Texas Bicycling News June 23rd

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Texas: Bicycle Safety patrol officer hit by car in downtown Dallas

www.respondersafety.com

A member of the Downtown Safety Patrol in Dallas was hit by a car as he was riding his bike Friday night. Just before 9 p.m., a call came out for an officer hit at the intersection of Ross Avenue and Lamar Street. The person was a member of the Downtown Safety Patrol, one of 50 who often work on bikes outfitted in yellow polo shirts who assist Dallas police.
At the scene, the bike helmet belonging to the officer and a single shoe were in the northbound lanes of Lamar. Dallas police confirmed the …

The Columbia Tap Trail: Biking through change

By Mike Snyder        www.houstonchronicle.com


Neighborhoods in flux, as seen from the bike trail
The Columbia Tap Hike-and-Bike Trail extends from east of downtown to the Brays Bayou Trail near the Texas Medical Center. (For more photos, scroll through the slide show.)
A bicyclist riding the Columbia Tap Trail will notice an abrupt change after passing under Interstate 45 just west of the University of Houston. To the rear is EaDo, a stumbling toddler of a neighborhood emerging in the no-man’s land of warehouses and train tracks just east of the central business district. Ahead lies the venerable Third Ward, where mostly African-American people have been working, worshiping, partying, protesting and raising families for generations.
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Inaugural Summer Bike Rodeo – @TheMesquite

The Mesquite

A small group of children learned about bicycle safety June 12, at the Inaugural Summer Bike Rodeo given on campus. Campus police teamed up with officers from the University of Texas San Antonio, Alamo Colleges and Northside Independent School District to teach bike skills, safe riding techniques and bicycling laws.

Mountain biking, Greenbelt, Austin, TX

by Gordon Wood

Mountain biking around Barton springs, TX

Gordon Wood

2015 Mountain Biking at Lindsey Park in Tyler TX

Fractured Pixel

Mountain Biking – Cameron Park’s Kite Trail

Mike Schmoyer

Lubbock Mountain Bike Trail Ride With Massive Weeds

Steve Williams

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

https://twitter.com/GWCChuck/status/613315914260307968

Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminders

New Route Exploring to May Park

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I was trying to think of a different route to ride today. A place I drove to but biked to is the May Park and Community Center north of Huffman. I biked past the road that takes you there so today I looked up the area on Google Maps to look at the roads. I knew there was a road from the park to Hargrave High School on Huffman – Eastgate Road but I wasn’t sure of the name and where it went to get there. The goal was to ride 40 miles or more but since this was a first time for this group of streets and roads the mileage was a guess. To help I added some extra streets in the early part of the ride and that was a good idea. I ended up biking 39.83 miles so the goal was almost reached.

Before leaving on the ride I installed my Father’s Day present DT Swiss RWS skewer. Removing the old skewer I inserted the DT Swiss one and turned the lever clockwise like the instructions said. The left chain stay got in the way of tightening as tight as it needed to be. Looking at the instructions I couldn’t see how to engage the ratchet so I went to Youtube. There were a couple of videos showing how to tighten the lever. I needed to pull the lever away from bike and then turn it clockwise. Silly me, why wasn’t this clear? After watching the videos the instruction graphic made sense. I tightened the lever and checked the wheel position between the chain stays. It was in the center. At the Huffman Chevron rest stop I checked the wheel again and it was right where it was supposed to be. Success!!! To loosen pull the lever away from the bike and turn counter clockwise.

It was hot again today. I left home (11:27) earlier than yesterday but I was delayed trying to figure out the skewer. My home weather station had it in the upper 90’s at the start and 94 when I got back home at 3:00. The wind was from the ESE at 13 mph. This made the headwind tough and slowed me. Until about the 25 mile point it was about all headwind. Once I got back on FM1960 near the Liberty County line the wind was from the left rear quarter. I picked up my speed at that point and my average speed started going up. I never did get it very high (15.2 mph was the highest average speed) maintaining it at 15.1 mph until the 37.6 mile point.

The weather forecast calls for 94 degrees and partly cloudy. Just like today. I hope to start earlier then.

Huffman weather
Huffman weather

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Texas Bicycling News June 22nd

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Transportation officials planning a bike lane for SPI causeway

by Ron Whitlock        riograndeguardian.com

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, RGV – Pete Sepulveda, Jr., executive director of the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority, says it is “extremely doable” to build a dedicated bike lane on the South Padre Island Causeway.
Speaking to SPI economic development leaders on Tuesday, Sepulveda said he will make the case for such a project at CCRMA’s July board meeting. He pointed out that there was a lot of support for a bike lane to be built on the planned second causeway to SPI.
“We had a lot of bicyclists attend the (July, 2012, public) hearing and they requested a bike lane on the second access. We looked at that. It was cost-prohibitive. But, at our July board meeting I will present the board of directors with an option,” Sepulveda said.
“We have got a very, very, rough, preliminary study for adding a bike lane on the …

Bicycle Die-in at Houston City Hall

facebook.com


Tuesday, June 23 at 1:00pm in CDT
Houston City Hall
901 Bagby St, Houston, Texas 77002
In the past three weeks, there have been 4 bicycle related fatalities in Houston. Three of those deaths were at the hands of someone driving a car. The fourth one was caused by debris leading to a crash on the Elysian Bridge.
I am asking each and everyone one of you to please join me at City Hall on Tuesday – June 23, 2015 at 1pm. At 1:15pm we’ll lie down with our bicycles in a silent protest for 4 minutes.
Together we will show our solidarity and …

Texas 4000 Rides Into Laramie

By David Settle        kowb1290.com

The 2015 Texas 4000 ride will be stopping in Laramie Monday.
This is day 24 of their 70-day journey from Austin, TX to Anchorage, AK. Seventy-two riders are pedaling more than 4000 miles in the fight against cancer. They are divided into three separate rides in the Rockies, Sierra and Ozarks.
After 18-months of leadership development training, volunteering, fundraising, and cycling, riders are put to the test throughout their summer ride to Alaska. Along their journey, they will visit with cancer survivors, patients, caregivers, and communities to make educational …

FrankenBike to mark 10 years of free swap meets on Saturday

by Pam LeBlanc        fitness.blog.austin360.com


Halk up 10 years in the books for FrankenBike.
The free monthly event – part bike swap meet, part keg party and all bike-geek-o-rama – will celebrate its anniversary with a special event from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 27 at Independence Brewing Company, 3913 Todd Lane, Suite 607.
Besides the usual tabletops spread with cranksets and derailleurs, bike seats, handlebars and used cycling jerseys, FrankenBike officials will unveil their very first FrankenBike video, new websites and …

Ride Interview – Heart of Texas Recumbent Rally and Rodeo 2016 – Austin, Texas

www.wheelbrothers.com

It may be far off, but the HOT Recumbent Rally and Rodeo taking place in February 2016 has a limited number of spots, and they’re filling up fast! The original HOT mama Jane Knight tells all below and encourages participants to grab their spot for a one-of-a-kind experience!
Why join your ride?
The HOT (Heart of Texas Recumbent Rally and Rodeo) is a three day celebration for those who like to ride reclined! The Hot is NOT an “organized ride” where you arrive, wave to a few people, eat a couple of bananas and a cereal bar and go home.
The HOT consists of three days of being in the recumbent culture. There is a Laid Back Social for everyone to bring a “pot luck” snack and meet and greet the other Bent riders. During the Social, there will be trikes and bikes to test ride, as well as several neat “gizmos” that will …

Austin’s planned “Dutch” interesections

by Jack and Darron        bicycleaustin.info

A pro-Dutch cyclepath blogger has an interesting take on Austin’s plans for “Dutch” intersections.  [http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/20 … tejune2015](http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/20 … tejune2015)  It is part of a larger discussion.  Comments about the Austin plans can be found with scrolling down.

His comments on the Riverside and Lamar intersection should be taken with a grain of salt as his biggest complaint is “In this example there is no safe way of exiting the junction to head East or North”.  He assumes up is North but it is actually West, so he says there is no way of heading West on Riverside or North on Lamar, which is true but that is not where the majority of the cycle traffic would be here.  Northbound traffic is much more likely to take the pedestrian/cycle bridge and westbound traffic is more likely to take the hike and bike trail under Lamar (why would you wait at the light if you can just go under …

Houston deserves better: get involved with the Houston Bike Plan

BikeHouston


The City of Houston is making a new Houston Bike Plan. Get involved, go to a public meeting or give your opinion online. Go to www.HoustonBikePlan.org. Houston deserves better. Also consider to become a member of BikeHouston and fight together for cyclists’ rights. Go visit www.BikeHouston.org and become a member.
There are two public meetings coming up:
Tuesday June 23rd at Baker-Ripley Neighborhood Center, 6500 Rookin, Houston, TX 77074. Meeting  starts at 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Look at the Facebook event page for the latest update.
Tuesday June 30th at …

Handlebar Cyclery Group Ride – 37 Miles in Fulshear

Saturday, Jul 4, 2015, 7:00 AM

Handlebar Cyclery
26440 Fm 1093 Rd Ste A100 Richmond, TX

3 SH!FT starters Went

Let’s go meet up with Handlebar Cyclery. It’s a great shop right on the edge of Houston’s best cycling locale. They have a few different speeds. I think most of us (the usual group that actually shows up lol) will be fine in the B Group… if they stay at the posted speed. If anyone wants to jump on with the faster group they are welcome to. We can…

Check out this Meetup →

Pearland Ride – 43 miles – Most Popular Route

Sunday, Jun 28, 2015, 7:45 AM

James’s House
Cr 89 Pearland, TX

2 SH!FT starters Went

Let’s ride Pearland on Sunday morning. Rollout at 8am.We will take a break at CR99 and Hwy 6 at a gas station at mile #15.We will take another break at the gas station in Brookside Village at mile #35.Take a look at the route. Let me know if you want changes.Ice cold Dos Equis at the finish line.https://www.strava.com/routes/2643243

Check out this Meetup →

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets About Texas Bicycling

https://twitter.com/thejurgy/status/612972138346246144

Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminders

Through the Construction Zone

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Today’s route is one I have been avoiding since January 28th of this year, the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route. The last time rode to the Grand Parkway FM1314 construction I noticed that traffic was not heavy coming from the west and the closed lanes looked like they only had some construction materials in the pavement. This emboldened me to try this route again today after almost 5 months. The ride totaled 37.7 miles, about 2 miles more than the last time partly because I wasn’t paying attention at the start and rode down the wrong street. Realizing my mistake I turned around and got back on the route.

My plan was to wait for a break in the traffic and ride on narrow lane past the construction. Approaching the area I rode to the right of the plastic barrels marking the left side of the closed lanes. When I got to the decision spot of riding through the work zone or the narrow lane I had to take the narrow lane because a front end loader was moving things around where I would need to ride. If the front end loader had not been there it would be an easy ride past the overpass construction. The narrow lane was about 700 feet long to get past the concrete barriers and then I could move right into the east side of the construction and the plastic barrels. I waited until there was a break in traffic and started riding as fast as I could. About half way through a car caught up with me but slowed until I got past the barrier and moved behind the barrels. All went well. I don’t know if I will ride this route again soon but I think I can get through the work zone.

I started later than usual (12:04) because of a dermatologist appointment. With all of the outside riding I think it is important to get checkups every 6 months. Sun screen and clothing only protect so much. With this later start it had time to heat up to 92 degrees, 106 heat index and 62% humidity (my home weather station). At first I thought this would be hot but riding with the wind moving over me and some tree shade off and on for the first 5 miles it wasn’t so hot. I normally don’t mind the heat but something about starting at noon made it seem hotter than it turned out to feel.

With the heat I made a stop at the Timewise station in New Caney for ice and water. This would need to go until I got the either the Shell station at Gene Campbell road and FM1314 or the Stripes station at Valley Ranch and FM1314. Riding northwest on FM1485 to Gene Campbell Road was uneventful with the wind not slowing me down. Once I turned west onto Gene Campbell Road the wind was more of a hindrance but I still kept a good pace. My average speed was up to 15.0 mph and by the time I got to FM1314 it was 15.1 mph. I skipped the Shell station and rolled onto the construction zone and then the Stripes station. The wind was now a headwind and I struggled to keep my speed at 17 mph or above. Even with this I did manage to improve my average speed to 15.2 mph by the time I got to Stripes.

Stripes was 26.5 miles into the ride so I took a break. The ice machine above the Gatorade fountain dispenser was broke but the next dispenser was working. I figured the Gatorade would come out warm so I got extra ice in the cup. It was warm the extra ice cooled it down. Sitting outside in the shade the breeze that was a problem getting there was now a cooling one. After a 30 minute or so rest I got back on the Stradalli but waited in the shade until a couple of cars pulled up to the light to cross FM1314 because me and the bike will not trip it. Earlier at the Gene Campbell FM1314 intersection the light wouldn’t trip even with a car in front of me and an 18 wheeler behind me. After 3 or 4 cycles for the east bound left turn traffic it finally tripped for us.The car in front of me must not have been in the electronic eye field and the truck behind me was not in it either. I moved closer to the car a couple of times and the 18 wheeler moved too. That might’ve caused it to change.

The ride home from Stripes was about 11 miles on mostly back roads and streets. It has been awhile since I rode them in this direction. I was back home at 3:25. The temperature was 95 degrees, 58% humidity, 111 heat index. wind was from the SSW at 4 mph.

The star washer on the rear axle worked. I did need to adjust the tightness by another quarter turn three rides ago  but since then the wheel is in the center of the chain stays and not slipping sideways. My Father’s Day present DT Swiss RWS skewer arrived Saturday and is waiting to be placed into service.

Tomorrow’s weather looks to be a repeat of today. I should start earlier than today.

Porter weather at Stripes
Porter weather at Stripes

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