Imelda’s Aftermath Bike Ride to Tavola

Texbiker.net Posted on by

No Zwift today. Instead I got out on the roads biking to the north. Earlier I thought about biking to Huffman but on Twitter I saw that Houston TranStar reported FM 1960 at FM 2100 had high water. My route would have went through that spot so I changed to what I call the “New Caney – Tavola – Valley Ranch” route.

The ride started at 11:01 AM and finished at 2:02 PM. during that time I rode 36.68 miles. The week totals 109.29 miles including the Zwift miles from Wednesday. September now totals 362.87 miles but only 337.5 miles count towards my 700 mile goal for the month. I separated the indoor Zwift miles. I need 362.5 miles to reach my goal. With the weather setback I may not reach my goal but I will ride whenever I can. Speaking of miles, I only need 6 more miles to reach 13,000 on my Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike.

Yesterday (Thursday) Tropical Storm Imelda dumped a large amount of rain in my area as well as other places in Southeast Texas. Today as I rode I could see evidence of what all of that water did. The weather hasn’t completely recovered as you will see in my ride video. I chose to stop at Woodridge Forest Middle School around the 5 mile point because of light rain coming down. I stayed there about 5 minutes. The roads were already wet and the rain loosened up the dirt on the streets to make for a messy ride.

Weather while I biked: 88 (79% humidity, 80.5 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind SE 13 mph. Finish 81 (80% humidity, 74.2 dew point), cloudy, wind S 12 mph. After I finished the ride and checked my phone the radar showed rain to the NW, not far from where I rode. Hopefully the roads dry off and the water goes down for Saturday’s ride.

North of FM 1314 the roads finally dried off some so the mud splatter my Canyon bike decreased some. By then my shoes were dirty, I’m sure the back of my jersey was too.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

9-20-2019 SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles Graph

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles Graph

Texas Bicycling News Digest September 19th 2019

Texbiker.net Posted on by

The news is abbreviated tonight courtesy of TS Imelda dumping 13.45" on my street. Internet is out and the area is in recovery mode with cars on the median and where they stalled in the high water. My house narrowly missed getting water. I was going to ride my trainer and Zwift but no internet stopped that. I am borrowing internet from my niece to post this.

Elderly bicyclist injured in Pflugerville crash has died

cbsaustin.com

An elderly man who was critically injured last week after his bicycle collided with another vehicle in Pflugerville has died.

The crash happened Thursday, Sep. 12, at around 7:15 a.m. at the intersection of 10th Street and Settlers Valley Drive.

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WF plans for more bike lanes in 2020

By Mason Brighton | www.newschannel6now.com

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (TNN) – While the budget for the city of Wichita Falls has been approved without money for cycling improvements, officials already know how they’ll get it all done. They plan to use around $200,000 to add more bicycle lanes in Wichita Falls.

“We will go back to city council and do an amendment to the budget with the amount that we decide to move forward with,” Wichita Falls director of transportation John Burrus said. “That’s going to come to about 50 miles of roadway, so that 200 thousand will have a very significant impact.”

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‘Pedaling To Beat Breast Cancer’

ROBIN BLACKBURN | www.sanmarcosrecord.com

Texas Mamma Jamma Ride hits Martindale

The Texas Mamma Jamma Ride isn’t a race, but there are still winners: breast cancer patients and Central Texas organizations who help them and their families.

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Red River realignment adds to concerns for campus bike safety

by Ryan Thornton | www.austinmonitor.com

Since Jan. 28, the night Tony Diaz was killed while cycling through the University of Texas campus, university management has listened to and considered calls for safer bicycle facilities on San Jacinto Boulevard, a popular cycling route both for students and non-students. Still, nearly eight months later, the university remains uncommitted to any such action, even …

FMPD wins Keller’s bicycle ‘Race to End Child Abuse’

by Mark Smith | www.crosstimbersgazette.com

The Flower Mound Police Department dominated the Keller Police Department’s “Race to End Child Abuse” last weekend.

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White Oak bike trail is a little wet today. from bikehouston

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

Texas Bicycling News Digest September 18th 2019

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Bunch Bikes Are a Ride That Really Hauls

By Tim Rogers | www.dmagazine.com

Aaron Powell was a band teacher when he started cycling to work as a matter of practicality. Then, about three years ago, while on an extended vacation in Copenhagen with his wife and young daughter, he saw his first cargo bike. Happy peddlers filled the holds with their kids, their groceries, their pets, pretty much anything. How genius!

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Rich With History, Brownsville Steps into the Future

Wes Ferguson | www.texasmonthly.com

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Texas Mamma Jamma Ride For Breast Cancer Awareness Scheduled

By Tony Cantu | patch.com

AUSTIN, TX — Texas Mamma Jamma Ride, an annual bike event that raises funds to support programs and services for breast cancer fighters and survivors in Central Texas, is scheduled this weekend.

The event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 21, in historic Downtown Martindale (located eight miles east of San Marcos.) The ride offers a one-of-kind cycling experience on a picturesque route with distances …

SAPD: Anonymous Crime Stoppers tip leads to arrest of suspected serial burglar

By Priscilla Aguirre | www.mysanantonio.com

An anonymous tip submitted to Crime Stoppers led to the arrest of a man accused of stealing bikes and tools from several homes in the Southtown area earlier this month, San Antonio police said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Jason Fiala, 38, is facing charges of …

Wednesday with Cyclones

Eduardo Salas (Cyclones) | www.strava.com

Punchy Walnut + Brew & Brew. 36.6 miles (58.9 km) @ 16.5 mph (26.2 km/h)

Raul E. | www.strava.com

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Day 2 Zwifting on the Kickr Snap and What I learned

Texbiker.net Posted on by

The rain fell and I stayed inside. Today was day 2 with Zwift and me Wahoo Kickr Snap smart trainer. Starting the ride was much easier today than yesterday. I decided to try live streaming over Youtube.com using my webcam aimed at my computer monitor. It did that but the screen was blown out and you cannot see the details.

After starting the Zwift software on my desktop computer connecting to the Kickr Snap and sensors went quickly once I opened the Zwift app on my Pixel 3 XL phone. I did learn that I need to check that all sensors are connected which is easy to do in Zwift by looking at the panels and data displayed. At one point my cadence sensor stopped and when I took a break at one hour I easily reconnected. The key is Zwift phone app which gathers all of the Bluetooth sensors and bundles it into one Bluetooth data stream.

My goal was to ride 25.3 miles and I accomplished that riding 25.36 miles which helps me reduce my shortage of miles towards my September goal. Not really riding yesterday (Tuesday) put me behind more so I still need to make up 94 miles to be on track with 326.19 miles counting today’s Zwift workout.

I connected Zwift to my Strava account and it uploaded the workout when I finished. This is what it looked like.

Strava Zwift Bike Ride Summary

Strava automatically labeled this as a virtual ride. The sweat and effort was not virtual though.

After the workout I set out to solve the live stream issue trying two programs. The first was from Logitech that works with my webcam. The program has the feature of two sources, one a camera and the other the screen. I tested this and it worked okay but I kept getting messages about dropped frames and my computer bogged down.

The next program was Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). This was a little tricky to setup but once I got the settings figured out it worked better than the Logitech one, no dropped frames warnings. I record, stream to Youtube, or both. My next workout will use OBS. I have to be careful walking in the room (I call it the computer facility) where I have the bike, trainer and stuff setup because of all of the wires on the floor; fan power cord, webcam cable, trainer power cable, and other stuff.

Thursday may be wet again. If so I will be back on Zwift and the Kickr Snap.