Another hot one is in the works for today so I was anxious to get started today. It must’ve not been enough because I did not leave until 10:08 but I did get back home by 12:45 before the full heat arrived. As I write this at 3 in the afternoon my weather station shows 99.9 degrees. The SW breeze helps to keep things hot as well. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for 102 and Saturday is now 104. Those could be the first 100+ days of 2013. Starting earlier tomorrow (Friday) would be a good idea.
During my ride the scattered clouds provided no relief but my long sleeve bright orange jersey did. Again I think that long sleeves will be hot but not really. No other bicyclists were out along my route south to Atascocita, Walden and Huffman. I altered the route I planned in my mind before leaving home some. I planned on riding south on W. Lake Houston Parkway to Aerobic Drive and into Walden. There is a fair amount of traffic on W. Lake Houston Parkway especially at FM1960 so I took some side streets to get to the Aerobic Drive intersection and then onto my planned route. So I went a little bit further than I expect at 33.35 miles instead of the 31 or 32 miles. Average speed was a nice 15.6 mph. No thumping bass on today’s route thankfully.
I stopped at the Huffman Chevron for a Sunkist 10 soda water. The breeze was cooling as I sat under the canopy in fact a couple of times I might have felt a chill. The plastic milk crate I sat on had a sag in the top and I thought I was in my recliner at home for a minute.
I am approaching 800 miles for June as I am at 796.07 miles, 137.65 miles for the week and 3235 miles year to date.
Bike Cave sells refurbished bicycles
by Zach Mayer      star.txstate.edu
Transportation woes consisting of constant construction, rerouted buses and an increase in parking fees have led to many students trading in four wheels for two.
Commuter biking has seen an increase in participants over the past school year, offering students a fast and easy way to arrive and navigate campus. Bikes can be an expensive investment for the average student. However, the university-owned Bike Cave is attempting to make bicycles a more viable option for Bobcats strapped for cash.
The cave offers used and refurbished bicycles at discounted rates, acquired through the University Police Department’s bike pick-up program. The program consists of collecting unclaimed bicycles chained to bike racks throughout campus.
The program was implemented for campus beautification, preventing 50 or more abandoned bikes from accumulating each…
On May 30, I wrote a post about Jared Rammell, a Baylor College of Medicine student who was leaving on a bicycling trip from his home in Boise, Idaho to Houston for his school orientation. On Sunday, after riding 2,100 miles, Rammell arrived in Houston, riding the last eight miles of his trip to the college’s CullenBuilding with some of Baylor’s most avid cyclists.
Rammell was accepted into the college’s new master of science in Orthotics and Prosthetics program. The program, in the School of Allied Health Sciences at…
Drag Race II
Join us for the second annual drag race as we kick off the Texas Summer Race Series
Drag Race?
-Single Speed bikes only. There will not be a geared and non geared category. You may race on your road bike IF you can show that your shifting has been disabled at the time of registration
-A timed sprint race – 2 riders at a time over a 1000ft drag strip.
-Riders with the fastest times will advance to a 16 rider, elimination style bracket
-Points awarded to each of the 16 riders who advance to the bracket
-Prizes
Registration will open Monday, July 1, for the Interfaith of The Woodlands-hosted annual Le Tour de Woodlands fundraising event to be held at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at The Woodlands Township offices. The event will include a 2-mile ride and a 20-mile ride, which is for more experienced riders.
The registration costs are $35 for single riders and $50 for a family ride, which includes two to four cyclists and $10 per additional family member, according to…
We hope you’ll come out en force to join us for our annual Ride-White-and-Blue short and leisurely ride to Addison’s fabulous Kaboom Town! holiday fireworks event! 5 miles round trip.
We gather the clans at 5:45ish at Torchy’s Tacos at Preston & Alexis: http://www.torchystacos.com/locations/dallas/
Happy Hour is 4-7pm, which means $1 off some beers, and $4 house and swirl margaritas.
Around 7:00pm, as a group we will ride out north to Arapaho and west to the Frost Bank parking garage at 5002 Arapaho Road, up to the top of the garage and then down 2 levels to where our…
Hot is the word for today. I wanted to get an earlier start to get back before the hottest part of the day. I left at 9:50 and finished at 12:32. It was still a hot 95.4 degrees as I pulled into the driveway. Scattered clouds did not blot out the sun much nor did the S 8 mph breeze provide much relief. With all of this sun I wore a long sleeve jersey to protect me from the sun. I used to think long sleeves were only for the cool ride days but it does help keep me cool in the heat too.
My route took me north to New Caney before turning south on the US59 service road and then through Valley Ranch. One of the things I look forward to during my rides is to stop at a store and drink a Diet Pepsi. Sometimes I adjust my route to go by a store that serves Diet Pepsi. Today I stopped at the Stripes store on FM1314 at Valley Ranch Drive. I bought my drink and settled down outside with the light breeze occasionally blowing over me. The atmosphere soon deteriorated when a pickup truck pulled in on the opposite end of the parking slots in front of the store with the “music” loudly blaring from their speakers. I probably could have survived that but over the 15 to 20 minutes I was there the same bass and drums looped over and over. To cap it off about half way through my time there the driver moved closer to me so that I could absorb more of the thumping bass. I decided to leave sooner than I normally would and as I moved my bike out to leave the passenger came out of the store and the driver turned the music off and went inside. All the time he was running the engine too which was not the quietest exhaust either. At least the truck exhaust was not smelly.
I rode 32.13 miles today at a 15.4 mph average speed. Traffic during the morning was light over the route. No surprises or changes in the roads. Schools are closed but a couple of New Caney ISD elementary schools are being expanded with additions for the coming school year. Several subdivisions are building new homes at rapid clip.
The June goal of 524 miles is in my rear view mirror as I biked 762.72 miles in June. With 4 potential riding days left I should get to 800 plus miles. The three riding days this week covered 104.3 miles and 3202 miles for the year to date.
Weather forecasts show hot for the rest of the week with Saturday possibly going to 102. As I write this they lowered Saturday to 100 and Friday up to 100. Sunday cools off to 99.
I really wish this post could be different, but it is what it is… about 8 months ago Tina and I took off on the Leon Creek Greenway on our Sun Cruz 3 speed coaster brake bikes. It was scary at times. The rear hub is the only brake on the bike, and it would scream in protest as I tried to control my speed down hills. I weighed too much for only relying on a coaster brake. My Sun has been a great bike, but I believe I’m starting to outgrow it the more I cycle. It was my bicycle of choice this time last year on trip to the twin cities, Madison WI, and Ohio. If you are a…
West Texas Cycling Association
Susan Alger has arranged with Paul’s family to place his ghost bike out on Hwy 114 (near the FM3261 intersection) on Wednesday July 10 at 6:30pm. Plans are to go eat at Paul’s favorite steakhouse, Swackhammer’s Texas Grill, there in Levelland after the bike is placed. Everyone is welcome. Please let Susan know if you plan to attend so she will have an idea of how many people will be there.
Fort Worth Bicycling Association Meeting
Monday, July 01, 2013 7:00 pm
Please join us to welcome our own bike riding Mayor of Fort Worth, Betsy Price. This is a real honor to have her join us and we want to have a big turn-out for this meeting to show our support and thanks to Mayor Price for all that she has done and plans to do for cycling inFort Worth.
Mayor Price will talking to us about what it is like the be a bike riding mayor, her rolling town hall meetings and all the exciting plans in the future for cycling and bike commuting in Fort Worth. There should be time for your questions.
The meeting is at 7:00 p.m. at the University of North Texas Health Science Center,3500 Camp  Bowie Blvd.,Fort Worth,TX, Building #2, room 2-100. Park in lot A and enter the lower level.
We are also doing a shoe and canned good drive for Beautiful Feet in Fort Worth and you can bring your donations to the meeting. We…
PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Portland police officer, Dan Knight, led 40 Houston police officers into the city of Portland this morning to finish off a more than 2,000 mile bike ride.
The group crossed the Casco Bay Bridge around 9:50 Tuesday morning. They took turns cycling non-stop from Texas to Maine to raise money for the…
West Texas Gears Up for Annual Bike MS: Cactus & Crude Ride
By: Big 2 News Staff      permianbasin360.com
(video at the link)
MIDLAND — National MS Society encourages cyclists to take on a personal challenge and make a difference in the lives of those living with MS on July 21-22. West Texas residents will pedal toward a world free of multiple sclerosis during Bike MS: Cactus & Crude Ride 2012, presented by Apache Corporation, on Saturday and Sunday, July 21-22. This annual two-day 150 mile, fully supported fundraising ride features a route from Midland to Post. Registered cyclists commit to raise a minimum of $250 to fund MS education, programs and research.
“Bike MS offers individuals a weekend of camaraderie and awareness building to support individuals impacted by MS,” said…
Dave Parks doesn’t mind his daily commute to work.
He passes through quiet neighborhoods and travels along a creek, under a canopy of trees and by patches of wildflowers to Texas Instruments Inc. in North Dallas — on a bicycle.
TI is one of the few large companies in car-centric Dallas — and across the state — that make it easy for employees to bike to work. It estimates that hundreds of its employees ride rather than drive.
It wasn’t always that way. …
Texas City wants to encourage public transit use
By Pat Hughes         www.chron.com
In response to a rapidly growing need for increased connectivity, Texas City officials and the Gulf Coast Center have developed a plan that will expand park & ride services while also improving sidewalks and biking trails.
Nicholas Finan, executive director of management services for Texas City, said The Goodman Co. will complete a study of the Texas City Park & Ride and Pedestrian-Transit Access Master Plan.
TGC, a Texas-based company created in 1980, is recognized nationally for assisting communities in the planning, funding and implementing of mobility projects.
TGC will provide a comprehensive report on three projects outlined in the…
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