Texas Bicycling News July 29th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

San Antonio’s Quirky “Cycle-In Cinema”

By Jack Morgan        tpr.org


Riding a bike to go see a movie isn’t too unusual, but there’s a place where the bicycling plays a larger role than just getting you there. In fact, no bike, no movie.
“We have a stationary bike set up that operates a generator, which provides electricity for the movie player,” said Tom Matula, Director of Marketing for Main Plaza, which is where Cycle-In Cinema takes place. They’re people-powered movies on …

MetroRail downtown station expansion plans underway

by Courtney Griffin        www.austinmonitor.com


Capital Metro staff wants MetroRail’s downtown station on Fourth Street to become a staple in the area’s transportation corridor, and on Monday, board members were shown two proposed ways to expand the terminal’s platform. …

… CapMetro staff met with stakeholders this year to sketch out expansion possibilities. They came up with two final concept designs. The first design proposes closing Fourth Street to traffic from Red River Street to Trinity Street, making Neches Street into a cul-de-sac servicing the Hilton Hotel and park visitors and creating two separate lanes by the rail tracks for bicycle and emergency vehicle use. …

Texas bartender hits South Bay with Bixby in tow on bike journey for shelter dogs

By Donna Littlejohn, Daily Breeze        www.dailybreeze.com


It all began when Mike Minnick spotted a discarded black-and-white puppy in a Texas animal shelter and decided they belonged together.
He was a bartender and a chain smoker. He drove a pickup truck, and hadn’t ridden a bicycle since high school.
“I was long overdue for an adventure,” Minnick, 39, of Austin, Texas, said Tuesday as he savored the ocean views at Hermosa Beach. “I felt …

Bike Sharing System

www.texasbids.net

Bid Date & Time: 08/17/15 2:00 PM    Prebid: 08/03/15 8:30 AM
Solicitation Title: Bike Sharing System
Owner Solic Number: 754-15-BIKE SHARE
Status: bidding        Report: 6468694
Country : United States     State: TX    County: Hays        Location: San Marcos
Scope: On-demand bicycle share system. The contract will include design of the system, independent operation and maintenance of the system.
Notes: A pre-bid meeting will be held at 11th floor of the J.C. Kellam building located at 601 University Drive San Marcos, Texas.
Plans: From Owner. See attached file.
Owner Type: Public …

Violet Crown Trail Stewards needed!

By Tony Fryer        www.austinridgeriders.com


Hi, ARR members! You may know that ARR has been working with the Hill Country Conservancy for some time now to help develop the Violet Crown Trail system.
The VCT, as it is known, is an approximately 30-mile, multi-jurisdictional trail that will ultimately extend from Barton Springs/Zilker Park, in Austin, Texas, along City-owned parkland, through portions of the City of Sunset Valley, to the Onion Creek Preserve Management Unit, south of Austin, in Hays County. The vision for the VCT includes using existing and new trail alignments planned, designed and …

RIDE SCHEDULE – August 2015

Georgetown Cyclopaths        www.cyclopathsoftexas.com

RIDE SCHEDULE – August 2015     Short Rides     Long Rides
Day     Date     Time     Meet at     Miles     Map     Miles     Map

Saturday     8/1/2015     8:00 AM     Liberty Hill Elementary School     33 miles     L12     39 miles     L11
Sunday     8/2/2015     8:00 AM     Berry Springs Park     35 miles     B24     42 miles     B49

Saturday     8/8/2015     8:00 AM     Dale’s Essenhaus Restaurant in Walburg     32 miles     WA7     43 miles     WA8
Sunday     8/9/2015     8:00 AM     Berry Springs Park     33 miles     B31     42 miles     B49

Saturday     8/15/2015     8:00 AM     Catholic Church in Andice     33 miles     A7     44 miles     A8
Sunday     8/16/2015     8:00 AM     Berry Springs Park     33 miles     B46     38 miles     B40

Saturday     8/22/2015     8:00 AM     Union State Bank in Florence     29 miles     F5     40 miles     F6
Sunday     8/23/2015     8:00 AM     Berry Springs Park     31 miles     B18     42 miles     B49

Saturday     8/29/2015     8:00 AM     Gravel Parking Lot in Weir     27 miles     WE2     33 miles     WE11
Sunday     8/30/2015     8:00 AM     Berry Springs Park     32 miles     B39     43 miles     B50

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminders

Mark July’s Goal Complete

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I reached my mileage goal for July riding the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route today. The ride was 35.6 miles long raising my July mileage to 839.86 putting me over my 834 mile goal. I got to start earlier than yesterday’s ride leaving home at 10:30 and returning home at 1:34. The next two days I can add to the total, possibly getting to 900 miles. I was doing a countdown in my head as I rode. This was the 5th time I rode this route this year. See the ride comparison summary at the bottom.

It was another hot day for biking. According to Eric Berger with the Houston Chronicle it was 100 degrees yesterday breaking the 692 day string of days not getting to 100. I am not sure where they measure this but Eric said it was at Bush Intercontinental Airport weather station. Looking at the weather page in the Chronicle it says the high yesterday was 98 at the same weather station. Maybe Eric has a secret one. My home weather station showed this when I finished the ride today:

7-29-2015 Home Weather Finish
I have two weather sensors. The 105.8 degrees is in the sun and the 99.1 degrees is in the shade. Humidity was very low today. The perspiration dried quickly while I was moving and when I stopped I didn’t have the dripping like other days. The wind was light and the sky had a few small clouds.

Riding under the Grand Parkway FM1314 overpass construction I saw the pavement machine is poised to install the overpass deck. Since there were no workers around I rode through the work zone rather than the detour lane to the left. I went past a giant crane truck and felt like a small ant beside it.

I stopped at the Stripes when I got to 24.7 miles for a break. It was enjoyable sitting under the pump canopy with a light breeze blowing and watching the traffic go by. After 30 minutes I was back biking the 11 miles home. Riding through Briar Tree minding my own business at a street intersection I heard a large dog barking and approaching the street I was on. He gave chase for a few feet but I was far enough past him he was interested enough to really chase me. I have seen this dog before but I am not sure where he stays. Most of the times I ride here I never see or hear him. I perked up after that.

[iframe https://connect.garmin.com/activity/embed/848514261 465px 500px] [iframe https://www.strava.com/activities/356762141/embed/d8a46ec8d4bb109198b5d0222b8743e7457b8656 590px 500px]

7-29-2015 Route Rides Comparison Summary YTD

Rides on today’s route YTD

Texas Bicycling News July 28th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

PARK TO PORT BIKE RIDE

www.hermannpark.org


Saturday, October 3, 2015 7 am
Bill Coats Bridge
The 2nd Annual Park to Port Bike Ride will be held Saturday, October 3, 2015. The 20-mile ride will start in Hermann Park and travel east along Brays Bayou to the Port, where there will be a turn-around celebration, sponsored by the Port of Houston Authority, with snacks, music and activities at Brady’s Landing. Riders will then return along the same path back to Hermann Park for a post-ride celebration where there will be music, food, drinks and more.
Rolling start at Bill Coats Bridge in Hermann Park from 7 – 9 a.m.
Register Today!
Early Bird Registration – $25 (Limited to 500 registrants. Ends July 31.)
Registration – $35 (August 1 – sold out)
All proceeds benefit Hermann Park Conservancy. …

City wants more hiking and biking, less traffic

By Jeremy T. Gerlach        www.mysanantonio.com


As San Antonio’s streets prepare for an estimated influx of 1.1 million people over the next 25 years, city officials have said they are counting on alternate forms of transit to alleviate the strain.
About 325,000 residents — out of about 2 million living in Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall counties — cycle at least once a month, according to a recent survey by the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, a …

Bike thief now has three of my bikes….

by mxshred        www.bikemojo.com

I had three bikes stolen from my garage early Saturday morning in south Austin. My garage is detached from the house but it’s in my backyard and they managed to pull this off without me, my wife, or my dog hearing anything. The garage was locked but the bikes weren’t locked up to anything inside the garage. I have three other bikes that weren’t taken. They didn’t touch anything else.
These MFers are pretty ballsy or maybe just stupid. I have a pretty gnarly looking pitbull. Huge head, cropped ears, looks like she does nothing but lift weights all day. Either they didn’t care about my dog or didn’t know about her. Makes me wonder how much research they did.
They are lucky I didn’t wake up. I still can’t believe my dog didn’t detect them as …

One Year later, no changes

by Daniel Day        bikesanantonio.blogspot.com


Last Year as I started this blog, I wrote about how two accidents that didn’t need to happen.  One was Jose Carlos Macy who died across from the HEB on W Commerce and Calaveras and another Chase White on Broadway right before Hildebrand.  One year late nothing has changed, these  stroads are still terrible places to ride your bicycle.
Jose Carlos Macy was riding home along the 5ft bicycle lane on W Commerce St when two people decided to turn W Commerce into a race way.  People are unaware that when they’re driving, the size of the lane that they’re traveling in will either encourage or discourage speeding and the wider the lane, the more accidents are likely to happen.  W commerce St has two 12 ft lanes and only 5ft for a bicycle lane on the left hand side while the right hand side is 9ft wide.(Image …

Judge Carroll remains in critical condition after weekend bike accident

by Titus Falodun        www.reporternews.com

ABILENE, Texas – Judge Sam Carroll remains in critical condition in Hendrick Medical Center’s intensive-care unit after a bicycle accident over the weekend, a family friend said Tuesday.
Carroll, 68, is the judge for Taylor County Court at Law No. 2.
He was riding in the Tour de Gap bike ride Saturday, when the accident occurred.
Joy Ellinger said Carroll …

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminders

Live Track Problem Solved Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

If I wanted to avoid the heat today I messed up. I got a late start leaving home at 12:05. I could have left 10 minutes earlier but I could not figure out how to get Live Track to work on my phone. Yesterday evening I downloaded an update for the the Garmin Connect program on my phone (a OnePlus 1). I read over the changes made but didn’t see anything in particular that I thought would be an issue. Each time I tried to start Live Track it said I needed to select a device. The only time I got this message prior to the update was when my phone and my Garmin 510 were not pairing over Bluetooth. I checked the Bluetooth settings, unpaired and repaired the phone and the 510. Still no Live Track. Finally I looked at the bottom of the Live Track screen on my phone and there was a device listed that had not been there before: Edge 510. I tapped it and Live Track finally connected. Here is the screen.

7-28-2015 Garmin Connect Live Track screen
After I saw this I remember reading in the changes that you could pair more than device and some other changes to support the new 520. Previously my wife said Live Track would work for awhile and then stop. Today I checked with her when I stopped in Huffman at the 25 mile mark. She could see where I was and the dot was pulsating. On previous rides when I would go into the store out of range from the 510 Live Track stopped and did not restart when I was back in range. That did not happen today so hopefully Garmin has Live Track fixed. My wife really liked it when it worked.

Today was the 2nd time I biked the “May Park Community Center – Huffman” route this year. I came up with this route for variety when I ride to the south and east. Today I rode 36.63 miles versus 39.83 miles the first time. A comparison summary of the two rides. I left out some streets at the beginning of the ride today because I was starting late and getting close to my goal for July.

7-28-2015 Route Rides Comparison Summary YTD

With today’s ride I am at 804.25 miles for July with only 30 miles left to reach my goal of 834 miles. With 3 potential biking days left I think I can reach my goal.

It was hot today but the humidity had to be lower because when I got to the Chevron in Huffman my wrist bands were not dripping in perspiration. Later when I got home and removed them I noticed they were almost dry. I took a 35 minute rest stop at the Chevron. This was 25 miles into the ride. While I was there a lady and young man were waiting on a deputy sheriff to arrive. I could overhear the lady tell the deputy the young man and his pickup ran into the back of her car. From where I was sitting I couldn’t see much damage but I could not see the back of the car. The deputy talked to them and passed out some paper forms. In the meantime the three wreckers that converged on the scene left empty handed (or hook) with no need for their services. After a few minutes everyone involved left. I gather myself up, refilled my water bottle and headed out for the 11 miles home. The weather screenshots while I was at the Chevron station.

I got home at 3:22 and my wife saw me pull up to the garage. She came to the door and told me the Live Track map showed reach Lake Houston and all the way home. I hope it keeps working this well for the Hotter’n Hell 100 in late August. I like my wife to know where I am on the ride amongst the 12,000 riders. No oterh bikers where out along the route today. They might have biked earlier or stayed inside out of the heat.

Riding west on FM1960 from Huffman I thought about the heat and how as long as I was moving it didn’t feel unbearable. I like hot weather so maybe that is a factor. It is a major reason why I like living here.

[iframe https://connect.garmin.com/activity/embed/847633762 465px 500px]  [iframe https://www.strava.com/activities/356142280/embed/12cbaad986cc941805d8d865107ed623561cac5c 590px 500px]