Texas Bicycling News Digest April 24th 2019

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Walmart Says Its High-End Viathon Bikes Will Grow Cycling

By Berne Broudy | gearjunkie.com

Are bike shops scary, elitist, and unwelcoming? Walmart thinks so, and the retail juggernaut is betting its customers do too.

Walmart is not just a brand of box stores that populates every U.S. state. It’s one of the biggest online merchants in the world, No. 3 for online traffic after Google and Amazon. Walmart is also the largest grocer in America and possibly the world. And the company currently sells more bicycles in the United States than any other retailer. …

How to Race an Enduro in Texas – The Texas Enduro Cup Part 1

No Front Brakes | www.youtube.com

Back in November, I raced the Texas Enduro Cup for the first time. I had ridden Reveille Peak Ranch lots of times, and have put out a lot of videos from there, but this is the first time I had entered an enduro race there. I had ridden parts of 5 of the 7 stages, but this is the first time I was going to be …

Outdoors Calendar – Austin

austinscalendar.com

Saturday, Apr 27, 2019
7a – 9a NWAus- Nelo’s Cycles Shop Weekday Ride (Road)
7:30a – 10a SwAus- Gruppo VOP Saturday Ride (Road)
7:30a – 9:45a Gruppo VOP (Adv)
7:30a – 9:30a SwAus- Southwest Cycle Sport Saturday Road Ride
8a – 1p NwAus- Violet Crown Bagel Ride (Road Ride)
8a – 11a NwAus- Bicycle Sport Shop Parmer Store Saturday Ride
8a – 10a SwAus- Circle C Ranch Cycle Club
8:30a – 12p SoAus- Austin Tri-Cyclist Saturday Shop Road Ride
8:30a – 11:30a ATC Training Ride (Int,Adv)
8:30a – 11:30a Austin Flyers Club Ride
8:30a – 11:30a CenAus- Middle of the Road Ride (MOTR)
9a – 1p CenAus- Yellow Bike Project at the Austin Farmer’s Market (Downtown)
9a – 1p Georgetown- Sun City Cyclists Saturday Ride (Road)
9a – 12p CenAus- Mellow Mountain Ride
9a – 12p Kyle- Hill Country Tri Club Saturday Ride (Road)
9a – 11a CenAus- Mellow Johnny’s Scout-A-Ride Shop Road Ride
9a – 11a SwAus- Southwest Cycle Sport Saturday Mountain Bike Ride
9a – 10a NwAus- Saturday Brick Workout hosted by Bicycle Sport Shop
10a – 1p CenAus- Orange Bike Project Shop Hours
10a – 1p Florence- Heart of Texas BMX Weekly Practice Time
12p – 1:30p Farm Tour & Volunteer Orientation
12p – 1p CenAus- Coed Hands-on Flat Fix Clinic

Dallas Critical Mass – April – & Red Star turning 5

by Gottfried Laubichler | www.facebook.com

April 26 Friday at 7:30 PM Dallas Farmers Market 920 S. Harwood, Dallas, Texas 75201

Red Star Bicycles is celebrating their 5th anniversary and to keep up with tradition Christian is organizing this months CM to celebrate. The ride starts (as usual) at 8 pm sharp. Please bring friends, and please put lights on your bike if you don’t have any yet. The ride officially ends at Texas Ale Project with live music, great food and beer.

Ironman Foundation To Distribute 100 Bikes To Local Youth and Provide $100,00 in Grant Funding in Texas

By: Colby Gorniewicz | www.woodlandsonline.com

HE WOODLANDS, TX — The IRONMAN Foundation® announced today that it will distribute more than $100,000 in charitable giveback to non-profit initiatives and groups in the greater Harris County and Montgomery County regions. This donation will be in conjunction with the 2019 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN® North American Championship Texas triathlon taking place on Saturday, April 27. This year’s grant funding brings the total giveback to more than $1,000,000 in the region since the first event in The Woodlands in 2011. …

UT needs more bike parking, students say

BY BONNY CHU | dailytexanonline.com

An additional 1,700 bike parking spaces have been added over the last six years to accommodate for the high number of campus bikers, according to the most recent Parking and Transportation Services report.

However, students say the University still needs more parking availability due to continuously overcrowded bike racks. There were about 7,000 spaces for the 9,200 registered bikers in 2017, according to the report.

“Parking is not provided at a ratio of one-to-one,” PTS associate director Blanca Gamez said. “Traffic undergoes continuous changes …

New fund honors San Antonio bicycle enthusiasts Bradshaw and Kayruz

By Bruce Selcraig | www.expressnews.com

A new community fund, Live to Ride, is being established at the San Antonio Area Foundation in response to the recent cycling deaths of San Antonio residents Dr. Naji Tanios Kayruz and Tito Bradshaw.

The fund’s creators say it will be used to build public awareness for bicycle safety and support financial grants that move San Antonio toward having safer streets. …

Bear Creek Crit 123

Philip Shama | www.strava.com

My first ever Bear Creek crit

Meggin Crawford | www.strava.com

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Overcast Sky Darkens New Gel Shorts Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Back on the Canyon bike for today’s ride. Fortunately the PowerPod recognized the switch back and after a 3 or 4 minute startup time it began reporting my feeble watts. I chose the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route to complete what I set out to ride yesterday and also the weather radar showed rain coming from the northwest. It didn’t arrive during the ride but I thought riding towards it wasn’t the best idea.

Weather during the bike ride: start 74 (88% humidity), overcast, wind SE 15 mph. Finish 74 (85% humidity), overcast, wind SE 17 mph. The heavy sky looked threatening through my sunglasses but when I pulled them down during the ride the sky wasn’t so dark. I had some hesitation on what to wear but chose shorts, a thermal long sleeve jersey (this won’t be required too much longer), and a short sleeve jersey. I wore a new pair of Bellwether Endurance Gel Shorts which replaced the pair I sent back for warranty evaluation. I like these shorts because the gel pad helps with road bumps and vibration, the fabric is not too light, and the fit is snug but not too tight.

I saw two other cyclists from a distance. One was close enough to exchange waves and the other one didn’t seem to see me.

Starting at 11:57 AM was around my usual time until the weather heats up more. I finished at 2:31 PM in front of the school traffic.

Thursday’s weather will start off damp after the expected rain moves out but by late morning it should be good biking weather.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Miles

2017 continues to set the miles pace with 2109 leading 2016 and 2018.

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Miles

Texas Bicycling News Digest April 23rd 2019

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Fayetteville Classic Road Race Recap

Drop Bar, Texas: A cycling podcast | anchor.fm

Mother nature throws some of her worst at us, but we still race on. An interview with Phil Reither of Violet Crown Sports Association. Race results from the Fayetteville Classic.

[iframe https://anchor.fm/dropbartexas/embed/episodes/Fayetteville-Classic-Road-Race-Recap-e3mdpl/a-actuiu 400px 102px]

Upcoming Events

Brazos Valley Cyclists | brazoscyclists.org

Flagpole Ride April 27 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm A&M Flagpole May 04 Flagpole Ride May 4 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm A&M Flagpole May 11 Flagpole Ride May 11 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm A&M Flagpole May18 Flagpole Ride May 18 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm A&M Flagpole May20 Karbach Bike Pub Crawl May 20 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm Bike Barn

Upcoming Rides

Clear Fork Bicycle Club | www.clearforkbicycleclub.org

Thu 25 Apr 2019 25 CFBC Ride: LM Main Plant – 5:00PM

Sat 27 Apr 2019 27 CFBC Breakfast Ride To CFBC Breakfast Ride To: Corner Bakery Caf̩ downtown Р9:00AM РStart location chg

PBA Pantry Pedal – April 28, 2019

Plano Bicycle Association | planobicycle.org

Summary The PBA Pantry Pedal is a charity event that is part bike ride, part food drive and lots of fun! Participating riders will buy food items from local grocery stores that will be donated to Minnie’s Food Pantry in Plano. Opportunity for PBA to get wonderful publicity for work outside of cycling.

Minnies’ Food Pantry Minnie’s Food Pantry is located at the corner of Independence and Parker. There is a need during the summer to feed school children who are not at school to get meals. A list of food staples has been provided to fill this need.

In 2017, Minnie’s Food Pantry fed 37,000 people. Of that number, over 10,000 were children.

When Sunday, April, 28, 2019 from 11am – 2pm Where Rodeo Goat Plano located at 641 N Powell Pkwy, Plano 75075 …

Murals Tour Ride

Greater Dallas Bicyclists | gdbclub.clubexpress.com

When: Saturday, April 27, 2019, 8:00 AM until 12:00 PM Where: Preston and Forest – SW corner. Please park as close to Preston as possible. 11741 Preston Road Dallas, TX 75230 Mark your calendars for a Sunday-Roll-Like social ride led by the inimitable Richard Wilkes, to ride through various areas of Dallas to see various wall murals… Riders will depart the southwest corner of Preston/Forest (the normal Airport Ride start location) at 8AM sharp, for a ~35-40 mile ride that will last about 4 hours. This will be a NO DROP ride, with a flat rolling pace of ~14-16 mph. There will be various photo opportunities, and probably 2 rest stops. Watch this space, and the GDB discussion board, for more information… C’mon out, and learn some new things about Dallas that you weren’t aware of!

Chamber cancels ‘Rally,’ but Cotton Patch Challenge bike ride still on

By Travis Hairgrove | www.heraldbanner.com

The Greenville Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that there will not be a Rally ‘Round Greenville this year.

Each September, for 13 years, the annual event brought entertainment to downtown Greenville that included tightrope walkers and musical acts like the Emerald City Band as well as chili cookoffs, cornhole tournaments, food trucks and other attractions.

However, with two-day-long Rally’s costing about $60,000 and one-day Rally’s running around $40,000, chamber President and CEO Byron Taylor says the organization did well to simply break even when running the event. …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

PowerPod Calibration Adventure Bike Ride

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I had this idea that today would be a good time to start using the PowerPod with my other bike, the Blue Norcross AL. Up to now when I rode this bike I didn’t get power readings. Setting out at 1:08 PM after a couple of light rain delays I planned on riding to Huffman but ended up riding the “Atascocita – Walden – E. Lake Houston Parkway” route.

The reason for the change was due to the problems I had connecting the PowerPod and completing an “Out and Back” calibration ride at the beginning of the ride. Before leaving on the ride I reviewed the instructions on how to pair the PowerPod to the speed and cadence sensors on the Blue Norcross AL and then how to do the calibration ride. In my old age I guess I didn’t retain the calibration steps and stopped numerous times when the PowerPod counted up to 50 which is half way through the ride. The PowerPod only has one button and signals various stages it is in by blinking an LED in certain colors. Finally around 8.5 miles I turned the PowrPod off and then back on and to my surprise the watts starting showing up on the Elemnt computer like they are supposed to.

The weather during the bike ride wasn’t great but okay for biking: start 74 (87% humidity), overcast, wind SE 15 mph. Finish 75 (76% humidity), overcast, wind S 9 mph. At least the wind dropped off as the ride progressed and was way less than yesterday. My attire for the ride: shorts, long sleeve jersey topped with short sleeve jersey. At first I was a little chilly and each time I stopped to work on the PowerPod setup I felt chilly but once that got straightened out I produced body heat to overcome and chill.

Bike 30.03 miles today put me over my goal for the month with 606.04 miles. Now I can ride to match or exceed April 2018’s 764 miles.

After turning around at E. Lake Houston Parkway and crossing Lake Houston I stopped at the marina on Atascocita Shores Drive and took these photos.

In the background the overcast sky lurks threatening to drop some rain.

I finished the ride at 3:56 PM without getting rained on but not long after while I walked in the backyard a few drops came down. Wednesday’s weather will repeat today with heavy rain late Wednesday and early Thursday. I should be biking Wednesday.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

In the graph the power line shows the repeated calibration attempts up to 8.48 miles.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles

2019 still leads 2016 and 2018 while trailing 2017.

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles