Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup 10/8/2013

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Anybody riding Corps of Engineers parks during the Govt. shutdown?
by MMS            forums.mtbr.com/texas
The good ol’ Government shutdown has all the Corps of Engineers parks closed. That means at least 2 of my local trails are closed (Dana Peak, Miller Springs…maybe BLORA). Does this mean they are a bust, and stay away…or are they still rideable? Don’t particularly wanna go to jail or pay any fines…but road riding sucks. …(several replies)

Aurora Ciclovia – October 18th
Bike Friendly Oak Cliff
BFOC Start: Ten Bells Tavern, 232 W 7th St, Dallas, TX 75208
Time: Meet up 6:30, Roll Out 7pm sharp
Grab your glow sticks and your LEDs! Bike Friendly Cedars is hosting the City’s largest lighted ride and bike competition. BFOC  will ride from Bishop Arts down to the Main Street Gardens where we’ll meet up with other…

Why I ride, and why more women should too!
www.wheelbrothers.com
Hello. My name is Rachel, and I’m a bicycling addict (Insert a collective, sympathetic, “Hello, Rachel” from the group here).

And I’m not alone. There are thousands of us. Yes, I know, most of us don’t have boobs, but that’s gonna change. In fact, it is changing.

But I’ve been thinking: Why don’t more women ride? Let’s see.

Safety? Women, being the more rational creature (admit it, boys), are the more safety conscious. For starters, San Antonio has a scarcity of bike lanes, and a city without bike lanes is a city of non-bike-lane-conscious drivers, from texting teens (“LOL. Where? Me too!”) to harried parents tying to…

Tern offering bike shares at Austin eco conference
by BRAIN Staff
AUSTIN, TX (BRAIN) — Tern is offering share bikes for the second annual South by Southwest Eco conference, held in Austin this week. For several years, Tern has offered bike shares at Austin’s larger SXSW music and technology gatherings held in March.

The SXcycles bike share program at SXSW Eco 2013 is presented by Tern and the city of Austin. Tern folding bikes are available to conference attendees to get around town.

“Explore the real Austin by bike this week,” said Andrew McCalla, project manager at…

El Paso City Council approves modified bike share program
By Aaron Bracamontes / El Paso Times
The El Paso City Council will move forward on a $400,000 pilot BikeShare Program that would include six stations around Downtown and the University of Texas at El Paso.

Council decided to support the plan during this morning’s meeting. Originally, council approved a 20-station plan that would use an additional $1.6 million of federal money from the Federal Highway Administration’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program, or CMAQ.

The money is managed by the Texas Department of Transportation, which said it would not…

Marathon to Dryden and beyond: A downhill day
by Mark            www.brothersbikeride.com
Tuesday October 8, 2013, 86 miles (138 km) – Total so far: 342 miles (551 km)

Cowboy Mark Starts a Stampede
by Tim        www.brothersbikeride.com
Marathon to Somewhere East of Dryden

I am sitting outside our motel in Sanderson, TX, looking at the sky as the sun is setting. The puffy clouds are orange and purple against a blue sky. Another spectacular day in West Texas.

When we pulled out of Marathon this morning, Mark announced that he was going to entertain Brian and I today. (He entertains us every day). After passing a herd of deer and a few elk during the first 15 miles, we started seeing cattle grazing along the fence next to the road. (Point of interest, there has been a fence along both sides of the road this entire trip.) I don’t know what…

Day 5: Marathon to 10 miles past Dryden, TX – our longest ride on L3
by Brian        www.brothersbikeride.com
Today’s ride of 85.5 miles was our longest but not the most difficult.  And we were all in pretty good spirits, joking and teasing each other most of the way, which helped the ride go faster.  At our first unplanned stop, there were cattle grazing by the road, and Mark wanted to get them stampeding; so he whistled and whooped and got them running, kicking up clouds of dust and “sort of” stampeding.  But it was just funny to see that…

Fort Davis to Marathon, TX: A little detour but worth it
by Mark            www.brothersbikeride.com
Monday October 7, 2013, 55 miles (89 km) – Total so far: 257 miles (414 km)

Since we have Beth’s limousine and bicycle taxi service at our disposal, we decided to get dropped off in Fort Davis instead of back in Marfa and ride from there to Alpine, TX and on to Marathon. The distance is the same and we wanted to see at least some of the Davis Mountains if we could. It was a good decision. The ride to Alpine was downhill and beautiful. The starting temp was about 50 and winds were not a factor. Once we were back on Rt. 90, the riding was very similar to what…

Race Preview – San Antonio CX, It’s a Bexar! October 12-13, 2013
joeyTWOwheels
Week two, bitties! Let’s keep this mo rolling.

We’re off to Alamo city, home to amazing tacos and some of the fastest guys in our races. Drew Akin of Kickstand Racing answered a few questions and we got a local to give us some extra flair. …

Tour to the Lake 2013
by Eliot Landrum         www.bikingindallas.com
For the past several years, Switching Gears Cyclery has hosted a “Tour to the Lake” overnight camping expedition (also known as a “s24o“: sub-24 hour overnight). This year I was finally able to participate and enjoy the weekend escape. The crew meets up at BuzzBrews in Deep Ellum, home to Fixed Touring‘s weekly rides, and sets off for a 35 mile ride to Cedar Hill State Park at Joe Pool Lake.

I was uncertain of going until I got Saturday morning calls from Clifford and Zach, so I quickly took my pup to boarding, grabbed some essentials from the grocery store, and…

Rail Trail Updates
Bike Denton
Beyond the popular MLK Jr. Pedestrian bridge over Loop 288, the City has been keeping an eye on further ways of improving the look and amenities of the Rail Trail from the DCTA Transit Center down through Hickory Creek.

They currently have a vote taking place on EngageDenton to gather public input on benching and other resting amenities. My vote is for Benching option A, but…

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Texas Bicycling Daily News Roundup – 10/7/2013

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Fort Worth Mountain Bikers’ Association
Gateway Park Work Fest
When:
November 2
December 7
January 4
February 1
March 1
April 5
May 3
Check forum for updates.

Marion Sansom Park Work Fest
When:
October 26
January 18
February 22
March 22
April 26
May 24
Check forum for updates.

No Rest For The Weary, 2014 Will Be Here Before You Know It
By Kathleen            bicyclesoutbackracing.net
My first race of this year was January 5th, the Exruciation Exam.  Since then, I’ve participated in approximately 54 days of racing stretching from January 5th to September 28th.  That’s an 8 month racing season.  That may sound like a lot, but my teammates have raced even more than me.  The spring is non-stop racing, driving all over Texas almost every weekend.  We have a brief reprieve over the summer before the last few races of the season.  It’s noticeable on the weekend group rides when everyone begins their ramp up for the State Road Race Championships (the last race of the season).  During the summer, group rides dwindle, but around the beginning of August, participation picks back up.  The State Road Race is always epic, blistering heat on a course with no shade and quite a bit of climbing, pouring rain, or cold enough in the…

On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde, Group History Ride!
Bike Friendly Oak Cliff

Break out the fedoras and the tommy guns! The next themed ride: On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde, kicks off this Sunday, October 13th at 1:30PM. Once again, we’ll begin our ride at Dealey Plaza.
Our trip will take us over the historic Commerce Bridge and up Beckley to the Singleton Bridge (aka: The West Dallas Viaduct), made famous in Bonnie’s poem “The Trail’s End”. From there, we’ll pass the famous Lillie McBride “Shoot-out” House, the Barrow Family Filling Station, visit Clyde and…

Wish 100 Bicycle Rally
By Richardson Bike Mart
We had a great crowd show up at the Wish 100 Rally! About 300-400 people showed up. Among them was Team Bikemart! Here are some pictures of us setting up the rest stop. Thanks for getting the photos Sam Montag!

Couple has near-fatal 4-day hike after getting kicked out of Big Bend
By Craig Hlavaty        www.chron.com

A couple vacationing in Big Bend last week was kicked out of the national park when the federal government shut down. It led to them getting dangerously lost on foot for four days in West Texas and living off of water from a spring they found, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
As Cathy Frye, 43, of North Little Rock, Ark., and her husband, Ricky Lee McFarland, 58, were leaving the park Oct. 1, an official at the national park suggested that they relocate to the neighboring 300,000-acre Big Bend Ranch State Park to continue their vacation. …

…On Oct. 2, the couple arrived at the state park and set up their campsite, then biked to Puerte Chilicote Trail to begin a hike. The couple wasn’t familiar with their map and became lost.
Out of water and tired, they spent that night at a scenic overlook near Mexicano Falls. The next day, they…

Bicyclist killed in Balch Springs crash
www.wfaa.com
A motorist was arrested late Saturday night after hitting and killing a man on a bicycle in Balch Springs.
Police said the bicyclist, identified as 24-year-old Justin Kaufman, was riding in the 11500 block of Lake June Road shortly after 10 p.m. when he was struck by a car.
Balch Springs police said the driver was arrested, but investigators did not release that person’s name, nor did they specify the charge or charges.

CORPUS CHRISTI CYCLING CLUB INVITES YOU TO JOIN US FOR THE VETERANS DAY SAG RIDE
CC Cycle Club will be holding a fully supported SAG ride to support Veterans. We will leave for a 90 mile out and back from Beeville at 7:30 a.m. on November 10, 2013. We will ride north until we link up with the Ride Texas 2013 team who will be riding south from San Antonio, and then escort them back to Beeville. We have a job to do on this ride, so our group needs to be able to maintain a 16 mph average.
The Ride Texas team is a group of 24 cyclists, including wounded Veterans and their supporters, who cycle over 500 miles across Texas to raise money for veterans charities. They start together in Wichita Falls, stay together, and finish together in Corpus Christi on Veterans Day.
On Monday the 11th , those of us who can, will help the Ride Texas team ride the final 65 miles to Corpus Christi, over the Harbor Bridge and to the post-ride dinner at Brewster’s Ice House. …

CORPUS CHRISTI CYCLING CLUB INVITES YOU TO JOIN US FOR THE BREAST CANCER RIDE
http://corpuscycling.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/corpus-jersey.jpeg
DONATIONS TO BENEFIT FIRST FRIDAY
DATE: OCTOBER 26, 2013 @ 7:30 AM
LOCATION: START AT THE AQUARIUM
DISTANCE: 25 MILE OR 40 MILES
SAG SUPPORT AVAILABLE…

Kid Trips Event – Local Austin Youth Group
Austin Ridge Riders
Saturday, November 2, 2013 – 09:00
Kid Trips will be conducting a ride for a local youth group at Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park in N. Austin on Saturday October 2, 2013.  We’ll meet in the main parking lot in front of the pool at 8:00 a.m. The ride starts at 9:00 a.m. Adult volunteers are welcome; just bring your mountain bike and a helmet!
Please contact Rick Chevrie…

GDB Lake Murray Weekend is Back! October 11-13
www.greaterdallasbicyclists.com

There will be a number of ways for GDB members to enjoy this event:
1. Just come ride – Drive up on Saturday, ride and enjoy the day/evening and go back home. Our ride will not depart the Lodge until 10 AMish
2. Stay in a cabin – we have a number of cabins near the Presidents HQ (cabin no. 250). The nearest are numbers 248, 247, 246, 245, 243, 249, 244 and 242. These are 1 bedroom units, but also have a hide-a-bed in the living room. They cost $93 per night. Call the lodge to check availability and cost (580-223-6600). …

Halloween Ride on October 29th
www.greaterdallasbicyclists.com
Mark your calendars for the Annual GDB Halloween Ride
What: Halloween Skeleton Ride
When: October 29th at 7pm
Where: Café Express, 5600 W. Lovers Lane
Please Note: This ride will take the place of the Tuesday Evening Lake Ride that normally leaves from Forest and 75.
Here’s the plan: Ride Leader Ken will lead us thru the Park Cities area to take in local decorations. It’s called the Skeleton Ride for a reason: In the past, the club had skeleton costumes (home-made) and make-up.Don’t have a skeleton costume? No worries! Half of the riders don’t have skeleton costumes! Riders are encouraged to decorate their bikes and ride in costume – any costume! Use your imagination and outfit your bike and yourself for the occasion. Please be sure your costume is…

SCCCC: Texas A&M Race Weekend- by Conor Steward and Emily Franco (A&M)
www.usacycling.org
This week the SCCCC went down to Warda, TX as Texas A&M hosted a fast and sandy race. The weather turned out to be perfect Saturday as Robby Chrisman (University of Texas) opened the weekend with a win in Men’s A’s on the .9 mile short track event. Following Robby’s fast run Elizabeth Lurz (Abilene Christian University) took home gold on this track that featured technical single track and a BMX styled downhill to spice up the already hot course. Later the team time trial tested pure nerve with a rundown Gas Pass, a famously technical decent, where only the most brave (or daft) can take gold. The 2 mile track also included the previously mentioned BMX run and a…

CTS Field Test – October 2013
www.turnincranks.com

2 months down, time for a new field test! The past 2 months I’ve been fairly consistent with my riding, targeting 6 hours per week in the saddle and I’ve pretty much hit that.
I did 4 weeks of general training rides and then 4 weeks of CTS training.
The temps this morning were a refreshing 60ish degrees, which is cooler than I’ve ridden in since the spring. It quickly showed with a PR climbing up the Cuernavaca Top Out segment and had…

Day 4: Fort Davis to Marathon, TX – does the wind deserve to be cursed?
by Brian            www.brothersbikeride.com

On Mark’s suggestion, we got back on the Southern Tier route by having Beth drive us to Fort Davis, from which we biked first to Alpine using TX 118, and then east to Marathon, using US90 again.  It was only 55 miles and our total elevation change for the day was minus 800 feet, but the wind was in our face the entire day!  And it wasn’t a mild breeze either!
After not seeing any bikers at all for the first 3 days, our day began by making the acquaintance of two brothers also biking the Southern Tier route while we were at breakfast at the Gage Hotel.  Bruce and Dick are doing it all at once and except for…

Notes from a Novice: Introduction
Shawnee Trail Cycling Club

My name is Amy. I got kind of known in the group early this summer as “Alaska” because my first jersey said, you guessed it, “Alaska”. And yes, I did buy it at a bike shop in Alaska – last year, before I even had a road bike. I thought then I wanted to get into cycling. (Since then I have gotten the addiction and have way more than just that one jersey.)
I had a hybrid bike for over 20 years. It weighed a ton. I could ride it on the local bike paths for 15-20 miles. But I topped out at about…

Notes from a Novice: #1 Ride… Ride… Ride…
Shawnee Trail Cycling Club
Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers” is an easy read and an interesting case study of success. Not about cycling, but just about success in general. He theorizes that although to master a skill some talent is needed, it’s basically practice, practice, practice that makes you excellent at something. He proposes that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to become truly proficient. I mean super duper excellent at it. Of course long before 10,000 hours you can be good at something, thank goodness, or you would lose interest. But the point is that whatever it is (painting, playing the cello, riding a road bike), you simply have to do it to get better.
That first Novice ride that almost made me puke? I now co-lead that ride with Anne Bartholet. And I can pull it at the front the whole way if I need to. For the experienced riders who might be…

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Long Enough, The Time Arrived

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It’s been long enough since my collision September 3rd so I rode the route I intended to that day. The time of day was different with me leaving home at 11:12 and I rode through the spot around noon. No exiting traffic from the high school. This helps to restore my confidence to ride this route but at the same time my awareness of the traffic is much higher. Cars coming out of side streets now get an extra look. Maybe I should have stopped at the spot of the collision and walked around but it didn’t occur to me at the time.

The weather for today got off to a cool start with 54 degrees at 7:00 at home. The sky was crystal clear blue and the humidity was 30%, a big drop from the 70% and higher last Saturday before the cool front arrived. When I left home the wind had a chill to it so I appreciated the long sleeve jersey I had on. Riding through residential streets on my way out of Kingwood meant lots of shade from trees. Each time I entered the shade the cooler air reminded me fall is really here. 72 degrees at the start but it warmed up as the ride distance increased. By the finish at 2:00 the home weather said 81 degrees. I stopped in Huffman at the Chevron and sat in the sun. It felt nice but as I got finished with the Diet Pepsi and cookies the sun heated my black shorts to high temperature. I moved out of the sun into the shade to check emails and weather on my phone. It was a relief.

Before the ride I decided to adjust the handle bar position because my arms felt too stretched when I rode on the brake/shifter hoods. I thought rotating the handle bars forward a few degrees to put the horizontal mark in the stem clamp center line and then move the shifters higher up the bars would shorten the reach. In order to do this I unwrapped the handlebar tap and the under tape that held the cables in place. Wrapping handlebar tape is not easy for me but the re-wrapping ended up better than it was before, in my opinion. The overlaps looked better and the termination tape near the stem did not have all of the bumps it did before. The ride tested my theory and I did feel the hoods were closer but slightly lower. I was comfortable with the new position so I will stick with it for awhile at least.

Biking south through Atascocita, Eagle Springs, Walden, Huffman and back home totaled 35.68 miles and I improved my average speed to 15.6 mph. The wind was stronger than yesterday: NNE 9.4 mph gusts 18.4 mph. This didn’t bother my legs as much so I powered through with only a couple of wind induced slow downs. I could tell when the tailwind assisted me biking south.

October mileage now totals 191.73 and year to date I biked 5409 miles. I will be off the bike for a couple of week while my wife and I vacation. There will be some days that the daily Texas bicycling news is not published as well.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup

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The Brothers’ Bike Ride
L3: EL PASO TO UVALDE
Day 1 and 2. West Texas El Paso to Van Horn
by Tim        www.brothersbikeride.com

We are staying in an old, historic Hotel in Van Horn, TX called the El Capitan. It was built in 1930 as part of a chain of hotels to help the tourism industry in New Mexico and West Texas, We’ll see another one tomorrow in Marfa called the Hotel Paisano. Very elegant features and completely restored about 10 years ago. I guess it is the classiest place in Van Horn.
Yesterday’s ride was very peaceful once we got out of El Paso. We were on what is called Farm Roads on the street signs and there was very little traffic since everyone takes I-10. Flat roads, light traffic and a…

Day 2 – Fort Hancock to Van Horn, TX
by Brian        www.brothersbikeride.com

Today’s ride totaled 76 miles and included 1400 feet of climbing, starting at an elevation of 3400 feet and getting up to about 4800 feet.  Much of the time we were climbing, we had the wind in our faces.  We started out on TX 20 and then took TX 192 for a while, and both of these are so-called Texas Farm Roads, where all of the vehicles using them are basically farmers.  For most of the day, except when we were actually on I-10 East, we saw very few vehicles and the ones we did were U.S. Border Patrol vehicles.
We also had a chance to chat with some Border Patrol officer…

River Bend or Brazos Bend
Sugar Land, Texas
www.singletracks.com
Difficulty:
Length: 4 miles     Global Rank: #5205
Tread: Singletrack     Configuration: Loop
Description
Technical Rating: 1-2 Constructed through a partnership with the Boy Scouts, GHORBA, and the City of Sugar Land Parks Department, this trail features flowing single track along the Brazos River. The trail is new construction so more riders on the trail will help to smooth out the trail surface. Full description coming soon.

Spooky Cross Bike Race and Festival
Bike Friendly Oak Cliff

OCTOBER 26th – Rosemont Elementary School. 1919 Stevens Forest DR. 11am – 3pm
OCTOBER 27th – Beautiful Dallas Heritage Village 10am – 2pm
Spooky Cross Cyclecross Race and Festival returns to Cyclesomatic for another year of spooktacular good times October 26 & 27th.  Cross is Boss! Come…

Flat Creek Crossing Ride Pics – 10-5-13
www.austinbike.com

What a beautiful day.  The weather was perfect and we had a good chance to ride Flat Creek, which is never a bad thing.  Overall there were close to 30 riders out there today and the ride, followed up by BBQ was a perfect way to spend a cool afternoon.  Not quite “fall” yet, but definitely closer.
There were some great moments on the trail today, including young…

Day 3: Van Horn to Marfa, TX – the long climb!
by Brian            www.brothersbikeride.com

Before we retired for the night last night, we all agreed we would be down at breakfast at the El Capitan Hotel (a great place, by the way) by 6:30 am.  We all had a great big breakfast (OK, maybe not Beth, but Tim, Mark and I definitely did!), but when we finished, it was still dark outside.  Being on the western edge of the Central Time Zone, sunrise doesn’t occur until just before 8 a.m.; however, we didn’t know that when we made our plans the night before.  So we had about an hour wait before we could get going.  But by 8 o’clock, we were on our bikes and riding the 76 miles to Marfa.  And boy was it ever cold!  I should have worn my full-fingered biking gloves and tomorrow I will.  But we warmed up after about an hour, so it wasn’t a big deal.

The 76 miles we did today was the toughest ride of L3 because 1) it was all uphill (we climbed about 1000 feet), 2) the road surface in Presidio County, where we were for most of today’s ride is Texas chip seal, a very rough road surface that’s pretty tough on my…

It’s Laura Sato week at the Violet Crown webpage!
The Violet Crown Sports Association

Laura Sato has been tearing it up in Central Texas racing the past few months, so we thought we’d post a few pictures of her recent exploits. The photo finish picture tells you how close she came to second at the State Road Race last week. And the…

New Events Added to the Texbiker.net Calendar

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