Texas Bicycling News January 9th 2016

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Harlingen adds to Hike and Bike Trail

By FERNANDO DEL VALLE        www.valleymorningstar.com


HARLINGEN — Since the city’s Hike and Bike Trail opened in 2000, officials have come up with big plans to expand one of Harlingen’s most popular attractions.
In November, the city opened a 4.1-mile stretch that runs from HughRamseyNaturePark to TexasStateTechnicalCollege.
The project comes more than …

Collegiate races highlight CX Nationals Day 4

www.usacycling.org

… Tristan Uhl (Austin, Texas/Ride Biker Alliance) went wire-to-wire to take down the massive 152-rider men’s singlespeed field, winning in 39:44, and Nicole Mertz (Columbia Heights, Minn./ISCorp Cycling p/b SmartChoice MRI) held off the pack to take the women’s singlespeed win in 44:42. …

What’s Coming Up

Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club        www.hcbtc.com

January 15 – 18 (MLK Weekend) Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Ride starts at 10:00 AM on January 17th at the refuge ranger station parking lot. The ride will have several stops to be able to …
February 12 – 15 (Presidents’ Day Weekend) Garner State Park. Ride starts at 9:30 AM on February 14th at the entrance to the park. If you …
March 11 – 13 Goliad State Park. Ride starts at 9:00 AM on March 12th at the main entrance to the park. If you are planning to …
April 22 – 24 Inks Lake State Park. Ride will start at 9:00 AM on April 23rd in the parking lot just past Black Rock Park on Ranch Road 261. If you haven’t done so, those …
April 30 – May 7 Natchez Trace (Natchez to Tupelo, MS). We’ll rent a van, put the bikes in a trailer, and head to Mississippi for a 5 or 6-day, 260 mile ride on the scenic Natchez Trace! We’ll also …
May 27 – 30 (Memorial Day Weekend) Painted Churches – Schulenberg area. Ride starts at 8:30 AM on May 28th in the parking lot of Frank’s Restaurant (IH-10 and US 77). Here is a link to a blog about the churches: …

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Texas Bicycling News January 8th 2016

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Laguna Atascosa refuge to offer biking tours

By Frank Garza        www.valleymorningstar.com


The Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is starting off the new year with new activities for the public to participate in.
In addition to the usual birding tours and tram rides the park hosts every week, residents of the Rio Grande Valley interested in seeing the Bahia Grande can participate in leisurely biking tours.
“The tour is basically a way to give access to the Bahia Grande unit which …

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York County man bikes U.S. for charity

Tim Stonesifer, For the Daily Record/Sunday News        www.ydr.com


The American Freedom Museum in Bullard, Texas offers 250 years of military history, from the struggles of our founders right up though today’s War on Terror.
Out past the Dollar General store and a sprawling Baptist church, past front yards brown with pine needles and wide pastures pocked with shrubs, a “Huey” helicopter on the lawn marks the site. Nearby one recent day, a bicycle was parked by the museum entrance. …
… Most recently, D’Apice completed a 24-hour marathon ride across Texas on Christmas Day and raised close to $10,000 for his charities — Pencils of Promise, National Military Family Association and Connecting Families – supporting both …

Lone Star Trail Building School 2016

North Texas Mountain Bike Patrol        www.ntmbp.org

Dallas Bicycling Growth: 2014 vs. 2015

bikeabledallas.com

Want to see how much bicycling increased in Dallas in 2015?
Check out this link: http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/2014-2015.html#14/-96.80182/32.78414/gray/bike
You can slide the center bar back and forth to see the difference between 2014 and 2015. Be sure to check out the areas where we added new …

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Road Bike Miles with an Overcast Sky

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Riding two days in a row in January is unusual given the quick weather swings. The forecast called for some sun after 10AM but it never happened. The temperature crawled into the 60’s by the time I started the ride at 1:10 but the overcast sky and 86% humidity meant the ride had a damp feel to it. I wanted to get 30+ miles in so I chose the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route and ended up biking 31.08 miles.

This was the first ride on my Stradalli this year and the Garmin Edge 520 was not too happy about it. Up to the 6.6 mile point the Garmin kept telling me the phone is disconnected about every mile or so. I had paired the Bluetooth on my new Nexus 6P with the Garmin and I thought it worked when I rode my MTB earlier this week. I stopped at 6.5 miles as I was getting ready to turn south out of Kingwood Greens onto W. Lake Houston Parkway. I checked my phone for Bluetooth settings and stopped the ride on the 520. I am not sure what this did but the disconnect messages stopped. When I got home I checked my phone’s Bluetooth devices and the 520 was gone so I think the messages stopped because the phone stopped connecting. While I was stopped I took these two pictures.

Looking east across W. Lake Houston Parkway
Looking SE across W. Lake Houston Parkway

I dressed warm for the ride with a full compliment of clothing: shorts, leg warmers half finger gloves, short sleeve jersey, long sleeve jersey and windbreaker jacket. Starting out the damp breeze (9 mph) cut through me but as I warmed up it wasn’t an issue until I stopped at traffic lights. The wait was just long enough for me to cool down some. The longest stop was at the Huffman Chevron where I took a short break to eat 6 powdered donuts in defiance of the government’s warning of eating sugar. I needed some energy to get back home. Leaving the Chevron station I rode west with a tailwind and improved my average speed to almost 14 mph. My out of shape legs could not overcome the breeze up to that point and my average speed was just barely 13 mph.

Pulling into the driveway at 3:48 my jerseys were soaked from all of the sweat and the unvented jacket I was wearing. The temperature had dropped a couple of degrees from when I left. Tonight we could get some rain as the next cool/cold front passes through. Biking on Saturday looks iffy. I have 195 miles left to reach my 259 goal for January. Today’s ride alomst doubled my miles for January. Road rides go further.

[iframe http://ridewithgps.com/trips/7522336/embed 45% 500px] [iframe https://www.strava.com/activities/465983899/embed/48847b499924c13749224f50d46d8b4e9f465a24 45% 420px]

Texas Bicycling News January 7th 2016

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B-Cycle nearly hits 100,000 rides in 2015

By Dug Begley        www.houstonchronicle.com


A B-Cycle location near the Houston Zoo at Hermann Park Lake Plaza, 6100 Hermann Park Drive, is shown July 11, 2014. The zoo location is the city’s most popular spot for picking up the recognizable bikes. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )
Houston’s growing bike sharing system – poised for a big 2016 – nearly pulled off 100,000 checkouts last year.
After adding two stations in the last weeks of the year, bringing the total to 31 kiosks and 190 bicycles, Houston B-Cycle logged 98,388 uses, according to organizers of the system. People can check out a bike with a pass – daily, weekly or annual – and use the bike without charge for …

Update: Found stolen bike!

by ItsMinnieYall        www.reddit.com/r/dfwbike

A happy ending to a sh#$% situation! My 3 month old road bike was stolen from my apartment in October. I reported it stolen and have been combing craigslist with no luck. New Years Day, a kind internet stranger who had seen my post on the North Texas Stolen Bike Alert Facebook page recognized my bike in a pawn shop. I went to check it out in person, and the serial number matched my bike! The wheels were different and all the accessories were missing but it’s definitely my bike! The police picked up my bike the next morning and said I could take it home that day if I paid the pawn shop what they paid for the bike. Im not paying for my own property, so they said I can get the …

Step-Up Ride – Saturday, January 9th- 8:00am

BY KReagan        www.planobicycle.org

The weather for this upcoming Saturday doesn’t look all that promising. There will be a good chance of rain, winds gusting 15-25 mph and wind chill factor in the low to mid 30s. We are going to still ride unless one or more of these makes conditions unsafe to ride. I will be up early on Saturday to check on the latest and post any update or cancellation by 7:00am. Make sure you check the forum before you leave the house Saturday morning.
The Saturday Step Up Ride will roll this weekend and will …

This weekend’s rides: Liberty Hill! Red Horn!

By Thomas        steinerranchcycling.com

Great news! Saturday is looking to be (finally) a nice day! We will try again for the long ride to Liberty Hill. This is a different route than usual in that I have eliminated Bagdad (which totally sucks) and replaced it with Round Mountain (which is beautiful). The full route is 76 miles, but there are opportunities to shave off sections if you don’t want to do the …

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