Originally Posted by
Roger Ramjet
I've done OHR almost every year from 1994 to this year. The ride has changed bit by bit over the years. In order to go through Hell, you will probably have to do the 100-mile route now. It changed this year such that they serve lunch at Chelsea Fairgrounds at ride's end now, and not mid-ride at Portage Lake. All routes start and end at Chelsea Fairgrounds now.
The number of riders has gone down greatly since the 90s also. I seem to remember they were over 2000 then, maybe up to 2200 or 2300. One of the club members told me last year they were around 1200 now. This may be related to the fact that the quality of the roads has deteriorated greatly the last 10 years. Be forewarned that it will be a rough ride. Rural Michigan roads are in pretty miserable shape due to lack of maintenance.
I've done it maybe 6 times in the 25 years I've lived in Ann Arbor, and I "organized" within the 50+ ers to build interest and make sure people had necessary information. Participants included Jim from Boston, Rtool, some other Ohio folks and Blazing Pedals, but BP with his low-profile 'bent speed could not be said to ride with anyone other than the small crew of other speedy bents. A former musical colleague of mine was (maybe still is?) Pres of the AABTS, and I know he went on a campaign to search for the best-quality road surfaces on the roads starting at the Chelsea Fairgrounds, and has refined the route somewhat.
I would have ridden it more if not for the difficulty I found with maintaining fitness, caring for our aging parents, keeping up with my career, and handling some injuries. Now retired, I want to get back in the saddle, based on indoor training. Maybe we can get the band back together?
I'm not an AABTS member at the moment, but I'm pretty sure their website has a few Google groups and ways to ask questions. They usually post the previous year's route.
One one of the rides involving 50+, we met on Friday night at an Irish pub in Chelsea for dinner and drinks, and a social ride from Ann Arbor preceded by breakfast at Zingerman's Deli (that was a mistake for those who wanted to ride their usual 10/10!). On another one, 50+ers who camped in nearby Waterloo Recreation had drinks made in a backpacker's cocktail kit (I still haven't seen it!). Last one was capped off by dinner with Jim from Boston at Metzger's, a local German restaurant.
Ann Arbor is refining the in-town bicycling infrastructure, and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) is (or maybe there is an independent political support?) with other entities building a bikeway across all of Washtenaw County. It will link to other mapped cycling routes in Michigan to be part of the Iron Belle trail that will cross Michigan N/S and E/W (I hope I got all this hype right!!!!). Reminds me of the Wisconsin Bikeway built in the early 1970's! One of the big engineering issues is to get the cycles and walkers (much of it is MUP) across a railway that is expected to carry high-speed traffic.
Re: no money for roads. Road maintenance responisibility is with a wide range of governmental levels: municipal, township, county, state, and Federal. The one everybody knows about from the news is the State of Michigan responsibility. The roads that organized rides such as OHR want to use are not usually State highways, thought there are some exceptions. State highways may link urbanizations of various size, from Ann Arbor to say, Dexter, as faster 2-lane roads, 55 mph. Some are not really wide enough for safe cycling. Most but not all of the roads chosen for OHR are maintained at lower levels. OHR goes through at least three counties, or at least it has (I know nothing about the route for 2020). Washtenaw County does not have the best maintenance capability among them. There isn't much political opportunity to influence that.
Mrs. Road Fan and I have ridden the route or pieces of it a number of times (doing metrics). She was on a 1997 Terry road bike with 90 psi 28 mm Gatorskins, and I was usually on an Italian roadie with 21 to 27 mm tubulars, about 90 psi for the skinnies and 75 for the fatties. Both bikes on well-built wheels with aluminum rims and there was so no damage to our bikes or bodies, since we knew how to ride around the rough spots and to "post" up from the saddles to shelter our old bones and to add flex to the frame loading. If you are intending to ride it, a full-roadie bike is fine if you know how to ride it on questionable surfaces. Other solutions like a rando bike (650b, flexy frame, long wheelbase) might be better if you get tired and just need to keep pushing the metal. Been there!
The annual 50+ ride was originally organized by Denver Fox, who is no longer a member of BF. I haven't had contact with him for quite a while so I hope he is well. One challenge in setting up such a ride is the ability of members to travel across our vast United States. Everyone wants to do such a ride, but there's a practical limit to the travel, for many of us. Other very notable events were the Colorado ride sponsored by Denver, a tour of the Katy Trail in Missouri, and a relaxing jaunt through (well, among) the Finger Lakes in New York State.
Jim from Boston has written a history of the events, which helps us fellow BF-OFs remember the details (by crackey, I WAS really there! This rocking chair needs more gears!), if'n we can remember to read it.