Parking Announcement

There is now a $2 charge to park in the lot adjacent to Rivard Plaza. If you are dropping off or picking up a bike for service, please pull into Rivard directly south of Atwater. Sometimes the gate is open for the free lot otherwise, you can just pull up to the fence. We are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience and we are doing our best to figure out a better long-term solution to this problem.

UPDATE: At least for now, the lot just west of the building is being kept open for our customers.

Odds & Ends

Our first Wednesday night ride went off well, we toured West and Indian Villages. This week, the plan is to hit the Heidelberg Project and the Better Made factory. Meet us at the shop at 9 if you'd like to join. We got all of our bikes licensed, and are currently working with DPD to even sell them here. Although we still have a fear, like many of the people we talk to, that licenses will be used for harassment rather than for the stated purpose of reducing bike theft, but we can only hope. And we've been talking to a lot of officers, all of whom feel like ticketing suburbanites -- or residents for that matter -- without licenses is just not going to happen. It's not worth a trip to court for a ticket that will likely get thrown out.

On that note, we will be offering 10% off any safety equipment purchases (helmets, mirrors, bells, lights, etc.) and a free safety inspection for everyone with a licensed bicycle through July 19.

Wheelhouse was featured in Twist last weekend, the Freep's women-oriented pullout. Check it here.

Lastly, we are thrilled that a customer of ours, Stephanie, learned how to ride a bike this past weekend after just her second rental. It's hard to learn new things as an adult, so we sincerely congratulate her! She ended up having a blast after some initial trepidation. And we have the video to prove it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3wnYAbCztc]

Tube recycling

We are preparing to send in our first shipment of tubes to Alchemy Goods, so if you have old tubes laying around at home, feel free to drop them off at the shop. AG makes cool stuff out of the tubes, including messenger bags and wallets. And they incorporate valves into their designs as zipper pulls.

We like. We want. And we hope to be selling soon.

License Update

The M-Bike blog weighs in the bike license issue with some helpful info:

The Detroit News ran an article today about Detroit Police plans to ticket cyclists in Detroit on unlicensed bikes:

[...]

But it’s not enforceable

But the real story is the law is unenforceable under state law.

To begin with MCL 257.606 sub-section (1)(i) states that local authorities can “[Regulate] the operation of bicycles and requiring the registration and licensing of bicycles, including the requirement of a registration fee.” The CIty of Detroit can require bicycle licenses.

However, MCL 257.606 sub-section (3) says that such a requirement “shall not be enforceable until signs giving notice of the local traffic regulations are posted upon or at the entrance to the highway or street or part of the highway or street affected, as may be most appropriate, and are sufficiently legible as to be seen by an ordinarily observant person.”

Detroit does not have any such signage nor have we heard of any plans to add any. Posting such signs around all the major city entrances would involve a major cost. I am unaware of any city within Michigan that has taken such a drastic step to make bike license registration an enforceable ordnance.

The Detroit Chief of Police has been alerted to the state law.

The Detroit News expects to run a follow up story tomorrow. They have received considerable feedback on this. Needless to say, this police announcement has not made very many people happy.

In these times of high fuel prices and people looking at alternative means of getting around, we shouldn’t be looking to penalize those riding bikes in Detroit.

As they say, "Developing."

Read the entire post here.

Night Ride + Licenses + Movies + Tiger Stadium

Well, our first night ride did not quite go as planned -- it was absolutely pouring last night! But keep it in your calendars for Wednesdays at 9 p.m. It can't rain every day, can it? There has been a lot of talk about bike licensing in the city. The Police Department issued a press release Wednesday saying they would begin cracking down on unregistered bikes as a theft preventative measure. We're all for that, but you know what? We're skeptical. You see last month, we tried to register all of our rental bikes and were told that the Central District did not have enough licenses (that would be 30). They actually sent us to the Secretary of State which, duh, does not register bicycles.

With the uptick in bike theft (hello, one was stolen from inside the Park Bar earlier this week) anything to help quell that tide is wonderful. But considering the attention that auto theft gets from the DPD (um, not a ton) again, we are skeptical.

But we are planning to continue to investigate this and will keep you informed.

Russell Industrial Center is kicking off its (not just) drive-in movie theater this Saturday from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. with the classic Night of the Living Dead. Tickets will be just $2 for patrons who arrive on foot and bicycle $5 in car and $10 in SUV or other large vehicle. Plus, there will be special seating up front for people who aren't in cars. Nice!

Wheelhouse encourages you to visit SaveTigerStadium.org. Details of the organization's plans to preserve a corner of the stadium and the field are on the site, as is an on-line donation mechanism. Check it out.

PS: The wave died in '99!

Bells, bells, bells

We got lots of new retail goodies in stock this week, including some cool adult BMX-style helmets and LOTS of bells -- baseball bells, beehive bells, hot pepper bells and tons more. Not only are bells a safe and useful accessory, they are one of the least-expensive ways to personalize your bike. Splurge a bit on your trusted steed!

Regular good ol' weekend

Best thing about this coming weekend is that there are no planes flying above us nor ferris wheels spinning in close proximity. Just a regular good Detroit weekend. (Although, Pat Benatar is playing tonight in front of the Ren Cen, which is pretty sweet.)

We have 2 tours this weekend, a 2-hour one on Saturday and a 3-hour one on Sunday. Both start at 1 p.m. and we can accommodate one rider to ten! Check out more information on our tours page.

A weekly night ride has its debut Wednesday, July 2 at 9 p.m. It's not an official Wheelhouse ride, just a group gathering at the shop to kick things off. We'll cap off the night at our friendly local pub, Andrew's on the Corner.

Oh, last thing, if you haven't been in the shop in a while, it might be worth it to come by and check out our stock. We have more and more retail goodies every week, and we even have a couple of Kona Smokes to sell (see previous post).

Smoke 'em if you got 'em

Our Smokes are here!

The hybrid rents for $15 for 2 hours, $35 for a whole day. They are great bikes for city riding!

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.