Texas Bicycling News April 1st 2017

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Dallas County inmates repair bikes for kids in need

By: FOX4News.com Staff | www.fox4news.com


DALLAS – Some inmates at the Dallas County Jail are improving their own lives and the lives of children.
In the program, inmates learn how to repair bikes and feel the impact immediately when the new ride goes to a child in need.
The program has been described as a win especially for the children at Jonathan’s Place. The faces of the children when they receive bikes are blurred because they are in protective custody. The unexpected gift of a bike means …

Attention Houston Mtbers! New regular Tuesday group ride!

by 2ndchance | forums.mtbr.com


When/Where: meeting at Sugarland Memorial Park parking lot at 5:30 and rolling by 6 every Tuesday barring bad weather/trail conditions. First ride is this Tuesday 4/4
What: a no drop ride covering 10-14 miles of sweet New Territory and Brindley single track. Pace will be dictated by level of riders but necessary stops to keep group together will always be apart of the ride.
Come ride the best trail system in Houston..hope to see you there

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSWzlfcFfnz/

Northern Walnut Creek Trail – Phase 2

Austin Public Works Department | austintexas.gov

This project will design a new 1.8 mile long trail segment on the Walnut Creek Greenbelt. The trail will originate in Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park and end in the vicinity of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality offices, located at IH-35 and Walnut Creek, and connect to the southern end of the Phase 1 project.
Work in progress
The project team is analyzing alternatives to the original route and is still in design phase.
Public Meeting
Join the project team to provide your input and discuss the next steps for this segment of the trail.
Northern Walnut Creek Phase 2 Public Meeting
When: Tuesday, April 11
Where: Walnut Creek Elementary – 401 W Braker Ln, Austin, TX 78753
Time: 6 – 7:30 pm …

Revenge of the Wookiee: Episode 3, airing now!!!

by pulpwoddy | www.bikemojo.com

Our two riders have braved the horrors of the Pace Bend Forrest and are about to learn the shocking truth behind the question: Who is the Wookiee???
Volunteer for the 2017 Pace Bend MTB Race and Bike festival sponsored by Chumba Cycles USA.

Beer, bikes and alumni: Rice takes to track for friendly competition

By Brett Barrouquere | www.chron.com


Female cyclists prepare to compete in Rice University’s 60th Annual Beer Bike competition on Saturday, April 1, 2017, in Houston. ( Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle )

Rice University racers sloshed around the track Saturday for the annual Beer Bike competition.
Sound strange? It’s uniquely Rice – and it just crossed its 60-year mark. …

The Racing Post April 2017

theracingpost.us

Southern Tier – San Diego to St Augustine March 2017

By Charles Falsetto | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 28 Texas D11: Camp Wood to Lost Maples CG
Friday March 31, 2017, 42 miles (68 km) – Total so far: 1,373 miles (2,210 km)
3123′ V, 4:35:59, 9.2 AvgMph 42 miles Friday March 31
Departed Camp Wood at 0740 under clear blue skies and negligent W. From Camp Wood the climb begins with a gentle 2-3% grade and grows to 9-10%. I believe the first sister of the three sisters climbed today took 1h 40m to Leakey and a lunch break. Today’s climbs were very tough and the roads packed with hundreds of motorcycles in the area for a rally starting tonight in Bandera. The final two sisters were shorter in distance but nearly as much vertical as the first with the same grades. The W was good and bad depending on the direction being traveled up the hill. Road condition was large rock chip seal however a concrete lined shoulder drain provided a …

Day 29 Texas D12: Lost Maples CG to Kerrville
Saturday April 1, 2017, 50 miles (80 km) – Total so far: 1,423 miles (2,290 km)
2331′ V, 4:45:25, 10.6AvgMph
Expected rain early this morning didn’t materialize so we hightailed it out of camp for the road slightly before sunup. Of course it was a quick wake up call as the road almost immediately began a 6-9% grade for several miles. Weather was overcast, humid and cool with favorable W most of the morning. I was pretty much in a rain drizzle all the way to Hunt. (32 miles) Passed a lot of really …

Texas tour

By Liam Healy | www.crazyguyonabike.com

LBJ to LBJ
Tuesday March 28, 2017, 57 miles (92 km) – Total so far: 57 miles (92 km)
I combined the Fredericksburg East and south maps from bicyclemaps.org, riding out to the Johnson ranch and State park. One road I was planning to ride on was a gated private ranch road so I backtracked instead of making a loop.
I visited the state park which has a museum that is mostly about hill country history, which was …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

https://twitter.com/BBQ44/status/848161328049139713

Power Me Up Bike Ride

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Power me up! I installed the PowerPod power meter yesterday afternoon for the first powerful bike ride today. With all of the sensors on my bike it may be a “techno-bike”. I selected the “Atascocita South – Walden – Huffman” route so I could ride into the 22 mph southeast wind and see some “big” watts number pop up on the Elemnt bike computer. Well I forgot to click the “on” button for the PowerPod and all I saw was 0 watts for the first half mile when I stopped and clicked the button several times until the green status light lit up. Now the watts were registering and all I needed to do was decide which screen to watch on the Elemnt. Later in the bike ride I added two data fields to the front page on the Elemnt to see the watts. For several rides I will probably be fixated on power.

The weather started off sunny as I began bicycling at 11:01 but as the ride progressed clouds moved in from the south. Wearing shorts and a short sleeve jersey I wasn’t overheating but maybe a long sleeve jersey would’ve been more comfortable. By the time I finished the ride at 1:41 the temperature moved from 77 at the start to 82 degrees. That strong wind meant the perspiration didn’t take long to evaporate either.

Other bikers were out too. My first one was riding west on the FM 1960 Lake Houston causeway as I rode east. Not too long after that the rider passed me on Old Atascocita Road. We waved and grimaced about the strong wind. He was down on his aero bars riding west while I went east. The last fellow cyclist was back on the FM 1960 Lake Houston causeway but opposite of the first one.

After finishing the ride I tried to import the ride data into SportTracks but an error message came up about a problem with a data field. I imported the Elemnt file into Golden Cheetah and then exported it in the .fitlog format to import it into SportTracks. This time the file imported but had the wrong start and finish time as if the time zone was off. I exported another file from Golden Cheetah using the Garmin .tcx format and the file imported with the correct time. The power readings show in SportTracks but I like the Golden Cheetah ride summary better.

Ride summary

 

Reading the power zone data I spent 79% of the ride time in “Active Recovery”. I think I need to lower that time and increase the other zones. Now that I have the power data I can make comparisons and changes.

I will probably have to make any changes on Monday with heavy rain forecast tomorrow (Sunday). I will need some recovery time too.

[iframe http://rwgps-embeds.com/trips/13691469/embed 80% 600px]

Link to Strava.com data and map.

Weather conditions at the start and finish of the bike ride.

Texas Bicycling News March 31st 2017

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Bicycling the Texas Hill Country on Walnut Creek Trail in Austin

By Spring Sault | texashillcountry.com


If you’re looking to embrace nature but much prefer the speed of your bicycle as opposed to your own two feet, why not take a spin through the Walnut Creek trail system in Austin to enjoy a scenic Texas Hill Country cruise with an urban-esque setting. The trail, which is preferred by many bikers, provides the extent of 15 miles through North Austin’s beauty, which can be rewarded at the end with a beverage and …

Honeoye Riders Pedal the Southern Tier

By jim kersting | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 31: Johnson City to Austin 62 miles
Friday March 31, 2017

Another day of hill after hill but we’ve had nice road surfaces, great breezes which were sometimes headwinds tail wind. We navigated Austin during rush hour and had it not been for Google map who knows we probably would’ve ended up sleeping under some underpass . We got to our motel six campsite (ha ha) a little after 530 after being on the road for …

Southern Tier 2017

By Alan Young | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 34: Esperanza – El Paso

Friday March 31, 2017, 67 miles (108 km) – Total so far: 2,070 miles (3,331 km)
A beautiful morning greeted us as we downed our tent structures. I was in shock for a while as I brewed the stove for a cuppa at 0615hr, discovered the death of British ultracyclist Mike Hall, world record holder in numerous long distance cycle records, in a collision with a vehicle whilst taking part in the Indian Pacific Wheel Race in Canberra, W.Australia.
The French toast and coffee went down well in the truck stop. At times like these you realise life is short. RIP Mike Hall.
Quite a strange day in that the wind dominated the entire days ride. A south Easterly at the start then slowly moved to Westerly by the time we reached El Paso. …

This weekend’s rides: Bee Creek! Red Horn!

by Thomas | steinerranchcycling.com

NOTE: the weather looks iffy this weekend. If it is raining at the start of the ride, it will be canceled. If it looks like it might start raining during our ride, show up anyway! You can’t trust the weather around here.
Saturday is our fast pace day and we will revisit the beautiful Bee Creek route through Lakeway and down to the Pedernales River. The route is about 62 miles and can be found …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

https://twitter.com/BBQ44/status/847963599154839552

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Drenched In Sun Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Drenched in sun is how I would describe the weather for today’s bike ride on the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route. Two other bikers agreed as we passed along the route. With the 33.33 miles rode I end March at 676.83 miles surpassing my goal by 90.8 miles. The ride summary below has some of the statistics for the month.

Nothing out of the ordinary on today’s bike ride. I did not take a rest stop since the nice breeze, plentiful sun and low humidity were just right. I started the ride at 11:36 and finished at 1:59. Missed the school traffic thankfully.

Just after I got home the USPS delivered my new PowerPod. I will setup it this afternoon for tomorrow’s ride, I hope.

Links to RideWithGPS.com and Strava.com metrics and maps.

Home weather at the start and airport weather at the finish of the bike ride.

SportTracks Ride Summary (click the image to enlarge it).

Ride summary