OT - One Day Ride Across Michigan (bicycling)
Have any of you mgobicyclists ever done the ODRAM - One Day Ride Across Michigan? I live in New York, but will be in the region on business next month and was invited to join the ride, it's August 9th. Just wondering if anyone has experience doing it and what they would say about it in terms of organization, terrain, support, etc. Basically, is it fun and worth it (assuming my old legs can handle 147 miles). Thanks.
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but an avid cyclist and from what I can tell, this looks like a good ride. I may look at doing it maybe next year. This August is already booked. Cool jersey as well.
I haven't done it but I looked into it a few years back. There is no support - no set up rest stops, no official support vehicles. That's not too big of a deal if you can find enough places to refill water/buy food and bring a flat kit and pump along. I registered for the make-a-wish 300 miles/3 days ride instead of the ODRAM. it's for a good cause but you do have to raise a lot of money, around $900 (and it's way too late to register this year)
Edit: Thanks, Android.
Would love to do something like that. August is usually the time I try to get that last vacation in before football season.
Not much of a road cyclist, but was in Des Moines last year for the Ironkids Tri Nationals and saw a thing on RAGBRAI in the museum there. Anyone ever done that? Looks pretty awesome.
RAGBRAI is a pretty cool thing. I've never rode the full week but I've done a few single days (60-80 mile days) and I drove a support vehicle for a team a few years back. I'm also not what one would call a cyclist enthusiast so I've never put in the off-season work to prepare nor the group/friends to, again, do the full week, but it'd be fun as all hell.
For those who don't know, Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa = RAGBRAI (The Des Moines Register). Sunday to Saturday, each day ranging from 40 to 80 miles, some days having a built in loop to get up to 100, plus, miles for a day. Many pass-through towns, 4-5 a day, built into the ride with many food and drink options across each small town. Towns prepare for the full day of riders passing through and do an awesome job of hosting said cyclists. Overnight towns are similar, usually bigger towns/cities than the rural pass through towns, making many camp sights across each town and it's surrounding areas for the thousands of riders to sleep. Overnight and pass-through towns are selected and announced each January for the upcoming late-July ride.
I'll second that RAGBRAI is awesome. It's pretty neat to be part of a river of 15,000 cyclists, getting sucked along the road by the draft from everyone else. I've ridden a number of other multi-day rides, and I don't think there's anything else quite like it.
One of the main points is to eat a ton of food, and every community group you can think of in every town on the route has baked food that they are selling to riders. I get hungry just thinking about it. The people along the route are extremely friendly as well. A few of us stopped on the side of the road in one town to wait for some friends, and started talking to a guy who was sitting there on his lawn watching everyone go by. After a couple of minutes, he offered us all beers, and I didn't get the sense that his actions were particularly uncommon.
1) Registered, with a cycling group, totally sober; 2) Not registered, self-contained, not at all sober; 3) Registered, with RAGBRAI's official luggage service, not at all sober.
It's awesome, basically summer camp on wheels for adults. 40-80 miles a day, a great sense of community, really friendly locals, hot, safe (assuming you can manage your alcohol intake). I do it about every other year to keep from pickling my liver.
A local Ann Arbor Bicycle club initiated an "annual" ride in or around Hell, Michigan. As I remember their inaugaral ride was in 1978.
Did a two day around Lake St. Claire, that was....interesting. No hills to speak of except for the two international bridges, but windy as hell. The Canadian side was pretty scenic as I recall, and so was much of the ride in Michigan coming south from Port Huron. Once you were south of the Grosse Pointes though....damn depressing.
Did a number of rides to the bridge and back but only did one cross state, from Alpena to Traverse City...out to the lighthouse actually. Those were a lot of years ago, you guys have fun.
The "One Helluva Ride" is still going on, out of Chelsea Fairgrounds. It was this past weekend, I think. Great ride but the headwinds in the afternoon in the Grass Lake area are BRUTAL.
I rode ODRAM a couple of years ago, and it's a really neat ride. At the time, it started at Meinert Park rather than Montague Middle School, so you really got to ride from lake to lake in one day. It's pretty neat to have such well-defined start and end points.
The ride is basically unsupported as mentioned above, but they give you lunch about halfway across the state and dinner in Bay City. Lots of riders had their own support vehicles meeting them periodically throughout the day, and I'm sure any of them would be happy to help if something went seriously wrong with you or your bike. There are a few small towns with convenience stores along the way, but make sure to bring plenty of water and snacks.
The route doesn't have many hills, and the last 50 miles are completely flat - the largest "hill" in that stretch is probably riding an overpass to get over a highway. It also goes west to east, so you are likely to have a tailwind most of the time. The scenery is nice but nothing spectacular: forest, farmland, and sometimes riding alongside a river.
Thanks for the info, I think I'm going to extend my business trip and do it.
One of my good friends did ODRAM last year and loved it. She was crazy and also did MARDO the next day (same route, just backwards and not really sanctioned or anything). Said she had a great time.
I will not do the Mad Ass Ride Done Over the next day, I'll do NASA instead (nursing a sore ass).