Another Update

It was almost a year and half ago that we rented a minivan to move ourselves, four bicycles, and whatever else fit... traveling a third of the way across the country to start afresh in Detroit. New home, new jobs, new appreciation for winter, and new business venture - Freighty Cat.
Over the past year, the start of production has remained out of grasp, while we have continued to learn more about the city, ourselves, and how we want to shape our company. We've certainly stayed busy in the meantime.
After the new year, we headed out to Oregon to visit the Center for Appropriate Transport in Eugene, Oregon. We returned with a jig we helped assemble, some tubes we helped bend, a waxed canvas rain cape we helped fabricate, and a vision of our place within the Human Powered Network which we helped refine. We've found a number of options for shared work space. All that's left is to find our own alignment table, settle into a shop, and start making bikes. In the meantime, we've been doing a lot of mechanic work around town, with Kyle presently working full time at the Hub and Leslie working upstairs part time at Back Alley Bikes. She has also been gradually building up her bicycle-powered micro-distribution and promotion service, Bike-ro Distro, as well as riding for Greencycle. Meanwhile, during our search for bike building equipment, we've thriftily acquired some sturdy sewing machines and an entire silk screening rig, so there are some side projects looming in our future.
Thanks for embarking on this lurching journey with us. We still plan for our production to be happening here in Detroit in the near future, but if you just can't wait, similar products continue to be immediately available via Human Powered Machines (including an ever-expanding variety of rain capes in a number of colors and fabrics).
Please do keep in touch with us here or via Facebook and Twitter.
xo
Leslie and Kyle

End of the Year Update

Hey folks!

It's been far too long since we've updated our blog. In case you've been wondering what we've been up to, here's a little rundown of our summer, fall, and now winter.



A lot changed in the private sphere of Freighty Cat with the arrival of the ultimate trash pick - our dog Bosco. Way back, over memorial Day weekend, the three of us packed up and hit the road for a little bike vacation. We loaded up the Freighty Cat Schooner and the Folk Engineered touring bike with camping equipment, dog food, and some spare clothes... leaving just enough room for our canine passenger. The route had been based solely on the names of towns and their connections with our lives - Brooklyn, Leslie, and Hell. (I swear this order is not autobiographical.) Bosco adjusted quickly to his life in the "flying box" - his milkcrate seat in the cargo bin.
Favorite quote of the trip was at a gas station, when a guy simply asked "What are you... adventurers?"

Since then, it has been a whirlwind of bike rides, new friends, and odd jobs. In the past eight months, if you live in Detroit, chances are that at least one of us has fixed your bicycle, helped you make a terrarium, played music at your favorite bar, ushered you around town on a party bus, taught your kid how to fix a flat, served you food out of an airstream trailer, fixed your bicycle, interviewed your sibling for college, fed you, hung a poster in your business, helped get your kid to an afterschool program, delivered a deli sandwich to your office, and/or fixed your bicycle. Meanwhile, we've been getting used to all the additional workshop space at our new home in Southwest.

Rest assured, Freighty Cat has not been forgotten amid all this activity. While we've been building up our company's nest egg, the Center for Appropriate Transport has been preparing the fixture for our forthcoming Schooner. We now have the space and, very soon, we will have the jig. We've been amassing the necessary equipment gradually. Now, for an epic quest across the country to meet with CAT and return brimming with gear.

Freighty Cat has a Puppy!

We've been a bit quiet lately here at Freighty Cat, and it's this guy's fault.

Many of you have met him, but for those who haven't, this is Bosco - the Bottomless Pit(bull):

barely a week after we found him

Now, whether he's indeed a pit bull is up for debate. The vet says we won't know how big he's going to get or what breeds he might be until he's fully grown. So far, Great Dane mix has been guessed with alarming frequency.

He turned up on the doorstep of a metal shop I was working at on the east side in the shopping cart of some guy trying to sell a VCR. After we turned him down on the electronics, and the subsequently offered VHS tapes, he muttered "How about a puppy?" on his way out of the parking lot. Not having seen a dog in the shopping cart, I opened the gate and took a look in his cart. There was a VCR and a black plastic garbage bag. I opened the bag, moved some trash out of the way, and there was soon-to-be-dubbed-Bosco in a ray of light. He was probably only two or three months old.

It's a terrible beginning to a wonderful story - he's turning out to be the greatest dog on the planet!

Coming soon - a blog post about our bike tour with this little guy. Meanwhile, the business end of Freighty Cat keeps chugging along, if slightly behind schedule. We are waiting on one more key piece of equipment, then production can begin. In the meantime, we have a puppy to distract us.

Kyle (and Leslie)

Bike Commuting to and from the Airport

So far, it's been two months of easy car-free living in a motor city. For us, it's not the lack of a car which is the challenge, it's acclimating to a city designed entirely for cars and lacking a decent public transit system. Everyone else in our house owns/shares a vehicle or has several, making the household motors outnumber the dwellers considerably. Our own surplus of bicycles can't even do that. The number of vehicles spread among our friends makes for an unparalleled temptation to leave the bicycle at home and jump in someone's car. My commitment to bike commuting was put to the test last weekend, when I had to work near the airport, but thankfully I did not buckle to the appeal of convenience. Forty-five miles of bike commuting later, I felt triumphant and not very sore at all.

I should first explain why I was working so very far away. When in Chicago, I sometimes assist at the auditions for a college performing arts conservatory. Now that I've moved, I can work the Detroit auditions as well. When I agreed to do this, I had assumed they would be held downtown, which is only a ten minute bike ride away from me. Likewise, when I'd signed up to crash the music festival and bars in Ferndale the night before with the Detroit Party Marching Band, I had pictured an early but easy morning. As it turned out, the auditions were being held out near the airport, about twenty miles away. Granted, we had opted to accept a ride with my bandmates to the Ferndale show, but this was because so many people were already driving and we could thus avoid a late and sleepy bike ride through Highland Park. However, asking to borrow somebody's car the next morning seemed just wrong, as it would be only out of laziness rather than a safety concern.

Taking the bus was out of the question. According to google maps, a bus to the airport that early on a Sunday morning would take three hours, while biking would only take two. Likewise, the transit option included walking and various transfers, while biking was a sure thing and likely faster than predicted. Sure, there is always the risk of a flat tire or other malfunction, but these are just as likely - but way slower to fix - with a car. My only concern was that the streets would still be dark for the ride West on Warren, but as it neared 6 AM, the skies started to lighten. Much to my delight, Kyle was awake and eager to join me for a dawn bike ride. This made the commute infinitely better. The bike ride was indeed peaceful and gorgeous. He had planned to escort me to the edge of town, but wound up accompanying me all the way to Telegraph, where we found a cozy diner where he could finally finish War and Peace before heading back to wrench bikes at noon. I carried on for the next ten miles alone, enjoying the relative lack of traffic on a Sunday morning.

first sign of bacon after Dearborn

Work was a piece of cake compared to my commute. After a few hours of sitting at a greeter table and then interviewing prospective students, I was free to enjoy the rest of my day. All told, my commute was indeed longer than the actual time spent at my destination. I had taken the most direct route to the airport, making only a few turns, so as not to get lost in my sleep-deprived haze. On the ride back, I decided to be more creative in my routing, loosely following the walking directions on my phone toward the Southwest. I immediately deviated from my directions to check out a road with the name Ruff in it. I was well rewarded on the way, finding a blocked-off dirt road covered in yellow flowers. I continued onto the road which was indeed rough, splitting off before it ended to rejoin my intended path. While I was working, Kyle had sent me pictures of horses at pasture and abandoned buildings from his ride home along Joy, so I returned the favor while he was at work, sending him a variety of samples of my ride.

this is labeled as a street on google maps

I continued along at a good pace until I was distracted by a charming donut shop in Allen Park. I had eaten mostly pastries all day, but still couldn't resist a chance to take a break at a cute little cafe. I sat and chatted with the girls behind the counter for a bit, rehydrating and packing away some of my treats for Kyle, who is way more into donuts than I am. I was still only halfway to my destination at this point, which was still several miles from home.

the bike waiting for me outside an old donut shop

At first, I couldn't figure out why Allen Park sounded so familiar. Once I came upon a familiar looking Coney Dog, though, I remembered that we had stopped there for lunch on our post-move ride home from the airport. Strangely enough, our completely uninformed route into the city had been somewhat clever after all. I'm still sure there are better ways to bike to and from the airport, yet there are so many unknown variables including traffic flow and random jerks, so really there is never a perfect route anywhere without a bike lane. Fortunately, Sunday traffic remained calm enough that I was generally alone in my lane.

whatever used to be next to the bowling alley

I was feeling pretty good about my routing until I saw the signs for the Ford Museum. Somehow, despite my intentions to keep South, I had made a wrong turn and wound up in Dearborn. Not wanting to feel the defeat of backtracking the way I came, I pulled out my smart phone and figured out a different set of direction towards Southwest. On the way, I got to see a massive test-driving course (complete with hills), kayaks floating along the Rouge River, the Dearborn animal shelter, and a beautiful waterfront industrial area. Having somehow never gone on an extensive bike tour, this meandering exploration of outer Detroit was getting me more eager than ever to try.

all sorts of traffic on Cinco de Mayo

Gradually the industry faded away and I came upon a mosque and then a cemetery. As soon as I crossed the border into Detroit, I saw the first bike lane in twenty miles... and of course within blocks I found it blocked by an idling undercover cop car. The ups and downs of Detroit, all so well characterized in just one stretch of road. I had deliberately routed myself through Southwest, hoping to catch a glimpse of this historic Mexican neighborhood on Cinco de Mayo. The parade had already passed, but the aftermath made for good people watching. I also enjoyed breezing past the traffic jam in my wide open bike lane. Everything smelled delicious and the streets were still a huge party. I stopped for a while at a flea market in a corner lot, buying some tools and knickknacks and learning that the sale happens every weekend. On my way out of the neighborhood, I saw six bicycles on the same corner, heading in various directions. I had missed Detroit during my suburban ride. In front of the train station, hip young adults snapped pictures and played bocce. I squirmed slightly. On my ride home, I passed the East Side Riders, who seemed to be out for a ride to on that beautiful afternoon.

While I had an incredible return ride, there were some moments I could have done without, especially on three hours sleep. Some of the roads were both too busy with traffic and full of potholes, which meant that the long ride resulted mostly in sore hands from gripping hard on my bars. I learned an important lesson on this ride - don't toss three bananas into a bag full of bike tools and strap it loosely to your front rack. I was also graced by the Midwest's famous multi-directional wind, which seems to sweep down upon cyclists from overhead. No matter which direction you are biking, the wind is almost never at your back in this part of the country. On the plus side, I was never honked at or menaced during all those hours of riding, and was only subjected to a couple of ambivalent shouts about the sidewalk. In the future, if I'm offered a ride to the airport, I would certainly rather ride my bike there.

xo
Leslie

Kyle says "Viva bici!"

Settling In - Month One

urban farm

It was just one month ago that we were first waking up in Detroit. It seems as close as yesterday and yet NYC feels a million miles away. Over the past few weeks since our whirlwind move and Detroit Bike City, we've been quickly learning about the city and getting used to its quirks. Our transition into a new community has been made far easier by our friendly new housemates and awesome old Victorian house where we all live. Some days are spent rushing around to meetings, while others have been solely for staying at home working on the computer, meanwhile stocking the wood stove (which heats the whole house), arranging and rearranging our room, and experimenting in the kitchen. We've honed our DIY skills by handmaking various juices, almond milk, pulp-laden breads, a gallon jar of salsa, granola, yogurt, and fresh-roasted coffee. Needless to say, the housemates haven't minded our homebody days one bit. The house is full of excellent cooks and we've had some fantastic family dinners. It's also certainly more comfortable than a dilapidated warehouse - which is where we had originally envisioned ourselves living right off the bat. While in reality our bed is really just a pile of blankets in the corner of a chilly attic, it sure feels like home. We've both felt very comfortable in Woodbridge so far. Our housemates have brought us around to places like the local community farm, meanwhile we've been meeting our neighbors gradually, yet all over the city. We're graced with close proximity to a place which throws shows, and live punk can often be heard through the closed windows, which should be both a treat and a terror in the summer.

granola

While neither of us has found a side gig yet, although we've been chasing leads, our days have been pretty packed. Our bicycles have served us well as we zoom across town between meetings with new connections and drinks with friends. So far, we've biked through the Southwest, the far East Side, several suburbs, along the waterfront, and all over the middle of the city. It's particularly striking to bike past the train station, which always feels like a giant sentinel at the deserted gateway to the Southwest as we zoom down the hill and through the long tunnel beneath the bridges overhead. A little further down the road, the congested freeways below look delightfully absurd.

Kyle and Nain

We've visited a number of Detroit destinations which are - at least in our books - pretty cool. So far we've been very impressed with the bars and cafes here. Our trips to Recycle Here are the most fun I've ever had recycling and Super Greenland's Wild Wednesday produce sale exceeded our expectations. As for Eastern Market, we've only visited it in the late afternoon on a Saturday, but the slim pickings are worth it for the bargains and scavenge. The neighborhood shops are very friendly and we got a lot out of our visit to OmniCorp for open hack night. Back on our side of town, every time we go to Avalon bakery, we see familiar faces from all over town. As for events, our time in Detroit so far has included a lot of wild events for such a chilly season. Our first weekend in Detroit included the Corktown St. Patrick's Day festivities, where we were far faster (and safer) on our bikes than our friends were in cars. The next weekend was Le Nain Rouge, which we spent either standing on the Schooner or following the Detroit Party Marching Band. If you aren't local to Detroit, look up the event; it really says a lot about the spirit of the city, in my humble opinion. We were once again in the band's entourage for the Tiger's Opening Day, once again costumed and with the cargo bike. Next week - band practice. Meanwhile, after a dinner party at SpreadArt, it appears we might be playing in the band for their theatre company in residency this weekend. Another bit of high culture has been a visit to the Detroit Film Theatre, which is a beautiful way to weather the day's storm. As for sports, we were given free tickets to a Tiger's game, which seemed like a necessary experience for newcomers. On the business side of things, our quest for shop space and equipment is finally bearing fruit. For as many places as we've seen and people who we've met so far, it's surely only the tip of the iceberg.

bull

In the midst of all this, granted the lack of day jobs has afforded us a lot of time, we also managed almost a week in Chicago via Megabus. Some work was done and fun was had with family, at Critical Mass, test riding cargo bikes at Ciclo Urbano (West Town Bikes), hunting for Easter eggs with drunken adults, and seeing John Greenfield play at Heritage Bicycles. Less fun - doing taxes on April Fool's Day. We had even squeezed in a podcast interview with the Vegan Pedicab. This made for an accomplished week, considering we'd started it getting interviewed in Detroit by Modeshift for a web article. So, with a load of clothes, knickknacks, and instruments from Chicago filling out our room, we've been settling into our strange and new life in Detroit - so far, so good.

tigers

xo
Leslie
(and Kyle over my shoulder)

Cycling in Detroit - Week One and a Half

(boon at the dump, not bike jousting)

We here at Freighty Cat don't own a vehicle. Kyle hasn't had one in over half a decade and I've never owned one at all. Biking not only suits our politics and ethics, but also our economic state (what with relocating across the country and starting a business, this is true now more than ever). So far our bicycles have served us just fine, but we knew that living in Detroit without a car could be a whole new experience. Then again, although we just came from a city renowned for its public transit system (NYC), we very seldom traveled on anything other than our bicycles. Moving to Detroit, in turn, hasn't been too much of a transportation culture shock at all. Even biking as far as the suburbs is a drop in the bucket compared to our usual routine of biking between boroughs and over the relative hills of Brooklyn. While the terrain may be entirely different here, we have been doing just fine without a car.

I'm going to be captain random here for a moment. In the past week and a half, on our ever-widening errands by bicycle, a thought has started forming in my mind. Although I have been a bike commuter, even if for just one day, in almost every major city in America (plus several in Europe and Canada), cycling in Detroit holds a special strangeness. In cities like New York, I've been one amongst a sea of bikers, while nearly a decade ago (when taking care of my grandpa) in South Bend, Indiana, I was a lone oddity in a world made for cars. Winter in Detroit, however, is the first time I have felt like such an anomaly despite a clearly blooming bicycle infrastructure. As a newcomer and a relative outsider, riding my bicycle is the transportation equivalent of running my errands naked. Within the hefty confines of a vehicle, a person can become anonymous and mostly free of rash judgement. When I get dressed to ride in the morning, besides the extra time spent constructing my layers and debating over gloves, I am well aware that I am about to go on my own tiny parade. Living most of my life inside of large cities, it was only in Indiana where I felt even a fraction of this. My first ride out, I'd made a "Bike to Live / Live to Bike" patch using some rags and a sharpie for my thrifted "messenger" bag. The common thread between these cities - mediocre public transit and thus a noticeable lack of pedestrian traffic. Needless to say, on a bike I am the only visible set of legs for miles. The cars begin to feel like burkas in relation to my nude presentation, although even a burka identifies the wearer's gender. Suddenly, I am the only complete human within sight for miles, presenting myself as a woman on a bicycle for all the world to see from inside their antisocial pods of seclusion, otherwise surrounded by a vast emptiness. It is as empowering as it is unsettling, but in the end still worth the ride.

Despite the general lack of foot traffic in Detroit, as a cyclist I have felt well treated by vehicles. In truth, the overly wide streets and dwindling population leave plenty of room for everyone. Even so, on our bike ride to Detroit from the metro airport, drivers in the suburbs greeted us with honking, shouting, cursing, and threats. We were told countless times, even by pedestrians, to get on the sidewalk. While it was nowhere near as empty of traffic as Detroit proper, there was still plenty of room for everyone on the street, at least from our perspective. Our return from the airport had been Kyle's introduction to cycling in Detroit, so I spent the suburban half of our ride gently assuring him that the city itself was nothing like this and that we hadn't just moved to some sort of cyclist purgatory. Sure enough, the moment we passed under a bridge, leaving Dearborn, we were greeted with a whole different world. It was as though every angry driver had hit an imaginary wall of entitlement behind us. Nobody honked and cars switched to the inside lane to give us space to take a full lane and ride side-by-side, instead of cowering in the shoulder like we had for the past hour. As we headed further into town, we were greeted with bike lanes stretching out in both directions, easily finding our way to our new home.

Since our first harrowing ride into town, commuting has been a joy. We've biked as much as possible, although occasionally taking rides with friends and roommates in the interest of arriving somewhere together. We're new to town, so we aren't pushing the fair weather riders too hard yet, although once summer comes it'll be a different story for sure. I've survived many a Chicago January commuting by bike, so I've found the weather wonderfully easy so far, although I know this isn't a common sentiment in most other cities. We've made a couple of bike trips to the Southwest, including one grocery haul where we foolishly didn't bring the Schooner but managed to somehow fit everything on our racks. The cargo bike was well used, however, in our trip to the recycling center and triumphant return with a salvaged coat tree. We've even made friends over a bike rack, meanwhile appreciating the abundance of places to lock up in general. The behavior of traffic is remarkably different in Detroit, but once I figured out that motorists here drive like New York cyclists, I was right at home. The streets still seem relatively empty of bicycles despite the new bike lanes, but surely this will change with the weather. In the meantime, I'll keep getting used to biking in this bizarre and bike-friendly motor ghost city.

Rubber side down,

Leslie
(and Kyle over my shoulder)

Detroit Bike City!

Our booth at Detroit Bike City.

It has now been a week since Detroit Bike City, so it's about time we reminisced.
When we visited Detroit together in early February, it became clear that arriving in time for Detroit Bike City would be a fantastic idea. This, however, meant moving our intended departure date up by nearly a month, giving Kyle just enough time to give enough notice to his job and house. Meanwhile, I decided not to go to Mardi Gras or Honk TX, opting to head back East and help him prepare for the move. The month that followed our return to NYC was hectic, a little scary at times, and surprisingly productive.
We had one day to rest in between our cross-country move and Detroit Bike City. The twenty mile bike ride back from the airport gave us a chance to clear our heads and get to work on preparations for the expo. The next morning we awoke to find snow outside the window, dragged ourselves out of bed, and bundled up for the sort of Midwestern winter we had been expecting. Everything fit perfectly into the cargo bin of the Schooner and we set out for the Cobo Center bright and early. This was our first real day out in town since we arrived.
It was a relatively short, but slushy, ride downtown. We were disappointed to see only one cyclist on the road aside from ourselves, although unsurprised to learn that she was representing the Hub and Back Alley Bikes. We rolled our rides right into the hall and set up our display. Anyone who hadn't loaded into the hall the night before had been instructed to do so by hand on Saturday. Fortunately for us, commuting by bike meant that we were essentially given permission to drive our "truck" right up to the table. The bicycle I had ridden served as our coat rack while the cargo bike sat proudly on display. The pools of water melting beneath them gave us endless street cred throughout the day, or so we were told. In fact, people were bewildered that we were deliberately choosing to live inside Detroit without a car. We found this a strange reaction at a bicycle show inside of Detroit proper.
Since we had only just begun as Freighty Cat, our booth was humble and quite improvised. After a botched attempt at hand-made linoleum stamps the night before, we agreed that having no business cards was just fine. Instead, we had a mailing list inside of an old leather-bound journal, a corkboard which invited visitors to list what they would like on a cargo bike, a vintage suitcase which held a slideshow-showing laptop (propped up on a giant dictionary and folding chessboard, hidden beneath a torn and faded longhi), and a set of stationary in case anyone needed a bootleg business card. The most key parts of our booth, however, were the Schooner and our curious selves. Just arriving in Detroit had been victory enough, so making any whistles and bells merely secondary.
After too much time spent in NYC, we were grateful to find how friendly and inclusive everyone was. One older gentleman even slid Kyle a $20 bill, telling us to buy ourselves a drink later. "Welcome to Detroit!" We could give shout outs to people for ages, so I'll just say that we met a stunning number of cyclists, advocates, fabricators, retailers, and other interesting folks. There was barely enough time to see all of the other booths, and we somehow even missed the transportation panel. Towards the end of the show, we were paid a very friendly visit by the Bullitt dealers from Ann Arbor, who were the closest thing to "competition" we had there. We stopped by their booth later and were pleased to finally meet the Chicago Cargo guy, with whom I have a number of friends in common. Cards and even hugs were exchanged between both sides of the cargo bike business world, which is how it always should be. All told, a very intense and awesome first time out for Freighty Cat.
xo
Leslie
(and Kyle over my shoulder)