New Caney – Gene Campbell Road Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

The second bike ride of July is in the record book. I didn’t start as early as yesterday but I did get the wheels rolling at 10:28 am. I chose the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route for variety and biked 38.01 miles boosting July to 63.26 miles.

Weather during the bike ride.

Home Weather Start
Home Weather Finish

Wind wasn’t much of an issue and the Saharan dust seems to have left the sky leaving some clouds behind.

At the beginning of the ride I was concerned about the PowerPod not sending power to the Elemnt computer. I clicked the start button a couple of times, checked the Elemnt to be sure it was connected and about the time I was going to forget the pairing in the Elemnt and re-pair them the power readings start showing up. Looking at the ride time it was about 8 minutes into the ride which is how long the PowerPod takes to calibrate after the tilt is changed from the previous ride. I caused the tilt change yesterday when I removed it and took it inside to connect to my desktop computer. I checked the ride file and looked at the settings. Today I see there is a firmware update that will shorten this time to 90 seconds. So I need to remove the PowerPod and update the firmware which will cause another calibration on the next ride but a quick one. I am still trying to get the cadence sensor and the PowerPod to pair. What else am I going to mess with when this gets smoothed out?

The ride went smoothly with a steady pace and the wind being calm most of the time. There was a section coming up the incline after the u-turn under I-69/US59 at Caney Creek where I thought the wind would be a problem but once I got to FM 1485 and turned left the headwind let up. Gene Campbell Road has places where the truck traffic caused the surface to crack and become uneven. Most of these have white dotted lines around them indicating someone plans on fixing this but no idea when. The Walmart distribution center gets lots of trucks and other companies do too.

Only one stop at the Valero/Circle K on FM 1314 and Sorters Road for ice and water to carry me to the finish. I finished the ride at 1:16 pm.

Weather forecast for Tuesday looks favorable for biking. Wednesday, July 4th could be wet though.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Texas Bicycling News Digest July 1st 2018

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Morning Ride

Stephanie Cole | www.strava.com

Partner in crime is back!

Michelle Yoder | www.strava.com

UPCOMING RIDES

Fort Worth Bicycling Assocation

July 4th Pool Party
Wed, July 04, 2018 7:30 AM E Lake and Mikus Rd, Weatherford Texas
Tour de Ft Worth Ride Marshall Crew
Sat, July 07, 2018 7:00 AM 5739 SW Green Oaks Blvd, Arlington, TX 76017
Bicycles Inc. – Century of the Month
Sat, July 07, 2018 8:00 AM Bicycles Inc. – Arlington
Peach Pedal
Sat, July 14, 2018 Weatherford, Tx
Italy Cruise
Sun, July 15, 2018 8:00 AM I35E and Dale Evans – Shell Texas Best Smokehouse
No Wind No Hills
Sun, July 22, 2018 8:00 AM Sublett and 287, Arlington, Tx
Bardwell or Bust
Sun, July 29, 2018 8:00 AM Venus, Tx

This Week’s Youtube Videos

https://youtu.be/opefXoRV64Y

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

PowerPod Calibration, Sahara Dust with Humidity Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I finally made up my mind to start a ride early in the morning, like 6:31 am. The was up and the sky looked great as I headed out on the “Kingwood-Community Drive-Valley Ranch” route. My plan was to ride at least 24 miles and ended up biking 25.25 miles to start off July bicycling. This equates to 3% of my 800 mile goal for July.

A reason for the early ride was at church (First United Methodist, Humble, TX) there was one worship service “God and Country” at 10 am. My wife was going with me along with my niece and her roommate, Brandi. I expected it would be it would be afternoon before we got back home with picnic that followed worship and to avoid the heat the early bike ride was the answer plus I have meant to do this since the sunrise is around 6:30 am. I may repeat this on July 4th so biking will not conflict with the Kingwood parade.

The weather during the bike ride: Weather: start 74 (99% humidity), a few clouds, wind calm. Finish 79 (90% humidity), a few clouds, wind calm. The temperature was cooler but boy the humidity was heavy. At the finish I was drenched and the sky had just a few clouds.

After yesterday’s ride I hooked the PowerPod up to my desktop computer and started messing with the Issac software for the PowerPod. I must’ve changed something (actually I changed a lot of settings) and at the beginning of today’s bike ride after I pushed PP start button the LED flashed red. Then it started flashing red/green which I learned earlier this week means the calibration was not completed. I pushed the start button in a couple of different ways and after not getting anywhere the yellow LED came on which means the calibration starts and the watts starting counting from 1 to 100. At 100 the PP flashed a huge watts number (18,500 or so) and then real numbers appeared on the Elemnt and all was happy, including me. For the rest of the ride the PowerPod and Elemnt were a happy twosome.

As I biked through Woodridge Forest on the way to I-69/US59 I stopped and took these sunrise photos.

Bike Ride Woodridge Forest

Bike Ride Woodridge Forest 2

Sahara dust should arrive in the sky today so it will be hazy for a day or two while it passes through. This might be why the sky in the photo has a gold tint.

Cycling north on the I-69/US59 service road traffic was light. No problem making the u-turn at Community Drive starting the return leg with still no traffic. Riding through Valley Ranch went smoothly and I arrived at FM 1314 in time to see another cyclist approaching from the west on FM 1314 and make the right turn onto Old Sorters Road. I thought I would probably not see him again but as I rode toward the schools in Briar Tree I saw him ahead. As I made the curve south of the schools I saw he made a u-turn and headed back to me. I waved and said hello as he passed.

The ride was staying on time to get me back home and I finished at 8:14 am leaving me an hour to get ready for church which was just right. One reason for the on time arrival was not stopping for traffic lights. The one at Community Drive was missed because I took the u-turn. Earlier at FM 1314 my timing was good with the light being green as I rode arrived. The only one I had to stop for was at FM 1314 and Old Sorters Road which was okay because I need a break to drink and for the legs to recover for the last 11+ miles.

After yesterday’s ride I was comparing my YTD mileage on Strava to SportTracks and found I biked more miles than SportTracks reported. The reason is I look at the YTD miles versus my goal which only includes road miles, not trainer miles. Some time when I entered a ride into SportTracks or synced with the desktop version a few rides got a tag that excluded them from the YTD number. Instead of 3800+ miles the real YTD total was 4,022 miles. With today’s ride I am at 4,047 miles. If I maintain the rate I would hit 8,500 miles for 2018. This is way beyond my highest for a year, 7,488 miles in 2017.

While I was looking at Strava.com I came across an app that compares my total Strava distance versus all Strava users. I was astonished to be 602nd out of 43,502 users.

More good weather on Monday for biking.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

The PowerPod calibration period is clearly shown with the flat power curve for the first 2 miles.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Texas Bicycling News Digest June 30th 2018

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Critical Mass Pedals into Summer

By Doogie Roux | www.houstonpress.com


With Guadalupe Park as the new starting point, Houston’s largest bike ride kicked off Summer just right. Cyclists from all around the city hit the streets and racked up about 15 solid miles. Critical Mass happens on the last Friday of every month and rolls out around 7:15 p.m. (Photos by Doogie Roux) …

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkn4NVhh8WF/

Pace Bend fun, like father, like son,.. hand in the post ride guac

John Madden | www.strava.com

Donut shop ride

Jim Storey | www.strava.com

Texas State Gravel Championships

Charlie Jenkins | www.strava.com

Kiet’s Backwards Chappell Hill Sweatfest

Mick McCrary | www.strava.com

Bullseye Bike Shop to move to historic district, revamp brand

By Sarah Sarder | www.dentonrc.com


Bullseye Bike Shop on Locust Street in Denton will move to a newly renovated building in the Oak-Hickory Historic District in late July, shop owner Kevin Marshall said.

The shop, currently at 530 S. Locust St., will move to 700 W. Hickory St., at the corner it shares with Denton Street.

“I’ve grown up doing a lot of work with my dad so most of the work we’ve done ourselves,” Marshall, 35, said. “I think when you’re …

Shoal Creek Trail: Vision to Action plan

yosmithy | www.bikemojo.com

Sorry for duplicated threads, if one already exists for this.

Just saw this posted up and was interesting to see the “Big Loop Map” on PDF page 12.

https://shoalcreekconservancy.org/wp…21-digital.pdf …

GNARGASM getting shut down?

el gringo | www.bikemojo.com

Rode Gnar yesterday and they are building a fence where Gnar exits and puts you back on the hike-n-bike. This really sucks, as it’s the only way I’m aware of getting back onto the HNB from Gnar. Looks like the work of the Brit parks and rec guy. Any of the trail stewards think we can reverse this effort? Also, also any insight as to whether this is an effort to block access to the trails? …

Did you ride in Critical Mass on Friday night 06/29/18? Just curious how it went.

ThatGuyinHouston | www.reddit.com

I’m guessing most people who surf this sub are legit cyclists and as such, really detest the Critical Mass ride and and anyone who rides, whether they behave or not.

I’m a bit mixed.

I consider myself a legit cyclist. I’ve done 5 MS rides (3 Houston to Austin, 2 Ride to the River) and Strava shows more than 8,000 miles logged since I started riding in 2014.

I really enjoy cycling, so I have a hard time …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

Texas Bicycling from Twitter