After getting home from church I decided to wrap up this week’s biking on Zwift. Using the companion app I found a group ride for a change that was a good distance (19.9 miles) and allowed me enough time to get everything ready. The route was a new for me, the Fine and Sandy in the Makuri Islands world. 3 laps plus a short lead-in looked good. It went downhill as I waited for the ride to start. My phone (a Pixel 7 Pro) would not stay connected to my WiFi causing the sensors to not register in the desktop program. I tried to get it connected but it would start then fail. When it disconnected I stopped moving in Zwift. The group ride didn’t stop though. I switched to using my computer’s Bluetooth connection and that worked. But by then I was 14 minutes behind everyone else. I didn’t quit though. Riding by myself I made the 3 laps and set some Strava results coming in last for the group. I got the route badge too.
I rode 19.93 miles and climbed 768 feet, 5 feet more than the event said. Outside it was 54 degrees, cloudy and the wind was from the east at 9 mph. Below my weather threshold.
The Sandy and Fine route. From ZwiftInsider.com, “Sort of the little brother to Island Outskirts, Fine and Sandy is a shorter circuit of the Urukazi island complex.” There was a .1 mile lead-in and each lap was 6.6 miles. The climbing mostly came on two small hills on each lap. I probably should’ve switched to a gravel bike because a lot of the roads were not paved but I stuck with the S-Works and Dura Ace wheels.
This week I rode everyday but Friday when I worked on my Jeep installing side steps. I thought I had enough time after installing them but I ran into bad traffic on the trip to the hardware store for some bolts to finish up. 5 days riding Zwift and 1 riding outside totaled 127.75 miles. My year to date mileage is 9,219.
Building bikes and creating fond memories for kids at a special time of the year
It was late November 2001 when our Church Pastor delivered a message about being a leader and showing God’s light everywhere we go including work, communities, school and even the home. I knew God was telling me something but at the time, I did not know what, but the message stuck with me. After falling to sleep that night, I awoke about 3:00 AM and blurted out “bicycles”. My wife Anna thought I was having a stroke. I could not sleep the rest of the night and could not wait to get to work in the morning. I knew what the message was about. That morning I went to the office and shared my story with Ron and Eric and asked if we could do a charity event around giving bicycles to children in need. They both enthusiastically said “count me in”. So we collected some donations and bought 16 bicycles that first year. We gave those to several small charities – one called Christmas Promise.
Years when by and at the corporate office we were no longer able to build in our office. We had gotten too large, so we built them in a unoccupied part of our building on the first floor. That area did not have heat, power or lights so we strung power cords for the compressors and setup utility lights to illuminate the area. It was our toughest year. Now Ron and Eric had bigger plans, the next year Ron wanted to take it to the entire company from California to Tennessee. We were also able to send some bicycles into Juarez Mexico thanks to Waste Connections in El Paso, TX. They were able to send back pictures of the kids with the bicycles but all you could really see was the smiles on their faces. Not only did the people of Waste Connections give generously of their hard earned money but they also stayed after work to assemble bicycles sometimes into the late hours of the night. No one ever complained, no one ever said a negative word, they only wanted to build bicycles for kids that they would never see or know. They only wanted to give of themselves at Christmas. In the midst of budgets, PIs, record conversions, and the holidays, we managed to build and deliver over 3000 bikes that year. Everything went perfectly; God was the one who did it all.We were still building bikes on the ground and about then Greg Thibodaux got heavily involved and helped us perfect the building process (Thank you Greg). At that point we were building about 350 bikes a night, but the employees of Waste Connections at the end would look sad and ask if they could build more. There were always more bikes to build. From this point forward people would start asking me around August when we would start to build the bikes again. Employees and the Management of Waste Connections are the greatest and I am proud to have worked for such a great company. …
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Ahead of their game tomorrow, the Aggie women’s basketball team hosted their first “Bike Build.”
In partnership with Academy Sports & Outdoors and with help from the Fast Break Club, the Aggies built a total of 53 bikes today to give to children in need within the community.
“I think anybody can remember getting their first bike and how special that was. We want to create those memories for people in our community. We love to say if there is a call to action and a way we can help, we can,” said head coach Joni Taylor. “Especially around the holidays when you talk about Christmas and people get toys or …
By: Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office | www.woodlandsonline.com
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX — On December 17, 2022, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office along with the support of all Montgomery County Constables Offices, Montgomery County Hospital District, and Willis Fire Department teamed up to provide bicycles and a Christmas Experience for over 300 children. After receiving a bicycle, kids were able to tour emergency vehicles, meet the men and women of Law Enforcement, and even take a photo with a very special Blue Santa.
Generous support from community partners: …
Texas Biking from Twitter
This mornings ride beat me down however it is still progress, and learning how to push/test limits once again pic.twitter.com/QPq1vUinTI
On Saturday I like to ride Zwift and listen to America’s Top 40 from the 70’s on the SiriusXM 70’s on 7 channel if the weather keeps me inside. Today that happened and the week reviewed by Casey Kasem was 12-17-1977. I checked ZwiftInsider.com to find a route to ride. I needed to ride at least 16 miles to reach 100 for the week so far. Makuri Islands has routes I haven’t rode but most are less than the 16 miles. To fix that I created a meetup on the Island Hopper route setting the distance to 23.7 miles, a little over two laps. This meant some climbing. The meetup started at 11:10 AM with about 20,000 Zwifters online but not in my meetup. When I finished I covered 23.71 miles and climbed 876 feet.
That’s me taking a drink in the YouTube video thumbnail above. The Specialized S-Works bike with DuraAce wheels is my usual bike.
Island Hopper is 11.1 miles plus a .1 mile lead in and 422 feet of climbing per lap. ZwiftInsider.com describes the route “Looking for the full Urukazi tour? The Island Hopper covers all Urukazi roads (except for the connector roads to Neokyo and Yumezi). This route takes you on two loops of the Urukazi island complex. Your first loop takes the innermost roads on each of the islands, while the second loop takes the outermost roads.” I rode on every road surface Zwift offers but I didn’t change bikes. I sprinted several times with good results for me as the Strava segments show below. I was passed by several large groups.
12-17-2022 Strava Zwift Ride Data Summary
12-17-2022 Strava Zwift Ride Map Profile and Segments
Christmas arrived a bit early for students at Martinez Elementary School after they received new bikes from HISD community partners Wish for Wheels and Oxy.
Since 2004, Wish for Wheels has worked effortlessly to provide more than 75,000 bikes to students in economically disadvantaged communities across America.
Oxy has donated more than 1,500 bikes and helmets to students in Texas and Colorado.
This year, HISD and Wish for Wheels partnered with Oxy for their largest bike build yet to donate 600 new bikes to second grade students at 10 HISD elementary schools including: …
POLK COUNTY, Texas (KETK) – An East Texas family donated 20 bicycles to the Onalaska Angel Tree on Wednesday.
Shannon Wise and his daughter gave the bicycles to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for the Angel Tree program that provides presents to children who need it the most. The family donated pink and black bikes for both boys and girls.
The sheriff’s office donated 23 bicycles in total and some of the donations came from the deputies.
