I started riding a road bike — a Trek 1000 — in 2005. This year will be my sixth RAGBRAI.

And please allow me to digress for a minute: If you approach the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (which from now on will be referred to only as RAGBRAI) as your own personal Tour de France, this might not be the place for you. But, if you ride lots of miles — on the road, on trails or wherever — and believe in having fun before, during AND after your ride, make yourself at home.

Anyway, back to Brome Hill Bike Tours (BHBT) … For at least seven or eight months out of the year and sometimes more, when I’m not working or blogging, chances are pretty good I’m biking with my friends in the Melon City Bike Club or with the friends who let me join them on RAGBRAI.

The goal for BHBT are pretty simple: Organize some weekend bike rides once summer returns. Maybe eventually organize some longer rides if there are enough Brome Hill readers who like to bike and would like to join me. For me, it would combine three passions:

• Biking and having a good time.
• Meeting new people and having a good time.
• Finding new stories to tell on this blog while having a good time.

Or is that at least four passions?

If you would be interested in joining me on a ride somewhere in Iowa, western Illinois, southwestern Wisconsin or southern Minnesota (anywhere within a three- or four-hour drive from Muscatine), leave a comment here. Or contact me via:

Twitter: @csteinbach

By email: brome.hill@gmail.com.

And then stay tuned. I’ll blog about it somewhere here if — and when — I pull this off. Who knows? Maybe Brome Hill could even take a team on RAGBRAI one of these years if this crazy dream works.