I missed riding yesterday because I believed the weather forecast. Today I did ride although a little later in the day than I expected. I start riding at 1:49 under a clear sky, 69 degrees and a light breeze. The wardrobe consisted of leg warmers, long sleeve jersey, windbreaker jacket, regular gloves and shorts. The windbreaker had vents and wet gloves was not a problem. Sometimes the vents let a little too much cool air in but as long as I was riding I generated enough body heat to compensate.
The Atascocita – Walden – Huffman route is a regular one and not much changes from one ride to the next. On FM2100 the resurfacing is still not complete where driveways and side streets come out. The main lanes and shoulder are nice and smooth.
With the chilly weather I find it difficult to maintain a 18 to 20 mph speed. Maybe my route choices don’t allow long enough roads without stops. The warmth of 80+ degrees feels much better to me. While I stopped at the Huffman Chevron a motorcycle pulled in for gas. The man driving and the woman riding were both wearing short sleeve shirts. I am not sure how they kept warm when I am dressed heavier and can feel a chill if I ride in the shade and get a puff of cool wind. As I returned home I saw another bicyclist on Atascocita Shores Drive. He was dressed like me except no leg warmers.
Biking 31.36 miles today at a 15.6 mph average speed brought January’s miles to 277.71. This leaves 32 miles to reach my 309 mile goal for the month. This could mean 1 ride will get me to that goal. The weather may get in the way. Thursday’s high is 53, Friday is 40 and Saturday is 62. Sunday forecast calls for 69.
Click on the image below for a larger view. The maps below the images are interactive.
7th Annual El Paso Puzzler MTB Race, El Paso
By KRBObike
Obteniendo el 1er y 4to Lugar Equipo Alubike Krbo. Una gran carrera con mas de 180 ciclistas. Contentos con el resultado.
Leakey Loop
Chicken and Waffles Racing
This is Day 2 of the Chicken and Waffles training camp. The plan is to leave our rental home in Camp Wood, TX at 10AM. We’ll ride N on HWY 55 then get on HWY 355 North until we hit HWY 41. We’ll travel East on 41 until we hit HWY 336. We’ll travel South on 336 until we hit Leakey then we’ll head…
Bike Sharing Crashes in Canada
By Nick Summers      www.businessweek.com
When New York City rolled out its bike-sharing system in May 2013, one reason that criticism never gained much traction was that the program was said to cost taxpayers nothing. As many as 10,000 bicycles and 600 stations—“All of this without using any taxpayer money!†crowed Vikram Pandit, then the chief executive of Citigroup, which paid $41 million to have the system’s bikes and docking stations painted in its trademark blue. Opponents could carp that bike sharing was crunchy, socialist, and/or vaguely French, but they couldn’t claim it was a bad use of city funds.
Now some news out of Canada bodes poorly for urban transportation utopians. Public Bike Sharing Co., known as Bixi, the company that designed the sturdy bikes and nifty solar-powered docking stations used in New York and more than a dozen other cities around the world, was forced into bankruptcy protection in Montreal, where it also administers the local sharing program. The nonprofit has debt of…
Sixteen local associations to take part in RaceCleanâ„¢ program in 2014
www.usacycling.org
Colorado Springs, Colo. (Jan. 21, 2014) — USA Cycling is pleased to announce that 16 local associations have signed up for the USA Cycling RaceCleanâ„¢ program in 2014, a tremendous increase over 2013. Through the RaceCleanâ„¢ program, USA Cycling matches funds with local associations for up to $3,500 per association to increase drug testing by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency at grassroots events, helping ensure a level playing field while promoting athletes’ health and well-being. The 16 associations that will be participating in the RaceCleanâ„¢ program represent over 70% of USA Cycling’s members: …
Double Shift
An Old Guy On Two Wheels
In the morning I was Tim
Did my usual Monday morning shop. I arrived way early because I planned for morning commute traffic that wasn’t there. I had forgotten about the positive impact of a federal holiday on city traffic patterns.
Used the time to do some housecleaning tasks. There is always a certain amount of entropy and chaos in a community bike shop. It is a constant chore to restore some sense of order.
It was a relatively busy shop. Several earn-a-bike users working on their checklists. We made significant progress on some of our donation bikes. And one finished his first checklist. He said he would be back at the evening shop to begin working on his bike. Told him I would be there to help. Always exciting. This program allows people to…
DATES ANNUAL MEETING
Dallas Area Tandem Enthusiasts
Sunday, February 9, 2014
5:30 PM
Aboca’s Italian Grill
10455 North Central Expressway
Dallas
(west side of 75 off the frontage road, south of Royal, north of Meadow Road, in the center with Tom Thumb)
Join us for an evening of fun and Italian food. We will have the restaurant to ourselves and Aboca’s is a BYOB establishment. You may bring your beverage of choice!
Entree choices include the following: …
New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar
New Event: Fair Park Criterium – Dallas, TX: When: Sat Mar 8, 2014 8am to 5pm CSTWho: Texas Bicycling Events … http://t.co/XvxJrEs2ah
New Event: 22nd Annual La Primavera Lago Vista – Lago Vista, TX: When: Sat Mar 1, 2014 8am to 3pm CSTWho: Tex… http://t.co/k2F6xP7LGb — Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) January 21, 2014
New Event: 22nd Annual La Primavera Lago Vista – Lago Vista, TX: When: Sun Mar 2, 2014 8am to 3pm CSTWhere: L… http://t.co/2h8gJ1b7lw — Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) January 21, 2014
New Event: Katy Flatland Century 2014 – Katy, TX: When: Sun Jul 20, 2014 6:45am to 12:15pm CDTWho: Texas Bicy… http://t.co/XVGoEq0wCd — Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) January 21, 2014
When Mat Olson rode across the 24-foot-high arches of the West Seventh Street Bridge in Fort Worth, city officials were not impressed.
“It’s funny, I heard that they were not too happy about it but it’s just something I do, I like to ride bikes,â€
says the 25-year-old BMX rider, who started racing BMX when at 7 and got into freestyle riding a few years later. Now he rides with the professional BMX stunt group Lonestar Action Sports. Before the bridge was even completed Olson and his friends saw an opportunity in the making.
“Once it was completed we realized that with a little bit of support between each transition we could possibly ride over the whole thing,†Olson says. “The boards are at the bottom in between each arch–you could reach that from the ground–all we had to do was reach over the arch and…
Being Houston @BeingHouston
This guys doing it right riding a rented bike from @HoustonBCycle, there’s more excuses. #bikehouston
BikeHouston Monthly Board Meeting
When: February 18, 2014 @ 7:00 pm – 8:45 pm
Where: Central Market – Community Meeting Room
3815 Westheimer Road
Central Market,Houston,TX 77027
Double Lake Recreation Area Trail Review
Texas Mountain Bike Trails
Chris Robbins here, over the next few months I will be adding my personal reviews of the Houston area trials and any other trails that I find my way to. Here is the first one of Double Lake Recreation Area. Enjoy!
Double Lake Mountain Bike Trail
I spent this past Sunday morning on one of my favorite trails in the Houston area, Double Lake Recreation Area in Coldspring with a good sized group from WTF (Winkelmann Training Fundamentals). This is the trail that made me fall in love with mountain biking. I have been a triathlete mostly racing long course for the last 6 years and needed a change of pace for my training. My friends suggested I check out the TMBRA Big Ring Challenge at Double Lake, so I borrowed a bike and raced. From then on it has been trouble for me…
Bear Moon Bakery Ride/ Tour De Cure Training Ride
Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club
Meet at Leon Springs Park and Ride at 9:00 a.m. for a 31-mile ride with mostly gently rolling hills and a few more challenging hills on Amman Rd. The ride will take us through Fair Oaks Ranch and then on to Amman Road towards Boerne. We will stop at the Bear Moon Bakery on Main St. in Boerne. (Note: They ask you not to enter if your shoes have cleats that can scar their wooden floors.)  For those who wish to avoid the hills on Amman Road, but still want a good excuse to eat pastries at the bakery there is are two…
Sergeant major at Joint Task Force North at Fort Bliss overcomes injuries through cycling
JTF North NCO had 28 surgeries on arm that was injured in combat
By David Burge / El Paso Times
FORT BLISS >> Nearly five years ago, Sgt. Maj. Jerry W. Hochstedler’s life changed forever when he was severely wounded in combat in Afghanistan.
But Hochstedler, still on active duty as the operations sergeant major with Joint Task Force North at Fort Bliss, refuses to be stopped by the injuries he suffered on May 19, 2009.
Hochstedler, a career Special Forces noncommissioned officer, got into a standoff with a sniper that day and got shot in his arm in Marjah, Helmand Province. Since then, he’s had to have 28 surgeries on the arm and only has about…
I hustled to leave the house before 1:00 PM and rolled out the driveway at 12:58. I decided today would be a longer route so I went north to New Caney and then west on FM1485 to Gene Campbell Road. I used the newly created exit from Kingwood going Woodridge Forest Village and then Adams Street to Loop 494. I rode around some Kingwood streets before taking this direction to add a couple of miles. The goal was 34+ plus miles and actually biked 35.39 miles at a 15.6 mph average speed. January now stands at 246.36 miles leaving 63 miles to reach the 309 mile goal.
No other bicyclists crossed my path but I did see a lot of children out playing thanks to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The weatherman delivered on today’s forecast with a partly cloudy sky (just a few wisps of clouds in the sky), 76 degrees and a stout 12 mph SW wind with 20 mph gusts. I will have to remember this weather because a cold front is supposed to arrive tonight and the rest of the week will be hard pressed to get to 60 degrees. That means I will probably not be biking although Wednesday could get up to 64. I hear a polar vortex junior is coming but it might not reach Houston.
After my Saturday ride I noticed the rear brake was not working properly. Looking at the brake cable where it entered the rear cable housing rust coated the cable. The cable is not Teflon coated so this does not surprise me. I ordered a replacement cable but it will not arrive until Friday. As a temporary fix I sprayed penetrating oil into the housing and let it soak for a few hours. Then I followed up with some light oil. The cable was working freely when I left on the ride. I will be okay until the replacement cable arrives. I bought Aztec cables. They are reasonably prices, Teflon coated and I have them on the road bike already.
Click on the slide below to enlarge it. The maps are interactive.
