section ii. · grand rapids, mi

West Michigan.

Where we ride around Grand Rapids: the rail-trails and singletrack worth knowing, the events that draw a crowd, and the local resources we point people to.

Region
Grand Rapids metro
Center
42.96°N 85.67°W
Best season
April to October

Riding here

Grand Rapids is flat enough to be unintimidating, the river paths get you most places, and the surrounding county has more rail-trail mileage than we can ride in a season.

There's a West Michigan vibe that matches the riding: people actually stop to watch the weather. The light over the lake, a passing storm, the first real snow. Slowing down to notice what nature is doing turns out to be the same instinct that gets you onto a bike in the first place.

Most of our riding starts from the front door. Daily errands run through East GR and downtown along the Grand River; weekend rides reach for the rail-trails when we want distance, or the local singletrack when we want dirt. The why-we-ride page has the personal arc; this one is the local guidebook.

Group rides run year-round here at every pace, from a social cruise to a fast training tempo. The shops post their own schedules and the BikeGR coalition aggregates much of the rest; turn up to one and the others find you.

Bike polo is worth knowing about even if you don't play. The local court hosts pickup runs through the summer and is a good place to show up, watch, and hang out.

Trails and rides

The rail-trails get you out of the city without much fuss. The singletrack is maintained by WMMBA volunteers and is good enough that people drive in for it. Barry-Roubaix is the local event most worth knowing about.

Rail-trails

  • Musketawa Trail Twenty-five paved miles, Marne to Muskegon. Quiet farmland once you're past the city.
  • Fred Meijer White Pine Trail Ninety-two paved miles, Comstock Park to Cadillac. Five counties.
  • Fred Meijer Pioneer Trail Connector that ties into the White Pine on the way north.
  • Kal-Haven Trail Unpaved, scenic, Kalamazoo to South Haven. A fatter tire helps.

Singletrack

  • Cannonsburg Eleven miles at the ski hill. Free in summer.
  • Luton Park Beginner-friendly blue loop; a flatter introduction to dirt.
  • Merrell Trail Fast descents, table-tops, roots, elevated bridges. Local favorite.
  • The Dragon at Hardy Dam Forty-five miles around Hardy Pond. Under fifty miles from town.

Events

  • Barry-Roubaix Hastings, every March. The largest gravel race in the world by participation; four distances from eighteen to a hundred miles.

Resources

If somebody at the park asked us how to get into this, here's where we'd point them. Local first, then routing, then watch and read.

Local

  • Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition Local advocacy, group rides, route maps. The hub.
  • Alger Bikes Family-owned since 1957. Friendly, willing to help with Bosch troubleshooting; they have saved us significant travel logistics on the Load more than once.
  • Grand Rapids Bicycle Co. Cherry Street shop. Friendly, runs a lot of community events.
  • SwitchBack Gear Exchange Plainfield Avenue. Excellent wheel builder; live session music and large group rides; coffee, kava, and beer in front.

Makers

West Michigan punches above its weight on the manufacturing side. Two operations worth knowing about:

  • Velocity USA Aluminum rim manufacturer in Grand Rapids. Hand-builds wheels in a 16,000 sq ft plant; lifetime warranty on the wheels that ship from there.
  • Cobra Framebuilding Joe Roggenbuck makes the tools other framebuilders use: frame fixtures, tube benders, mitering jigs. The YouTube channel is a deep well of framebuilding craft.

Routing

  • OpenStreetMap Often has seasonal roads other planners won't consider.
  • Strava Plan and record trips; the social side and challenges that line up with sporting events.
  • Ride with GPS Better turn-by-turn export than Strava; popular with the local club rides.
  • Komoot Route planning that talks to the Bosch eBike Flow app via Live Sync; plan in Komoot, navigate from the bike's display.

Watch and read

  • Not Just Bikes Jason Slaughter on what makes a city walkable, bikeable, livable; mostly Dutch infrastructure as the case study.
  • CyclingAbout Alee Denham, full-time touring bikepacker. The annual buyer's guide is the reference for anything tour-shaped.
  • Climate Town Rollie Williams on the history and policy of car-centric systems. Funnier than it sounds.
  • The Flying Scotsman (2006) Graeme Obree breaks the world hour record on a bike he built from washing-machine parts; Jonny Lee Miller in the lead.
  • Icarus (2017) Bryan Fogel sets out to dope his way through Haute Route and accidentally films the Russian state doping program. Won the Oscar for Best Documentary.
  • Ride: A Short Film About Cycling Twelve quiet minutes on a new-in-town bike mechanic and the human power of turning the cranks.
  • cargobikeforum.de, Load 60/75 thread German owners' compendium of modifications and fixes for the Load. In German; a translator helps.
  • more-cargobike.de German aftermarket specialist for the Load and other frontloaders. Where most of the interesting accessory work lives.
  • bikecargo.shop, How It Works A roof-rack carrier built for frontloaders. Worth reading even just as a primer on how to think about anchoring a cargo bike.