MI Cruzbike retreat 2020 - August 6-9, 2020 Benton Harbor Michigan

[3bs]

well its time to remind everyone of the event, which is still on.
yesterday i rode the Steelhead route from Coloma road north, which is about 42, one wrong turn and only chased by one dog after the wrong turn.

did i mention that we are on the shore line and between two harbors?

here is a picture of silver beach today. big wind big waves, getting bigger.

 

[3bs]

yes, another bump. but today i am going to give you all some ways to see the area before you get here.
perhaps after riding we should do a sunset cruise from the Michigan maritime museum in south haven.... https://www.michiganmaritimemuseum.org/
or partytime in st joe https://www.partytimecruiselines.com/

here are a couple webcams for you all to enjoy the shoreline. st joe and south haven. feel free to watch these when the wind and waves are big. these are both very active in good storms.

https://www.earthcam.com/usa/michigan/stjoseph/lakemichigan/?cam=lakemichiganbeach

https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/usa/michigan/south-beach-south-haven.html

 

[3bs]

so i was thinking i should call a couple of the local mayors and have the come and take a picture with us, and then i realized that the only guy we really care about is the county road commissioner. i am still thankful to him for repaving a stretch of road that was scary bad pavement, no shoulder and blind curves thru a heavy tree section. right on the steelhead race route and the st joe south haven training route. this is now the finest mile of pavement in the county. of course the next county up last fall went to chipseal from the county line north. the difference is extraordinary, tolerable, but hardly comparable.

in case any of you are kayakers, the township just opened an excellent kayak launch across the street from the KOA. you can kayak from there to lake Michigan uninterrupted.

and as a reminder, even though this is a not an official cruzbike cruzbike event, and the primary common interest here is cruzbike, i am pleased to have other bikes come along, so if you have friends and relatives that are not CB riders, please bring them along anyway. everywhere we will be riding are well ridden bike areas, and i have personally ridden most all of these routes on a tadpole trike, and will likely ride the franken trike on many of them before the event. kalhaven has parts where a trike may complain a little due to the center strip, but its not everywhere.

 

[benphyr]

Looking forward to it. ‘ can’t wait.

 

[mbaulfinger]

Pretty sure I’m going to attend. Any Ohioans making the trip up? Looking forward to riding with everyone

 

[Mathew Fy]

I'm coming from south/central Ohio and will be there Thursday - Sunday, sharing a deluxe cabin with 3 other Cruzbikers at the Coloma KOA. One person's planning to camp. There is one more "Camping Cabin" available.
Ken from Indiana is a definite "maybe."

 

[benphyr]

Pretty sure I’m going to attend. Any Ohioans making the trip up? Looking forward to riding with everyone

Alright! Welcome. Looking foreard to meeting you.

 

[3bs]

Hopefully we might get a few Parker’s as well.
If my neighbor is in country he will be here on his older q

 

[mbaulfinger]

Just a quick question about the ride. Are you folks riding all 4 days? Just checking to see if you are riding Thursday to make sure I schedule the right number of vacation days. Would like to drive up after work, the night before the rides start. Thanks. If that's been spelled out somewhere else in here, my apologies!

 

[3bs]

@mbaulfinger

since i live here, i will be here first. (the only way i ever finish first)

i have Thurs- Sunday marked off on my calendar. i have a meeting to go to Thursday morning at 830 am (unless it gets cancelled) then i am clear. i think most everyone expects to ride some on Thursday. it sounds like people are coming in either late Wednesday or Thursday am, so they can at least ride Thursday pm. if there is anyone who wants to ride thursday am, i am ready to ride as soon as my meeting is done Thursday morning. if you scroll up the post you can see there are a variety of rides we can do thursday, and we can even do a couple of them, for example we could do a winery ride and then go do pedals and pints later. or we could do a random country road ride, or a ride to a couple beaches. Friday and Saturday are the scheduled longer rides and then Sunday is a mix of south county short rides that all start and end in the same spot that people can do as they please so they can leave when they want or need to.

@Seth Cooper only lives about 40 miles away so he may be able to come down early Thursday as well. if my neighbor is not back in Italy he will also be around. @velocio jack is riding in so i don't know when he is arriving. we cold always ride up and meet him as well. i think he is riding in on the kalhaven from kalamazoo so there are plenty of places we cold meet him for lunch in south haven or something like that.

what is our current head count? where is everyone staying?

when we get within a week or so, i will get everyone's emails and cell numbers. then i also suggest we pick an app like 360 so we know where everyone is during the event. i will also have shirts of some kind made up. and yes you will have to sign a liability waiver as a condition to participate. and yes, it is totally fine to just show up unannounced at the last second.

 

[woodguy]

I'm coming in Thursday morning and will be ready to ride in the afternoon. Staying on a bunk in the cabin @Mathew Fy has rented.

 

[benphyr]

@mbaulfinger

since i live here, i will be here first. (the only way i ever finish first)

what is our current head count?

when we get within a week or so, i will get everyone's emails and cell numbers. then i also suggest we pick an app like 360 so we know where everyone is during the event. i will also have shirts of some kind made up. and yes you will have to sign a liability waiver as a condition to participate. and yes, it is totally fine to just show up unannounced at the last second.

the first shall be last and the last first?

I have been trying to keep a Head count in the first post of this thread. Lets me know of any errors, corrections etc. Parkers and robert holler are on the list to show they are absolutely invited, in hopes they come but without any confirmation of their attendance.

Good Idea!
Waiver = T-shirt will say “It’s my own fault. I did it and I take full responsibility for my actions. I ride a Cruzbike. With a hand waving.

The rear will say: “It’s your own fault. My xxx is fine. I can’t force you to ride a Cruzbike too.” With a “Ride On.”

I'm coming in Thursday morning and will be ready to ride in the afternoon. Staying on a bunk in the cabin @Mathew Fy has rented.

Me too

 

[3bs]

so then here would be the up to date recap?
i think we show 8 solid yes.
lease advise all as to arrival date and time and any corrections.

and advise of others who are possibles.

@benphyr - solid yes thursday am riding thur pm
@3bs -solid yes can ride wed nite and thurday after meeting
@velocio - solid yes plus 1 OUT
@woodguy -solid yes thursday am ride pm OUT
@Mathew Fy -solid yes OUT
@Rods - no statement yet
@cranky cyclist - i think he is going to pass this year covidism
@paco1961 - not available this year out west
@super slim - solid I may be stopped at the border OUT
@CruzLike - solid maybe
@Jim Parker - solid maybe
@Maria Parker - solid maybe
@Lucia - vague maybe
@Robert Holler - no statement yet
@mbaulfinger - gong family conflict
@Seth Cooper - solid yes
my neighbor - yes if in town.
@Merczak73 - definite maybe

NOTE: if you are a wannabe from far away and have to fly to get here and can't bring your bike, let me know and i will try and round up (read go over to my shop) a CB or a bent of some other nature for you to ride. i can pretty much ride the v everywhere except mud and sand, so the t50 is available for sure, and i have other stuff.

if some of the CB royalty come by land, maybe they can bring a bike or two. (having one model of each would certainly help my duties as a midstate CB ambassador. (hows that for a spot of self interest!!!! LOL)

 

[3bs]

today i had to be at a meeting down south of three oaks where we will likely be riding on Sunday of the event. i just happen to be driving on cr500 which apparently was paved last year. typciall these road are crowned and beat up, but 500 was quite nice.

 

[benphyr]

This might be a Cruzbike space - but that didn’t stop me from being disappointed when I finally realized you wrote cr200 as in County Road # 200 instead of what my brain interpreted as (Honda) CBR 500!

 

[3bs]

Ha. Never owned cbr. Only Honda I ever owned was a one lung ascot. Great bike and collectible.https://images.app.goo.gl/X6XUvo6knapUbFZ1A

 

[CruzLike]

Hi All

I would like to update your riders list. I have been waiting in the weeds watching this tread. I'm interested but not committed. That might equate to a solid maybe. I have not ridden in Michigan. I have no preference on where or when we go. When we get close to a month out, I will commit so you can have a good head count. Hope to see you there.

 

[3bs]

thanks ken. the list has been updated to a solid maybe.

remember everyone, the point of this event is to just enjoy the rides and the company. but the reality is that i don't have a plan beyond what i have tossed out here. if a lot of people show up, that is great. if a nutty number show up that is also great. i will start calling my restaurant friends to get us interesting places to eat as a group. or if you all just want to peel of and do stuff individually or alone, that is perfectly fine with me. if you only want to ride 10 miles a day and the go do other stuff, and swing back later, that is perfectly fine. bring you family or spouses and do some stuff with us and some stuff with them. not everyone want to bike all day and not everyone likes to hang around with people who bike. my family doesn't bike much at all. heck, given the fact that we are all pretty much strangers to each other, it will be quite an achievement if we can all tolerate each other. so i want you all to know that is really an opportunity to converge, not a requirement. this event is like going to a dim sum house with a 3 way liquor license, an espresso machine and an ice cream parlor on Sunday morning. do what you want.

the area where we are doing this ride is the lake Michigan shoreline, and with many inland lakes and rivers. 90 miles from chicago, 90 miles from grand rapids, three hours from Detroit, 3 hours from Indianapolis, 45 minutes to south bend and notre dame. where we will be is mostly rural farmland with everything from vineyards and orchards to buffalo herds and tulips. it is a vacation tourist area, and has lots of wineries, distilleries, breweries restaurants, beaches, fishing, boating, golf courses, antique marts, blah blah. there are all kinds of places to stay all close by.

the roads are everything from perfect to horrible. same with the trails. the terrain here is light rolling. from where we will be we can ride almost any distance you want to something interesting. we can also pile the bikes into my truck or a trailer, and drive to other interesting places to ride, and we can also drive somewhere and get dropped off and ride home.

if we need sag support or transport, i can enlist my son (who you all will have to tip generously) to drive our suburban around behind us or to drop us off.

and if this works out okay, and everyone wants to, we can do it next year either here or somewhere else around the lakes (and someone else can take the helm), or California (see thread way above)

 

[benphyr]

@3bs You have already been a gracious extravagant host and tour guide and we haven't even gotten there or met in person yet. I can't wait for the real thing.

 

[3bs]

@benphyr you are a good demonstration of why i like people with low standards. i usually can meet expectations.