It’s an old saying in the cycling community: “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.”
Detroiter and nationally known cycling advocate Mark “Marco” Speeks is on a mission to prove there’s truth in the adage, as he bikes year-round, including frigid Michigan winters. It’s both a personal lifestyle and model for empowerment in his adopted hometown, Speeks says.
Through corporate and non-profit engagements, presentations, hands-on workshops, and other programming for adults and youth, he promotes bicycles as transformative tools for individual health and economic advancement in lower-income households throughout the community. What many residents of a city that became known by a portmanteau of “motor town” might regard as a radical replacement for car and bus transportation Speeks calls a practical, potentially life-changing option.
“Because it does change your life. It can manage your health, your weight,” he says. “We’re talking high blood pressure, diabetes, mental health.”
A third of low-income Detroiters don’t own a car, and most drivers devote about 40 percent of their income, including monthly payments, insurance, fuel, and maintenance, to automobile expenses, adds Speeks.
“It’s creating a perpetual cycle of poverty,” he says.
While, for decades, the average Detroit household has seen multiple generations of family members aspire to buy a car, research published by the Detroit Regional Chamber in 2023 supports some of Speeks’s positions.
“It is a shock to no one that the lack of reliable transit is a barrier to nearly half of Detroit residents, given that some 30 percent of Detroit households lack access to a car, and many more struggle with unaffordable car maintenance and insurance,” reads an essay, “Transit Failure – or Success – is a Policy Choice.”
Among additional statistics, the Chamber’s article reports:
- 51 percent of Detroiters seeking employment cite lack of access to a car as a barrier.
- 44 percent of city residents view lack of convenient public transportation as another obstacle.
“And we’ve all heard about people waiting hours for no-show buses,” the essay continues, “or walking for miles to get to jobs where buses don’t run.”
But while the commentary by Megan Owens, of Transportation Riders United, urges rapid transit through regional bus or train development as a solution, Speeks maintains that bicycle access can address the majority of Detroiters’ needs. More than 200 miles of bike lines have been established along the city’s streets, he says.
“Detroit is already set up for cycling, but cyclists aren’t using the infrastructure at a volume consistent with the city’s population,” says Speeks.
While summer events like Slow Roll have grown to give bicycles greater prominence through social and recreational gathering in recent years, Speeks has worked to promote bike access, safety training, and route initiatives to a more general audience. He launched Major Taylor Michigan Cycling Advocacy (MTMCA) as a non-profit in 2024, hoping to use it for community outreach and education, he says.
“MTMCA is a community asset designed to function on the social enterprise model,” Speeks says.
Speeks, whose professional background is in entrepreneurship, began crafting a blueprint that would put more local youth, families, and professionals on two wheels. Through tireless networking with public officials, education leaders, and other cycling enthusiasts, MTMCA has grown to generate considerable support and even formal recognition. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proclaimed Sept. 15, 2025 “Major Taylor Day” in Michigan.
With about 15 devoted volunteers, and using grant funds and donations, Speeks says he has been able to create programs in Detroit schools and distribute about 100 free bikes to youth.
But aside from the challenge of persuading Detroiters to swap their key fobs for helmets and goggles, he recognizes a cultural obstacle in majority-Black neighborhoods that he targets.
“The reason I wanted ‘Major Taylor Day’ to be recognized,” he adds, “is to show people of color and underserved people that cycling is for them, too.”
Still, he encounters Black Detroiters who associate spandex pants more with Tour de France competitors than with a Gilded Age legend whose name many have never heard.
‘Fastest man on two wheels’
A full decade before Jack Johnson shook the sports world and much of America as a ferocious boxer, a less flashy, more conventional Black competitor became a standout in a field that had been dominated by white athletes. In fact, Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor is regarded by some historians as the world’s first Black superstar in any sport.
Having begun as a competitor before his 20th birthday, Taylor became world cycling champion in 1899 and American sprint cycling champion in 1900. Along the way, he set numerous cycling records, which drew the ire and jealousy of much of the nation still adherent to the standards of Jim Crow racial segregation. Even President Abraham Lincoln, the so-called “great emancipator” who ended slavery, had stated in earlier public debates: “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and Black races… And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”
In 1878 Taylor was born in Indiana, 13 years after Lincoln’s assassination. While still in his teens, he began cycling his way past the presidential vision of white superiority, eventually drawing crowds to such major sporting venues as Madison Square Garden, to witness “the Colored Cyclone” in lightning-fast action.
Although Taylor might not have set out to use his trailblazing talent to become a controversial figure, his success made him an open target of prejudice that he endured throughout his cycling career. He became known as the “fastest man on two wheels,” but his participation in a non-contact sport didn’t protect him from physical attacks.
Unlike Johnson, who would later openly pummel white men on his way to gaining the heavyweight boxing title — publicly flaunting his affection for white women, along the way — Taylor was said to have quoted biblical scriptures, in response to provocation from his opponents. It wasn’t until he began competing in France in 1901 that Taylor was treated as a national hero. He began defeating European champions without the violent or hostile retribution he had faced in America.
“Major Taylor had a proud and confident identity in Europe, and was not a crushed or threatened black man,” writes Andrew Ritchie in the biography Major Taylor.
His complexion became a point of reference among Europeans, but because of its novelty in the sports community.
“For the first time in his life,” Richie writes, “it was an advantage for him to be black.”
Today, nearly 100 years after his death, Taylor’s name is still used in tribute, adorning the titles of cycling events and clubs that attract members of all races and backgrounds.
A global tradition
Speeks is careful to stress that MTMCA is not a club, but an organization formed to promote awareness and guidelines for proper cycling. While Taylor’s fame resulted from professional achievements, MTMCA’s goals revolve around introducing and supporting bike usage as basic transportation, Speeks says.
According to Speeks, not only isn’t cycling a “white thing,” as some view it, it has roots in contemporary life throughout the world, including regions populated by people of color.
“It’s not foreign, it’s not Eurocentric,” he says. “It’s a part of our culture and identity.”
Where Speeks grew up in West Africa, he says cycling is part of everyday life. He regularly rode a bike to school and back home with classmates who did the same. Unlike Africa’s climate, there’s even cycling in frigid areas like Siberia, he adds.
Speeks moved to Detroit in 2016 after living in California, which is largely known for automobility in cities like Los Angeles. He has personal access to a car and recognizes that riding a bike isn’t practical for every individual and circumstance. But more often than the average Detroiter imagines, a bike can be a good substitute for a motor vehicle, he says.
There are single moms who’ve been recipients of MTMCA bike donations, and who ride to markets to grab groceries. Even for large families or large loads, there are specialized cargo bikes designed for use with pannier bags, commonly used in parts of the world, he says.
Two or three smaller events that cause unexpected financial challenges can be catastrophic to a household dependent solely on cars for transportation, adds Speeks.
There is also a proven link, he says, between chronic absenteeism from school and lack of transportation, a gap that bikes can fill.
“So if you have a household that is transportation insecure and struggling in the poverty trap, well how does that affect the children?” he asks.
In Detroit classrooms like those at Noble Elementary, Speeks is popular with the children and respected by staff.
“Typically, it’s dad, brother, cousin, neighbor who teaches a person to ride a bike,” says Sam Abrams, parent outreach coordinator at Noble. “But how many of us learn true bike safety?”
Through MTMCA’s “Stride and Glide” initiative Speeks teaches cycling basics and education to Noble students, who ride in the hallway as a lively diversion during days immersed in math, science and basics, Abrams says.
Starting with youth at elementary age helps instill a greater appreciation of bike-riding and its importance, “and that’s the target, and that’s perfect,” adds Abrams.
There is also an academic bonus to practicing proper cycling techniques, Speeks says.
“One of the ways I convinced schools to allow me to bring bicycles into the classroom is that their students don’t have the ability to compete in standardized tests if they don’t know how to ride a bike,” he says.
He doesn’t suggest that pushing bike pedals directly translates to classroom comprehension, but Speeks says “neuro-muscular corrections” involved in the riding process help support problem-solving skills. Teachers at schools where MTMCA offers programming know which children ride bikes, he adds.
New vision for Motown
But it’s not only youth who’ve been exposed to MTMCA’s advocacy and initiative. Through Bikes 4 Employees (B4E), professionals, particularly in the downtown area, have received about 250 bikes. Including helmets, reflective vests, tools, and other equipment and accessories, B4E participants pay small weekly payroll deductions totaling between $600 and $1,000, while receiving about $1,800 in value, says Speeks.
Partnerships with the City of Detroit, Henry Ford Health, Wayne State University, and other agencies connect staff who live more than a half-mile from their workplaces with B4E resources. Some employees qualify for discounted bikes or even e-bikes, and some participate with support from job benefits.
In partnership with Brilliant Detroit, Speeks is developing “bike buses,” a safety, logistics, route-planning, and group-ride effort to benefit Detroit Community Schools District.
“It creates a community where everyone is accountable to each other, individually and collectively,” he says.
The program would utilize the Joe Louis Greenway and target students Speeks aims to to work with for 20 years, from pre-school through college. Since cars became synonymous with Motown, he envisions similar potential for bikes.
More support and involvement from Detroiters will help address doubts about issues like safety of neighborhood surroundings, street conditions, and other matters that could discourage residents from cycling, Speeks says. Already, programs like the federally funded Safe Routes are connected to available cycling resources, and an increase of participation can be more impactful toward getting the proper agencies to handle concerns that range from snow removal to blighted structures, he adds.
“We need people to ride bikes in the bike lanes,” says Speeks, urging people to contact him at the mtmca.org website for help cycling.
He adds, “We want to normalize cycling as a means of transportation in everyday life.”
Even those already accustomed to using bikes can benefit from support from an organization like Major Taylor Michigan, he says.
“You need advocates,” adds Speeks. “We are the experts. We have the relationships and we know how to communicate with the city.”