Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for April 13th

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Blood Drive/Cook Out/OTC Membership Renewal
Old Tascosa Cycling
Hot News Flashthewall writes “Get ready on May 4th at Coffee Memorial Blood Center 7500 Wallace Blvd. OTC Club along with Share The Road will be hosting a Bike Ride/Cook Out/Blood Drive. We will be renewing OTC Club Memberships as well as new ones,free socks while they last. Sun Adventure Sports is donating 2 Bikes,anyone that Donates Blood will be able to put there name in for the drawing and will…

Coast 2 Coast bicycle tour wheels through the area
By RACHEL HALL                www.yourhoustonnews.com

It may be the adventure of a lifetime worth crossing off a bucket list, but bicycling nearly 2800 miles in 52 days also requires mental and physical endurance. Some people may wonder why the group of cyclists who camped in Coldspring on Wednesday, April 10, consider themselves to be pampered on such an intense journey.

Bubba’s Pampered Pedalers are in the thick of their Coast 2 Coast Tour, which originated in San Diego, CA on March 9 and will end in St. Augustine, Fla. on April 29. The tour, which has been…

‘USA! USA! USA!’: Ride2Recovery pedals hard through Central Texas
www.kens5.com

by Katrina Gutierrez & Kens5.com
Saturday marks the final day six for the Ride2Recovery Texas Challenge.

A group of wounded warriors are biking 350 miles across the state this week. On Thursday morning, they left Killeen and headed to Waco

Many have done this challenge before, but for Marine Staff Sgt. Tim…

Bike to Work Day in Houston
newsfixnow.com

HOUSTON, TX – Had an easy commute today? Thank a bicycle! Houstonians opted for two wheels instead of four for Bike to Work Day.

“It’s a good reminder that it is possible to bike to work. We have a much more friendly city than we used to have and it’s getting better all the time. And we have a beautiful day for…

Free activities are planned April 27-28 around Kearney
by By SARA GIBONEY Hub Staff Writer        www.kearneyhub.com
…Bicycle Sunday will be April 28. Bicycle Sunday offers an opportunity for bicyclists to explore the trails through a series of checkpoints on the system. Each checkpoint features information on bicycling, games and refreshments.

Nearly 100 bicyclists participated in the event in October.

Participants will be entered in a drawing to win a family pool pass.

“We’re hoping that this can be the foundation for people to make certain changes in their life. If they go out this weekend and enjoy themselves, what’s to stop them from going to the parks, going to the Y, being more active and spending more time with their families next weekend?” Armstrong asked. …

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https://twitter.com/BikePaulie/status/323223162571599872

Squeeze In – April 13th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I did not expect to ride today due to a meeting but the weather was too nice and the opportunity came along after my meeting to get out there and ride.

When I left home at 4:24 the sky was partly cloudy with 81 degrees. The wind was behaving itself so I thought. I selected a short sleeve jersey thinking the 81 degrees would last for this 22.11 mile ride to Atascocita and Walden at Lake Houston. It didn’t take long for the clouds to come closer together and block the sun more and I started to feel a little cooler than I prefer but I rode on.

As I rode south I thought the wind sure did seem stiff for 14 mph and at the end of my ride I saw why: the wind increased to 18.4 mph with 23 mph gusts. No wonder I couldn’t seem to get my speed up and stay there. Once I made it to Walden my direction changed enough to have a tailwind for the way back home. My speed picked up enough to get my average speed up 14.5 mph.

I did see two other bicyclists even though it was later in the day.

April miles improved to 309.06 and year to date I stand at 1623.70 miles.

Tomorrow I have a meeting at church so I am thinking I will not get to ride but maybe I can have another “squeeze in” ride.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for April 12th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Today is Bike to Work Day in Houston!
abclocal.go.com/ktrk

HOUSTON (KTRK) — Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of two-wheeled vehicles on the road today because it’s Bike to Work Day here in Houston.

All over the city, bike shops are planning group rides for people to participate in…

Memorial – Work Party
GHORBA
Event category: General
Trail: Memorial Park
Sunday, April 28, 2013 – 1:00pm
Memorial Park work party will be taking place on Sunday, April 28th at 1 PM.
We will meet at the Dog Wash Station, GHORBA provides the tools. Tasks may vary from removing some of the fallen trees, trimming and some deberming. We’ll probably work for about 2-3 hours and may break out into smaller groups to accomplish other tasks depending on how many attendees we have. …

Bike Rodeo/Safety Fair to be held
www.brenhambanner.com
A Bike Rodeo/Safety Fair, sponsored annually by Brenham High School’s Anchor Club, will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Walmart parking lot.
Activities include a clinic on bike safety staged by the Brenham Police Department, races, a bike decoration contest and the Brain Minders puppet show in which characters like Gerald Giraffe reminds children to wear helmets when biking or using skates.

National Road Racing Standings
cyclingillustrated.com
Men’s
18Hector Rangel (PLANO, TX)16
23Heath Blackgrove (AUSTIN, TX)6
Women’s
10Lauren Stephens (DALLAS, TX)50

Beautiful wildflowers in Texas
By Pat Rush            www.dailygazette.com

Any cyclist who rides the highways knows about trash. You have your eyes on the front wheel most of the time, gazing a bit to the left or right, sometimes diverting your gaze to the strip of land beyond the shoulder upon which you’re riding.

There you see the trash, the broken bottles, the beer cans, the soda cans, the dirty diapers, the dead and decaying animal corpses. In the states I’ve been riding through, there are no bottle bills. The Adopt a Highway signs stand forlornly next to the unadopted highways.

A fortune in cans and bottles litter the roads across the…

Scholastic Racing Continues This Weekend in San Marcos, TX
www.usacycling.org

Cyclists from 20 different schools across Texas are expected to compete in a weekend of racing hosted jointly by Texas State University and the Texas High School Cycling League.   The weekend is the fifth of seven stops in the statewide scholastic road cycling series.  Students will compete in team-oriented races by competing in one of four skill-based categories: Boy’s A, Boy’s B, Boy’s C or Girl’s.  Each category will contest three races over the span of the action-packed weekend.  The action starts at 8:00am this Saturday with a road race followed by a 3 mile mostly uphill individual time trial that same afternoon.   Sunday morning…

Thursday Ride at Walnut Creek – Beginner/intermediate ride level
The Austin Mountain Bikers Meetup Group
Thursday, April 18, 2013        5:30 PM
Walnut Creek Park
12138 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX (map)
Back to normal summer hours

This will be a beginner ride and will be doing around 8 -10 miles.

If someone is willing to lead a faster group then we can have an intermediate group also.
Please be there and be ready to roll by 5:30 pm. We meet in the parking lot near the pool in the middle of the island.

Any question please call/text  me at…

The Club Sunday Morning Group road Ride
Woodlands Cycling Club
Sunday, April 21, 2013, 08:30am – 11:00am
Start time: 8:30 AM.
Start location:
“WFNB” (Woodforest National Bank) at the SW corner of FM 1488 and FM 2978, next to McDonalds, the previous location of the Sunday ride, before Tailgators, aka the ‘BikeLane’ ride.

Cycling commute a dangerous proposition until proposal approved
By Tom Zizka, Business Reporter            www.myfoxhouston.com

HOUSTON (FOX 26) – Weekends see a lot of cyclists take to the road for recreation, but biking to work has a long way to go before it catches on.

While Houston marked Bike to Work Day on Friday with a demonstration ride to City Hall, only about half a percent of commuters pedal to the workplace.

Josh Hargrave is one of those people.

He’s not a traditional cyclist, decked out in spandex and fancy equipment. Hargrave just…

Ouachita Challenge 2013
www.bigpigracing.org
We had a great showing of Big Pigs again this year at the Ouachita Challenge. Most of us raced the tour!  This year the weather was great, better than the hot and dry of last year!  Wanna congratulate those that finished, especially the green horns doing it for their first time. Tara Malone finished for her first time, riding with Susan Dean as her support and inspiration. Great work! It’s tough to finish the 60 miles of mountainous single track/jeep road when you haven’t done it.

And Congratulations to Dana Burch, he was on fire this year! At beginning of tour (race) before we even got to dirt road climb his pedal broke (the oh so reliable egg beaters), body came off the spindle and he had to head back to the truck. I saw him going the other way fast and thought, something bad…

Division West soldiers participate in Ride 2 Recovery
www.dvidshub.net
FORT HOOD, Texas – Six Division West soldiers traded their baggy camouflage uniforms and bulky combat boots for skintight Spandex shorts and featherweight cycling shoes to ride in the Killeen-to-Waco leg of the Ride 2 Recovery – Texas Challenge April 11.

“It’s truly a great experience to have all these people together and to feel the camaraderie,” said Sgt. 1st Class Connie Burt, a member of Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, Division West, who regularly competes in triathlons and…

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Time for a Long One – April 12th Bike Ride

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Wednesday and Thursday are getting to be weather change days. Last week a front moved through on those days and this week repeated. Yesterday afternoon the weather start to turn great but too late to get a ride in. Today though the weather was super. A clear sky, light 9 mph east breeze (calm most of the time) and temperature ranging from 75 to 81 at the finish. I don’t how I could ask for a better riding day for April. In a month or so the weather will be heating up. I did wear a short sleeve jersey over a long sleeve one in case the wind was cooler than the thermometer said. This was a fitting choice and I was comfortable no matter if I was with or riding into the wind.

Because of the two days off I decided I could ride a long ride so I tackled the “grass farm” route. This takes me to south of Huffman and then onto back roads to US90 and then Crosby. From Crosby I rode to Sheldon, Deussen Park and then I took a break in Summerwood at the Shell station before going north on W. Lake Houston Parkway.  When I was on Old Atascocita Road at the railroad crossing I caught up with two other riders waiting for the slow train to clear the crossing. They were from Kingwood and planned to ride about 40 miles on part of the route I was taking. After the train left I rode ahead of them and waited at FM2100 to give them two Texbiker.net business cards. Their names were Evan and Kristen. I wished them a good ride and rode on ahead of them. The route ended up at 54.46 miles. To show how great the weather was and my rested legs I averaged 16.1 mph on the route. I was very surprised.

At Crosby I stopped at McDonald’s for some ice water and a restroom break. The road surface on Old Beaumont Highway was recently replaced. The white edge lines had little  bumps to cause some noise when vehicles drive over them but they are not so bike friendly when the shoulder has stuff in it and I needed to move to the left of the white line. Thankfully the shoulder widened once i got past the Sheldon Industrial Park entrance.

After I left the Shell station in Summerwood I rode on W. Lake Houston Parkway to Will Clayton Parkway. Normally the traffic is not too heavy but my timing was not very good since it was after 4 PM on a Friday afternoon. I did not have any problems and all the vehicles gave me space when they passed. Once I was on Will Clayton the traffic decreased some. The next time I got into heavy traffic was when I returned to W. Lake Houston Parkway after riding on some back streets.

I started riding at 1:01 PM and got back home at 5:14.

April miles total 286.95 and year to date is 1601.59 miles. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com stats and maps.

In my April 6th ride report I went over my tire usage. The April 11th Texbiker.net Daily News Roundup lead article was The Great Tire Rotation Debate from RoadBikeRider.com. So yesterday I decided it was time to rotate my tires. The debate centers around which rotation method do bicyclists use. I use two depending on the mileage of the tires. My choice yesterday was to remove the front tire, move the rear tire to the front and install a new tire on the rear. I chose this method so that these tires wear out I will replace both with new tires. The front tire I removed had over 6500 miles on it and the rear tire I moved to the front had about 2500. If I get the same wear again the newly moved and installed tires both should wear out at the same time later this year.

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