Texas Bicycling News January 11th 2017

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El Paso Puzzler mountain bike race hits 10th year

Victor R. Martinez | www.elpasotimes.com


A decade ago when the El Paso Puzzler mountain bike race started, it attracted about 25 riders.
“We originally started this event for the local riders to get out there and experience our mountain,” said Brent Sanders, co-director of the race. “When we set out to do this, it was never with the intent that it would eventually end up being a race that is known on the national stage. It was always for fun. It was …

Construction of new Flower Mound trail bridge underway

by Dru Murray | www.crosstimbersgazette.com


Construction workers from Wall Enterprises on Monday removed the old pedestrian bridge spanning the creek running alongside Indian Blanket Trail in Flower Mound and began the groundwork necessary for the construction of a new bridge. According to …

Unable to find new ‘bike czar,’ Dallas spends $171,000 in bike lane dollars on consultant

Robert Wilonsky | www.dallasnews.com

Dallas’ bike plan is back in the saddle — sort of.
The city has been without a “bike czar” since November 2015, when Ashley Haire moved to Denver and left the city without an engineer to design the bike lanes called for in the 2011 Dallas Bike Plan.
And it’s unlikely City Hall will hire a replacement any time soon: Jared White, a senior transportation planner and, for now, the only employee at City Hall overseeing the plan, said Wednesday that job applicants haven’t …

Oskar Blues Brewery hosts monthly bike rides

Pam LeBlanc | fitness.blog.austin360.com


Oskar Blues Brewery wants you to know that drinking beer and staying fit don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
That’s why they’re hosting monthly bike rides that start and finish at the brewery in North Austin.
Cyclists meet at 6 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at the brewery, where they can get beers for $2. The bike ride begins at 7 p.m., and cyclists return to the brewery afterward for more beers. (I’d recommend …

Should I race 200 miles on my bike? Now two people say I can do it – and they want Lance Armstrong to go 400 miles

Pam LeBlanc | fitness.blog.austin360.com


See this man? That’s Brant Speed, coach and general manager at Pedal Hard Training Center, located downstairs at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop.
Speed (talk about a perfect name), along with Andrew Willis, who runs The Driveway Crit Series and also enjoys racing his bicycle halfway across the country (literally), think I can tackle a 200-mile bike race at the end of March.
I’m not so sure about that, but I crave adventure, and …

The European Tour of Texas Challenge

Presented by Sacred Heart Alumni, Clifton CoC, Lone Star Cyclists, Lamar County CoC | www.bikereg.com

This is the European Tour of Texas Challenge registration. Registering for this will automatically register you for all rides included in the challenge as well as making you eligible to receive a custom European Tour of Texas Challenge jersey upon completion of the challenge, jersey design will be shown in the event picture as soon as we have it. To complete the challenge, all you have to do is show up and check in with the challenge registration table at each ride in the challenge, what this meens is that even if weather forces you to …

Public meetings for trailhead improvements begin

Victor Martinez | www.elpasotimes.com


The city of El Paso will have three community meetings where members of the public can view the design plans for four trailheads, the areas where trails for biking or hiking begin.
The $600,000 projects, which are being paid for by the quality of life bond program, are meant to …

Southern Tier Winter Tour

By David Hayes | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 17 – Johnson City to Kerrville TX: Runs like Buffalo
Wednesday January 11, 2017
When you are riding 6 or 7 hours a day, your mind roams. A lot. So this morning as dawn is just giving me enough light to believe I won’t be immediately killed by a driver who can’t see me as I ride through the heart of Texas wine country very early this morning, I notice something in the sky above: the clouds are racing in the heavens. I mean VISIBLY MOVING across my path left to right.
Now, as a confirmed desk jockey my entire professional career there are precious few days when I know what the weather is outside. And noticing nature’s weather signals? Never happens. But when you live outside most of every day all day, weather starts to take on a whole new meaning.
And as I noticed the clouds racing across the sky, my mind does what …

Let’s Ride – Luv Gluv

by TC | www.turnincranks.com

Demoing the Devinci Troy, 27.5, 140/150 travel bike. A lot of fun and great bike. My first ride on a 27.5 (non plus) and I liked it! It was a bit twitchy coming from a 29er, but it is something I …

Progression Session – Luv Gluv Drop

by TC | www.turnincranks.com

As always, video doesn’t do this justice. This is a fairly intimidating drop at the very end of the Luv Gluv segment one of the Barton Creek Greenbelt back trails. I’ve been eyeballing this …

Randy’s AK-64

Monday, Jan 16, 2017, 7:30 AM

The Limbirds’
316 Arboles Dr El Paso, TX

2 Cyclists Went

Randy’s annual birthday ride gets one mile longer again! And this year we’ll be riding on Martin Luther King Day (since the weather forecast looks pretty good that day).Meet at his house, 316 Arboles, at 7:30 a.m. — we’ll roll out at 7:45. We’ll head across Transmountain, then up to Anthony Gap. We’ll take the rollers down to Vinton, head through…

Check out this Meetup →

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Grueling South Wind Bike Ride

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Grueling bike ride following the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route. Any direction with an “S” in it battled a 15 mph wind with 28 mph gusts. I probably rode too fast on the way to New Caney (north) with the wind pushing me along. I biked 36.25 miles with about 21 miles into the wind. My wife told me the wind was kicking up as I got ready to leave and I agreed but I didn’t feel the brunt of it until I turned onto Gene Campbell Blvd. From that point until the end the wind tried to stop me. For this early in the southeast Texas biking season my legs were not quite ready.

The weather at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (about 10 miles south of where I live). Not much change during the 2:27 long bike ride.

Even with the temperature in the 70’s I wore a thermal jersey with a short sleeve jersey over it. This offset the wind chill and kept me comfortable. Other than the wind and nice temperature the ride was uneventful.

I am making progress towards my 300 mile goal for the month with 164.58 miles to date, 55% of the way there. No biking tomorrow but the weather looks favorable Friday and Saturday, Sunday shows almost 75% chance of rain.

Link to Strava metrics and map.

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Texas Bicycling News January 10th 2017

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51 “Super” Places along the Bayou Greenways

Houston Parks Board | houstonparksboard.org


Through the Bayou Greenways 2020 project, Houston is in the midst of developing 150 miles of greenways and trails along its extensive network of bayous, which will offer a whole new way to see and explore the city.
To give you an idea of the kinds of adventures the Bayou Greenways have …

2017 SUPERDROME SEASON PASS

by SUPERDROME | www.bikereg.com

9700 Wade Blvd, Frisco, TX …

FrankenBike #72 ~ Hickory Hollow Restaurant ~ Sat 14th ~ 9 till 3 (101 Heights Blvd)

houston.craigslist.org


Hickory Hollow Restaurant
101 Heights Blvd, Houston, TX 77007
Saturday ~ January 14 ~ 9am till 3pm
Looking for good bikes, spiffy cycle wear, or parts to get you going again ?
Come on by.
Got surplus bicycle parts someone else could use ?
Got a bike that’s the wrong size ?
Need a quick fix or tune up adjustments – there will be mechanics on site.
Bring them all to the swap! …

Southern Tier Winter Tour

By David Hayes | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 16 – Austin to Johnson City TX: When the Dog Doesn’t Even Bother to Bark
Tuesday January 10, 2017
Cyclists and dogs have a long, and generally, adversarial relationship I’ve actually been lucky to have no reason to pull out my pepper spray thus far, but I know that’s because dogs generally just care about one thing: protecting their turf. In Richards TX, for instance, there was a ranch house that was at least a quarter mile off the road. But, the dog on the ranch made a sprint the whole way to the corner of the property where I entered his turf…barking madly the whole time…and followed my all along his property line until I’d passed the edges of his territory. At that point he figured his job was done and he sauntered back to lay under the porch. Particularly in Louisiana I had dogs bark at me for the duration of the time I was adjacent to their property dozens of times.
But they never cared anything about me once I’d ridden away from …

Bicycling Bahia Grande Unit

South Padre Island | www.sopadre.com

Saturday, January 21, 10 – 2 and
Saturday, February 4, 10 – 2
Visitors will have the opportunity to see this area as it’s being restored. A 5 mile caliche road will be open for visitors to ride theiro bicycles down and back. They will pass through coastal prairies, salt water bays and some freshwater wetlands. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED, SPACE IS LIMITED. Call 956-244-2019 to reserve a start time. FREE.

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Chilled Lake Water Wind Bike Ride

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The bike ride started with cautious optimism. Last Saturday and Sunday the temperature fell into the 20’s well below Houston typical winter weather. Today the temperature was 76 when I started the bike ride on the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route.  The cautious part is my wardrobe selection: a long sleeve thermal jersey, short sleeve jersey over top of that and shorts. Most of the ride I probably over dressed but riding west over Lake Houston I could’ve used a jacket to shield me from the chilled air blowing off of Lake Houston. The radiator effect was in full force today. My damp jerseys did their job wicking away moisture from my body but unfortunately the wind was chilled coming off of the lake.

I battled the wind riding west on FM1960 over the lake because of the 14 mph SW wind with 26 mph gusts. Entering the causeway on the east side I rode about 18 mph but once I was over the water and the wind got hold of me it dropped to less than 15 mph especially when a gust blew through or the traffic left me all by myself. It was a relief reaching the west side of the lake and turning north where the wind didn’t have a straight shot at me.

My home weather station didn’t record the wind conditions as high as the airport did. My home weather at the start (11:49) and finish (2:08).

Start
Finish

I wore new shorts today. Being the new year I decided to replace my shorts. In the past I wore Bellwether Forma shorts but it looks like those are discontinued so I bought Bellwether Endurance Gel Shorts. In the past I tried gel shorts but the pad was too much gel but these appear to have the right amount. More rides are needed to get an opinion but the first ride was comfortable. The pad shape is slightly different so my bottom needs to adjust to the creases and placement.

More warm weather tomorrow and I plan on taking advantage of it.

Link to the ride data on Strava.

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