The Michigan Pedaler — Attraction in Detroit

Updated Review: Mike the owner called and explained what went wrong Friday night and offered a gift card for a future visit. In talking with Mike it was clear he wanted to make things right and offered an explanation for what went wrong and what MP could have done better. I really appreciated this follow up and would now recommend MP and will use them in the future. Original Review:We showed up for our pedal pub early, at 5:20 for a 5:30 reservation. I had booked a 15 person pedal pub and upon arrival saw 3 empty 15 person pubs and an empty 6 person pub. There were workers in each of the pubs. Not one greeted me. I said “we are here for a pedal pub at 5:30” and one man asked how many I had and I said 13 and he said “we had you down for 6, you must have misbooked”. They had allocated our group the 6 person bike instead of the 15 person one. It took some back and forth and me proving with my email receipt that I did in fact book the 15 person one. Turns out whatever internal system they used misbinned our group to the smaller bike. None of the workers who were standing around in empty bikes attempted to help resolve the situation. Our driver, Liam, who had just picked up the shift, tried to problem solve. While he was calling around trying to find another bike suitable for our size (and while 3 other 15 person bikes sat empty) we saw 2 other 15 person bikes take off with SIX PEOPLE ON THEM. When asked if those people paid for the larger bikes, the drivers on those said “they want the bigger bike”. Why weren’t those groups asked to prove they paid for the bigger bike the way I was? For context: larger bikes cost about $380 and smaller cost about $200. I doubt a group of six would intentionally book the larger bike for more than double the cost.

At first we were told to request a refund (that I’d have to get by calling and haggling with the owner myself), then we’re told they were attempting to find another bike for us to use, but at this point it was 20 minutes past our 2 hour start time. Our driver attempted to problem solve over and finally found us another bike and we started 35 minutes late and they pushed the group behind us out.

We loved our driver Liam, he hustled and really tried to help us. However overall we are incredibly disappointed with the Michigan Pedaler in general and won’t use again. There were at least 4 other drivers present and 3 empty bikes and no one attempted to problem solve. The way I was accused of misbooking not only by the driver of another bike but also the owner Mike, will make me more inclined to book with their cross town competitors next time.

Thank you to Liam and Brian for your help in problem solving. The rest of the Michigan Pedaler team could use a lesson in team work and...

We had a great ride Michigan Pedaler. Although it was somewhat odd because we were allowed to have 16 people, we ended up having 13 and one person had to stand in the middle - which was fine, but if we had the full 16 people I’m not sure where they would have gone/sat on the bike. Our driver, Scott, was nice but as we were driving downtown he purposely disrupted a peaceful religious practice on the front steps of a church. Men were circled and looked like they were praying and Scott hit the horn probably 10 times while waving at them, obviously aiming to disrupt their practice. All of us on the bike thought this to be extremely rude and unprofessional on the drivers part and it made us all uncomfortable. I also thought that more flexibility could have been used with us shopping at different bars. We started a little late but that doesn’t mean we should be limited to 1 bar to stop at. Overall I would use Michigan Pedaler again but specify to have a...

Once again my group had an absolute blast on the Michigan Pedaler. This is my 5th straight year doing this as I organize doing this at least once a year and sometimes twice a year. I started out getting one bike and now up to two, but my next one will be three because more of my friends want to come after seeing our posts on Facebook. Mike Gill does a fantastic job with the Pedaler from the very beginning of getting started to the reminders up the booking day, I had some questions this year and he was very prompt in returning my emails, I would recommend this company for their pedal bike event in Detroit to everyone as they don’t disappoint, there are others in Detroit but Michigan Pedaler is the...