Upcoming Club Rides...
May 10th -- Festival of Speed!Ride to the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point, GA to watch the first Festival of Speed of 2008. Ride details TBA.
Exploration of the city's industrial heritage, from early railroad days to the rebirth of condos around downtown. Details TBA.
Recent Ride Reports
Click here for more reports
March 2008... Tour de Beer
Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Tour de Beer. A heavy rain kept most people off the bike, but a few of us decided to brave the weather and ride out. Hopefully we managed to raise lots of money for GeorgiaBikes! and better cycling in the state. Extra thanks to the crew from Athens who drove all the way over to join us!
February 2008...African-American History
To celebrate Black History Month, the group set out to explore Atlanta's rich legacy of African-American history. We started the route near the Martin Luther King National Historic sites, ventured down the Sweet Auburn district to see the many traditional black-owned businesses, and stopped near Alonzo Herondon's barbershop at 66 Peachtree. Herndon was the city's first black millionaire and the barbershop was the foundation of his family's fortune, in addition to his Atlanta Life Insurance company.
The site of the barbershop was also a focal point of the 1906 Race Riot. We visited several sites of the race riots, from where the fighting began on Decatur St to the mob's travels around the Five Points. We moved on from there to the Herndon Home, the Atlanta University Center, and the West End. Part of the group broke off to attend the Beltline groundbreaking and part continued on. We stopped at the site of Hank Aaron's 715th home run but the parking lot was covered by the UniverSoul Circus, so we couldn't follow the bases painted on the lot. We ended the ride at Oakland Cemetery (as always?) and didn't hang out since everyone's seen it 100 times. We instead ate lunch at Six Feet Under and had a thoroughly good day despite the chilly weather!
December 2007...Move by Bike
When the Atlanta Bicycling campaign was looking for volunteers to help move to their new office, the Intown Touring Club stepped up with volunteers to carry items...by bike! We had a great trip with lots of panniers, trailers, messenger bags, and an Xtracycle. We carried pens, papers, books, desk supplies, and other small objects about three miles from Virginia-Highlands to the new office downtown. We even made it in the AJC...
http://www.ajc.com/search
http://www.ajc.com/search
December 2007...Holiday Spirits!
First stop was Trader Vic's for some island-flavored tiki drinks. There was actually a call to nominate the back corner booth as the
official ITC clubhouse, but a decision is still pending. From there we visited the Georgia Tech conference center for some free pool and popcorn and then rode on to the Omni Hotel for a wonderful view of Centennial Park's holiday lights. After some expensive drinks and ice cream at the Omni, we cruised down to the Holiday Inn Select at Turner Field for some cheaper beer and free nothing. Even though the American Society of Hemotologists (ASH) was at the hotel, we were the only folks in the bar and I think we surprised the bartender. But we moved on from there quickly for a trip up to the top of the city at the Weston. We managed to sit for 4-5 rotations around the Sundial and ended the night with great friends and good conversation.
October 2007... Cemeteries
August 2007... Contemporary Architecture Redux
We started at the San Francisco Coffee on the *south* side of Ponce.
From there we scouted out the new copper-clad Plexus on Ponce and turned north into the Highlands. Just after the San Francisco Coffee *north* of Ponce, we turned to examine Villa Lilly which was a converted farm house. The work was started by an Alabama architect, Sam Mockbee, and finished in 2004 by Atlanta architect Loyd Bray. For more information on Sam Mockbee's Rural Studio project in Alabama... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Studio.
From there we visited Ansley Park for Anthony Ames' Hulse House (1986) and an unknown house that Mr. Bray pointed us to on the previous ride. On the previous trip, we turned up Peachtree to visit Mac Scogin's house at 96 Wakefield Dr (1996) but decided to skip the extra trip this time. Instead, we turned south to the Colony Square Apartments (1969) and then cut across the street to the High Museum's student housing designed by Renzo Piano (2004). We took a few minutes to examine the High building and Piano's recent expansion.
After a bit of high culture, we looped around to 17th Street and
Atlantic Station. The opinions of The Commons at Atlantic Station were mixed, but we all applauded the effort. Then down to Hemphill Ave for the nautical Hemphill House (1995) and the understated McMillan House (1995) (both very cool, IMO). At that point everyone was pretty hungry so we followed Hemphill back to Peachtree and dug into some burgers and beers at the Vortex. Great trip and I'm looking forward to the next one!
July 2007... Contemporary Architecture
Quite an adventurous ride! We set several records, with far and away our biggest group ever not to mention the worst weather! After meeting for an early cup of coffee, we took off to focus on contemporary
dwellings (aka houses) and explore some of the recent trends in
residential architecture. We
saw examples of several different contemporary styles -- featuring
various materials and geometries -- and got a good comparison of the various styles found around the city.
Our route circled the Highlands, Midtown, and Peachtree Hills. I'll admit that I was in the back of the group taking pictures, but I'm sure we saw some interesting stuff... lots of right angles and interesting uses of unconventional materials and whatnot. We saw renowned homes in Ansley Park, the Highlands, and Peachtree Hills created by some of Atlanta's most renowned architects.
However things soon turned wet. On-and-off sprinkles had been building up until eventually the skies opened up and we got soaked. Some folks had rainwear and some didn't so the mood was mixed. Once we reached Peachtree, the group split into lunch groups and we called the ride short. We'll hopefully be making up the rest of the tour at a later date. Stay tuned. Big thanks to Sheri for getting the route together.
June 2007... A picnic.
We had 20 people show up plus at least one unrelated cyclist join us en route. For hauling stuff around we had one Xtracycle, one Kid Kaboose trailer, several panniers, some backpacks, and one set of buckets.
Thanks to everyone who helped with setup and logistics.
Even though most of us were stuffed, we managed to play two innings of
Whiffleball. The Coolers may have scored more runs than the Grillers,
but there was some suspect plays on their part so I'm going to call
the game a friendly draw.
A few pictures of the picnic...
http://picasaweb.google.com/byronrushing/ITCPicnic
April 2007... Historic Railroad Tour
We started the ride in the Kirkwood neighborhood at the bend in Rogers
Street. This location was picked for the start of ride because it is
home to the old Pullman Yard. This yard was used by the Pullman
Company as a regional maintenance facility for its sleeper cars. This
building is also on the Atlanta Preservation Society watch list of
endangered historic structures.
From there we rode parallel to the old Georgia Railroad to Oakland
Cemetery where we peered over the wall into Hulsey Yard. Hulsey is one
of CSX's regional intermodal facilities that transfers hundreds of
freight containers between trains and trucks each day; it is one of
the busiest facilities of its kind in the nation.
Continuing on, we rode into Downtown to find the Zero Mile Marker of
the Western & Atlantic Railroad and the original point around which a
settlement called Terminus, later Atlanta, grew. The Zero Mile
location once represented the center point of a circle, one mile in
radius, that formed Atlanta's municipal boundary. It is strangely
appropriate, in Atlanta, that the zero mile marker has been moved
several times over the course of history and now resides within a
police training facility that is itself underneath a parking deck. In
a daring maneuver we dodged a parking deck security guard by cunningly
playing dumb and avoiding eye contact. We got a great ride down the
curvy deck ramp.
From there we traveled under the City's viaducts along lower Wall
Street and passed a cavern that was once the location of Atlanta's
original passenger terminal: Union Station. Utilizing another parking
deck, we popped back up to Marietta Street and then back down into the
railroad Gulch near the CNN center. We poked around a bit and stood on
one of the passenger platforms from the final Union Station at the
base of Fairlie Street and near the original zero mile spot.
We proceeded underneath Phillips Arena and along the edge of
Castleberry Hill. Paul helped us locate a parking lot that once was
Terminal Station, Atlanta's other passenger station -- its taxi stand
is still hanging like a goiter off the Mitchell Street bridge. From
there we followed the trunk line south to McDaniel Street to see where
the southern tracks merge into the city.
This point is where the historic Macon & Western and Atlanta &
Westpoint lines split. Paul guided us south on Peters Street to see
some old streetcar tracks on what was once the #20 south. Stay tuned
to your ITC website because streetcars may be the topic of a future
ride.
Due to the cold weather, everyone was ready to ride over to the Elliot
Street Pub for lunch. I had a French Dip with a Guinness, but I saw
several turkey sandwiches and some vegetarian dishes (something like
salads). For those keeping score at home, Guinness remains the beer of
choice for Atlanta's Intown Touring Club.
February 2007... Ride to the Tour de Beer
Not a big ride this month, but the group decided to co-schedule a ride out to the GeorgiaBikes! Tour de Beer fund raising party. We met at the Videodrome on Highlands and rode out through the Highlands, Piedmont Park, and Ansley Park to Monroe Dr and the Sweetwater Brewery.
