Seven Weeks in a Row

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A recovery ride today after 49+ miles yesterday. I rode the “Atascocita – Huffman” route for a total of 29.34 miles. I started off easy but I was riding well so I upped the pace some and built my average speed up to 15.4 mph at the break at the Huffman Chevron. The ride was shorter and the break was at 17.4 miles into the ride. I didn’t stay too long but enough to cool down some and dry off a little. The weather has warmed back up per the screenshots below.

No flat tire issues today. The new tube solved the problem. I tried to patch the punctured tube again at home last night. I sanded the ribs down and applied lots of glue before putting on the patch. I pumped the tube up and it held air but this morning when I went to the garage to go to church it was limp as a dishrag. I put it in the trash.

Today’s ride put the week’s total at 242.41 miles. Seven weeks in a row over 200 miles per week. The month is now at 786.72, leaving 169.28 miles to reach my goal. Year to date is 4909 miles.

Next week will be different. I plan on biking Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I will take off Thursday to go to the medical center with my wife. No biking Friday driving to Wichita Falls. Saturday I will ride the Hotter’n Hell 100 and drive home on Sunday. I think I can get enough miles to reach my goal for August but I need to bike Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to be sure.

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Texas Bicycling News August 22nd

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Teen crashes bicycle, waits hours for help

www.foxsanantonio.com


SAN ANTONIO – A teenager is recovering after he crashed his bicycle on the Far Northeast Side.
Police say the 16-year-old was cycling along Higgins around 10:24 p.m. Friday, when he lost control of bicycle and crashed. He was able to make his way to a nearby utility pole near Stahl Road and waited about …

Cyclists attend expo ahead of today’s ride

By Frank Garza        www.brownsvilleherald.com


Raúl Alcalá, the first Mexican cyclist to ever compete in the Tour de France, attended the International Technology, Education and Commerce Center Expo on Saturday to present jerseys to community leaders as a thank you for their help in putting together today’s Raúl Alcalá Bike Ride Challenge for Brownsville .
Texas Soutmost College President Lily Tercero, City Commissioner Rose Gowen and Rodolfo Quilantan of the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville were in …

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

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A Piece of Glass Interrupts this Ride

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The goal today was ride enough miles to reach 756 miles for the month. This would leave 200 miles to reach my goal. I couldn’t ride to the south because of the Kingwood BridgeFest 5k/10k run this morning which was okay because I needed some variety. I decided to ride the “SR242 – FM1314” route. This route with some minor today was 49.42 miles long. I rode this route 4 times this year and this is the longest of the 4. (click on the image to enlarge it)

8-22-2015 Route Rides Comparison YTD

I saw one other biker during the ride on SH 242 about a mile west of US59. I almost missed him behind the passing cars. He was riding east and I was going west.

My planned stops were at the Chevron station at the FM1485 and SH 242 intersection for ice and water. I made that one in good shape. The next stop was at the Stripes station on FM1314. I got there in good shape too. This one was a rest break. I ate and drank while cooling down in the gas canopy shade. It took some paper towels and breeze to dry up all of the sweat by the time I was ready to leave. While I was sitting a man walked over to me to ask about my helmet mirror. He said he and his wife just started biking and he wanted to be able to see the traffic coming from behind. He asked where to get a mirror like mine and I told him and he said he would check them out. The stop was at 37.7 miles into the ride and I got there at 12:37. As I was getting ready to leave two ladies pulled up to the pump where I was at in their Jeep Grand Cherokee (same color as ours). After one lady finished filling up she told me to be careful as she got in to leave. They had a Texas A&M sticker on the back.

I left riding across FM1314 to Briar Tree towards home. I didn’t get too far though. At 38.5 miles I got a flat rear tire. It wasn’t hard to see why, a piece of glass was sticking out of the tire. Fortunately I was at Ben’s Branch Elementary School and I walked over to the front entrance where there was shade and a bench. I removed the tube from the rear tire and located the hole. It was in the section of tube with some ridges on it. I thought this would not help the patch stick but used the sandpaper to rough the area up and lower the little ridges. If the hole had been an inch to the left it would be out of the only section with ridges. I applied the patch and waited a couple of minutes to see if the patch would hold before putting it back in the tire. I aired up the tire and put my stuff away. I made it to 40.5 miles and could feel the rear tire going flat. The patch did not hold over the ridges. I found a shady spot and removed the rear tube and put my spare tube in. Before the street I was on, Rock Creek Drive, did not have much traffic. Once I set up to fix the flat I think every car in the area decided to drive on Rock Creek. Before doing that I ran my finger around the inside of the tire to be sure there wasn’t something else causing the problem. Nothing else found. I aired up the tire, put my stuff away and put the tire back on the bike. While I was sitting there working on the tire a foursome of golfers was playing the hole on the other sie of the street. I heard someone yell from the tee but I didn’t give it much attention. A few minutes later one of the golf carts stopped across from me to look for a ball. That’s when I noticed a ball in the street about 25 feet to my left. I pointed to the ball and one of the golfers came over and picked it up, moved it to the esplanade beside me and took a shot towards the green. He didn’t get there but he was back on the fairway. One of the other golfers said I would have been safer if I was sitting in the fairway rather than the street. I laughed.

I got back home at 2:45 without any further trouble from the rear tire. I reached my goal with 757.38 miles for August. Now I am only 198.62 miles from my goal of 956 miles.

Up to the rest stop and flats I was averaging 15.4 mph but the stops to fix the flat dropped my average to 15.1 mph and riding through Kingwood dropped it down further to 14.9 mph by the time I got home. Once I was home I checked the weather and was surprised the wind was 9 mph from the south with 22 mph gusts. This explained why I had trouble getting back up to speed after the second stop to fix the tire. I didn’t see that when I took these screenshots at the Stripes station earlier.

The next three days look fantastic for biking. Next Saturday I will in Wichita Falls for the Hotter’n Hell 100. Not sure what the weather will be there yet. A few days ago a front came through and it was in the 70’s for the high. Today their forecast is clear and 94 degrees on Saturday August 29th. I hope that holds.

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Texas Bicycling News August 21st

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Trail provides safe routes

by Sally Boswell        theparisnews.com

Safe Routes to School connects students to campuses

The Trail de Paris is a little bigger, just in time for the start of school.
The trail — a nearly 6-mile paved path running from 8th St. S.E. east to the city limits and connecting with the Reno Rail Trail — has branched out into several neighborhoods with the help of grants awarded to make safe paths for students bicycling and walking to schools.
“The final piece of the PISD Safe Routes to School Grants, which was awarded in 2010 to Justiss Elementary and Crockett Intermediate schools, has been completed,” said Earl Erickson, chairman of the …

Endurance House to open in Wichita Falls

by John Ingle        www.timesrecordnews.com


WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Living an active lifestyle has been a hallmark of Mark and Valerie Pinson for quite some time now, especially when it comes to running and cycling.
The couple will take that love of endurance activities and parlay it into niche running, cycling and triathlon sports store Endurance House of Wichita Falls located at 5007 Taft Blvd. off Southwest Parkway. It will be the 15th Endurance House store in the country, and is expected to open in early October.
“It started out with me wanting to bring something to Wichita Falls in the specialty running sector,” Valerie, an …

Bike Festival to Support Cycling School

by Joan Vinson        therivardreport.com


Bicycling can be a lifestyle, a mode of transportation, or a recreational getaway. No matter what your relationship is with your bike – or a rental – it requires both physical and mental effort. One year from now, San Antonians will have BScuela, a school that will foster those relationships by teaching interested community members everything from bicycle safety and maintenance to proper road etiquette and nutrition.
Local cycling activist Cristian Sandoval co-founded Earn-A-Bike Co-op (EAB), a local bicycle outreach organization that offers …

There a few Texas bike shops. Should be more!

NBDA releases list of America’s Best Bike Shops

by BRAIN Staff        www.bicycleretailer.com

COSTA MESA, Calif. (BRAIN) — The National Bicycle Dealers Association has released its third annual list of America’s Best Bike Shops.
The dealers’ association chooses the top shops from among applicants, who are awarded points based on their application and the results of a visit by an anonymous “mystery shopper.” Applicants must be independent bicycle stores with a physical store open to the public that sells bicycles, parts, accessories, and has a service department. Half of a store’s total sales must be related to bicycles, and …

Brazos River Bike Rally set for Sept. 5

www.fbherald.com

On Saturday, Sept. 5, Missouri City residents are invited to partner with elected officials, area businesses and bicycle enthusiasts from across the Houston-area for the City’s second annual bike ride: The Brazos River Bike Rally. Beginning at the Recreation & Tennis Center, 2701 Cypress Point Dr., cyclists will have the opportunity to participate in a …

Taking A Cool Bike Ride Around My Woodhaven Country Club Neighborhood

by Durango Texas        durangotexas.blogspot.com


Weeks ago I decided the 100 degree HEAT had rendered rolling my bike wheels in my mostly unshaded neighborhood no longer feasible.
Today, what with the month early arrival of fall temperatures, I took my …

Come See Us at Hotter’n Hell 2015

BikeTexas

http://www.biketexas.org/images/stories/bikenews/member_news/2014_member_news/biketexas_staff_hotter-n-hell.JPG
For over a decade, BikeTexas staff have made the six-hour trip from our home base in Austin to Wichita Falls to attend the largest cycling event in our great state: the Hotter’N Hell 100. Now in its 34rd year, the event routinely draws nearly 15,000 riders. And for nearly as long as we’ve been going there, HH100 has been a …

Bike Club Evening Ride: LM Main Plant Swifties – 5:00PM

Clear Fork Bicycle Club        www.clearforkbicycleclub.org

Aug 27, 2015
A regular ride of about 25-40 miles with a shorter option of 21 miles. Starting from the southeast corner of Bldg 200, 5:00PM. Please note that you must have a Lockheed-Martin badge to enter the compound. Others need to make arrangements to join the group outside the compound. Several have been joining us near the corner of Clifford & Bomber Road. Some have been parking at Veteran’s Park. …

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

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Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminders