different kinds of clubs that can exist:

C4 – University cycling club

Keweenaw Cycling Club – new community club open to families and creating a kids' race team.

Red Jacket – BlueSky Health Cycling Team – adult race team with riders of all levels.

Trekkers – Community cycling club geared toward adults that meets once a week and sends out about three groups of riders: beginner, intermediate, advanced. All gather together for a potluck afterwards.

Bike shops often host weekly rides through the summer as well.

While there will be some discouraging rides for new riders, they are usually quite welcome. Many clubs host no drop rides where the faster riders ride to a certain point and wait for the slower riders, allow them to rest, then move on. Many faster riders have no problem with no drop rides. I like them because it gives me an excuse to stop and drink since I'm not particularly fond of refueling while riding.

Joining club will also give you the opportunity to make social connections with people who share the love of cycling with you. It sets you up for becoming a healthier, happier, and better rider. Spending time with your local cyclists presents many educational opportunities that will help you become a more competent cyclist.

National Bike Month is a great time to get involved with your local cycling club and get rolling!

The Feminine Face of Cycling

I live in a cyclist-dense community. Two small communities connected by a bridge over a canal contain one university cycling club/racing team, two community cycling clubs, and an adult cycling team. Allow me to briefly plug these groups:

* Copper Country Cycling Club (C4) - Michigan Tech's cycling club and racing team
* Keweenaw Cycling Club - Still in the beginning stages, the KCC is a new cycling club that is also starting a kid's competitive cycling team.
* Red Jacket - BlueSky Health Racing Team - A group of close-knit riders who fell in love with the camaraderie brought about by the impromptu Red Jacket cyclocross team.
* Trekkers - Started as a group of adults getting together for adult fun time. It evolved into what is now a large community cycling club with Monday night rides and potlucks.

These two small cities have more cycling clubs than many large cities. What makes them special is that they are not just cycling clubs, they are communities. The people in these clubs spend a lot of time together because the lifestyle of cycling is what brings them together. What makes all of this even more special are the familiar faces you find around any random corner and the conversations waiting to be had by bumping into one of these people.

I ran into three of my fellow cyclists within five minutes of each other at Michigan Tech today. What was even more unusual is that the four of us are all women. I couldn't help but smile as I walked through campus thinking about the good fortune I had just experienced. The masculine face cycling originally presented itself to me as was transforming into a symbol of feminine strength and means.

Today's occurrence may not be of much significance to you, but it is of great importance to me. I greatly admire the female cyclists in my community because they are my role models. Men have Lance. I have Bobbie, Heather, Kathy, Lori, and Melanie, to name a few. These are women who have allowed cycling to play a significant hand in their lives while juggling what life throws their way: school, work, relationships, travel. Most of them can identify with me. To see three of them doing what I do: going to school, some commuting by bike, is a great motivation.

Cycling Forums

The Internet is a pretty addicting little tool. Many of us have spent hours, if not days, surfing the web with endless information at our fingertips. I spent one whole night last week surfing through the backwards chronology of the English monarchy on Wikipedia.

If you are reading this blog, it is probably a safe assumption that you spend some of your bandwidth surfing through various cycling forums as well. I am quite guilty of this, especially this winter. Four complete weeks of bed rest dispersed throughout the winter is encouragement enough to click over to my favorite forum and dream of getting outside to ride my bike. I think this has been the cause of my spring fever, which I rarely get because I usually get to enjoy my winters skiing and snowshoeing in good health.

I spend a lot of my Internet time surfing through four cycling forums. The forum I spend the most time with is the Michigan Mountain Biking Association. This is a fun, passionate group of people who never fail to entertain. Even most serious topics get “sent to the Basement” when someone inevitably makes a sick comment sending the conversation into a downward spiral. This group proves amazing, though, as this forum also serves as a major network for riders who want to find others to ride with at various Michigan trails. One of our members moved to Colorado and even guides many the Michigan riders who head out west to be awed.



Team Estrogen is an online store for women cyclists looking for a large selection of fun cycling clothes and accessories to meet their needs. This store is unique in that it also hosts an online forum for women that has become quite the community. There is an incredible contrast between the female-dominated Team Estrogen and the male-dominated MMBA, both offering different kinds of information with the latter providing more humor and politics.



The Red Jacket – BlueSky Health Cycling Team forum is a new forum that deserves my time mostly because I am the forum administrator and a member of the cycling team. The goal of this forum is to provide a common source for local area riders to communicate and facilitate rides and transportation for races and trips. It is also our goal to provide health and training information as topics of discussion. All are welcome to contribute.



Mountain Bike Review is a precious resource to mountain bikers all over the world. It provides user product reviews, photos, and other resources along with an extensive forum. I only use the forum when I am homebound due its complexities. It is a very large forum with a lot of subforums and countless threads. Due to its size, it can be a bit overwhelming, but a lot of information can be found in its depths.

Small Towns Ahead of the Rest

It’s interesting to hear people say things like, “No one will notice, it’s a small town,” or “No one will figure it out, it’s a small town.” What they don’t realize is this isn’t your typical small town.

In Michigan, the twin cities on either side of the Portage Canal are referred to as Houghton/Hancock. Even in combination, the two cities are not the largest “city” in the Upper Peninsula. It’s a small place, but that’s the allure.

What is truly unique about this “small town” are the people who live here. Consider this, Houghton/Hancock
• have two universities: Michigan Technological University in Houghton, and Finlandia University in Hancock
• one hospital – Portage Hospital
• four bike shops

Four bike shops!? Yes. We are world class. We have four bike shops. We have Cross Country Sports (Trek), Downwind Sports (Giant), Hancock Bike Shop (Specialized), and the not-even-opened-yet The Bike Shop (Jamis, Marin). One might attribute this to being a “tourist town,” but that is inaccurate. True, we are tourist towns in the tourist peninsula, but Houghton and Hancock are two towns tailored to their unique demographic. We aren’t the typical small town. The residents consist of a high percentage of healthcare workers and university PhDs in comparison to other small towns. Combine these professionals with the high percentage of college students, and you find a severe demand for bike shops.

The number of bike shops is a good representation of how strong the cycling community is here. However, there is further evidence in the cycling clubs that have popped up over the years.

The Trekkers stemmed from a group of people who got together to play golf. This group has greatly evolved to a group that gets together to ride and dine together.

The Copper Country Cycling Club (C4) is the Michigan Tech cycling club that participates in intercollegiate racing and hosts the annual Copper Country Color Tour.

The Red Jacket Cycling Team is a new race team that arose from an impromptu cyclocross team from last fall.

The Keweenaw Cycling Club is in development.

As you can see, Houghton and Hancock are not your typical small towns. When it comes to cycling, one could say they are on the cutting edge.