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June was a good bicycling month. The wind was stronger than usual and the humidity was less. Some of my riding statistics:

• 574.29 miles for the month
• Days that I rode: 19
• Average miles per ride day: 30.2
• Total year to date miles through June 30th: 2661.74

I did not do any organized rides during June. This was influenced by the driving distance to the rides and the price of gasoline. All the miles are on the road, no mountain bike riding this month. Road construction continues to limit the routes I can ride from home.

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I always enjoy Keith’s recap of his rides. According to his blog, the Cow Creek Classic is his 12th bike rally of the year. He rides with several friends at the beginning of the ride.

To read the full account visit Keith’s blog link

Last Thursday I was on my usual route across the McKay Causeway over Lake Houston. This area is where I have most of my flats. Lately most flats have been the result of a fine silver wire sticking through the tire and into the the tube. The difficult part about this is finding the culprit. If you ride very far after the puncture the wire bends off or wears down and you cannot spot the problem. I have patched a tube thinking I had found the problem only to re-puncture the tire with the wire still stuck in the tire casing.

Now the question, where does this wire come from? My theory; the steel wire in radial tires. I see tire chunks along the road from radial tires. But how do the little pieces of wire come to be?

Do you have a theory or guess?

I don’t know about you but I am beginning to see more and more stories about people riding bicycles to work. With gas at or above $4 per gallon whatever was holding people back from riding a bike to work seems to be getting pushed aside.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran this story, “More workers are riding bikes to work to sidestep high gas prices” online today.

What have you seen?

The Brownsville Herald

Dr. Rose Gowen, Medical Correspondent, University of Texas

“A few years ago the River Rockets Bicycle Club began a once a year celebration of our landscape with a bicycle ride to South Padre. The first year a handful of riders “pedaled to Padre.” Each year since then the event has grown to attract bicycle riders from all over Texas, many other states, and several parts of Mexico. On May 4, I was thrilled to ride for the second time in the Pedal to Padre.

I arrived at the starting line to find kids, teens, young adults and even senior citizens on bicycles that were hand-me-downs, shiny and new, inexpensive, and very expensive. There were even differently-abled riders on adaptive bicycles. As I rode towards the island, the landscape I grew up around reached out to share life and community spirit with each and every rider. As a group we shared an active experience through a beautiful part of the world in our very own backyard.”

Bike Noob writes about his adventures riding The Armadillo Hill Country Classic starting at Liberty Hill.

“One thing I learned for certain after today’s ride — I’m getting better at this.

Today, I did my first organized ride since November. The Armadillo Hill Country Classic, the premier event of the Austin Cycling Association (ACA), follows some nice country roads northwest of Austin. Routes on the ride varied from a 14-mile family ride to 105 miles. I picked the 51-mile route.”

Read more and see his pictures at the Bike Noob blog.

Blogger Kevin (?) writes about his weekend ride in the Sam’s MS150 trip from Frisco to Fort Worth in his blog.

His blog post “Bonking across Texas” recounts:

This weekend I rode in the Sam’s Club MS-150, a two day, 157 mile ride from Frisco to Fort Worth.  This was the third of three big Spring events I had planned (here’s #1 and here’s #2).  Last year Team ThinkCash fielded 7 riders for this event.  This year, only 4 of us returned – me, Stephen, BenC, and Kyle – plus one new rider, Anthony.

Here’s how things unfolded:…

Ken Hoffman describes his MS150 adventure as only he can in his column April 14th.

Link to Ken’s column in the Houston Chronicle.