Pedal Pushin'

There's a group ride on Saturday, leaving from Rivard Plaza at 10 a.m. Registration begins at 9 a.m. The ride is called Pedal Pushin' and is sponsored by Detroit Spokespeople. Wheelhouse is offering rental for the entire five-hour ride for $25 and helmets for $7.50 (they are mandatory for the ride). We will open at 9:30 to provide rental service.

Rain date: Sunday, June 22.

Summer Vacay in the D

Real Detroit Weekly wrote up Wheelhouse in their summer guide as a way to spend a car-free weekend in the city. Excerpt:

Wheelhouse Detroit is a quaint bike rental and repair shop that not only houses regular bikes but also tandem, cruisers with baskets and three styles of child-friendly bikes with more styles to come. They also carry the necessities, like water bottles and helmets, should a last minute purchase be required. Both two hour and day rentals (a two-day rental cost me a mere $50 to get around the city) are available, but they also have tour options of the beautiful downtown areas for the sightseeing folk. “We see a mix of both vacationers and city residents looking for something new," Kavanaugh said. Once obtaining my wheels for my excursion, I peddled along happily through the city to Woodbridge Star Bed & Breakfast on the corner of Trumbull and Alexandrine.

Check out the whole thing here.

Riverdays Logistics

Riverdays kicks off this Friday, and there is already a lot of activity near Rivard Plaza. Tuesday through Thursday, if you are coming to the shop and get stopped at the gate, let them know you are coming to the bike shop and they will let you in. We will update this post with more information about how to navigate Riverdays itself as we learn it.

Kelli's bike is famous!

...well, not famous, but it is featured at OldTenSpeedGallery! OTSG is a cool blog that, with a mix of love and tongue-in-cheekiness, lets tried-but-true bikes (by their very nature that are not eligible for such glory as promised to those at FixedGearGallery) have their day in the sun. Isn't Erie pretty?

Gas Prices Mean...

Riding a bike makes sense to more people. This Detroit News article talks about how more cyclists are adding fenders and racks and stuff to their bikes. We have certainly seen that to be true. If you are considering evolving your recreational ride to a commuter one, stop by the Wheelhouse. We have everything you need on hand!

On-line reservations

Our website is now able to accept on-line reservations. Not only can you ensure that a bike will be available for you when you want it, but on-line reservations receive a 10% discount! What are you waiting for? Reserve one today!

Good read

Check out a cool article about the history of bicycling in Detroit here. This paragraph is great:

The early wheelmen not given to worship breezed past the churches, racks or no, for the nearest saloon. There they chatted about "the proper gear of a bike, the cushioned saddles, and whether handlebars should have wooden, cork or leather grips, and whether the bars should be over- or underslung, and the advantages of chainless models over those chaindriven, which required clamps on the trousers, and what buildings and shops provided parking for bicycles, and the best routes for country driving, and whether Barney Oldfield could beat Earl Kiser or Ollie Schrein in a bicycle race at the fairgrounds."

Sounds like a night at the pub some of these days, too! Although, the whole chain argument is pretty much over.

Tours June 7 and 8

Wheelhouse Detroit, in partnership with Inside Detroit, has 2 great tours this weekend. Saturday's will take in Downtown highlights and Sunday's adds in Midtown (perfect for Festival of the Arts!). Call 313-656-BIKE (2453) to reserve a slot. Sunday's is already filling up! Read more about our tours here. Look for an announcement about nighttime tours in the next couple of weeks.

Another bike tour scheduled for this weekend will be led by Detroit Bikes! It meets at 10 a.m. at The Thinker in front of the DIA. The 4-hour tour will focus on art around town. More info here.

Ontario Winery Tour

Kelli took the weekend off to head across the stream to Ontario for a winery tour. Yes, our southern provincial neighbor has good grapes, and cycling is the perfect form of transport for such an adventure! Read more about the similar trip she took last fall here. (One small difference: we watched the Wings, not the Tigers...) Bikes and wine...life can't get much better.

Red Bull Weekend

Wheelhouse will be open this weekend only to people with tickets for the Red Bull Air Races. Which kinda blows, but the good news is that all of our bikes are rented out for the weekend -- some by Red Bull for their staff to get around and some to a Metro Detroit company that will be hosting a party near Tricenntennial State Park. Our hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. No tours this weekend.

Great news! Our tandem has arrived! Call us to reserve a slot, we have a hunch it will be quite popular! The prom king and queen at Cliff Bell's "Enchantment Under the D" party on Sunday night win a half-day rental -- good times.

Have a great weekend!