What?
Ride Our Routes 2021 (ROR21) is a Summertime FUN-RAISER that invites you to get outside on your bike and pedal through the cities, villages, and townships in and around Kalamazoo County. Together, individually and in small groups, we will traverse at least 1st to 48th Streets and A to Z Avenues, as well as many trails across our beautiful county.
What’s more?
You can get a t-shirt to commemorate your ROR21 accomplishment. How?
- Ride at least a sample of the 500 miles of ROR21 routes in Kalamazoo County during June-September 2021, using a Ride Route Record Sheet as a to-ride list.
- Record your rides on a Ride Route Record Sheet – available as a pdf file at this link (RRRS.pdf) that you can print on paper OR pick up at Gazelle Sports, Kzoo Swift, Pedal Bicycles, or Zoo City Cycle & Sport.
- Submit your paper Ride Route Record Sheet at a local bike shop or Gazelle Sports by September 30th and you will be eligible to purchase a t-shirt (for $10) commemorating your ride.
- NOTE: Participants younger than 16 years old will earn a FREE t-shirt.
When?
Summer (June-September) of 2021.
Who?
YOU, your friends, and everyone else with a bicycle and a sense of adventure.
Where?
The map of routes in ROR21, available in Google MyMaps via this link ROR21Map, guides bicyclists along many popular routes in Kalamazoo County. Routes include trails (e.g. Kalamazoo River Valley Trail – KRVT), existing bike routes (e.g. Lovers Lane in Portage and East Main St. in Kalamazoo Township), and proposed bike routes (e.g. 11th St. in Oshtemo Township and Riverview Drive in the City of Parchment and Cooper Township), as well as routes used regularly by the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club (KBC).
Suggested route loops of different lengths (5-7, 10-12, 15-20 miles) are available on the KBC Ride with GPS (RwGPS) club account at this link https://ridewithgps.com/events/144468-ride-our-routes-2021. This “Ride Our Routes 2021” event in RwGPS will be available between June 1st and September 30th, when you will have full club privileges to view and download routes. If you want to continue enjoying club privileges for all routes in the KBC library in RwGPS after September 30th, you must be a member of KBC. See the KBC “Membership” page (https://www.kalamazoobicycleclub.org/members/) to join KBC.
Bicycling Rally?
Imagine ROR21 as a summer-long bicycling rally challenging you to find clever and efficient ways to ride your bike on ROR21 routes throughout Kalamazoo County (and a bit beyond) so that you can completely fill in the Ride Route Record Sheet.
You will have to plan carefully. Less experienced bicyclists will likely ride short routes for each line in the Ride Route Record Sheet; more experienced bicyclists will ride longer routes, allowing them to fill in several lines of the Record Sheet from a single ride. Estimates of miles traveled in each row can be calculated from the length of the entire ride. And, more experienced bicyclists, especially KBC members, really should rise to the challenge of riding every one of the approximately 500 miles of routes on the map.
Why?
ROR21 offers opportunities for bicyclists of all ages and abilities to be outside riding bicycles and introduces them to our remarkable bicycling infrastructure in the Kalamazoo area.
How?
Pick up a Kalamazoo County road map and an entry form at Gazelle Sports, Kzoo Swift, Pedal Bicycles, or Zoo City Cycle & Sport. Ride all ROR21 routes, fill in your entry form, and drop it off at a local bike shop or Gazelle Sports. NOTE: Be sure to print your name and email address legibly on the entry form. ROR21 organizers will certify entry forms and send a validation code via email to each participant. Validation codes will allow participants to order and pay $10 for a t-shirt, or earn a FREE t-shirt if younger than 16. ROR21 t-shirts will be available in the Fall.
So… dust off your bike, lube its chain, pump up those tires, get outside, and ride, ride, ride. And remember – wear your helmet. See you riding ROR21 this summer!
Questions?
Contact: rideourroutes@kalamazoobicycleclub.org
Kalamazoo Bicycle Club organizers of Ride Our Routes 2021 thank the Road Commission of Kalamazoo County for the county road maps and Kalamazoo Sportswear and Regalia for design and printing of t-shirts. We also thank Gazelle Sports, Kzoo Swift, Pedal Bicycles, and Zoo City Cycle & Sport for distributing and collecting entry forms.