Texas Bicycling News August 8th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Dozens of cyclists join “Hottest Day of the Year RIde”

www.kvue.com

Video

AUSTIN — While many Austinites enjoyed air conditioning during a Heat Advisory, dozens of cyclists took to the hot asphalt for Bike Austin’s “Hottest Day of the Year Ride.”
Starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, around 100 people met at an East Austin grocery store before making their way on a 10 mile bike ride to three different pools and Royal Blue Grocery for an ice cream stop. …

Cycling Laredo Texas Sunday morning ride

Gerson Garcia

Sharon Renee, Iron Riders Dallas Cycling Club.

Ronald Wofford

Mission Reach – From Espada to Blue Star Complex – San Antonio, TX USA

SolidRockRiders

This is one of San Antonio’s premiere bike/hike trails–the Mission Reach. This ride originated from the historic San Francisco de la Espada mission and ended at the Blue Star Arts Complex, located in the German heritage King William District near downtown San Antonio.

Samson park mountain bike trail dam drop.

Gleb Vetrov

just second time riding the trail had a blast. mountain biking

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

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Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminder

I Am Not the Only Bicyclist Riding In the Heat

Texbiker.net Posted on by

As I planned today’s ride yesterday I thought I would go north but I changed my mind as I left home at 9:46 to ride the “Walden – Stroker Road – Huffman” route. This route would go further than the north route I had in mind. I rode 41.3 miles today bringing August up to 308.77 miles and 230.36 miles this week. Tomorrow I think I will ride my MTB on the Kingwood trails for variety. I haven’ rode my MTB for 3 month or so when my son-in-law was visiting. I am now 647 miles away from my August goal of 956 miles. I will be riding the Hotter’n Hell 100 on August 29th; I plan on riding the Hell’s Gate route of about 75 miles. Today marks the 13th day in a row of riding. I will have to check on the most days in a row that I have ridden.

  • July 2014 12 days in a row.
  • June and May 2014 16 days in a row.
  • June and July 2013 13 days in a row.

I thought I might see some other bikers along the route and I did. 13 bikers were probably headed back home as I was going away from home. 8 of the 13 were west of Lake Houston and south of FM1960. 2 of them were riding east on FM1960 while I was resting at the Huffman Chevron. I think one of them is the man I talk to at the chevron sometimes. He likes to ride to Dayton. The other biker was on Ramsey Road just north of Stoker Road.

We are having another hot day in a string of 100+ days coming up. The weather screen shots while I was at the Huffman Chevron taking a break plus the forecast for the next several days.

With the 41.3 mile ride today I have ridden this route 4 times during 2015. There is a slightly shorter version where I do not go through Walden.

8-8-2015 Route Rides Comparison Summary YTD

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I was back home at 1:17 and the home weather station was reporting this.

8-8-2015 Home Weather Finish

Texas Bicycling News Digest August 7th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Seventy old cyclist takes on 23-mi Hot Rocks course

blueribbonnews.com

Back on the bike after 50 years

(ROCKWALL, TX – August 7, 2015) After a 50-year break, Larry Maddox is back on his bike. The 70-year-old picked up biking again last year and biked a total of 2500 miles, and plans to bike another 4000 miles this year.
For Maddox, biking has plenty of benefits.
“It relaxes you, clears all your tension, allows you to see other sights you might not otherwise see, and you meet a lot of nice people and build camaraderie,” he said. …

Man found guilty of manslaughter in bicyclist’s death

by Jazmine Ulloa        www.statesman.com


Jurors deliberated for more than 10 hours before finding a hit-and-run driver guilty of manslaughter in the death of an Austin bicyclist.
Brian Adam Mahy was driving a Mustang on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin early Sept. 23, 2012, when he hit and killed Robert “Chops” Ramirez. Mahy’s trial began Monday, and jurors, who started deliberating Wednesday, rendered a verdict Thursday afternoon. Testimony in the punishment phase of the trial could continue …

Round Rock Parks and Rec

by traube        www.bikemojo.com

Round Rock Parks had an expo deal tonight so I went to check it out. Their long term plans are to develop Behren’s as a passive park with a large paved trail, parking (only thing missing today), and primitive trails (very easy flat mountain biking). Thought I’d share.. Nothing exciting, but its my backyard so I try to get involved. I mentioned to multiple folks they should involve ARR. Mayfield was interesting, they had a bmx pump track, swiftwater channel for rafting (apparently a man made river), zip lines, etc. …

Memorial ride planned Saturday for bicyclist Brian Silva

by Pam LeBlanc        fitness.blog.austin360.com

This from Please Be Kind to Cyclists …
Memorial to honor teenager killed in auto/bike crash
AUSTIN, Texas – A memorial to honor Brian Silva will take place Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 10 a.m. Brian was killed on June 6, 2015 after a crash with a motor vehicle, he would have turned 17 this week. The memorial ride will begin at Jordan Elementary School and end with a ghost bike placement at 6200 Johnny Morris Road, near the site of the collision.
Brian was hit and killed while riding his bike in District 1; Christopher Hutchins, Policy Aide to Council Member Ora Houston, District 1, will join the ride on Saturday.
From January through June of this year, there have been 86 reported bike/auto crashes in Austin. Brian was the second person on a bicycle hit and killed in Travis County in 2015, the first was Thomas Wilkinson who was hit …

Memorial to honor teen killed in auto vs. bike crash

www.kvue.com

AUSTIN — A memorial will honor a 16-year-old old bicyclist who died after colliding with a vehicle in East Austin in June.
Austin-Travis County EMS transported the bicyclist, Brian Silva, to University Medical Center Brackenridge after he swerved and hit the side of a vehicle while they were both traveling southbound at 5600 Johnny Morris Road on June 6. Silva succumbed to his …

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

https://twitter.com/bicyclesplus/status/629688494739333121

https://twitter.com/GWCChuck/status/629661886863249408

Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminders

Long Range Tech Support Failure

Texbiker.net Posted on by

This was the second time I biked the “Fairlake Drive – May Park Community Center – Huffman” route this year. Surprisingly the mileage today, 42.35 miles, was within .02 of the other ride even though the streets are not identical. I am not sure how I did that. Below is the summary of both rides.

8-7-2015 Route Rides Comparison Summary YTD

I looked at the route I rode on June 29th before leaving home to get an idea of where I rode. As I was riding I had a general idea of where I rode before but I substituted a few streets before I crossed over Lake Houston to the east.  When I got to Huffman the second time and stopped at the Chevron I was 30.8 miles into the ride. I always calculate it is 11.4 miles from the Chevron station to home. I sometimes take a different way through Atascocita past the country club and this adds 1/3 of mile.

Today was another hot day. According to the weather people the next several days could be 102 to 105 degrees. Yesterday I rode early with high humidity but today I left home at 10:09 and the humidity was lower. That didn’t help with sweating though. I stopped at the Chevron on the west side of Lake Houston to top off my water bottle and the sweat rolled down my arms. Thankfully I didn’t leave the wrist bands at home today. My gloves did not get soaked like yesterday. I stopped next at the May Community Center to fill my water bottle to get to the Huffman Chevron for a rest break. The weather screenshots while I was at the Huffman Chevron.

I arrived at the Chevron about 12:25 and selected my break position under the canopy. Normally I get Powerade but today when I tried the fountain machine it sent clear water into my cup. I filled the cup with ice and water and told the cashier the problem. Another lady went to check the machine. She said it had the blue substance and went to the fountain machine to test it. Out poured blue Powerade. I don’t know what I did but I kept the water and ice. It was $.27 instead of the $1.07 for the Powerade so I saved a few pennies.

While I was resting my wife called me because she couldn’t find a program on her computer that she uses all the time. I upgraded her computer to Windows 10 a few days ago and everything is different. We tried to find it but I couldn’t remember where it was. As I was getting ready to leave she sent me a text message that she had found it. I told her she was a good Sherlock Holmes. (When I got home I pinned the program to the taskbar) Pulling away from the station I was on the way home. The south 9 mph breeze slowed me some as I rode west on FM1960 to Atascocita Shores Drive where I turn to the north. I recovered the speed going north although Atascocita Shores is not the smoothest concrete surface. Over the years the various patches settled and the bumps and cracks cause to get out of the saddle frequently. I got back home at 1:58. The weather at my home weather station at the end of the ride.

8-7-2015 Home Weather Finish

The 97.9 temperature is in the shade while the 99.7 is the weather station in the sun. More of the same tomorrow. August miles are up to 267.47 and today was the 12th consecutive day biking. I am averaging 37.8 miles per ride in August.

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