Texas Bicycling News Digest April 4th 2018

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Bike, paddle, climb and more at REI Fit City Campout

Pam LeBlanc | fitness.blog.austin360.com


I prefer a sleeping bag in a tent to high threadcount sheets at a fancy hotel, especially when I can roll out of that tent the next morning, jump into a river or go for a run. And eat a yummy breakfast.

That’s all on tap at the upcoming Fit City Campout, set for April 28-29 in Johnson City.

Fit City is partnering with REI and the Lower Colorado River Authority to put on the campout at Pedernales River Nature Park in Johnson City, a 220-acre piece of Hill Country heaven about an hour’s drive northwest of Austin. …

PAYDIRT – ARR Trail Crew / NEW Roy G Kid’s Trail & KVUE Story!

Friday, Apr 13, 2018, 9:00 AM

Roy G Guerrero Colorado River Park
400 Grove Blvd Austin, TX

3 Mountain Bikers Went

KVUE contacted us to do a story on the new trail. Come out and help us show how trails get done! We will be doing tread clearing and other touch ups for the NEW Roy Guerrero Park Kid’s Trail! This trail will be a great destination for kids to learn mountain biking skills on a short trail with varied beginner level terrain. Meet along Grove Blvd. ju…

Check out this Meetup →

Austin weighing pros and cons of dockless bikes

Author: Ashley Goudeau | www.kvue.com

Austin’s Transportation Department is talking about an idea that could help ease congestion downtown, dockless bikes. The community is invited to attend a forum Wednesday morning to learn more about the idea.

California to Florida – across the USA

By Julian McCarthy | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 37: Shepherd TX to Silsbee TX: long day with unfavourable winds!

Wednesday April 4, 2018, 97 km (60 miles) – Total so far: 2,334 km (1,450 miles)
The rain was heavy overnight for a few hours, but snug and warm in the cabin. The morning was much cooler than of late at about 10 degrees. We made breakfast in the barn kitchen and were off by 8am.
The whole day was flat and through forest with pretty much identical views so photos not a huge priority. Still dozens of churches (seriously dozens over a 97km ride). We stopped for greasy gas station food at Rye, and they also sold a natty range of crucifixes, one of which had a police and gun theme. …

Early Spring on the Southern Tier

By Peter Gillott, Julian McCarthy and Poppy Holmes | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 36 Richards TX to Shepherd TX: from great breakfast with Bubba to wonderful evening accommodation

Tuesday April 3, 2018
A great night’s sleep without the flysheet on. A bit risky as the weather for Tuesday was rain at some point, but nothing arrived.
Bubba’s breakfast service was not till 8 as they had a rest day, so we got up early and got fully packed up. Breakfast (from their professional chef!) was a huge range of cooked food, cereals, bagels and smoked salmon. Simply fantastic. …

Joe’s Southern Tier Adventure

By Joe Athas | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 52: Ingram-Johnson City

Wednesday April 4, 2018, 32 miles (51 km) – Total so far: 1,634 miles (2,630 km)
Fred cooked a delicious breakfast for me this morning and I enjoyed some coffee with him and Janice until 8:30 or so. Fred then joined me on the first stretch of my ride today and gave me a decent shortcut/beautiful route to take (minus the incredible hill perhaps) to Fredericksburg. It was a really rough ride due to the wind, but the temperature was pleasant and intermittent clouds made for a good riding day otherwise. I made it into Fredericksburg shorty after lunch and …

Pacific to Atlantic

By Matthew McCoy | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Marathon, TX to Sanderson, TX: 56 miles

Tuesday April 3, 2018
Today’s ride was beautiful scenery on a gentle 1000 foot descent over 55 miles on a wide fairly smooth shoulder. There were no services along the way, but that is typical of the stretches I am on in West Texas. I am camped at the Canyons RV park on the east end of Sanderson. (I checked for roosters before paying my $10.) The RV parks in Texas aren’t near as crowded as those in Arizona and New Mexico.
Tomorrow I start a 120 mile stretch with no services, which …

Southern Tier on a Recumbent 2018

By Joseph Valenzi | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 33 – April 4 Wednesday – Richards TX to Shepard TX: Just not feeling it

Wednesday April 4, 2018, 62 miles (100 km) – Total so far: 1,814 miles (2,919 km)
Just wasn’t my day today. Even though I had a rest day yesterday I just had no energy. There were the usual endless ups and downs, but other than that the wind wasn’t bad. It was nasty cold this morning though. Not our coldest day. It was in the 40’s, but it was damp. And the wind just went right through you.
There was a truly awful section of road that I wish to …

The Limo Bikes to Bayous and Beaches

By Marilyn Swett | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Glen Flora to Bay City, TX: Finally….a TAILWIND!!!

Wednesday April 4, 2018, 36 miles (58 km) – Total so far: 520 miles (837 km)
“Nothing’s better than the wind at your back, the sun in front of you and your friends beside you.”
I didn’t sleep well last night – woke up at about 2:00 am with aching feet and legs. It was difficult to get back to sleep so I just read my Kindle for a while. Yesterday’s ride sure took it’s toll.

Although we were up by 7:00 this morning, we ended up having a leisurely breakfast and visiting further with Roy and Gail. Before we knew it, it was 10:00 and time to get rolling! …

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Bright Sunshine, Strong NE Wind Bike Ride

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I knew it was going to be tough ride on the “New Caney – Tavola – Valley Ranch” route. The wind was out of the NE at 22 mph with 30 mph gusts when I checked the weather just before starting the ride at 12:31 pm. I delayed starting the ride about 40 minutes waiting on the temperature to warm up into the 70’s. This caused me to change my wardrobe a couple of times before getting dressed. At first I was going to wear shorts, a thermal long sleeve jersey, a short sleeve jersey, and a windbreaker jacket. As the temperature improved I deleted the short sleeve jersey and then the jacket adding a regular long sleeve jersey instead. This combination turned out to be pretty good despite the strong wind.

Airport Weather Start of bike ride

Weather during the bike ride: start 72 (37% humidity), clear, wind NE 22 mph, gusts 28 mph. Finish 75 (31% humidity), clear, wind NE 16 mph, gust 24 mph. The cooler windy weather followed the front that passed through during the night. Humidity today was about half of what it was yesterday enhancing the chilliness.

Biking north the wind was constantly trying to push me back. Sometimes I glanced at the Elemnt computer and saw my power output in the 400 to 500+ watt range especially when a gust hit or I rode out in the open. My legs complained but I kept pedaling. Once I reached Tavola I rode among some trees which helped break the wind. I stopped across from the school and took this photo.

Not long after taking the pictures I had to grab the Canyon to keep the wind from blowing it over. This was about 15.9 miles into the ride. Making my way to Roman Forest Blvd. I stopped at the Shell station to answer a text message thinking the wind would really help get back to Kingwood. Riding away from the station I felt the wind pushing me and the pedal effort was much less than what it took get there.

Biking back to Kingwood went much quicker than getting to Tavola. Sometimes I rode into the wind but only for short distances. I got past the Briar Tree schools before the school buses arrived. This set me up to ride by the Kings Manor school a few minutes before everyone starting picking up the children. I thought I might get caught by the Bear Branch school traffic but I was there too before dismissal.

Finishing the ride at 3:05 pm my legs were relieved to not be facing the wind anymore.

Thursday is an off day but I plan on biking on Friday. I am at 116.54 miles for the week and month.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Bike Ride Summary

Texas Bicycling News Digest April 3rd 2018

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COTA’s bike nights another step toward cyclist-centric track use

By: Chris Davis | www.kxan.com

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Tuesday night marks the fourth chance this year for cyclists in Austin to take to the track at Circuit of the Americas.

This is the second year COTA has hosted these “bike nights,” trading gas pedals for another type of pedal. It comes as the track aims to expand its offerings for those who prefer two wheels to four and leg-power to horsepower. …

Border Bike Trip, Day 22: Everything Is Biggest in Brewster County, Texas

By GRANT WISHARD | www.weeklystandard.com


Big Bend National Park is a tough sell because there isn’t any one scene or location that’s especially notable or so beautiful that it deserves to be your desktop background. But the park does have an overall effect on people that keeps them coming back year after year. I said in the previous entry that Big Bend is one of the least visited parks in the country—but I’ve since learned it’s also one of the most revisited. …

Ride Along With HPD

bikehouston.org


The League of American Bicyclists outlines 6 components to a bicycle friendly community: engineering, education, equity, evaluation, encouragement, and enforcement. On Thursday, March 22, I took some time to investigate the enforcement component to our growing bike-friendly community with the Houston Police Department on one of their monthly “safe passing sting operations.” The stings are carried out to enforce the 3-foot safe-passing law that …

A Word From Our Director………. John Long

bikehouston.org


For personal reasons, I’m stepping down from my position as Executive Director of BikeHouston on June 30th. That opens up an amazing opportunity for you or someone you know. This is more than a job; it is an opportunity to do noble work; to serve a cause while working with a great group of people. BikeHouston is on a mission to transform our city by creating safe bikeways to improve the quality of life of all. Is it easy work? No, but it is deeply satisfying, and our successes over the past three years are a sign of things to …

California to Florida – across the USA

By Julian McCarthy | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 36: Richards TX to Shepherd TX: Another amazing place to stay

Tuesday April 3, 2018, 101 km (63 miles) – Total so far: 2,237 km (1,390 miles)
Full update later but staying at …

Joe’s Southern Tier Adventure

By Joe Athas | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 51: Wes Cooksey-Ingram TX

Tuesday April 3, 2018, 77 miles (124 km) – Total so far: 1,570 miles (2,527 km)
Today was very physically demanding 77 miles with 2500” or so of total climbing. The day started off very wet. First time I felt the need for my shoe covers. I made it up the first hill soaking, had to remove my glasses since they weren’t doing any good. By the top of the hill I met a girl named Jen from Anchorage. She was doing a mini tour of Texas for a week or so. We chatted a bit and exchanged info and were both on our way.
I had lunch at a tiny taco stand a …

Southern Tier on a Recumbent 2018

By Joseph Valenzi | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 31 – April 2 Monday – LaGrange TX to Richards TX: The toughest man to wear a badge

Monday April 2, 2018, 88 miles (142 km) – Total so far: 1,752 miles (2,820 km)
Today was a long day. Not only lots of miles, but we had about 2,800 feet of climbing. Not that any of the climbs were long, it just was constantly up and down, up and down. I guess we are used to it. Not that it doesn’t get tiring. I just stop worrying about it, and keep the pedals moving. Yet another day the weather smiled on us. We have been so so so so lucky with the weather. There was some rain around this morning, but it missed us, and the winds, which were substantial, mostly were cross winds, and even tail winds. …

Day 32 – April 3 Tuesday – Richards TX: Rest Day, repairs and discomfort survey

Tuesday April 3, 2018
Today was a very very welcome rest day. There have been innumerable hills on this stretch. Soon we will be out of Texas, and the hills will stop until Florida. That will be great. We all needed it. I got to catch up with this blog, deal with some income tax stuff, make some phone calls, and do some bike work.
My seat is a fabric mesh stretched across a steel frame. It has shifted a bit on the frame, so I took the seat off to fix it and was shocked to find that one of the two bolts that holds the seat to the bike was missing! I’ve been riding on just one bolt. Not recommended. Of course this is a specialty part. Rans, the …

The Limo Bikes to Bayous and Beaches

By Marilyn Swett | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Columbus, TX to Glen Flora, TX

Tuesday April 3, 2018, 39 miles (63 km) – Total so far: 484 miles (779 km)
More text to follow. Basically a flat riding day with a headwind all day long. (Don) …

Bike Plan Anniversary & Accomplishments

houstontx.gov/planning

The one-year anniversary of the passage of the Bicycle Master Plan was March 22. This is the first comprehensive update of the Plan since 1993 and was led by the Planning and Development Department (P&D) with assistance from Houston Public Works, Houston Parks & Recreation, and a host of other partners. The Plan’s vision is to transform Houston into a safer, more accessible, gold level bicycle-friendly city by 2027 and is supported by four goals: Improved Safety, Increased Ridership, Increased Access, and Improved Development and Maintenance of Facilities.

The Plan provides recommendations for bike connections and seeks to make it easier for …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

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Two Black Helicopters Over Lake Houston Bike Ride

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Glad to report my tube patch during yesterday’s bike ride held air overnight and during today’s bike ride on the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route. Today I rode 33.71 miles.

Weather during the bike ride: start 82 (72% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind S 13 mph, gusts 20 mph. Finish 85 (68% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind S 17 mph, gusts 23 mph. I put wheels down at 12:10 pm and finished at 2:41 pm.

Airport Weather Finish

Wind was still challenging today especially riding west over Lake Houston. While I was on the causeway two black helicopters slowly flew north following the west bank of Lake Houston. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick was scheduled to inspect Hurricane Harvey damage at Lake Houston and the West Fork of the San Jacinto River today so I think that was him. Earlier someone asked the question about helicopters at the Kingwood Park and Ride lot which is where they probably started from.

After yesterday’s bike ride I expected my legs to be tired for today but they were up to the challenge from the wind. I did stop at the Huffman Chevron for a few minutes to answer a text message and refill my water bottle.

The weather forecast calls for a front to arrive later tonight with some rain dropping the daytime temperature into the lower 70’s on Wednesday. I think my cycling wardrobe can handle that so I plan to bike.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Bike Ride Summary