Even if you don't know me, this photo is a dead give-away that I am not a car guy. I deliberately shot that photo from an angle that would include Suburban Chevrolet's sign in the background, And I thought I'd nailed it – because the sign said "Suburban." (Photos by the writer.)

The sales consultant was keen to point out that Suburban Chevrolet was the first area dealership to have a vehicle available for test drives. But test-driving a car is pretty remote from The Chronicle’s mission, and even more remote from my personal transportation choice.

I share a membership in Zipcar with my wife, but don’t even remember the last time I’ve sat behind the wheel of a car myself. Zipcar, a car-sharing service, is like an insurance policy – a backup plan I never use. I get around by bicycle.

Still, in the Chevy Volt, I spotted a chance to write about a major public works construction project in downtown Ann Arbor – the Fifth Avenue underground parking structure, which will feature around 640 parking spaces on a lot that previously offered 192 spots.

Twenty-two of those new spots will be equipped with electric car charging stations. Dave Konkle, former energy coordinator for the city of Ann Arbor who now consults for the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority on its energy projects, identified the federal grant that’s helping to pay for the stations. The grant is worth $264,100 and will also pay for photovoltaic panels that will provide the energy for two of the spots – it was obtained through the Clean Energy Coalition’s Clean Cities Program.

That public project is closely tied to the assumption that visitors to downtown Ann Arbor will continue to make a personal choice for private transportation in the form of an automobile, and that some of those people will choose electric cars like the Volt.

The idea I want to think about in this column is that public choices depend on the sum of many private, independent choices made by actual people. It’s an idea that was driven home to me at a public transportation forum hosted earlier this week by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority at SPARK East in Ypsilanti.

At that forum, Bob Van Bemmelen – recent Republican candidate for the Washtenaw County board of commissioners – had this advice for the AATA as it pitches to the public the idea of countywide public transit: You have to make it personal, he said.

So I’ll begin by telling you a little bit more about the Suburban Chevrolet sales guy who gave me a ride in the Chevy Volt – who is as much a car guy as I am a bicycle guy: Nic Allebrodt.

Test Riding the Volt with a German

On the phone with Nic, I pitched the idea that I did not want to drive the car myself. Rather, I wanted simply to ride along in the Chevy Volt with someone who is actually passionate about cars, really loves cars, lives cars, breathes cars, likes nothing better than to drive a car – a car guy. Nic did not hesitate in answering: “That’s me!”

If the name Allebrodt looks and sounds German to you, you’re right. Nic’s light accent signals his German origins, but does not betray that he moved to the U.S. just last year. I’ve written about my friends Hans and Walter before – two characters from my eighth grade German textbook who taught me various stereotypes of Germans, among them that Germans love cars. The first German dialogue I ever had to memorize concluded with Hans showing off his car to Walter: “Dort ist mein Wagen!” [There is my car!]

Nic lived up to that stereotype. He told me that in Germany, he’d worked for a rental car company, thus had a chance to drive a vast range of cars on a regular basis, including the Audi RS6. This meant nothing to me, of course, but a bit of rummaging on the Internet revealed that if you need to go 150 m.p.h., that’s the car for you.

The yellow ball on the righthand side of the dash display is an indicator of less efficient driving style.

As Nic put the Chevy Volt through its paces for me, and I rode along in the passenger seat, we didn’t come anywhere close to 150 m.p.h. But as he navigated onto I-94 west, using the entrance ramp at Zeeb Road, the acceleration pressed me back into the seat. The dashboard also knew we were accelerating – the green ball that provides feedback on driving style floated upwards and turned yellow. That indicated less efficient driving. But efficiency is not exactly a priority when entering the freeway.

I asked Nic to drive us through downtown Ann Arbor. I wanted to see if the car would draw stares – it didn’t. Nic’s colleague Michael Jackson, who rode along in the back seat, offered a theory that the Volt had been test driven during its development phase in this area, so people were familiar with it. Also, he said, it’s a fairly normal-looking car.

We got to downtown by getting off I-94 at the Weber’s Inn exit and heading east straight down Huron Street, south onto Fifth Avenue to Liberty, where we turned west towards Main Street.

Parking, Charging Underground

At Fifth and Liberty, we had no choice but to turn, because the construction site of the new underground parking garage blocks southbound traffic.

When I mentioned that the garage will offer some spots with electric vehicle charging stations, Nic pointed out a feature of the Volt that might allay concerns about drivers who use those public stations – what if someone comes along and unplugs the car while it’s parked?

The OnStar mobile app for iPhone or Android monitors charging, so a driver would be alerted if it got unplugged. Likewise, the mobile app lets a driver know when the battery is fully charged. So a driver who wanted to time their visit to the downtown just until the battery was topped off could do that pretty easily.

The Volt's navigation screen as we rolled into downtown Ann Arbor. I guess we could have been treated to the strains of "On the Road Again" if we had actually turned on the XM radio station displayed at the top of the screen.

According to Chevrolet’s standard data on the Volt, that topped-off battery would get you around 35 miles with no extra assist from the Volt’s gasoline engine. Even without charging during the day, based on a 2009 survey of downtown Ann Arbor workers, 35 miles of range would get 77% of them to and from work each day. [.pdf of getDowntown survey]

The gasoline engine would give you an additional 340 miles of range. During our test ride, we didn’t turn on the Volt’s gasoline engine. It’s not actually hooked to the drive train – it just works as a generator for the electric battery.

When I think about the Volt’s gasoline engine and its electric battery, I imagine that many drivers will treat the two options the same way I treat my Zipcar membership and my bicycle: The gasoline engine will work like an insurance policy that rarely, if ever, gets used.

Other drivers might build the Volt’s gasoline engine into their expected normal use of the car. That’s how my wife treats the Zipcar membership. If the trip would require her to navigate her scooter on roads she perceives as too dangerous, she reserves a Zipcar. We make different personal transportation choices within the same set of options.

The public parking system can also be seen as serving a variety of different personal choices. And I think our investment in that system should take the range of personal choices into account when we’re budgeting for its continued maintenance.

Even though the talks between the city of Ann Arbor and the Downtown Development Authority were supposed to have concluded by the end of October 2010, discussion continues about how much revenue the city of Ann Arbor should withdraw from the public parking system to shore up the general fund.

That conversation has not included the possibility that it’s not just basic maintenance activity that could be jeopardized by the city’s revenue expectations. What could also be threatened is the ability to meet possible future demands placed on the public parking system – not for more spaces, but for a different kind of space, one that allows you to charge your electric vehicle while it’s parked.

When the bonds for the Fifth Avenue parking garage were approved, part of the argument included rhetoric along the lines that this would be the last parking deck Ann Arbor would ever build, because the future belongs to public transportation – we won’t need more spaces. But what if we need different kinds of spaces – spaces that allow you to charge your personal electric vehicle? Where would the funding be sourced for the capital investment required to retrofit parking structures with charging stations? A natural place to look would be to fees paid by parkers – which would be unavailable if they’re allocated instead to the city’s general fund activities.

John Mouat, who chairs the DDA board’s transportation committee, has kept the issue of alternate vehicles in front of the DDA over the last several months at committee meetings and board meetings. His scope includes all manner of two-wheeled vehicles, very small four-wheeled vehicles, and electric cars as well. But Mouat’s perspective does not seem to have percolated up to the level of the Ann Arbor city council, which seems to see public parking system revenue as simply that – another revenue source that can be tapped.

Of course, it might be that massive investment in public infrastructure to support electric vehicles is not actually necessary – even if electric vehicles become a significant part of the U.S. automobile fleet. In a phone interview with Joe Malcoun, an associate with DTE Energy Resources, he offered the perspective that in largest part, the owners of electric vehicles will probably charge them at home. DTE offers a special program for electric vehicles that includes incentives for investing in a home charging station and a discounted rate, through separate metering, for the electricity used.

Malcoun did allow that the availability of at least some charging stations as part of public infrastructure might be driven by another factor: A psychological need for some drivers to have access to charging stations. But 22 stations in the new underground parking garage might be sufficient to address that need, he said.

As a side note, I had originally contacted Malcoun not for this column, but rather to track down some information about the charging stations in the Edison building parking lot at Main and William. Whether widespread availability of charging stations is a requirement to support a large U.S. electric vehicle fleet, will, I think, be a matter of how many actual individual people are willing to make a personal choice for an electric car in the absence of that infrastructure.

Public Transit: Making It Personal

The idea that individual, personal choices are at stake was a central theme that emerged at a sparsely-attended forum held on Tuesday, May 10 on the topic of countywide transit. The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority is hosting another series of meetings to get additional public input on its draft transportation master plan (TMP), which AATA has been developing over the last year. [Most recent Chronicle coverage: "AATA Speaks Volumes on Draft Transit Plan"]

The half-dozen attendees at Tuesday’s forum, held at SPARK East on Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti, had ample opportunity to weigh in with their own reactions to the draft plan. The plan was presented by AATA’s Michael Benham, who’s leading the TMP project. Also on hand were AATA manager of community relations, Mary Stasiak, and AATA chief executive officer, Michael Ford.

The advice offered to the AATA by attendee Bob Van Bemmelen was to make it personal for people. [Van Bemmelen might be familiar to Chronicle readers as the Republican candidate in November 2o10 for the District 4 seat on the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, which was won by Wes Prater. Or they might remember him from his attendance at a forum hosted by Think Local First last year on local currencies. ]

Bob Van Bemmelen at the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority forum held on May 10 at SPARK East in Ypsilanti. Standing is Michael Ford, AATA's CEO.

At the transit forum, Van Bemmelen was encouraged to hear another attendee, Larry Krieg, make the same point that Krieg has made during public commentary at AATA board meetings: The American Public Transit Association (APTA) has calculated that a family using public transit would save around $10,000 per year, compared to owning a car. Van Bemmelen said you’d need to prove that number, but that was the kind of thing the AATA should be talking about, to bring the discussion down to a personal level of how much money residents might save.

Van Bemmelen also wanted a more persistent transit sales pitch on a personal level. He described how someone selling lawn service might send a mailing or put a flyer in the door, not just one time, but on a repeated basis. After a while, it might begin to stick. The lawn care guy might then pay a personal visit and say, “Look, I see you out struggling on that lawn trying to push the mower – I can do that for you and here’s my rate, you’ll see it’s competitive.” Van Bemmelen wanted to see the equivalent sales pitch for transit. He said that he does not use the bus now, but he might. [Given the job he took recently with the VA hospital in Ann Arbor, he might be able to commute from Ypsilanti by bus.]

Responding to Van Bemmelen, Stasiak said she agreed with him: You have to sell transit one person at a time – it requires a face-to-face conversation. Sometimes it takes holding someone’s hand to make them feel like it’s not difficult, she said.

One of those face-to-face conversations took place at the forum – with John Dawson, who in addition to advocating for a particular bus route, wanted to know how to get his ADA card for the AATA renewed. Stasiak took his information so that she could follow up. [As a side note, Dawson told The Chronicle that his grandfather previously owned the building where the meeting was held.]

My Personal View

Part of the reason that Van Bemmelen was interested in the idea of “selling” public transit is that he’s looking down the road to the point when county residents might be asked to support a countywide system with a countywide tax – public transit would require some kind of additional support beyond fares. A countywide transit tax is something that will likely not be put before voters for another year at least.

A first step would be to create a kind of placeholder organization that would serve as a countywide governing body, in the event that such a tax were approved by voters. The AATA itself is a local, Ann Arbor authority. At the forum, Michael Ford presented some of the alternatives, including what the countywide membership on a board might look like. [Previous Chronicle coverage: "Concerns Raised Over Transit Governance"]

You don’t have to sell me very hard on the importance of public transit. I’m willing to continue to pay at least the roughly 2 mill Ann Arbor tax that is passed through to the AATA and generates roughly $9 million in revenue for use on public transit. While I understand the public policy issues – like land use, environmental impact, access for seniors and the disabled – if I reduce it to a personal level, the reason I value public transit is that I want it as my backup plan.

That’s reflected in my transit choice for the evening of the transit forum – my bicycle. I did mull over the choice of a bus – it’s roughly a nine-mile trip each way from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, and it was threatening rain. But I figured if was raining when it was time to return, or if I felt too tired to pedal back home, I could take the return trip by bus, and take advantage of the bike racks mounted on the front of every AATA bus.

The fact is, my current personal choice is for private transportation. I want the freedom to go exactly where I want to go – which in most cases is a bike rack or a vertical pole near the entrance of my destination – and I want the flexibility to travel when I like. I noted that Larry Krieg had to leave a few minutes before the meeting ended, because he had to catch a bus. I was able to stay until the end. Bicycles beat buses on that metric.

Even so, I’m willing to pay to support the public transit system. Not because Larry Krieg wants to ride the bus. Not because it’s better for the environment. Not because it will lead to better land use and reduce sprawl. Not because it provides mobility to seniors and disabled people.

For me, the public transit system is like the gasoline engine is for some drivers of the Chevy Volt: I’m willing to pay for it to be there, just in case I personally need it.

About the writer: Dave Askins is editor and co-founder of The Ann Arbor Chronicle.

Cory Dubrish, who rides for the University of Michigan cycling team, taps out a terrific rhythm on the pedals at the roller races at the Blind Pig on Monday night. He had the pedals ticking over at better than 200 rpm for a second-place finish overall.

Do you like your bicycling excitement measured out in 20-second doses? On Monday night, The Blind Pig on First Street played host to 500-meter bicycle races – sprinted out on stationary rollers lined up across the stage. Winners of the two divisions (men’s and women’s) took home $50 gift certificates from Ann Arbor Cyclery.

The event attracted around 50 participants, among them Jon Royal, who pedaled to The Pig from South Lyon just to take part. As a trailing spouse, he moved there recently from Milwaukee, where he was a bicycle messenger.

On Monday, Royal was looking forward to paying the entry fee of $1 for folks in his line of work – which was a discount from the $5 charged to non-messengers. He was prepared to show race organizers his tag book (the notebook where he kept a record of his calls for pickups and deliveries) in the event there was any question.

The roller races were organized and staged by Dennis Bean-Larson of Fixed Gear Gallery, an internet nexus for all things related to fixed gear bikes (no coaster brake or freewheeling on these bicycles, which are favored by many bicycle messengers). Bean-Larson drove the competition bicycles, rollers, and computer gear down to Ann Arbor from Traverse City, where the FGG enterprise is based, along with its affiliated cycling apparel company, Hell Yes Clothing. Bean-Larson described the gallery and the clothing line as a family business and that  was in evidence Monday, as Bean-Larson was assisted throughout the evening by his son, Carl, who also competed in the contest.

Roller Racing Gear

How exactly do bicycle roller races work Fixed-Gear-Gallery style?

The men's final was contested by (left to right) Christopher Ridgard (17.909), Cory Dubrish (17.404), Todd Hayes (16.556). Stabilizing the bikes (left to right) were Thomas Kula, Matt Churches, and Brian Jankowski.

First off, it’s important to understand where bicycle rollers fit in the range of various indoor trainers for cycling. They’re used in conjunction with a bicycle, as opposed to a Spinning® machine, which is a single unit for indoor training only. They’re also different from indoor trainers that clamp the rear tire against a single roller that is attached to some kind of unit using wind, magnets, or internal fluid to create resistance. What makes rollers different is that the rear tire rests on two rollers, each a couple of feet wide, with nothing but the force of gravity and the cyclist’s minor balance corrections to keep the rear wheel  vertical and spinning somewhere along the width of the rollers.

The front tire, too, rests on a roller, which is connected to the closer rear roller by a pulley, so the rotation of the front roller matches the rear roller, and cyclists get a training experience that has a “road feel,” because they have to maintain proper balance to stay upright, and they have only the width of the rollers as a margin of error. It’s not a trivial accomplishment for a recreational cyclist to stay upright riding on rollers.

This is the sort of set-up that Spencer Olinek rides at home in his room. Olinek  competed Monday night and demonstrated that he’s not a mere recreational cyclist by posting one of the faster qualifying times.

Given the violent efforts associated with sprinting for around 20 seconds to cover a virtual distance of 500 meters, how smart is it to conduct the competition on regular rollers? Not very. That’s why race organizers use a fork-mount stabilizer accessory, which replaces the front wheel with a stand with two widely-spaced feet.

Dennis Bean-Larson of Fixed Gear Gallery came down from Traverse City with his son, Carl, and Erin Chamberlain, to stage the roller races. They're repeating the races at The Blind Pig on Feb. 23.

On top of that, each of the three bicycle-plus-roller configurations need someone hanging off the front handlebars to lend the whole configuration some additional stability.  That’s what all the people in the photos are doing, who to the uninitiated might look like they’re praying to their personal cycling god.

The competition thus runs by heats of three cyclists at a time. It’s measured and managed through computer software.  Magnets attached to the front roller count revolutions, and that information is relayed to a laptop computer running a software package called OpenSprints, which was created for the Linux opertating system. In real time, OpenSprints translates revolutions  into distance and plots the distance that each cyclist has covered as a bar that lengthens until it hits the 500-meter mark.

It’s thus possible to tell as the sprint unfolds, based on bar length, who’s winning. As an added convenience, it makes it possible to let a cyclist know when they’ve finished their 500 meters, so that they can suspend their efforts.

The Competition: Heats and More Heats

Wasting energy by pedaling past 500 meters is not a good strategy in a heat-based competition where cyclists must perform multiple times. Cyclists first competed in a qualifying heat which was the basis of their sorting into the groupings for the subsequent elimination heats. So everyone who participated rode at least twice. Each ride lasted around 20 seconds.

Christina Jovanovic cranked her way to a second place finish in the women's division. Keeping the front assembly steady was Andy Hromadka.

Bean-Larsen announced the record time from a recent Traverse City competition as 17.804 seconds, which amounted to 207 rpms or 63.88 mph, he said. No one at The Blind Pig approached that time until Todd Hayes was able to put a roller hardware issue from an early heat behind him and take a second off the Traverse City time. Hayes would later lower the time  to 16.547 in the semi-final heat, and went on to win the finals as well.

The win came with some minor controversy concerning Hayes’ Speedplay® pedals, which organizers allowed him to use, when he explained that he had problems with his knees that would be exacerbated by strapping in with the toe-clips and straps.  (Speedplay® markets their pedals and shoes as allowing more freedom of movement than conventional pedal systems.) Other participants who brought their own pedal and shoe combinations weren’t accommodated. If there was a price that Hayes paid for using the pedals, then it was in the merciless teasing meted out by Bean-Larson over the PA for “probably having a sponsorship contract with Speedplay®.”

Hayes was at The Pig supporting the ride of his ex, Laura Johnson, who won the women’s division.

More Spectating Opportunities for Bicycle Roller Racing

The vast majority of Blind Pig patrons on Monday were there to compete in the races. And some of those few folks who seemed like they were there just to spectate wound up taking a turn on the rollers. The Chronicle speculates that Laura (not Laura Johnson) and Jess, who were committed to solidarity in cosmetics (sorry, we don’t have complete details), might have fit that category when they competed in a one-off heat for a Hell Yes T-shirt.

Even though Bean-Larson figured he would be losing money on the trip down to Ann Arbor from Traverse City, once the cost of the rented van was factored in, they’ll be doing it again in two weeks on Feb. 23 at the same venue.  That will make for another long night for the Bean-Larsons. According to the Hell Yes Sprints blog, they didn’t make it back home to Traverse City until 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Laura Johnson, winner of the women's division, cranks away as her ex-Todd (not her current Todd) keeps the bars steady.

The women's final was contested by Laura Johnson and Christina Jovanovic. Erin Chamberlain (center) was serving as a placeholder so the racing software would analyze the two-person heat correctly. Stabilizing the bikes were Thomas Kula, Todd Hayes, and Andy Hromadka.

Sam Tai demonstrated that the event was not necessarily a monument to health and fitness – but rather to fun. He won this heat.

Jimmy Raggett (www.jimmyrigged.com) stabilizes the bike for Christopher Ridgard.

Crowd at The Blind Pig Roller Races.

Can you say celebrate? Adam Say executes a victory salute, but the heat had been aborted due to a technical glitch.

Andy Hromadka and Jon Royal get settled in for an early heat. Andy advanced to the semi-finals.

Fixed-gear bikes parked outside The Blind Pig before the roller races started.

Jimmy Raggett gets some help measuring out the seat-post adjustment for "Big Matt" Churches.

The OpenSprints software displays a real-time bar showing the relative distance covered (out of 500 meters) by each of the three cyclists.

Todd Hayes, winner of the men's division.

Todd Hayes.

Jason Boynton advanced to the semi-finals, but had a rough evening, because he could not use the clipless cycling shoes he brought, leaving him to compete wearing his floppy street shoes.

Bikes at the 4th & Washington parking garage sport fuchsia notices warning of possible impoundment on Feb. 5, 2009.

Bright fuchsia cards printed with the Ann Arbor Police Department seal have been threaded through the spokes of the wheels on nine bicycles locked to the hoops at the 4th & Washington parking structure. The cards weren’t placed there as decoration, but as a warning: these bicycles face possible impoundment starting Feb. 5.

What’s the problem with people locking their bikes to the hoops provided for exactly that purpose? As the notices say, “Your bicycle may be impounded as provided by city ordinance when it has remained unattended on public property for a period of more than 48 hours after a written notice has been affixed to the bicycle.” The notices reflected that they were written on Feb. 3 and indicated a possible impoundment date of Feb. 5.

The Chronicle has noticed the same collection of bicycles locked at these hoops since visiting the location to report on innovation in parking information data. The city’s applicable code reads:

10:174. Impounding of vehicles.
Members of the Police Department are hereby authorized to remove bicycles from a public place to the City bicycle pound or other place of safety, under the circumstances hereinafter enumerated.
(1) When any bicycle is reasonably believed to be stolen.
(2) When any bicycle has been left unattended upon any public street, alley, or sidewalk continuously for a period of 48 hours, or when any bicycle is left in such a manner as to obstruct unreasonably the flow of vehicular or pedestrian traffic on any public street, alley, or sidewalk.
(3) When the operator of a bicycle is detained because of a traffic violation and refuses to give his or her name and address.
(Ord. No. 46-61, 8-14-61; Ord. No. 26-74, 8-19-74)

10:175. Notice.
When a bicycle is impounded under the provisions of this section and the Police Department knows or is able to ascertain the owner thereof the Police Department shall, within a reasonable period of time, give and cause to be given a notice in writing to such owner of the fact of impoundment and reasons therefor.

The notices also indicate that the bicycles are unregistered. While the city  has an ordinance requiring registration of bicycles, writing on the WBWC GoogleGroup last summer (2008), Kris Talley, president of the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition, reported that the consensus at the city’s alternative transportation meetings was that ”the current system is not very functional, and at one point there seemed to be some movement towards getting rid of it altogether. But as that would require some level of ordinance changing that no one was willing to tackle (as I recall), I believe the thought is now to at least make the transaction more meaningful by giving cyclists useful information (like about safety and rules of the road) when they register.”

The bicycles to which the bright fuchsia notices have been attached are locked at the hoop directly adjacent to bike lockers administered through getDowndown, which can be used for long-term storage. However, except for one location (at Maynard Street across from the parking structure), the getDowntown website currently indicates that all of its bike lockers are full.

Bike, ball, and mallet.

On Sunday afternoon, eight 3-person teams from Traverse City, Ionia, East Lansing, and Ann Arbor descended on the “Thunderdome,” to compete for top honors in a double-elimination bicycle polo tournament. The Thunderdome is a parking structure near downtown Ann Arbor, which generally sits empty on Sundays. And on this last Sunday, it was empty and cold. The Chronicle could not disagree with the assessment of one polo player: “It’s like a meat locker in here!”

Adam Say, who works as a mechanic at Ann Arbor Cyclery on Packard Street, expressed some confidence before play started that his team would prevail – there was a spot on a shelf at the bike shop with a label on it to hold the trophy. But at the end of the day, the trophy – constructed from spoke protectors, wheel hubs, and a dog bowl – went back to Dan’s Bike Shop in Ionia, Michigan, with the team who finished the tournament undefeated: Seth Higbee, Gary Ferguson, and Tim Heyboer.

Higbee might have enjoyed a slight home-court advantage despite coming from Ionia and playing in Ann Arbor. He pointed out the sprinkler heads along the ceiling of the parking structure, which he said the company he works for manufactures. Higbee is a manufacturing engineer, and oversees the machines that manufacture the sprinkler-head parts. He reported that he owns nine bicycles, and was currently building up another one specifically for bike polo. What’s wrong with the one he rode to victory on Sunday? It’s a bit too tall off the ground for him to be able to pick up a dropped mallet from the pavement without putting his foot down.

Matt Churches parks himself in the middle of the goal (the two orange cones).

If a bicycle polo player has to put their foot down on the ground, taking their feet off the pedals, bike polo rules require that they disengage from play immediately, and head for the orange cone placed in the side of the court midway between the goals, then “tap back in” by touching the cone with their mallet.

Matt Churches, one of the tournament organizers, went over all the rules with the players before play began. They include a prohibition against taking the ball through the goal (marked with two orange cones) backwards, then quickly flicking it back through for a score. That maneuver would be practically impossible to execute anyway, if another player were “goal tending,” a practice that Churches said would be allowed in this tournament: setting up in front of the goal and simply balancing there with the mallet.

Mallet-to-person and mallet-to-bike contact is not allowed. But many of the players had zip-tied chloroplast disk covers onto their front wheels to protect their spokes from damage from an errant mallet head. Limited person-to-person contact is permitted. The guiding principle for person-to-person contact, said Churches, was to keep your hands on the bars. If your hands are on the handlebars, you’re okay. The message: Don’t just punch people.

Ball-handling technique was also addressed in the rule discussion. A mallet head has an open face, which allows a player to use it to trap the ball in the round opening (street hockey balls are used) and drag it very efficiently over a long distance. While the “ball-joint” technique is allowed during play, it can’t be used to score a goal. A player must break contact and strike the ball through the goal in order for it to count. Ball-jointing seems to be a technique favored by Ann Arbor player Jimmy Raggett, who used it with some success during the tournament.

Although it’s not required that fixed-gear bikes are used for bicycle polo, the vast majority of players on Sunday rode fixed-gear bikes. Fixed-gear bikes have no freewheel, which means that when a rider pedals backward, the wheel spins backward. That’s an advantage in bicycle polo, because by applying backward pressure to the pedals, a rider can made subtle adjustments in speed without using a hand brake. The majority of riders’ fixed-gear bikes were also equipped with a hand brake.

For some of the riders from out of town, it wasn’t their first trip to Ann Arbor just to participate in some of the local fixed-gear bike themed events. Of the group from East Lansing – Kevin Zmick, Scott Myers, and Erik Krueger – Krueger said he’d ridden the Night of the Living Tread alleycat race last Halloween.

The contingent from Traverse City – Carl Bean-Larson, Erin Chamberlain, and Jake Dunn – are connected to an upcoming local event via their clothing sponsor, Hell Yes, which is bringing roller races to Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig on Feb. 9 and Feb 23. Competitors in roller races spin through a prescribed “distance” on an indoor trainer – in this case, 500 meters.

The venue for the roller races, a music bar, reflects the more typical 20-something stereotype associated with the fixed-gear scene. But on Sunday, the span of age-range for the tournament was 35 years, from Josh Matteson (age 12) to Randy Sproul (age 47).

Thanks to the winning team from Ionia, who phoned in the result to The Chronicle. The opening rounds of the tournament were timed at 15 minutes per game. But the final games were first-to-five format, which meant they might have gone on forever. With two (possibly three) games remaining, The Chronicle succumbed to the cold and headed home.

Two bicycle polo players reach for control of the ball.

Jimmy Raggett (Ann Arbor) pauses while a stray ball is retrieved. Raggett works at Ann Arbor Cyclery on Packard Street.

There was good sportsmanship exhibited all around before and after matches. This one was before.

Left is Jimmy Raggett (Ann Arbor). Right is Seth Higbee (Ionia).

Jimmy Raggett gets sandwiched by two Ionians: Seth Higbee and Gary Ferguson.

Defending the goal (two orange cones).

Seth Higbee's machine.

Andy H. (Ann Arbor) fuels up before the tournament.

The winning team from Ionia waits for a face-off.

Andy H. (Ann Arbor) left with blue jacket and blue-handled mallet. Right, Seth Higbee (Ionia).

The Traverse City contingent.

Randy Sproul of Ionia makes some pre-tournament adjustments to his machine.

Trapping the ball in the round open face of the mallet is called a "ball-joint." It's allowed, but not to score a goal.

The trophy from bottom to top: spoke protector, hub, hub, spoke protector, dog bowl. There's a bolt down the center of the assmbly.

Pam Rockhold and Emily Ferguson came with the Ionian contingent to support their teams.

Josh Matteson was the youngest player in the tournament

Along Main Street, race workers were unfurling red netting across metal barriers. In addition to providing space to print advertising, the netting served the practical function of keeping the crowd from squeezing between the widely spaced metal bars and onto the street into the path of speeding cyclists. “You’d be surprised how many people would try to crawl through there,” explained a yellow-slickered man with an handful of zip-ties.

The remote camera gets some rain protection.

The pole-mounted camera with a feed to the VIP seating area required some improvised weather protection from Tim Sundt of Viking Creative, who was busy lashing an umbrella into place to deflect the rain drops. Tim and his colleagues were up at 5 a.m. to start their technical work after arriving in Ann Arbor at 11 p.m. from Grand Rapids, where the previous day they had worked the Grand Cycling Classic, the first of two events in the Priority Health series.

As the rain faded to a light drizzel, Rachel Brunelle, one of two Huron Valley Ambulance bicycle-mounted EMTs, told us that their assignment to the event by HVA was by sign-up. Membership on the HVA bicycle-mounted team requires a practical skills test on a bike fully loaded with its 40-pound panniers: an obstacle course, plus a ride for time over distance.

Senior Women’s Race

The Chronicle soon met up with Dawn Lovejoy, who rides with the Priority Health women’s cycling team. For today’s race she wasn’t riding, but rather serving a managerial role for the team. Because the event sponsor was also their team’s sponsor, she wanted to make sure that coordination between the team and the sponsor was seamless, so she opted to sit out.

She explained Priority Health’s interest in bicycle racing: “Bicycle racers are mascots for health and fitness.” She went on to describe that much of the team’s sponsorship arrangement involves community outreach, like visits to schools to promote health and fitness.

Aimee Lahann of Team Priority Health

Women’s seniors were first up on the racing schedule and the Priority Health women went into the race with a strategy – put their rider Aimee Lahann in position to see if she could just ride away from the field. Why would Lovejoy think Lahann was even remotely capable of pulling that off? Because, says Lovejoy, Lahann has national-caliber physical talent. Lovejoy first spotted that talent watching Lahann ride the spinning machines at the YMCA, where Lovejoy coordinates the spinning program, and asked Lahann if she’d ever thought about racing bicycles.

With a only a couple of years of bicycle racing experience, Lovejoy says that what Lahann is working on now are race tactics and bike-handling skills. Her motor, says Lovejoy, is already plenty strong.

But Lovejoy said their goal for the day was not to put Lahann on the top podium place. Instead, their aim was to keep the race really hard by making a hard tempo: “We’re looking at making the race a race.” Acknowledging that it seems a little odd to approach a race without results in mind, Lovejoy explained, “If we keep the race a race, the results will follow.”

Aimee Lahann trying to maintain a gap on the chasers.

When the race left the start-finish line, located just north of William Street on Main, The Chronicle walked with Lovejoy as she traversed the course in reverse direction. By the time we reached the southern edge of Ashley Mews, it was evident that the women of Priority Health were executing their pre-race strategy. Lahann was hammering away towards us, off the front of an already strung-out field. We walked around the corner of Main and Jefferson and paused at Jefferson and Ashley as the racers took the corner made treacherous by the wet conditions and the angled crossing of railroad tracks.

Even in dry conditions, the gaps between the rails and road would have posed a risk to a 23mm tire. But today, at least, they were covered with a layer of carpet. Later, Lovejoy’s husband, Mark, who had a hand in procuring the carpet remnants from Lowe’s and tacking them down, would report that racers through the day said the solution worked out pretty well.

As Lahann cruised by, her gap on the field narrowing, Lovejoy exhorted her, “Pedal through the corners, there’s better traction!” By the time we reached William Street, a few laps later, Lahann had been joined by some other racers. And soon after that the leading group was down to three: Lahann plus two others. One of the three saw a chance to guarantee themselves a podium spot: “Okay, ladies let’s work together!” As we left William Street behind us, a stray SUV wandered onto the course – unclear how – and Lovejoy dashed back to move the barricades at William enough to open space for the marshalls to shoo the errant vehicle off the course.

The women of Team Priority Health control the head of the race.

We made our way past the Fleetwood Diner and down the hill to First Street. At some point a teammate of Lahann’s, Laura Johnson, who had disappeared from the field on a previous lap, re-appeared in the thick of things. Later she would report that the rider in front of her had crashed at the corner of First and Liberty and that she had T-boned into her. She’d taken advantage of race rules that allow crashed riders (or riders with mechanical problems) to keep moving along the course in the same direction as the race – or to cut through the course – until they reached the neutral support area, then re-enter the race at that point on the same lap as the race leaders. Later, Johnson said when the team started the race, “We really wanted to do Priority Health proud – it’s our sponser and it’s their race. So when I crashed, all I could think was, I’ve got to get back in it, because I’ve got a teammate up there, I’ve got to help her!”

We finished our reverse walk of the course briskly, because it was not clear to us how many laps were left and we wanted to make sure we saw the finish. As we hit Main Street we heard the race announcer say, “Four laps to go!” So it was a leisurely stroll to a spot to watch the finish. As the final lap began, Lahann was driving a hard tempo at the front in an apparent attempt to ride the others off her wheel so that the finish would not come down to a straight-up sprint. But at that point, Lovejoy knew it was too late: “Oh, she’s not going to be able to ride away now.”

In the inevitable sprint that unfolded, Lahann finished just off the podium in fourth place. By the time that race concluded, the rain had abated and skies were beginning to clear.

Second from left, Aimee Lahann takes 4th place in the sprint.

Other
Vignettes

Kids Race: Eli Hausman shows off an elbow scrape from a pre-ride of the course. During the race itself, though, he reported, "I didn't fall down!" Not bad for someone who learned to ride just a week ago.

Fanslow: We're looking at you, Dave Fanslow, that's who. Dave was racing basically the same course he'd first raced 20 years ago. Strategy: go from the gun and scare people out of the race who didn't belong there. "It's not a Buddhist approach," he said, "it's bike racing." His efforts earn him a solid 6th place.

Time Gaps: Course marshal Mark Spahr timed gaps of chase groups to the leaders and and called them out to riders.

Getting dropped: Seeing a rider get dropped, course marshal Larry Baitch (Dakota Laser Vision Center) declared, "There's no worse feeling in the world than getting dropped." Larry said he enjoyed 5 seconds of fame on ABC's Wild World of Sports back in the 1980s when they covered the Boul-Mich Criterium and they showed him ... getting dropped. Back then he rode for the Cyclery North team.

Gary Hochgraf with the bike trailer he fabricated to haul the tools he uses for his home repair business.

Hochgraf has been running his Ann Arbor home repair business full-time since 2001, driving a ’97 white Ford van to get to clients throughout Washtenaw County. But this summer, gas prices – and karma – spurred him to make a switch. He decided to build a trailer to haul his tools and supplies by bike, and he set a budget of $125 to do it: The cost of a tank of gas for his van.

He already had a bike, and crafted the trailer from a large Coleman cooler – “it’s cheap, it’s light, it’s strong, it’s reasonably waterproof,” he says – plus wheels found at the dump, a Master Lock hitch and a frame fashioned from bent steel tubing bought at Stadium Hardware. Putting his green “Home Repairs” logo on the side was a final touch.

The decision to become a bike-based business is grounded in an outlook that sees the connection between what individuals do on a daily basis, and how that impacts the planet.

Driving the van “just feels indulgent and part of the problem,” Hochgraf says. He still uses the van on an occasional basis – hauling a large load of concrete, for example – but it’s a matter of two or three times a week, versus multiple times a day.

“I thought it was a great success when I noticed there were spiderwebs growing between my van and the ground,” he says, laughing.

And while he isn’t promoting the bike-hauling aspect of his business yet, he does think he’ll land at least one job because of it. He was dropping off a donation at a local clothing recycling box, with his Home Repairs trailer in tow, when a woman rode up on her bike. She was looking for someone to do repairs, and is now considering him for the job.

But gaining business from a bike-hauled approach isn’t the point, says Hochgraf: “It just feels like the right thing to do.”

Construction technique: wooden doweling (just at the points where carriage bolts fasten) prevent deformation of the metal tubing when the bolts are torqued down.

Construction technique: Fixed by bracket to the bike frame is the pin to a Masterlock. The Masterlock head is secured to the trailer arm with its cable, which extends inside the trailer arm tube, plus flexible reinforced plastic tubing. The flex in the tubing allows the bike to lean without disrupting the trailer.

Northbound Packard at Wells. The cyclist was pedaling in the bicycle lane traveling north. The driver turned right onto Wells, crossing the cyclist's path.

Based on the crash report obtained by The Chronicle, the answer to Talley’s query is yes. The report reflects an 03 Hazard Action, which is a “Failure to Yield,” and a Citation Issued for a 257.648, which is “Failed to Signal and/or Observe.” Either of these infractions carries a fine of $130. The portion of the crash report covering the cyclist’s vehicle records a 13 Hazard Action, which is “Other,” but does not record any citation Issued.

In addition to a copy of the State of Michigan Traffic crash report, the Ann Arbor Police Department case report contains a written narrative of officers arriving at the scene:

His body was parallel to Packard. His head was towards downtown. He was on Packard at Wells. He was just northwest of a manhole cover. He had a black messenger bag under his right side. It had a strap accross [sic] his left shoulder. There was a green bike near his feet.

Sketch from crash report: "Vehicle 1 turning right. #2 NB in bike lane, collided with #1. #1 said #2 was 100 ft back when she was turning."

That narrative continues with a description of actions taken to determine the victim’s identity, efforts required to restrain the seizing victim on the backboard when the victim’s thrashing broke through the straps, and details of all evidence collected at the scene and the emergency room – including the brand and color of the pair of underwear cut from the victim at the hospital.

Writing in a separate narrative, an investigating officer describes being advised by the scene supervisor that the driver of the car had originally left the scene, not realizing a bicycle had collided with her car, and had returned to the scene after having been flagged down by witnesses. The investigator’s description of the accident as recollected by the driver and the bicyclist confirmed the scene supervisor’s information:

She advised that she approached the intersection on Packard to turn onto Wells and did notice that the bicycle was about 100ft back. She started her turn, the[n] continued up Wells St. She was flagged down by someone who told her she hit a bicyclist. She did not realize that she collided with a bicyclist …

… he was awake and alert. He advised that he had a cracked pelvis and a concussion. He advised that he was riding up Packard to work and noticed the car turn in front of him. He tried to avoid it but still collided with it. He didn’t remember anything after that. He thought the car braked during the turn, he remembers thinking that if the car accelerated through the turn they would not have collided. He also advised that his bike was originally designed as a street bike in England and there is not true “brake” on it. We noticed that there was no hand brake and no pedal brake.

The original location of the victim, who had been transported, and the bicycle, which had been moved, was reconstructed in part by appeal to the memory of an officer who recalled kneeling on a manhole cover to assist with the victim. Witness statements are recorded from both the driver and front seat passenger of the vehicle directly behind the striking car, the driver of the second car back, and from a man working in an office who saw the accident from his window.

Eastbound Wells. One of the witnesses interviewed by the AAPD saw the accident unfold from this angle, through an office window.

From the final witness’ statement, it is apparent that the cyclist very nearly succeeded in avoiding the collision: “[He] said he saw the bicyclist make an emergency stop to avoid the car and the bicyclist went over the bike handle bars and then fell to the ground. [He] could not say if the bicyclist even contacted the car.” Evidence of actual contact came from inspection of the right rear quarter panel of the car, which the investigating officer described as “consistent with a bicycle tire.” The investigator’s narrative concludes:

Had the driver of the vehicle yielded to the bicycle, the collision would have been avoided, and if the bicycle had a working brake the collision could have been avoided. Both the bicycle and the vehicle operated in violation of the City Code.

For the driver, the violation was of Code 10:20, which states that a driver must see that the turn can be made safely, give a signal and shall yield the right of way to vehicles coming in the opposite direction or approaching from the rear. For the bicyclist, the violation was of Code 10:172, which states that every bicycle shall be equipped with at least one effective brake.