After a day off I was back biking today. I drove to New Caney and parked at Brookshire Brothers. The weather was good for riding: 82 degrees light wind and partly cloudy sky. I unloaded the Stradalli and rolled out of the parking at 12:35 riding the “New Caney – Conroe – New Caney” route. I finished at 3:34 riding 40.0 miles averaging 16.4 mph. The higher than normal average speed made for a quick ride with time moving of 2:24:57. Other than traffic lights I only made one rest stop at the Valero Corner Store at Loop 336 and FM1314.
Traffic was what I would call normal on the ride over good asphalt roads. The one section of concrete pavement was from SH 242 to Gene Campbell Road. Debris on the shoulders wasn’t too bad. The Continental Gatorskin tires are doing their job with no flats since I installed them 1,000 miles ago. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I switched to the new tires.
I stopped at the Valero around the 21.6 mile point. I rested and ate a couple of snacks and some Gatorade. I needed the fuel for the remaining 19 miles back to New Caney. While I was eating a man sitting in a white diesel pickup stuck his head out the window to ask if that was a rear view mirror on my helmet. He asked if it kept people from running into me. I replied that it didn’t stop them but I might see if they were headed my way.
On Wednesday’s ride the first love bugs appeared. They were mostly on Old Atascocita Road east of FM2100 with a few at the Huffman Chevron when I stopped there. Today there were a few more when I stopped at the Valero store. I hope they don’t get too numerous. They don’t bite but they are annoying when riding through a swarm of them. All of the rain and warming temperature is probably bringing them out.
I was looking for wildflowers today and there were some but not as many as I expected. Most of them were along SH 242.
Happy to report no dog sprints today.
Weather at the start of the ride
Weather when I stopped at the Valero Loop 336 and FM1314
Each spring, approximately 20 servicemen and women wounded in the global war on terror join President George W. Bush for a 100-kilometer mountain bike ride. Part of the Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative, the W100K highlights the bravery and sacrifice of warriors and recognizes organizations that support America’s veterans.
by Julie Fancher      thescoopblog.dallasnews.com
CRAWFORD- Seventeen wounded veterans joined former President George W. Bush at his Central Texas ranch Thursday morning for the first day of his institute’s annual 100-kilometer bike ride.
The fifth annual Warrior 100K, which is part of the George W. Bush Institute’s military service initiative, is a three-day bike ride to honor service members injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Before setting off on the 12-mile ride around the president’s ranch, Bush shook hands …
Former President George W. Bush will embark Thursday on a 100-kilometer, three-day bike ride with approximately 20 veterans wounded in the global war on terrorism as part of an annual event aimed at highlighting the “bravery and sacrifice of warriors.â€Â
“I’ll be riding across the deserts of Texas with wounded warriors to show the unbelievable character of our men and women in uniform…it’s a ride to herald people who were dealt a severe blow and said, ‘I’m not going to let it tear me down.’†Bush said in a …
Art Whiting made it to Oklahoma City on the tandem bicycle with local media on hand from KFOR NewsChannel 4, as Jessi’s Ride made it to the
10th state capital on the solo trek to spread cancer awareness. Whiting stated on the Jessi’s Ride Facebook page that Oklahoma City was
the best arival yet. Media, friends, family, and new people came out to support his solo effort to remember those lost to cancer or those who have lived with the disease or survived it.
Leaving Oklahoma City, it was a run south to Texas and Austin for the 11th leg of the cancer awareness ride. Weather started to play a factor in the ride and Whiting picked up some time, arriving ahead of schedule and a thunderstorm in the Lone Star State capitol. He was able to visit and tour the Livestrong headquarters while on his way to Austin.
After three days, Whiting rolled out of Austin headed towards New Mexico. He found himself the lone rider heading out of town while …
By Daniel Cernero, Sentinel Sports Editor      www.forthoodsentinel.com
The Ride 2 Recovery Texas Challenge rolled through Fort Hood April 22 with hundreds of Soldiers and civilians lining the route to cheer on the 200-plus riders.
To start Day 4 of the ride, the group departed from III Corps Headquarters before continuing some 70-plus miles to Waco.
“This is our seventh annual visit to the Great Place,†John Wordin, creator of Ride 2 Recovery, said during the brief ceremony. “We really appreciate all of you coming out and cheering us on.â€Â
In total, the 2015 Texas Challenge covers more than 500 miles of the Lone Star State, taking riders on a journey from Houston, through College Station to Georgetown, up to Killeen and …
By Katherine Cabaniss      www.yourhoustonnews.com
Recently, in light of the MS150 race and the onset of spring bicycle riding, I wrote about Texas bicycle laws. The column highlighted the rules that apply to cyclists on our Texas streets, roads, and highways. The article reminded bicycle riders that they are subject to the same traffic laws as motorists, such as stopping at stop signs and signaling lane changes.
Never have I written a column that generated so many emails! I heard from several bicycle enthusiasts who had thoughtful comments and remarks.
The previous column was written about bicycle safety from the perspective of the rider. Less emphasized were the responsibilities of motor vehicle drivers when bicycles are on the road. To those readers and riders who …
By MARCIA DAVIS Managing editor      www.dailytribune.net
The thin blue line stretched across Texas Wednesday in honor of a fallen Titus County peace officer.
Eight San Antonio police officers with the Remember the Fallen Texas Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Bike Trek honored the late Cleve Johnson, Titus County constable who died in a car crash last August.
The officers left San Antonio on bicycles April 22, traveling through the state honoring fallen comrades on their way to the state memorial ceremonies for fallen peace officers in Austin May 2-5.
The SAPD officers led an official memorial ceremony for Johnson Wednesday in the Justice Center courtroom – the courtroom in which Johnson spent so much time serving as bailiff. The ceremonies included presentations to the Johnson family: Johnson’s …
Clay Thorp | Herald staff writer      kdhnews.com
In May 2014, Officer Charles “Chuck†Dinwiddie was serving a no-knock narcotics search warrant when he was shot along with three other officers on the Killeen Police Department’s SWAT team.
After fighting for his life for two days, Dinwiddie succumbed to his wounds May 11, becoming the second KPD officer to die in the line of duty in less than a year.
On Thursday morning, friends, family and fellow officers gathered at Killeen’s police headquarters to honor Dinwiddie, who spent about 15 years on Killeen’s SWAT team. Officers riding in the “We Remember†memorial bicycle trek across Texas are riding in honor of Dinwiddie and presented his family with a …
Cyclists with the “We Remember†Memorial Bicycle Trek Across Texas ride into Elmendorf April 22, where they stopped to honor former police Chief Michael Pimentel, who was killed in the line of duty in August 2014.
During the ceremony, a member of the “We Remember†Memorial Bicycle Trek Across Texas team presented a cross to Patricia Gonzales and …
… The kick off for the three day event will be the annual ‘Ride for the Fallen†on Saturday, May 2. On Sunday, May 3, a candlelight vigil and balloon release will be held on the Capitol grounds. On Monday, May 4, the statewide memorial service will be held on the Capitol’s south steps starting at 11 a.m.
After attending the National Police Week in Washington, D.C. last year, Chief Fleming’s daughter, Maegan Fleming, asked Steven Rutherford of the Metroplex COPS Cycling Team about starting a Texas ride in memory of her father.
“I had asked Steve if they did a bike ride in Austin and he …
by Pam LeBlanc      fitness.blog.austin360.com
Bike Month begins tomorrow, and the calendar is packed. (Free breakfast! A blessing of the bikes! Group rides and parties!)
For a full schedule, go here.
Highlights?
The Rally for Respect kicks things off at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Texas State Capitol. Please Be Kind to Cyclists, CapMetro, Austin Police and more unveil a fleet of buses bearing banners that remind people about the Safe Passing ordinance and encourage cyclists to be VIP – visible, in the …
If you would like more local outdoor recreation opportunities in Cedar Park using existing funds and properties this is your chance to have a say in how things are done.
Voting of Cedar Park City Council is happening now. A couple of the existing council members were appointed and not voted in. A couple of them are also not very trail friendly. Maria Talamo is running for Place 5. She has been on numerous boards and committees regarding the development of Cedar Park including the 4B Board and the Parks Board and is very trail / bike friendly. She is aware of and supports our bike park / trail system project. She championed the Skate Park, and was prepared to bring forward the Mountain Bike Park for …
BELL COUNTY – The “We Remember“ Memorial Bicycle Trek Across Texas riders, who ride in honor of fallen officers each year, made a couple stops in Bell County Thursday.
The Memorial Trek started in 1993, and the riders hope to show “the families of Texas’ fallen officers that their loved one will always be remembered and honored by all law enforcement officers.”
They ride to each city that lost an officer the previous year, and hold …
Dozens of bicyclists were escorted by the Killeen Police Department’s SWAT Team Thursday to local headquarters for a special ceremony that honored a fallen police officer.
Detective Charles “Chuck” Dinwiddie died days after he was shot, while officers served a no-knock search warrant on May 9, 2014 in Killeen.
Riders with the “We Remember” Memorial Bicycle Trek Across Texas presented a plaque, a cross, and a flag to Dinwiddie’s family in front of …
Throughout the United States, May is Bike Month! Get ready, we have a ton of activities in store for Houston. The First Thursday at Mid Main is our second biggest event of the year and we are shooting for 1000 attendees with live music, food, and friendly competition. Challenge your friend to a race at Gold Sprints and grab some raffle tickets for a chance to win a new Fat-Bike. We are also organizing a series of Bike to Work activities and have been working with the …
Saturday is gonna be awesome! Let’s take a ride downtown to Mellow Johnny’s and have a Mexican coke! I think the route is around 60 miles and always leaves me wiped out. Depart …
Five government entities are coming together to transform an abandoned railroad into a hike and bike trail.
For several years the Northeast Texas Regional Mobility Authority has been interested in purchasing the tract of land that used to connect Whitehouse and Troup by rail, the transportation authority’s interim Director Everett Owen said.
The actual purchase of the 8.2-acre tract was made possible through a $400,000 grant from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The city of Tyler, Tyler Economic Development Council, Troup Community Development Corporation, Smith County and NET RMA each put in $25,000 to …
GAINESVILLE, Tx – Maegan Fleming is getting ready for the ride of her life this weekend to honor her dad.
She’s prepping for a 150 mile bicycle ride from Houston to Austin, May 2nd. She helped create the ride as a tribute to her father, late Gainesville Police Chief Steven Fleming and other officers who died in the line of duty.
“I’m really honored to be able to ride for such great men and also for all the fallen officers just to be riding for all of them,” Maegan said.
This is the first year for the Texas Peace Officer’s Memorial Ride, which …
JC Jones | Herald staff writer      kdhnews.com
Last year Maj. Jan Rose came to Fort Hood’s Warrior Transition Unit after incurring a serious illness while deployed, and found she had a lot of free time on her hands during recovery.
To fill the time, she took up biking in the fall.
Though she’d only ridden as much as 25 miles at a time, Rose found herself pedaling from Houston to Fort Worth last week in the Ride 2 Recovery Texas Challenge, alongside nearly 200 other veterans who have …
Saturday, May 2
60 is the new 40-8:00 am
B.I..G. Valley Ride-8:30 am
Wednesday, May 6
Wednesday Night Ride-5:30 pm
Thursday, May 7
Thursday Night Rollers (Ninja Ride)-5:45 pm
Saturday, May 9
A Ride for Mom-9:00 am
Wednesday, May 13
Wednesday Night Ride-5:30 pm
Thursday, May 14
Thursday Night Rollers (Ninja Ride)-5:45 pm
Wednesday, May 20
Wednesday Night Ride-5:30 pm
Thursday, May 21
Thursday Night Rollers (Ninja Ride)-5:45 pm
Half of the starting field in the 60+ race at Hammerfest this year was VC; Frank Kurzawa, Mike Haney, Joe Haas and John Bartle. Could we prevail over the other four riders on three different teams? Our competition proved to be Charlie Johnson and Val Lincecum of Southwest Cycling Club Racing (SWCC).
The Men’s 60+ race was combined with both the Women’s Open and the Women 3/4 races, so it was a cozy pack of about 20, of mostly Austin riders, that set out on the Saturday morning hill climb stage in a light wind. The pace was steady, with each group respecting the strategic moves of the other group; that is, until the route got seriously steeper and the lone Tulsa Wheel’man’ woman attacked. Frank went with her and Charlie Johnson and John Bartle settled in with three ATC women chasers who kept the …
By Gordon Hodge      www.crazyguyonabike.com
Day 13 Huntsville, TX to near North Zulch,TX: Leaving the ST, heading NW, winds NW
Tuesday April 28, 2015, 53 miles (85 km) – Total so far: 501 miles (806 km)
I have decided to head back toward home. I am not quitting my tour as much I would like to keep going to Florida. This was supposed to be a 1-2 week bike about and I have done. I am loving the tour so far and it is hard to turn homeward. There is still a few days of roads to explore, though most of these are areas I have been in my earlier years. The area should appear quite different at 10 or less mph. The weather is forecast for NW winds and cooler for next several days.
I left the comforts of hotel in Huntsville at 0830. Skies were temps in the low 50’s, overcast and misty. I donned my windbreaker and soon had to put on rain jacket. Legs were fine, so didn’t wear rain pants. Getting out of Huntsville I made a wrong turn! I have driven this route 100 times 40 years ago and really stupid for making a wrong turn here. I noticed something wrong as I was surprised to have a nice shoulder and down wind ride. 2.5 miles later I figured out why at the next intersection. So I backtracked the 2.5 back to hwy 75 north toward Madisonville. 5 mile mistakes are no fun for cyclists. The road was way worse than I expected. There is now a lot of commercial traffic on the road with heavy traffic and 1-2 feet of crumbling shoulder. I found my first FM road west to get off this planned route. I took FM 1696 to Bedias and then …
The first two sections of the bicycle and pedestrian bridge on the southbound side of MoPac south of Duval Road are now in place. Once more piece to go.
Good to see some more connectivity here. This is evidence that cycling advocacy is working slowly and surely. Projects like these are on very large timescales and it takes commitment from all groups that their voices be heard even if the pay off is 10+ years away. These HOV lanes were first proposed in 1994, CAMPO took it over in 2002, first public open houses were held in Oct 2011, by the second open house meetings in December the cycling community was …
Last summer, when Austin cyclist Heather “Frankie†Frankovis got into an accident on the way to the Thursday Night Social Ride, she ran into more than just an errant jogger: she ran into the problem that, unless you hit or are hit by a motor vehicle in Austin, there’s little way to get justice, never mind insurance coverage.
At the time, according to the Austin Chronicle’s full write-up “When’s a Crash Not a Crash?“, “Officer Griffin didn’t initially complete a crash report ‘since the incident was not one that would normally require that an incident report be written: The officer responded to a call to assist EMS; however, no criminal offense had been committed. I did however, request that a report be written in this instance.’â€
Now, thanks to the persistence of Frankovis and attorney Lenore Shefman, things are set to change.
Due to go into effect this Friday, on May 1st, APD will …
A Bicycle’s Point of View      bicyclepointofview.blogspot.com
Wanting to sell your nice lugged, steel road bike? You may want to wait a couple of years.
There is no market indicator for the used bike market. Like all unofficial, unregulated cash in hand markets there is no “official” way for tracking improvement or decline of sales, especially when the sellers are people unloading their second-hand goods on others. However, as somebody who actually pays attention to these things, I have picked up on a market trend which will probably benefit consumers more than anyone else in determining what their next bike purchase will be.
If you, like me are a die hard vintage bike collector, now is not the time to keep adding old bikes to your collection. If anything, now is the time to start letting go of whatever old bikes you’re able to, probably at …
After watching stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie this morning I went out ot the garage to check on the tire pressure on the Stradalli. The tires felt firm but the tire gauge showed about 60 psi. This might explain a little on my inability to ride faster in some situations. I hooked up the tire pump and inflated the tires to 110 psi.
It was chilly overnight with 52 degrees when I got to see my weather station around 7:45. This could be the last of the chilly weather until fall, I hope. I ate breakfast and read the paper while watching the replay of the Tour of Turkey. After breakfast I then switched to watching the Tour de Romandie to wait for the temperature to warm up enough to ride. I also messed with my cell phone installing an OS update. I will need to learn more about the OS changes. I didn’t realize until I stopped during the ride that I did not turn on data on the phone and the Garmin Live Track wasn’t working.
I got out of the driveway at 1:14 headed for a route I haven’t been on since the Humble Lions Club Ride back in February. That ride wasn’t exactly the same as the Lions ride but the majority of it was. I named today’s route “Kingwood – Crosby – Kingwood”. Since I didn’t bike yesterday (overcast sky, mid 60’s just didn’t light my riding fire) I wanted to get a long ride in to end April. I can’t ride tomorrow because we are going to the Houston Medical Center for my wife’s cancer treatment.
The route turned out to be 48.42 miles long. Weather was nice but it could’ve been warmer. My home weather station was 79 when I left and 72 when I got back home at 5:11. The wind had a chill to it and when the sun went behind the clouds it was cooler than I prefer. I checked the weather in Crosby and the wind showed to be calm but I know different. When I got home I checked the airport weather and the wind was 12 mph with 24 mph gusts. No wonder it was hard to pedal into the NNW wind.
I haven’t been on some of the roads since February and then I didn’t have any dog problems but today was different. The first dog sprint was at the Louie Road and Crosby – Eastgate Road intersection. Out of some high grass a large Doberman came running towards me with teeth bared and lots of barking. This caught be by surprise because of the grass and trees along a fence across the road. Fortunately the right turn put the wind at my back and I was able to increase my speed quickly and get some distance between me and the dog. Surprisingly the dog stopped at edge of a driveway coming out that was in his path. I guess maybe he was guarding his property and that is where it ended. With the wind at my back I rode south on Crosby – Eastgate to a stop sign at Lord Road. I had a choice to go right or left. I chose right but should’ve went left. The house on the right side of Lord Road had a nice high fence but the two gates were open. I could see two large dogs, one a German Shepherd, moving across the yard inside the fence in the direction I was going. The German Shepherd headed for the second gate and the other stayed inside the fence. I turned on the speed to out run the German Shepherd but he was fast. He ran in the grass beside the road just behind me. I could move to the left very far because a pickup truck was coming towards me. When the truck was almost to me the German Shepherd stopped running and turned back. I am not sure if he was tired or the pickup played a part or if his property protection ended. He didn’t bark much, just enough to let me know he was still there. Teeth were flashing too.
Not counting the dogs, I was able to ride at a strong pace today. I think the increased tire pressure helped. I built up my average speed to 16.3 mph by the time I reached Crosby at around 29 miles into the ride. At that point I started biking into the wind. It turned out that from the 29 mile point until I got home 19 miles later I rode into the wind. I pedaled strong and managed to keep my average speed from falling too far and not drop as much as I thought it would. By the end of the ride it was 15.5 mph.
The rest stop at the Huffman Chevron was needed. The legs and stomach both cried for some relief. I ate and drank while my legs regrouped. After a bout 25 minutes I was back on the bike headed home. I saw two other bikers during this stretch, one on FM1960 east of Lake Houston and the other on Kings River Drive. My body was glad when I reached home.
I did learn that FM2100 is busy in Crosby. The recently completed railroad overpass doesn’t have much of a shoulder and I wasn’t looking forward to biking up over it. Fortunately they left the old street along side the overpass which I rode. No traffic and no hill. On the other end of the overpass I took a quick break to check the traffic flow before riding on the 4 ft. shoulder to Huffman. Traffic was not a problem there.
