W.K. Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan is famous for breakfast cereal. Everyone knows that.

What’s less known is his connection to cycling.

W.K. Kellogg was a member of the League of American Wheelmen (L.A.W.). Although not knowing when he joined, his membership number is very low (1,092) making him one of the first Michigan cyclists to sign up.

In 1897, Battle Creek had the third most L.A.W. memberships behind Detroit and Grand Rapids (but just one more than Escanaba!)

When the L.A.W. began life memberships in 1901, W.K. Kellogg paid the $10 fee. He was just the seventh Michigan cyclist to do so. (Nationwide, Detroiters Horatio “Good Roads” Earle bought the first life membership while Edward Hines had the sixth.)

With his brother, W.K. Kellogg started the Sanitas Nut Food Company in the late 1890s. Both were vegetarians who experimented with nut butter as a protein substitute. They even received a patent for this early predecessor of modern peanut butter.

Their company advertisement on the right was printed in a 1901 League of American Wheelmen Bulletin. This was an early example of a healthy, sports-oriented protein product.

But in 1906, W.K. Kellogg parted ways with his brother and the nut business to concentrate on breakfast cereals.

From the Kellogg Foundation web site:

W.K. went on to become one of the world’s wealthiest men. But with his puritanical conscience, he felt guilty living the lavish life of a millionaire. Instead, W.K. felt obligated to use his fortune for the benefit of humankind: “If I am successful in getting out of debt, and become prosperous,” he wrote in 1909, “I expect to make good use of any wealth that may come to me.”

In 1930, W.K. Kellogg made good on that promise when he established the Kellogg Foundation. During his lifetime, he donated most of his fortune ($66 million) to create the Foundation’s endowment.

But that’s not the end of the Kellogg/bicycling connection. The Kellogg Foundation continues to support bicycle-related efforts throughout the U.S.

For example, they granted $1 million to help develop greenways in Southeast Michigan. They’ve also committed $2 million to building a non-motorized trail from Kalamazoo to Battle Creek.

Originally published in the Good Roads Magazine, June 1901. A publication of the League of American Wheelmen. Note that “wheel” is another term for a bicycle while “scorch” means to race or ride fast. The emphasis on the last tip is our doing.

• Don’t forget that it is just as far home as it is going out.
• Don’t leave your wheel outside an office building. Someone may win it.
• Don’t buy a wheel simply because it is cheap. Remember you have only one neck.
• Don’t overdo things at the start. Cycling is a good thing but like every other good thing can be worked too much.
• Don’t pay any attention to the big gear the fellow next door rides. Get one to suit your own style and strength and stick to it.
• Don’t rely on the other fellow having an oil can or wrench. Better take one along for he may have forgotten his.
• Don’t forget that you have a bell on your machine at the same time it is often better for you to go a little out of your way than to ring it.
• Don’t take your wheel apart everytime you come home from a ride. Keep it clean and see that the nuts are tight a good wheel needs little else.
• Don’t mind the road hog. He was born that way and it’s too late to teach him anything.
• Don’t scorch on the city street. There is not much glory in it and besides it is expensive.
• Don’t worry about the fellow with the big gear who gives you the ha ha on the level. Just lay for him on the next hill.
• Don’t take any chances at street car crossings. It is much easier to go around a car than through it and besides it is far more comfortable.
• Don’t leave your wheel at home when you can use it. You save expense get the exercise and are sure of a seat.
• Don’t ride all over the street. Keep to your side of the road but be sure you get what is coming to you.
• Don’t imagine you have the only wheel that was ever built. You haven’t. There are many others and just as good.
• Don’t ride hands off on busy thoroughfares. If you must show off your fancy riding hire a hall. You have much more room and then again the price of admission will pay for repairs to self and wheel.
• Don’t race on the park roads simply because the trotter ahead is going just as fast. This explanation is of very little use if you are the one caught.
• Don’t think that cycling is a fad. It isn’t. It is a healthy and pleasurable means of transportation to be used when necessity or inclination so dictates.

— Jos Estoclet

Assignment Detroit

Time Magazine recently bought a house in Motown as part of their Assignment Detroit project. Why? In their words, “As a story, Detroit has been misunderstood, underreported, stereotyped, avoided and exploited for decades. To get it right, we decided to become stakeholders.”

Their project includes a blog and one of it’s early entries was about biking in Detroit.

In Detroit, there are cars. And then there is something known as non-motorized transportation.

That means bicycles, y’all.

Believe it or not, people in the Car Capital of the World love their bikes. And there is a huge movement to create a culture here that is friendlier to two wheels than four.

Yep. Believe it.

Alleycats in Detroit

Model D once again has some great coverage of Detroit’s biking scene, include this article on Alley Cats (which also drifts into the Tour de Troit and greenways…)

Since 2006, [Ron] Shelton has organized Alleycats in Detroit. These unsanctioned cycling races draw riders from throughout the metro area to compete in a crisscrossing sprint down streets and through intersections. Participants fly from checkpoint to checkpoint, collecting clues and directions to their next destination while dodging cars and other riders. The course tests both the riders’ knowledge of the city and their guts as they navigate a virtual collision course that backtracks and veers over 35 miles.

“People don’t realize it, but in Detroit, we have ridiculously wide roads that are ready to be converted to include bike lanes,” [Shelton] says. “Michigan has a lot of potential for cycling and has many fantastic trails already.”

Aaron Wagner, an organizer for the annual Tour De Troit agrees. “Definitely there’s been an upswing in biking in Detroit,” he said. “With the opening of the Detroit RiverWalk and bike shops like the Wheelhouse and the Hub, it’s gotten a lot more people into it. We’re seeing more people leaving their cars at home and riding their bikes to work.”

Don’t forget that the next Alleycat is in Hart Plaza on October 30th. The time has not been posted yet but we’re guessing it’ll be after the critical mass ride.

Tour de Troit

And finally Model D and Tom Hendrickson have made a great video on this year’s Tour de Troit bike ride. Tour Director Bil Lusa provides some commentary on the ride.

Since yesterday I’ve been guest blogging Metromode. The topics are non-motorized transportation in Metro Detroit.

The first two posts are now live and there are three more to go.

That bio photo is from a little-known Detroit trail called the Milbank. It connects Conner to Van Dyke between Eight Mile and E. Outer Drive. This trail is included in the October 3rd Conner Creek bike tour by Wheelhouse Detroit. The tour also includes a lunch stop at the nearby Two-Way Inn in the old village of Norris/Nortown.

Yes, the Inn is haunted.

m-bike hasn’t stepped on the car-only soap box. Cars have a transportation role in many peoples’ lives. Often, today’s built environment and lack of reliable public transportation options make cars a near necessity, as do some jobs. That’s being realistic.

That certainly doesn’t mean that people in some locations with the right job can’t live car-free.

However, m-bike does have a car-lite agenda. We need to build communities that support transportation choices beyond just cars.

That said, last Tuesday, September 22nd was World Car Free Day. Based on their web site, the group behind the event doesn’t seem to clear on whether they want a car-free day or a car-free year.

Every September 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don’t have to accept our car-dominated society.

But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to “normal” life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars.

Either way, my car stayed in the driveway on Tuesday as it does most days.

World Car Free Day did get a response from Detroit News Auto Columnist Manny Lopez. The title of that opinion piece: “Car-free crusade is absurd.”

Being an auto columnist, you’d expect Lopez to resist the notion of going car free. But rather than make a moderate, well-reasoned pitch, he brings in more absurdity, including this:

“There is no betterment of mankind by government policies trying to get people out of cars,” says Sam Kazman, general counsel of the non-partisan Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is opposed to the anti-car group’s crusade. “I’m not even that sure it’s a fine and dandy notion (to be car-free).”

Ah, the betterment is well-documented. People become more healthy when they can choose active transportation options, including public transit.

“A fine and dandy notion?” Who grew up watching too much of Mr. Rogers?

The real absurdity lives at the extremes.

Yes, living car-free in Metro Detroit is a challenge. But continuing to foster car-only communities given what we know about our health and environment?

That is absurd.