Texas Bicycling News Digest September 24th 2017

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Video: Grand Prairie Police Stop Drug Peddling with New Bike Unit

By Vanessa Brown | www.nbcdfw.com

The Grand Prairie Police Department’s newest unit is taking a bite out of major crime – one neighborhood at a time.
The bike patrol was created in April. In the time since, the five-member team has been averaging dozens of arrests per month.
Sergeant Tracy Hinson oversees it. He took on …

Magical Museumn Bike Tour

Saturday, Sep 30, 2017, 8:00 AM

Wolter’s Park
1107 Hillje Ave Schulenburg, TX

2 Members Went

The “Magical Museum Tour” is a fundraiser and social ride for the Houston Bicycle Museum starting and finishing in Schulenburg, Texas. It features rides of different lengths on low traffic country roads and will also provide you with a chance to visit the famous “painted churches” of Fayette County. Each of the routes will cross a piano-wire truss …

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Let’s go for a social road ride.

Saturday, Sep 30, 2017, 8:00 AM

Performance Bicycle
4750 Fm 1960 Rd W Houston, TX

3 Bicycle Enthusiasts Went

Social Ride: If you’re hesitant to join a riding group, this is the ride for you! In the beginner group, there is NEVER pressure to ride longer or faster. Our knowledgeable ride leaders will help you navigate through the turns and answer any cycling questions you may have. All types of bodies and bicycles are welcome!Please bring your helmet, wate…

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Let’s go for an intermediate road ride

Saturday, Sep 30, 2017, 8:00 AM

Performance Bicycle
7549 Westheimer Rd Houston, TX

6 Cycling Enthusiasts Went

Intermediate Ride:Please join us and all are welcome to our Saturday morning, 8am Intermediate ride starting and ending at our shop. We will average 16mph and ride for 90+ minutes. This is a no drop ride and the group will stay together.Please bring your helmet, water and a positive attitude.All bikes and bodies are welcome to join us on the Per…

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Abandoned at Burning Man, bicycles now head for Houston and the Caribbean

By Jessica Lussenhop | www.bbc.com


Thousands of Burning Man revellers abandoned their bicycles when they left the desert festival. Will hurricane victims give them a second life and a new purpose?
When the rains from Hurricane Harvey finally stopped, everything Yesenia Rodriguez owned was under 20 feet of water.
“I lost my bike. I lost my car. I lost all my clothes,” she says. “I found my baby …

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New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Power Pod Reunites with Stradalli Bike Ride

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The goal for today’s bike ride was to go far enough to lower the miles needed to reach my 6,000 mile goal for the end of September. I selected the “Oakhurst – Valley Ranch” route biking 25.6 miles and this produced the result I wanted with only 91 miles left to hit the 6,000 mile goal. With 5 potential riding days left in September I think I can reach my goal with maybe a few miles to spare. The reason I say 5 riding days is that one day I take my wife to the medical center for treatment.

After yesterday’s bike ride the USPS delivered my Power Pod power meter. Before today’s ride I plugged it into my computer to check it out. There were all of the ride data up to when it stopped working which leads me to believe this is the same unit I sent back and not the new unit I was supposed to get. However, I transferred the profile over and erased all of the old data for a clean start and maybe delete something that caused the failure. I installed the Power Pod on the Stradalli before the ride and got ready to leave. I left at 12:32 PM not sure how the Power Pod would respond. I got the “0” for watts and saw it was communicating with the Elemnt computer but no watts showed. I pressed the Power Pod start button for a few seconds and it entered the setup mode counting up to 100 as I rode. When it reached 100 there was a pause and 41,303 watts showed before it settled down to a more realistic reading. From the rest of the ride I think it showed a reasonable wattage number though at the finish Strava shows my max watts at 1601, way beyond my ability. I don’t have a way to edit out the spike I found out a text editor will work to edit the file but the next ride should be a normal amount, I hope.

Starting later than normal (after church today) meant the weather had time to heat up. The conditions at the start were 90 degrees, 68% humidity, partly cloudy sky and a SE wind at 13 mph. At the 2:27 PM finish the temperature edged up to 92 while the humidity dropped to 58%. The sky and wind were unchanged.

Good biking weather on Monday as I chase the 6,000 mile goal.

Strava Ride Summary (click on the image to go to Strava.com)

Strava Bicycle Ride Summary

Texas Bicycling News Digest September 23rd 2017

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Parents say school route is unsafe in Vista Ridge neighborhood

By Lauren Kravets | kxan.com

LEANDER, Texas (KXAN) — Nathanael Ferguson has two children at Camacho Elementary school in the Leander Independent School District, and he says he would never let them bike to school.
“Thankfully there hasn’t been a tragedy yet, but under present circumstances it seems reasonable to think it’s only a matter of time before we have one,” Ferguson said.
The Leander Independent School District …

Verify: Bike sharing…How does this all work?

David Schechter | www.wfaa.com

Bike sharing used to be it was an orderly affair. Most cities do it like Fort Worth does. Rent at one station, return to another station. Now, a growing number of cities in America are being invaded by colorful, station-less bikes.
FINDING A BIKE
I have a whole bunch of questions I wanted answered. Maybe, you too. …

Group travels through Great Falls to raise awareness for mental health issues

By Margaret DeMarco | www.kbzk.com


About a year ago, Texas natives Tom and Ellen Harris along with friends Isaac and Libby Manning decided to do something extreme to bring more awareness to mental health issues.
The couples chose to bike the Lewis and Clark trail backwards and began the Light the Trail ride in Fort Clatsop, Oregon on September 3.
“What we are trying to do is eliminate the stigma attached to mental illness and depression,” Tom Harris said.
According to Tom Harris, 45,000 people a year die from …

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Sports Overload Day Bike Ride

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Today could be a sports overload day: bike ride, Astros on Fox TV and University of Cincinnati Bearcats football on CBS Sports Network. To fit all of this in I started the ride a little earlier than usual at 9:26 AM planing to get back before noon which I did finishing at 11:55 AM. Thank goodness for DVR’s. This will take two of them, one for the Astros (using our antenna) and the other using Dish satellite.

At first I was going to ride to the north but to keep within my time constraint I chose the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route biking 32.2 miles. These miles reduced my gap to reach 6,000 YTD miles by the end of September to 117 miles. Making progress!! So far I biked 604 miles during September and 170 miles this week.

I didn’t expect to see too many other cyclists along the route today because of not starting at 8:30 AM but I did see a few before I got to FM 1960.

The first full day of fall weather was great for biking: 82 degrees at the start but the humidity was 83%. The temperature went up and the humidity down by the end of the ride: 65% and 90, respectively.

A quick stop at the Huffman Chevron for ice and water was the only break in order to finish close to my time goal.

More great weather on Sunday for a bike ride.

Strava Ride Summary (click on the image to go to Strava.com)

Strava Bicycle Ride Summary