Texas Bicycling News February 25th 2017

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How you can help make Houston’s streets safer

Kyle Shelton, Kinder Institute for Urban Research | www.houstonchronicle.com


Bikers and pedestrians: March 4-10, we need you to report how often cars nearly cream you

For most bicyclists, the feeling of a car zipping by too close to their shoulder is a familiar one. Pedestrians, too, have had their near-misses as cars roll through crosswalks. Even drivers have their fair share of “oh man, that was close” exhalations.
Though we’ve all had these experiences in one form or another, we don’t know much about their occurrence. We have our own memories of where a dangerous stretch of road or sidewalk might be, but …

Bike lane construction

by Brian Burns | www.kiiitv.com

CORPUS CHRISTI (KIII NEWS) – Local cyclists are concerned over a City Council discussion this week wondering if bike paths are worth the money.
Kiii Reporter Brian Burns looked into the situation.
Jeff Pollack, the director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization said that since the change in council, several members may be unaware of the …

Regional Hike and Bicycle Plan meeting scheduled for March 1

By Dawn Burleigh | www.orangeleader.com

South East Texas Regional Planning Commission’s (SETRPC)Transportation and Environmental Resource Division is holding a follow up workshop at 3 p.m., Wednesday, March 1 at the MCM Elegante Hotel, Founainview Room, located at 2355 Interstate 10 South in Beaumont concerning development of a Regional Hike and Bicycle Plan for Southeast Texas.
“This is through Transportation and in the process, we never had a Hike …

Cycling in the Americas

By Sam Burchell | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 44: Hargill, TX to Brownsville, TX
Friday February 24, 2017, 74 miles (119 km) – Total so far: 2,216 miles (3,566 km)
I woke up feelingwell rested. The RV had a (cold) shower and a bed on which I put my sleeping bag. It’s interesting how much of a luxury that feels.
I set off cycling towards the town of Raymondville. With a population of 10,000 it was a fairly big town, and I stopped to do some laundry. I used the WiFi there to update this journal and also checked on the progress of my mattress, confirming it had been delivered to the FedEx Office in Brownsville, where I would collect it.
I had intended to go to a Walmart here as well, but found it to be closed down. I left Raymondville on a …

Simply on a Bike: the Southern Tier

By David Dalley | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Rest day at Big Bend National Park
Friday February 24, 2017
After that last windy challenge we had previously scheduled a rest day, the first really in almost three weeks. So we put the bike on the car and drove 120 miles down to Big Bend National park. What an amazingly beautiful place that is. One can only taste it in such a small amount of time but that we did. A couple of hikes and cottonwood camping. There were …

Cycling in the Americas

By Sam Burchell | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 45: Brownsville, TX to Matamoros, Mexico
Saturday February 25, 2017, 45 miles (72 km) – Total so far: 2,261 miles (3,639 km)
There was still no-one in the office at the RV park this morning, but as my plan was to go to the coast and then come back, I decided I would check back in the afternoon. I packed up and set off.
On the way to the coast I was cycling into a fierce headwind, making very slow progress. I didn’t mind this as much as usual, as I knew it would be a …

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Texas Bicycling from Twitter

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Wind Chill Not Enough to Stop This Bike Ride

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A cool front moved into southeast Texas overnight lowering the temperature this morning when I got up to 45 degrees. By the time I started the bike ride at 12:16 it was up to 67 degrees but the brisk North wind had a chilling bite to it. So I wore leg warmers, shorts, a thermal long sleeve jersey and a new windbreaker jacket to bicycle 35.1 miles. To be different I chose the “Oakhurst – Cumberland – Valley Ranch” route, same streets and roads but in a different sequence.

Whenever the roads turned to a direction with “north” in it my pedaling and speed dropped. The wind chill was noticeable but I was comfortable. It wasn’t until I turned around at Cumberland that wind stopped slowing me down and became a tailwind. Up to that point my average speed was 13.6 mph but from there I built it up to 14.6 mph at the highest and fell once I was back in Kingwood maneuvering around corners, speed humps and stops signs.

About 2 miles into the ride I stopped to take a picture of a brilliantly colored azalea with my bike but it came out blurry. Maybe too much color and sun. The clouds of yesterday were long gone leaving a clear blue sky.

Finishing the bike ride at 2:51 my legs rejoiced from fighting the wind and my face warmed up without the chilly wind hitting it anymore.

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

Weather conditions: start at home, finish at home and airport when I finished bicycling.

SportTracks Ride Summary

Ride Summary

Texas Bicycling News February 24th 2017

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Oskar Blues Brewery offering year of free beer for return of stolen bike

KVUE | www.khou.com


AUSTIN, Texas — A local brewery is offering free beer for a year in exchange for the return of a bike that was stolen from one of their employees.
Oskar Blues Brewery in Austin said the bicycle belongs to Caitlin Bursack, their Texas sales manager. It was stolen on …

Cycling in the Americas

By Sam Burchell | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 42: Benavides, TX to Falfurrias, TX
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 43 miles (69 km) – Total so far: 2,082 miles (3,351 km)
As I was packing up my things, Freddie came and very generously invited me in for breakfast. I had a potato and egg taco which was very nice. Freddie also gave me a cross which he makes out of the nails for horse shoes, as well as a heart to give my mum. Thanks Freddie! …

Day 43: Falfurrias,TX to Hargill, TX
Thursday February 23, 2017, 60 miles (97 km) – Total so far: 2,142 miles (3,447 km)
I woke up, packed, and left Pealdo’s shop without incident. I was riding on a fairly big divided highway, which I haven’t done for a while. There was initially some fog but it didn’t last long. …

The BEARDNICK South Tier Tour 2017

By Kimmy Ellinwood and Aaron Ellinwood | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 35: Fast as we can to Texas and back!
Friday February 24, 2017, 40 miles (64 km) – Total so far: 1,175 miles (1,891 km)
Today we ride the 20 miles to Texas, take a pic and ride back to pickup our rental car. Crazy! What a moment, to finally reach Texas!

MPO Needs Your Imput

Daniel Day | bikesanantonio.blogspot.com

Our Local MPO is asking for Input on proposals for bicycle and pedestrian facilities across the region. They Are….
Hillcrest/Babcock Intersection Improvements: $1,000,000
Converse Greenway Trail: $1,382,725
Ackerman Sidewalks and Bike Lanes: $1,742,763
New Braunfels Citywide Pedestrian Connectivity: $1,516,711
Zarzamora Pedestrian Improvements: $5,000,000
Schertz Pedestrian Routes & Bike Lanes: $1,158,266
Seguin, Walnut Springs Trail Extension Project: $2,801,246
Alazan Creek Linear Hike and Bike Trail: $6,000,000
Martinez Creek Linear Hike and Bike Trail: $3,125,000
If you add all the amounts together, you get $23,726,671. Unfortunately, there’s only $15,000,000 available for …

Eight cool things I saw on my bike commute this week

Pam LeBlanc | fitness.blog.austin360.com


Vintage cars, giant cactus, public art, friendly folks – I saw all those things this week on my daily commute to work.
What do you see on your way to the office? Send me pictures, and I’ll share some of them here each week.
1. I’ve ogled a VW bus parked in front of a house along Shoal Creek Boulevard for years. I finally stopped, knocked on the door of the house where it lives, and asked if I could snap a few pictures. That bus reminds me of one we had when I was growing up. We had two, actually – a green …

This weekend’s rides: Mellow Johnny’s! Bagguet et chocolat!

by Thomas | steinerranchcycling.com

Many of us will be racing at Pace Bend on Sunday, so that will change up the rides and crew a bit.
Saturday Jason has proposed heading down to Mellow Johnny’s. The pace will likely be quite a bit more friendly since the racers will be doing something else for a …

Pace Bend Park on a Pivot Switchblade

by TC | www.turnincranks.com


I haven’t made it out to Pace Bend in a while so I was inspired by Alex Chamberlain’s KOM attempt to head out and try to bag a couple myself.
I picked up one easy and semi-obscure KOM so it’s hard to brag about that one. I would have been more proud of some new PR’s and/or a …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

https://twitter.com/GWCChuck/status/835293144535158785

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Attempted Dog Chase Bike Ride

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The blue sky left the area today replaced by a mostly cloudy sky but the warm temperature stayed behind. It was 82 degrees when I finished biking the “Atascocita South – Walden – Huffman” route at 2:16. I started bicycling on the ride at 11:47 and rode 33.98 miles. The wind was stronger at 12 mph from the northwest. This probably explains why it took so much effort to maintain 17 to 19 mph speeds going north. Cycling east on FM 1960 over Lake Houston a jogger was going west as we passed and he shouted out to me to enjoy the tailwind as I headed east. The tailwind helped and I improved my average speed on that stretch.

At Huffman I turned west and the wind tried to slow me down as I bicycled on FM 1960. I made across the lake and because the earlier went west of Pinehurst Trail I stayed on FM 1960 to there and then went north rather than the usual route on Atascocita Shores. I like this route because I ride around the small hills. I passed another biker on Pinehurst Trail and we exchanged waves.

There was an attempted dog chase on Aerobic Drive. I say attempted because I saw the dog up ahead in a yard on my right as he ducked behind a car. As I got closer I heard him barking as he came from behind the car running on the concrete driveway. He was a Corky type of dog with short legs and longer body. The legs were spinning but the speed wasn’t there and I rode away from him.

February mileage is up to 426.89 miles. I have the days left to exceed my goal by more than 100 miles.

Links to RideWithGPS.com and Strava.com.

Weather conditions: Home start of ride, home at the end of the ride, airport at the end of the ride.

SportTracks Ride Summary

Ride Summary