Texas Bicycling News Digest December 1st

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Dangerous debris in bike lanes pushes cyclists onto roadways

by Ashly Custer        www.valleycentral.com

(Video)
Cyclists in Hidalgo County are speaking out about debris in the bike lanes and they said that it’s not only an obstacle for riders, but it’s also a safety concern.
Local cyclists told Action4 News they love the fact that there are bike lanes available, but said they are not properly maintained and as a result, the lanes are not safe to use.
Now, cyclists are being forced into the roadway with other motoring traffic.
Bill Lang is a lifelong cyclist who has organized and led cycling tours for over the last 50 years. He said cycling on public roads in Hidalgo County has its challenges.
“Motorists look at us and ask the question, ‘Why aren’t they over in the bike lane? We have dedicated bicycle lanes, but bicyclists won’t use it? They’re out on the …

GO for a Mountain Bike Ride

Performance Great Ride Series: North Houston

Sunday, December 7, 2014    8:00 AM
Meyer Park
Cypresswood Dr., Spring, TX
Join us every Sunday at Meyer Park for a 1hour and a half (approx) ride for beginners and intermediate riders.
Ride is 10 miles
We will be on the Cypresswood Trail
Any questions please call us at the store:[masked]
Bring a helmet, water bottle, spare tube and a positive attitude

Newest BRAIN has coverage from Taiwan to Texas

by BRAIN Staff        www.bicycleretailer.com


LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. (BRAIN) — From Austin, Texas, to Taichung, Taiwan, the newest issue of Bicycle Retailer takes a look at the cycling industry from several perspectives.
In Austin, BRAIN editors and guests visited shops during a three-day bike-powered Dealer Tour. On the way, the editors saw everything from a service shop that operated out of an RV to elaborate high-end shops, including Lance Armstrong’s Mellow Johnny’s and mainstays like Bicycle Sport Shop.
Meanwhile, in Taiwan, BRAIN attended Taichung Bike Week, a fast-growing OEM-focused show, where product managers and builders met to plan bikes for several model years in the future. A key developing …

Photos from the Sunday Roll on Nov. 30th

By Paul Brown        www.greaterdallasbicyclists.com

Spoke&Word #9 is out

BikeHouston.org

Man charged in hit-and-run that broke cyclist’s leg(11/30/14 W.Parmer)

Bicycle Austin

“a police officer found a cyclist with a broken leg laying in the middle of the road in the 11000 block of West Parmer Lane on Sunday evening. The affidavit states that witnesses said they saw a white BMW leave the scene of the crash. The car was later spotted in Round Rock.”
Pretty popular stretch of road for cyclists.  Glad witnesses stuck around and the police caught the guy. …
Link to KVUE.com news

Slow Intermediate Ride @ Walnut Creek 4:00 PM

The Austin Mountain Bikers Meetup Group

Monday, December 15, 2014        4:00 PM
Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park
12138 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX
We set up under the trees in the parking lot near the swimming pool.
Getting dark early…bring your lights…!!!!! If you don’t have a light u are welcome to peel off before we start the last two trails, Windy loop and BMX.
I know that this time change doesn’t work for everyone so we hope you considering hosting a ride for yourself and those who might want to ride at …

Early bird Saturday ride!! Slow Intermediate Ride @ Walnut Creek 4:00 PM

The Austin Mountain Bikers Meetup Group

Saturday, December 6, 2014        9:00 AM
Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park
12138 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX (map)
We set up under the trees in the parking lot near the swimming pool.
This will be a slow intermediate ride but we can split into more groups, basic or advanced if others are willing to lead also.
Meet in the parking lot by the swimming pool. The route will make it easy for anyone to get back to the parking lot.   Helmets are required along with a bike in good working order.
The ride last approximately 1.5 hours. Sometimes less, sometimes more. Just depends on how everyone is feeling on that particular day. The Fast Group usually rides 12-16 miles, the …

Reveillie Peak Ranch November 29, 2014

by Matthew Welton


Good ride with the boys! Couple crashes, little blood. Race loop, reveille peak loop, Super D, race loop and Flow trail

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets

https://twitter.com/JohnPaddieMusic/status/539163829419380736

Event Reminder

Texas Bicycling News November 30th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Avoiding the Mud

Bike Noob


A beautiful fall day. It’s hard to imagine that on November 30, the temperature reached 80 degrees (26C). Who wouldn’t go biking in that weather? I sure would.
For the second ride in a row, I took out my mountain bike. Usually, Sundays are reserved for longish rides on the road bike, but it’s been giving me problems in the shifting department lately, and I’ll have to take it to my mechanic. So, the mountain bike it would be.
That raised a new concern — the condition of the trails. We had two solid days of rain a week ago, which was a blessing for our drought-afflicted area. But the ground became saturated, and standing water in the area has just begun to disappear. The best mountain biking trail close by …

Go for an easy beginner ride

Performance Bicycle Great Ride Series: W. Houston

Saturday, December 6, 2014    9:00 AM
Performance Bicycle
7549 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX
You’re invited to join our Saturday morning, beginners group ride starting from and ending at our W. Houston, Performance Bicycle store. The ride is for beginners and those getting back on the saddle. The average pace will be between 10 and 14 miles per hour and the ride will last approximately one hour. We’ll …

Christmas Lights Viewing Bike Ride

Easy Riders Cycling Group

Sunday, December 14, 2014        5:15 PM to 8:45 PM
Central Market
3815 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX
We will be looking at the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations around the River Oaks subdivision. Front and rear lights are required with a fresh set of batteries. In case of very …

Upcoming Rides and Events

San Antonio Wheelmen

Saturday, 12/6:            Bullis County Park Ride
Saturday, 12/6:            Holiday Party (new location)
Sunday, 12/7:              Toutant-Beauregard Ride

Sugar Land trail leading out of Hodge’s Bend Cemetery

thenextword

Mountain Biking Memorial Park

Cycling Space City


One of my goals for this past Fall season was to ride as many of the Houston area mountain bike trails as I could.  Then I crashed hard at the Anthills in Terry Hershey Park and spent a solid 4 weeks off all bikes.  Now almost three months later and still have some pain in my elbow, in particular when I hold my mountain bike handlebars.  There is something about that angle when on my MTB that makes my elbow pain flair up.  Aside from the physical recovery there is also the psychological factor.  I had been pretty gun shy about getting out on the trails, but I new I needed to get out there, so I went to Memorial Park the Saturday after Thanksgiving and had a great time.
Memorial Park has seven mountain bike trails, five of them (purple, orange, yellow, blue, and red trails) are together in …

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets

https://twitter.com/bikenoob/status/539228502613319681

https://twitter.com/IamWillPowers/status/539142904087052288

https://twitter.com/BSS_Road_Club/status/539081958962515968

Event Reminder

Great Bike Ride to End November

Texbiker.net Posted on by

The Houston Chronicle weather guy, Eric Berger, wrote that today would probably be the last chance of reaching 80 degrees this year. I am not sure if it got there officially but in Huffman the sign company’s banner said 82 degrees. This sign has been known to show some fictitious temperature but maybe today it was close. At my home weather station the high was 80 degrees.

Wind was back again today. It is a big difference starting the ride with a tailwind versus a headwind. Riding the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route for the 57th time this year the wind present lots of resistance riding south. When I left home at 11:47 it was from the SSW at 12 mph with 20 mph gusts. Checking when I got home at 2:15 it was from the S at 9 mph but the 20 mph gusts were still there. My legs were not as powerful as yesterday over the 31.31 mile route. While I was able to get close to a 16 mph average speed the best I could do today was 15.3 mph and it took me 15 miles to get up to 15.0 mph.

This route has some places where the wind is blocked with houses and trees. I was able to ride strongly during those times but riding across Lake Houston on FM1960 there is nothing to shield me except the concrete guardrails and I sit above them on the bike. East bound traffic is not much help but I had the wind at my right rear quarter and I stepped up my pace then. Riding west was into the wind and the traffic sometimes helped though sometimes the gaps between vehicles setup a big gust when they moved past. I managed to keep the average speed at 15.3 mph from Huffman to Kingwood Drive. At that point all of the stops and starts took their toll and it dropped down to 15.2 mph which was the final value.

The clouds moved across the sky frequently blocking out the sun. I was glad I wore a long sleeve jersey even with the warmer conditions. Riding over Lake Houston was chilly with the wind picking up the cold water temperature like a radiator. I could tell the difference when I reached the west side of the lake and the wind was off the warmer land.

Stopping at the Chevron station in Huffman I sat in the sun. At first I thought this might not be warm enough but after I dried off some the wind was not so chilly. This is where the sun went behind the clouds several times removing the warmth. I didn’t want to stay there too long and cool off too much. I knew the ride over the lake would be chilly. Just west of the station I saw a glimpse of another rider going east on FM1960. I didn’t see him in time to wave. FM1960 is 6 lanes wide at that point.

The body was able to put out so strong effort when I called on it. Surprisingly not riding as much as not erased all of my fitness.

Now that November is almost over ride wise I biked 224.94 miles for the month. I expected I would ride 200 miles. The up and down weather did not put too big of a crimp in riding. I might have done better if I would have rode the Spirit Ride in Livingston but the weather was too cold and wet. The total for this week is 82.95 miles and for the year it is 6396, 104 miles away from my goal of 6500 miles.

I was thinking I would need to change the tires on my Stradalli road bike before the end of the year but with 5310 miles on it I should be able to wait until January at least. I don’t want to try to ride too far on them though. I had a problem a few years back on another bike when I didn’t notice the threads showing on the Baytown YMCA Gator Ride and I had a flat during the ride. I improvised with duct tape (that stuff fixes about any problem) and got to the finish line barely. The front tire on the Stradalli has 5310 miles and the rear has 4310 miles. No flats for a long time but I don’t want to push that.

The weather is supposed to get wet and cooler the next few days and biking will not happen then. Thursday through Saturday could warm up to the 70’s and I will be back on the bike then. This is why I live here. In my hometown in Ohio I would not even think about riding; way too cold and snowy.

Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS maps, charts and metrics. For a change those two and my local programs all agree within a very small difference on the metrics today.

Ride Route Today – Google Earth
Ride metrics for today
Huffman weather
Home weather at the end of the ride
All rides on this route for the year
Week to date recap
November Rides Recap
Year to date ride data

Texas Bicycling Digest November 29th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Moutain Bike Rides?

Houston Cycling Club

Friday, December 5, 2014
7:00 PM
You didn’t get enough Mountain Bike training with Tommy? He rides and teaches outside of Houston Cycling Club. Please contact Tommy directly via email if you want to schedule a ride.
What does the class cover?
• Fundamental Riding …

Biking Houston 11/28/14

by thenextword        www.reddit.com

Saturday Wheel Rolling In Gateway Park Before Town Talking Texas Grapefruit

Durango Texas


For the first time in a long time I was back at my favorite Saturday photo op location in Gateway Park, prior to a visit to Town Talk.
Damage from a windstorm way back in late September, or was it early October, was the start of a long Gateway Park bike riding drought.
I saw the remains of …

Christmas Lights

by Bill Cullins        Team San Angelo


For most of the year, cycling and running events are highly competitive activities with participants maxing out their heart rates as they battle for finishing positions during races.
That all changes after Thanksgiving as the holiday spirit takes over and Christmas lights start to appear at businesses, homes and along the downtown Concho River.
The two remaining cycling and running events on the local 2014 schedule have a completely different focus with the attitude of participants shifting to enjoying the seasonal festivities with family and friends.
Both of these events are part of the 2014 Concho Christmas Celebration which …

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Tweets

https://twitter.com/DavidWillisLC/status/538814836877295617