Urban Tourist

©tom stoye

I don't remember this guys name. I have it written down somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can find it.

What struck me about him was how his tall and angular frame seemed out of place sitting on top of his vintage Honda bike. It's as if he borrowed the bike, and the helmet for that matter, and made a go of it. I met him at the Thunderdrome, a former velodrome on the cities east side.

Originally it was built by the Wolverine Bicycle Club in 1969, and like many properties in Detroit, it fell into disrepair, and was eventually taken over by mother nature. In 2010, Tom Nardone and the Mower gang rediscovered the property and cleaned it up.  Entrepreneur Andy Didorosi, came along and began to sponsor races there, featuring 9 different classes of motorized vehicles. The day I was there, there were participants that had come from all over the Midwest to make their way around the ramshackle track. This guy was one of them.

Because I spend a great deal of time wandering with a camera in hand, I've begun to notice a phenomenon regarding people who come to visit Detroit as "tourists." What separates them from the tour buses that make there way to the Motown Museum and the like, is they come to visit and play within the ruins and overgrown fields of the city, finding interest in properties and locations that are past there prime. This isn't new, ubran explorers have been doing this for years, but what's worth noting is how mainstream it's become in the last few years. More and more I see tour buses stopping, and one by one they get out to see the spectacle of what once was.