Texas Bicycling Daily News Roundup August 15th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Bangs graduate shares 70-day, 4,000-mile bicycle journey
by Rick Phelps        www.brownwoodtx.com

Brittany Petty, a 2010 graduate of Bangs High School, recently returned from a 70-day journey which allowed her to honor loved ones, travel thousands of miles and raise money for cancer research.
The University of Texas senior returned home a few days ago after riding in the Texas 4000, a biking event which raises money for cancer research. The 4,000-mile trek began in Cedar Point and…

Hot Pick: Humane Society wine ride
by:Beth Rankin        blog.beaumontenterprise.com
Nothing goes together quite like bike rides, puppies and wine. At this weekend’s Humane Society of Southeast Texas Bike Ride and Wine Tasting, take a scenic loop around Sour Lake before spending an afternoon tasting local wine at Bruno & George.
The ride has a 47-mile route and 30-mile route beginning at 8:30 a.m., and an 18-mile route beginning at 9 a.m. Rest stops will be…

Boy Cycles From TX to AK For Cancer
By: verstarr        www.komonews.com

AUSTIN, Texas – August 15, 2013 – Oak Harbor native Ver Andrew Starr and his team of 69 cancer fighters cycled over 4,500 miles from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska this summer with Texas 4000, a cancer fighting student organization from the University of Texas at Austin.
Starr, a graduate of the Oak Harbor High School Wildcat class of 2010, has finished up his…

TxDOT denies $1.6 million for El Paso bicycle-sharing program
By Aaron Bracamontes / El Paso Times
The Texas Department of Transportation slammed the brakes on a bicycle-sharing program for Downtown and Central El Paso by denying $1.6 million in federal funding, at least for now.
During its monthly board meeting on Wednesday, the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority was prepared to move forward with the BikeShare Program, which the City of El Paso and the University of Texas at El Paso had already approved partial funding for. But the plans…

Houston Bicycle Club
Upcoming Rides

Ride Date Ride Name Start Time Starter
Sat 08/17/13 Chappell Hill North 7:30am Ronald & Lilette Britsch
Sun 08/18/13 Your Ride 7:30am Needed
Sat 08/24/13 Montgomery 7:30am Ronald & Lilette Britsch
Sun 08/25/13 Your Ride 7:30am Needed

Conroe Ride
Woodlands Cycling Club
Thursday, August 22, 2013, 06:15pm
Start location: Carl Barton Jr Park (click for map)
WCC Thursday Evening Conroe Ride

Purpose:
To provide a safe, fast-paced training ride to the members of WCC/WCCRT and guests, while ensuring that all rules of the road are followed; all participating cyclists are to keep safety for the group as a primary focus. Our goal is to get the best training with zero incidents. This ride is for advanced level cyclists and racers.
Ride Description: …

El Paso Bicycle Club Rides & Events
The Big Loop
Description:   Meet at Madeline Park in Kern Place. Ride Mesa to rollers to Anthony Gap, return via Northeast and Scenic. Chris Hoffman, 497-3026. 50 miles. Fast (18-plus). Moderate (15-17) pace group will be led by Larry Reid, …

Day 3 Riding The NETT
Texas Mountain Bike Trails

This is Dean Nix’s personal recap of his ride up the Northeast Texas Trail (NETT). He has setup a Facebook page called the NETT Awareness Ride where you can find additional discussion. If interested in finding out more about the NETT, check out the NE Texas Trail Facebook page set up by the NETT Coalition, the 501c3 non-profit responsible for creating the Northeast Texas Trail.

Day Three
July 13, 2013

The final day’s goal was to ride from Clarksville back to Farmersville, 91.5 miles. Even though I knew what sections were not rideable from West to East I still planned to test them from East to West and see how far I could get. This would help my number one goal for the Awareness Ride which was to ride as much of the NETT as safely possible.

I woke up at five disappointed to learn that my sores had not dried over night as I had hoped. I packed and set out early eating a sandwich from the B&B Refrigerator. I skipped the breakfast dinner because I wanted to get an early start and…

Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred Cycling Tips from Cadence Cyclery: Riding, Snacks and Staying On-Track
Wheelbrothers.com
When it comes to cycling, Cadence Cyclery knows whats on your mind. This McKinney, Texas based bicycle store has been selling bikes and cycling accessories since 2011. And now they are sharing their tips and insiders secrets with us at Wheelbrothers.com.

In this short video clip, Chris from Cadence Cyclery goes over some…

Back to School by Bike
BikeTexas.org

Students make their way to school on Walk to School Day 2012.Schools across Texas are opening their doors for the fall semester, and the trickle of students heading back will become a flood by the end of August. As your household transitions back to a time of learning, are you planning for biking and walking?

Biking or walking to school gives your child tremendous health and mental benefits. Childhood obesity is on the…

Tweets

https://twitter.com/RhodesRider/status/367967599184736256

https://twitter.com/danielcurtin/status/367986814088675329

Abundant Moisture – August 15th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

The rain storm from yesterday evening dropped some badly needed moisture, (1.54″ on my rain gauge) left the sky overcast and the temperature much lower than yesterday. While the 77 degrees felt nice the 84% humidity did not. I left home at 10:29 and for the first mile or so I felt some light rain drops occasionally but not enough to stop me. I continued to ride south on my original plan through Atascocita, Walden and Huffman. I watched the clouds and they seemed dark so as I approached the bridge over Lake Houston on W. Lake Houston Parkway I made a change in plans. I did not want to get caught by any rain because my wife would not be able to come get me and she had some plans for the afternoon.

My new route took me further south in Atascocita to Aerobic Drive and then to Walden before heading back home. All went well on this route but as I turned onto W. Lake Houston Parkway riding north the rain drops started coming down but not real heavy. This continued across Lake Houston and into Kingwood Greens Village. By the time I circled back to W. Lake Houston Parkway the rain stopped and the rest of the ride was in the dry as far as rain is concerned. Between the high humidity and the little rain my long sleeve jersey was dripping as was my helmet.

While I usually ride 30 miles or more daily today I rode 23.99 miles at a 15.5 mph average speed. For the week I biked 88.67 miles so far and August now totals 373.47, over half way to my 721 mile goal for August. Year to date increased to 4625 miles.

Yesterday while I was biking I remembered getting hit by a SUV on August 6, 2005. I am not sure what made me think of this but it might have been the route I was on took me close to where it happened and it is August. 2005 was not a good year to remember: my father died that year in March.

Maybe tomorrow the sky will clear up, the humidity go down and the temperature up some. The forecast calls for 95 degrees and partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain.

Kinks to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for August 14th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Wildcat Ride & Run 2013 in Selma, TX
www.wheelbrothers.com

The Wildcat Ride & Run 2013 invites you to join their ride on September 21, 2013 starting at OLPH Catholic School – 16075 N. Evans Rd. Selma, TX
We were lucky enough to be granted an interview with Barbara Crane to ask some questions about their upcoming ride.
Why join the Ride?
Wildcat Ride and Run is a well organized ride to help meet your goals, train or just have fun. The ride helps to support Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in many ways.
1) Helps to role model to kids and family the importance of exercise and health
2) A great example of community, service and team work and
3) Financially, assists the school in covering continuing raising costs while attempting to keep the tuition affordable for families.
How long has the event been around? …

El Paso Area Anyone?
by DoctorTattoo        www.bikeforums.net
Hi All,
So it seems I’m moving to the El Paso Area for work. What is biking like there? I have toyed with going car free at least for a little while but I’d like to get some advice from those that actually live there. Any wisdom you can give is much appreciated. …

San Antonio Trail Help….Finding Your Way
by jasmorg1075        www.bikeforums.net
I am very familiar with Macalister Park trails, but looking for more mileage. I’ve already connected Mud Creek to get up to 20 miles. In reading old bikemojo posts it seems there are/was/could be trails at Tobin Park and John James Park. These parks are in the south direction of Salado Creek.

Does anyone know if the trails in Tobin and John James still exist? I’d really like to get 10 miles in at MAC take the greenway down to the other parks for some more singletrack and then head back to Mac. Should be able to get…

For Bike Lanes, Design Makes All The Difference
mashable.com

In this TED Talk, CEO of Copenhagenize Design Co. Mikael Colville-Andersen discusses how design principles and strategy can make for better bike lanes in cities (and safer, more accessible mobility for city dwellers). Mashable reached out to hear about what progress has been made in various locales known for urban innovation, and dig deeper into the design principles Colville-Andersen applies to urban planning. …

Day 2 Riding The NETT
Texas Mountain Bike Trails

This is Dean Nix’s personal recap of his ride up the Northeast Texas Trail (NETT). He has setup a Facebook page called the NETT Awareness Ride where you can find additional discussion. If interested in finding out more about the NETT, check out the NE Texas Trail Facebook page set up by the NETT Coalition, the 501c3 non-profit responsible for creating the Northeast Texas Trail.

Day Two
July 12, 2013

The day’s goal was to ride from Clarksville to New Boston and back, 80 miles. The day was planned early on as a kind of rest day. It had the shortest distance, with relatively flat terrain. Also the sections were either ranked terrible or good. So, I should be on road or good trail.

I got an early start and hit the breakfast dinner little before they open at 6:00am. However, my oatmeal and egg took a long time and the farmers had many questions about my trip. I left Clarksville a little before…

PBA Labor Day Ride and Picnic
Plano Bicycle Association

Bicyclists for Annise Special Reception On Thursday, August 29 at Market Square
www.bikehouston.org

Bicyclists for Annise Parker would like to invite you to a short bike ride and special reception for Mayor Parker on August 29th at 6:15pm.

Mayor Annise Parker has worked hard over the past three and a half years to help make Houston a great place to live, work and raise a family. Mayor Parker has also made tremendous strides to not only encourage cycling, but also provide for the safety of…

Reimers Ranch Ride and post ride watermelon
Austin Ridge Riders
Sunday August 18 starting at 9:00 am.  The last Reimers Ranch Ride had a good turnout and provided a great ride and Trail Stewards Mark and Brad are calling another ride!

Look for the group at the MTB Trailhead. Mark is going to chill some refreshing watermelon for after the ride and there is talk of maybe a cool swim.  Day Use fee is $10.00 per vehicle. Carpooling is encouraged.

IF IT RAINS….

Tuesday Ride at BCGB – Intermediate skill ride level
The Austin Mountain Bikers Meetup Group
Tuesday, August 20, 2013        5:30 PM
Barton Creek Greenbelt – 360 Access (beside brick office building)
3755-B Capital of Texas Hwy., Austin, TX…

Tweets

Cooler Weather, Not Quite – August 14th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

No biking yesterday due to the remodeling project. I stayed home while my wife ran some errands. Today though I was able to ride while she stayed home with the workers.

The weather man said today was going to be cooler and it was by a few degrees. My home weather station recorded 102.4 yesterday late in the afternoon. Compare that today’s 97.2 when I finished the ride then it was cooler but 97 is still plenty hot. At least the humidity was low (for Houston ) at 37%. I looked at the forecast for Wichita Falls for next week. Unless there is a big change the heat for Saturday will not get to 100. The sky was partly cloudy today and the wind was calm. Earlier today I watched the Eneco Tour from Belgium where the wind caused a major split in the peloton at one point. None of that here.

Before I rode today I waxed the chain on my Motobecane Le Champion CF. I noticed some rust from riding on the wet streets last Saturday. I also wanted to get this done before going to Wichita Falls. I installed this chain on 7/8/13 and since then I rode over 1,000 miles so it was time. The chain has been running smoothly and quietly.

The route took me north to New Caney and then south through Valley Ranch. The goal was to get over 30 miles and I biked 32.4 miles at 15.9 mph average speed. I stopped at the Stripes station on FM1314 for my usual Diet Pepsi break. When I came out of the store I noticed something on my rear tire. At first I thought it was a thread or maybe some gum but it turned out to be one of those tiny wires stuck in the tire. I pulled it out and fortunately it was not in far enough to cause a leak. Probably one flat averted!! My resting spot is getting smaller as the sun intrudes further into it. If I go late in the day (12:54 today) the sun takes most of the shade away and as summer fades the sun goes down more.

Leaving Stripes I biked home with a slight tailwind helping me keep a fast pace. Traffic was light. I did go through some road work on the northbound US59 service earlier. The Grand Parkway construction will be in that area until 2015. I am not sure how this will impact my routes.

Tomorrow the temperature is forecast to be 91 and 40% chance of rain. I should be able to bike if the weather permits. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com for today’s ride.

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