The Motor City, the most single big city in the country, may have had it wrong all along, trying to find love while moving on four wheels when it should have tried two. 

Hosts of a new dating event in Detroit geared towards cyclists called Wanna Ride, say bicycling brings a different kind of interaction to everyday life and more vulnerability to the dating experience that may be more conducive to a romantic connection.

“There’s something that in our conversations about moving around that helps not just reveal more to you about a person, but what you might want out of life, or what you might be looking for in a partner,” said stand-up comedian Joe Aasim, co-host of Wanna Ride. 

On Monday, potential suitors will take the stage at Corktown bike shop Metropolis with their image obscured behind a curtain and only their bike visible, to be judged by their bikes and biking lifestyle. Event hosts and attendees will ask the suitors general questions as well as biking-specific questions, like what their favorite routes are. If the responses get an audience member’s heart rate up, they’ll indicate their interest and if it’s a match, the two will break away in tandem.

Wayne State University assistant professor of communications and expert on Detroit singles, Jessica Moorman, will be in attendance providing commentary. 

The event is hosted by Shima Darby, creator of the dating show event series Match Made on Stage which hosts various dating events from formats like speed dating to reality-TV style. The events are mostly hosted in Hamtramck and Detroit, the most single big city in the country where three out of four residents are unmarried. It’s the first time bikes will be brought up on the Match Made stage.  

“We’re trying to give more elements to people meeting each other, and ways to get to know who these people are,” said Darby. 

“If you’re big into the bike community there’s going to be certain attributes about the bike that might be a telltale sign of who this person is, or their personality, and that such,” she said. 

The biking-themed dating event comes at a time when running clubs have been rebranded as a great way to meet the love of your life. Galvanized by social media, people across the country have ditched dating apps this year to lace up their running shoes in hopes of finding love at a running club. CBS News has called it a “viral phenomenon.” 

Aasim has lived in Detroit for 18 years without a car, making “most” of his romantic connections by bike, he said. 

“There’s something about riding a bike that is much more of a vulnerable, open, honest conversation because on the road, we’re just more vulnerable people,” he said. “It’s very difficult to be both moving around and disingenuous. Have you ever gone on a run and tried to lie to somebody?” 

Riding a bike, you’re also more likely to pass someone in daily life and have a pleasant interaction that you want to recreate, compared to driving by someone also in a car. 

Event attendees will have the chance to make their own connections on bikes with a group bike ride just before the event at 7 p.m. that leaves from Metropolis. The dating show event costs $10 to attend or is free if you attend the group bike ride as well. For those who want to be more lowkey about finding a romantic connection, there will be a bulletin board where attendees can post notecards with a short bio and a drawing of themselves and their bike and contact information for people to reach out. 

If you do reach out, you might want to start by asking if they’re single. As Darby has noted at previous Match Made on Stage events, there is no guarantee that everyone on stage is single. 

“A lot of people on bikes are [polyamorous],” said Aasim, which means having romantic relationships with multiple people at the same time. 

BridgeDetroit could not find data nationally or locally on cyclists and relationship type preference. 

But you’ll have plenty of potential partners to meet  – in one survey of Detroit residents 13% said they walk or bike daily as a means of transportation, which would be more than 80,000 people. More than half of Detroiters, “sometimes” bike or walk for transportation. 

Regardless, the benefit of a bike ride for a first date is that if there isn’t a romantic connection you might have found a new biking buddy, said Aasim.  

“Might not have been sparks there romantically, but hey you went on a nice bike ride,” he said.