Texas Bicycling News Digest February 7th

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Monthly Ride at River Bend!

GHORBA


Event category: Rides
Trail: River Bend
Saturday, February 21, 2015 – 10:00am
Join us for our monthly mountain bike ride!
This months ride: River Bend trails in Sugarland!
Check out their Facebook page under
Sugarland MTB Trails!
See you at 10am!

The Bandits: My Cycle Around The World

by Rudy Pospisil        blogs.theprovince.com


Cycling halfway around the Earth on your bike and you’ll see some amazing things.
When I’m not working as a firefighter, I take my vacation and head out on another leg of my quest to cycle all the way around the globe, raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society as I go.
Currently, I just crossed Thailand. I’ve been to 14 countries already, and next year I’ll head to India and Australia.
It takes a lot of planning – especially on desolate stretches of road.
desert road
I hit one  very desolate stretch recently while crossing west Texas. I cycled through the desert areas on lonely side roads and  noticed buzzards following me. I always …

Cycling race officials often underappreciated

by Bill Cullins        www.gosanangelo.com

When you pin on a race number and compete in a bike race sanctioned by USA Cycling, one of the differences you’ll see compared with nonsanctioned events is that all sanctioned races are managed by officials licensed by USA Cycling.
These race officials ensure that the rules and regulations of USA Cycling are followed by performing various tasks that include managing the start and finish, scoring, ensuring compliance with racing rules and — most importantly — making sure that events are …

Barton Creek Greenbelt 360 Entrance (Slow Intermediate Level Main Trail)

Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015, 4:00 PM

Barton Creek Greenbelt – 360 Access
3755 S Capital of Texas Hwy. Austin, TX

6 Mountain Bikers Went

The trail is more technical than Walnut creek. there are more rocks, drops, and roots, so it will wear you down faster.   The greenbelt offers many, many, many miles of fun.  I will try to stick to the main trail and learn trails as I go. I would recommend knee and elbow pads to accompany your helmet.If anyone is interested in exploring new trail…

Check out this Meetup →

Mad Duck Cyclery


Grapevine Chain Gang Rollin’ big from the Might Duck!

Day 5 – Sheen Ranch: Somewhere on the edge of Hill Country

By Alan Guo, Beaumont to San Francisco (Feb 2015)        www.crazyguyonabike.com

Saturday February 7, 2015
(Photos)
Today was supposed to have been an easy day, but it did not feel that way. The gps took me down 5 miles down a dead end dirt path, there were more of those rolling hills, and there was that same bitching headwind. I’m starting to see a pattern, so I decided to search up something I had thought about pre-tour, but never actually did – look at the wind patterns!
I should’ve gone west to east, but too late to change that now. I’m going to abandon any plans to visit Gila and Tonto National Parks, in order to avoid higher headwinds, and an extra 12-15k ft of climbing. Perhaps I will visit these places later on a motorcycle trip, but not this time. I will also probably need to take a day off here and there, to let my legs, my butt and the …

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Dog Sprint on Tram Road Heats Up Bike Ride

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My first thought was to ride my Atascocita – Walden – Huffman route today but then I remembered today is the Bridgefest on W. Lake Houston Parkway around the YMCA. This is a running event and traffic is re-routed for several hours. Yesterday I almost registered for the Pedaling the Prairie Ride in Hempstead. I hesitated because the last minute registration fee was $45 and the weather looked like it was going to be chilly at the start; maybe 40 degrees. My decision looked good this morning when I checked at 7:45 and the temperature at my house was 38. This is just too cold for me.

I decided to ride north on a route to Splendora and back through Roman Forest. The difference was the return leg home had to be on Loop 494 to get around the Grand Parkway construction. I haven’t biked Loop 494 going south from New Caney so I wasn’t sure what the shoulder would be like. There were some sections without a shoulder when a left turn lane was there. A few other spots had a buildup of gravel and dirt from construction traffic. Overall I think I will not ride south on Loop 494. The north bound shoulder is much better.

Riding north to Splendora was not hard with the tailwind from the south. The sun was out at the start but began to fade as I neared Splendora. I was not looking forward to the ride south without the sun to warm me up and offset the chilly wind. I rode east of Splendora on 2090 to Tram Road without too much trouble from the wind. Turning right onto Tram Road the wind hit me and my speed dropped from 17 to 18 mph to below 15 mph. I put my head down and pedaled toward Roman Forest. I have not had any dog sprints on Tram Road before but today I did. Around the 21 mile point I could a couple of dogs ahead in a yard on the right. From a distance they looked they were tied up but as I got near the driveway one dog wasn’t tied and he set out to me at a fast run. I sped up as much as the headwind would allow but the dog caught up with me and ran along side and then slightly ahead of me. My fear was he would veer in front of me and I would hit him so I shouted at him and surprisingly he stopped and I rode off. That took about all of the extra effort I had and my speed dropped to 11 or 12 mph until I got to Roman forest Blvd and turned to the west. I was able to ride a little faster with the wind hitting my left side all the way to US59.

Riding south on the US59 service road was a bear with the chilly headwind trying to slow me to a crawl. I was able to ride at 12 or 13 mph and I was glad when I reached FM1485 to turn left back to Loop 494. Before going to 494 I stopped at the gas station on the corner to refill my waterbottle and adjust my leg warmers. Other than traffic lights this was my only stop on the 40.67 mile long ride. I was in a hurry to get back home out of the chilly wind and if I stopped too long I would cool off and get chilled.

Fortunately the traffic on Loop 494 southbound was much lighter than when I was going north. This helped me when I rode around the missing shoulder section and the dirt filled ones. I planned to ride 494 to FM1314 but turned onto the street to Walmart to avoid some traffic on FM1314. I stilled had to wait for several traffic light cycles to under US59 and then onto the south service road. Normally I ride the south service road to Kingwood Drive but today I turned left on Northpark Drive to get home a little sooner. I knew I was going to ride 40+ miles which is the longest ride this year. After riding for 2 hour and 48 minutes I got back home at 2:58, ready to get warm.

I tried a new pair of leg warmers on the ride. They are nice and warm but they did not stay up over my shorts. I stopped 3 or 4 times to pull them up. The chilly wind let me know when they got low. Maybe they will do better on another pair of shorts. I wore a long sleeve jersey and jacket but I could’ve used another jersey when I was riding into the wind with the cloudy sky.

My year to date mileage finally got over 200 miles coming in at 212.32 miles. February is up to 70.82 miles.

Sunday’s weather could be in the mid 70’s and overcast. I plan on riding. Monday through Wednesday could be clear and in the low 70’s. More ride opportunities. I may get a chance to reach my 369 mile goal for February. The Humble Lions Club ride is Saturday and I plan on riding if the weather cooperates. The forecast is clear with a high of 64. I may have to ride below my temperature tolerance level.

Link to RideWithGPS map, metrics and charts.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/692100030 470px 520px]

Texas Bicycling News Digest February 6th

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Reader’s Rides: Joshua is back with Custom Hand Made Carbon Saddles out of Texas

by Zach Overholt        www.bikerumor.com


At first, when Joshua Clark sent in photos of his custom Orbea Alma for our Reader’s Rides segment the Di2 hacks caught our attention. After reading through the specs and looking at the pictures however, it was the handmade carbon components that really piqued our attention. Like many incredibly talented people within the bike industry, it would appear that Joshua is incredibly modest simply pointing out that, oh yeah, I built those carbon parts too. As if that’s something every bike mechanic does in their spare time.
It wasn’t long before Joshua was sending us new photos of a few of the different saddles he’s built over the past two years. When he’s not turning wrenches in his bike shop, Joshua is …

Riders get your wheels turning in Texas state parks

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department        www.yourhoustonnews.com

AUSTIN— February brings visitors a variety of biking opportunities in Texas state parks.
Hundreds of miles of dirt, caliche, crushed granite and paved bike trails wind and climb through Texas state parks, offering safe and scenic rides for everyone, no matter their skill level. February marks an ideal time to pack up your bike and hit the trails, whether that means joining a scheduled ride, tackling an ambitious biking event or simply taking a self-guided two-wheeled journey with family and friends.
Skill ratings from beginner to intermediate to difficult, as well as mileage information and trail descriptions, can be found on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Biking activity page. Cyclists can also …

Using Smartphones to Collect Bicycle Travel Data in Texas

texashistory.unt.edu


Description:
This report provides information on the belief that smartphones could prove to be an effective tool for collecting bicycle travel data and that the information could be used for aiding decision making as to what types of facilities users prefer and guiding decisions about future facilities. …

Pflugerville Commission Meeting – City Council Chambers

Thursday, Feb 19, 2015, 7:00 PM

City of Pflugerville
100 E Main St Suite 500 Pflugerville, TX

10 Mountain Bikers Went

Join Bike lovers to meet with the City of Pflugerville in order to express joint interest in new trails. ARR sent a letter asking the City to allow ARR to build New Trails throughout the Green Belt in Pflugerville. We now need Pflugerville Residents as well as Trail Builders to attend the Thursday Feb. 19th at 7 pm Commission Meeting City Council C…

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Day 3 – Austin!: I like this town    Thursday February 5, 2015

By Alan Guo, Beaumont to San Francisco (Feb 2015)        www.crazyguyonabike.com

Coming from living in flat areas for as long as I’ve been biking, I’m starting to realize how much of a factor rolling hills play, especially with 25 extra pounds of gear. The weather was cold and overcast, with a consistent crosswind from the north, which at times, turned into a headwind. But when I got to Austin, it was all forgotten. The place is pretty sweet. I visited the state capitol and the UT campus. I would’ve gone to Zilker Park, but it was getting late, and the sun wasn’t shining. Didn’t get wet today. Warmshower is plentiful in Austin. I am staying with John, who has two big dogs and two cats. He has toured all over Texas, and has provided a lot of good advice.
West Texas is going to be a challenge. Everyone who told me about West Texas says …

DATES Mesquite Ride

Dallas Area Tandem Enthusiasts

When: Mar 01, 2015 09:15 AM
Where: Lowe’s at Barnes Bridge – Mesquite, TX – Mesquite
Category: DATES ride
Description
Let’s get your winter legs ready for spring! Scott and Mindy Mashburn will lead a ride through Mesquite and Sunnyvale on Sunday, March 1st. There will be two routes of approximately 37 and 55 miles. Meet in the Lowe’s parking lot on I-30 and Galloway at 9 AM for a 9:15 departure.  Additional details to follow. …

Spring Break Event: ¡Paletas y Bicicletas!

Bike Friendly Oak Cliff

Bike Friendly Oak Cliff announces a new Spring Break event:

First middle-schoolers join mountain bike team

by Rachel Rice        www.statesman.com


Over the rocks and through the woods, here comes the newly-formed middle school mountain bike team, with 35 race-ready athletes pumped up to go to state competition.
This is the first year that the Texas league of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association is allowing middle school athletes to compete. A cluster of states, including California, Utah and Colorado, have been the first to include younger athletes in competition.
So far, only a handful of Texas middle school teams have assembled, among them the Hudson Bend Middle School/Lake Travis Middle School team pulled …

Lamar bike lane work starts Saturday

By Dug Begley        blog.chron.com


The Lamar bike lane will allow cyclists two-way access across downtown, though car traffic will only head east. Rendering courtesy City of Houston

After a delay, crews will start work Saturday on a two-way bike lane along Lamar Street in downtown Houston, considered a critical link for bicyclists between popular area trails.
Work to paint, install signs and separate the lane from vehicle traffic will occur only on weekends, according to a memo from Houston Public Works. Crews will work from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. when possible, starting at Lamar and Bagby. The plan is to build the lane two blocks at a time over consecutive weekends, before …

Day 4 – Mason, TX: Hill Country  Friday February 6, 2015

By Alan Guo, Beaumont to San Francisco (Feb 2015)        www.crazyguyonabike.com

Once again, rolling hills and head/crosswinds kicked my ass today. I had planned to go 145 miles, but called it quits at 108, which was my contingency plan. I bought a skin ointment cream from the dollar store, for the irritable nooks and crannies (~_^). So far, it’s worked out ok. The drive train is making a lot more noise now. The chain seems to be skipping a little toward the lower sprockets, which is consistent with a bent derailleur hanger. I hope that’s not the case, and that I only need to adjust the cable tension. Anyway, I’ll worry about that stuff tomorrow. Tomorrow is a rest day, sort of. I will go about 62 miles to a ranch, where a warmshower host lives. Tonight, it’s camping time. The lows is 40 deg, so I lucked out there. Also, Mason is a pretty little town. I’m going to …

Anthills Trail Ride

Tuesday, Feb 17, 2015, 4:45 PM

1 Dirty SOB’s Went

Check out this Meetup →

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

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Texas Cycling News Digest February 5th

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CCMTB: Longish Lunch Quickie (MTB)

by fefillo        forums.mtbr.com

Hey, it’s not Colorado or Utah but you got to make do with what you got! Anyhow… here’s a few videos of mine of some of the better spots around the Houston area.

A postcard from Brownsville on pedalling and aging

By Alden Moore        www.northbaynipissing.com

Editor’s Note: Former regular Almaguin News contributor Alden Moore sent us this post card from the sunny south. We found it an enjoyable read worth posting.
For the past several years my wife, Sally, and I have been fortunate enough to escape the bone-chilling temperatures and squalid snowstorms so commonplace during our Northern Ontario winters. Instead we spend our winter months at Palm Resaca Park, a safe, friendly gated community in Brownsville Texas.
There are several paved roads in our park and I have turned myself into an ardent bike rider. Constant biking can be an arduous and grueling chore until you can get your legs worked up. And riding around the park can become a little monotonous and mundane.
Brownsville has some very scenic and well laid out bike paths right in the city. Sally had been suggesting for years we ride our bikes over to the closest bike path at the HEB on Paredes. Jaime Zapata road in front of our …

Woof! 2015 Bulldog Bike Ride set for February 21

by Rex Knepp        www.examiner.com


The U. S. Department of Agriculture says that in the Houston area, the average last frost day is February 21. What better way to celebrate the arrival of “spring” (such as it is) than a bicycle ride with a few hundred of your closest friends? This year, the closest date is Saturday, February 21, and the event is the Bulldog Bike Ride. This year’s the tenth edition of this annual ride-slash-pancake pigout.
Riders will find courses of 25, 32 and 50 miles; all of which leave Waller Junior High School starting at 8:00 a.m. You’ll find plenty of familiar territory out there north of the towns of Waller and Prairie View, including some lightly-traveled roads you’ll see again in March’s Bluebonnet Ride. If you haven’t ridden this terrain before, rest assured that it’s a generally flat course with the occasional “roller” and small stream crossing.
Proceeds of this year’s Bulldog Ride will benefit student activities at …

Bike Lanes!

Facts for Five

Bike Lanes! Duncanville is making a move to begin catching up with what we have seen as a growing trend not only across the country and state, but in Dallas County as well.
The Dallas County Bike Plan when completed will connect almost all communities with bike trails, and dedicated and shared lanes on streets.  Part of that plan brings trails to to the front door of Duncanville. Cedar Hill has already jumped on the idea with a few smaller existing trails with more in development.  The Cedar Hill Trail Plan spiderwebs the entire city and will eventually allow bikers a dedicated route to navigate the entire city and access all neighboring towns on bicycle.  The Dallas County Plan Includes …

Faculty host bike ride to honor colleague

med.uth.edu


On the morning Monday, Feb. 2, a group of UTHealth Medical School faculty members headed to work on their bikes in the memory of a former colleague.
The morning ride marked the inaugural Bob Lasky Bike to Work Day. Dr. Robert Lasky was a professor in the Department of Pediatrics who died April 15, 2014. His birthday would have been Feb. 2.
“Bob used to ride his bike to work every day and left a lot of friends at UT,” said Dr. Kathleen Kennedy, the Richard W. Mithoff Professor of Pediatrics and director of the MS in Clinical Research Degree Program. “We’re hoping to do it every year.”
The group biked from the Lasky home to the Medical School Building, where they held …

Cyclists enjoy the beauty of Coldspring in annual bike ride

By Jacob McAdams        www.yourhoustonnews.com


The annual Bike Ride Through the Forest and Hills brought in numerous cyclists, some of which experienced the beauty of Coldspring and challenge of the ride for the first time on Jan. 24.
The Bike Ride is a path no greater than 46 miles in length that takes bikers all around Coldspring.
The Kingwood Fillies, the drill team of Kingwood High School, hosts the bike ride every January. The proceeds go to the Fillies.
Cyclists do not have to traverse the entire 46-mile path and instead …

Ride of Silence – White Rock Lake

Bike Friendly Cedars        www.facebook.com

May 20th, at White Rock Lake at 7:00pm
Ride of Silence, a FREE ride and is a slow paced approx 12 mph, with Zero words spoken as we line up and ride between 9-10 miles.
I’m asking everyone to go to www.rideofsilence.org
Order a t-shirt or jersey to wear during the ride. I believe it will make more of a statement to on-lookers what we are riding for.
I believe, we again will get local news coverage from my friends at CBS/DFW channel 11.
Reason: …

Let’s Meetup and Ride the Mountain Bike trails of Memorial Park

Monday, Feb 9, 2015, 5:00 PM

Memorial Park – Soccer/Rugby Pitch Parking lot
6501 Memorial Dr (29.765522, -95.444994) Houston, TX

5 Members Went

Intermediate MTB Ride – Every Monday at Memorial Park. 5pm until Danny gets tired or it gets too dark. Join Danny every Monday for a fun, moderate pace ride through the Memorial Park Trails. The ride starts about an hour before dusk, so the time changes as it gets dark earlier or later. Meet at the parking lot by the Soccer/Rugby field. Bring your …

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Day 2 – Giddings, TX: ride cut short

By Alan Guo        Beaumont to San Francisco (Feb 2015)        www.crazyguyonabike.com

It was a slightly late start today. I stayed up till 1 AM yesterday planning my route, fixing my bike, updating this journal, etc. When I woke up at 5:30, and ate the breakfast that my host Jeff had provided, I went back to take a nap, to get a little extra rest, which helped a little. It was around 9 when I left, and my legs clearly weren’t prime. I averaged about 3 mph slower than yesterday. My legs were tired, there were rolling hills, and it was wet. I’m experiencing saddle sores. I don’t know if it’s from the wetness or if it’s from a lack of lubrication, but I need to find a way to manage it to keep it from getting worse.
Today, I was planning on 150 miles straight from Houston to Austin. I had planned to bike 95 miles to Giddings, TX, and eat at a buffet, which I did. However, I was depleted when I got there, and I knew that no matter how much I ate to replenish my calories, it would be useless because I’m limited to 250 cal/hr of digestion, which is not enough to sustain a reasonable speed for the rest of the 60 miles. Also, because I had …

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