Texas Bicycling Daily News Roundup April 6th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Biking an Increasingly Popular Alternative in Central Austin
by: Karl-Thomas Musselman
A few transportation related stories for this beautiful Texas weekend.

The City of Austin’s Bicycle & Urban Trails Program Manager released an analysis of cycling’s share of trip in various census tracks in the urban core. While the city has hit it’s goal of 2% of trip by bicycle citywide as previously reported here, Central Austin is at a 6% rate with North Campus, Hyde Park, North Loop, and parts of East Central Austin already in the teens.

Click the image at right for a larger version.

The first three months of 2013 have seen five important bicycle Capital Improvement Projects reach completion or make progress-

the Lance Armstrong Bikeway Downtown Section (3rd Street)
the Southern and Northern Walnut Creek Trails
the Austin to Manor Trail Phase I
the Barton Springs Road Cycle Track/Bicycle Lane Improvement Project

These projects, which are funded with a combination of federal grant funds and…

LMRA Bicycle Club
Week of April 7, 2013
LMRA Calendar

 Plano Bicycle Association Club Rides

Saturday B Squared Ride
Saturday DB1
Saturday DB2
Saturday Fast Forty
Saturday OAS Lite
Saturday Step-up Ride
Saturday DB Lite
Saturday Distance Builder Recreation Ride
Saturday Eastside Ride
Saturday Novice Ride
Saturday Tweener
Starbucks First Sunday Caffeine Cruise
Sunday Bikes N Bagels
Sunday Tempo Ride
Sat/Sun OAS Ride
Wednesday Night Dinner Ride
Wednesday Night Tweener Ride

Pics Of The New Bike Lanes On Collins – North Of Campbell
Bike Friendly Richardson

We got a notice from Dave Carter, with the City of Richardson, that more bike lanes were being installed – with more planned for the summer. I’m excited because the ones installed this summer will be in my neighborhood. Click here to see a map of the completed bike lanes in…

Micro Steamer
Corinth Cycling Club
Tue, April 16, 6:15pm – 7:15pm
Weekly on Tuesday
Where
133 Garza Lane, Shady Shores, TX
Description
Steady pace group ride 18+ mph with no attacking. …

Tweets

https://twitter.com/FtWMntBikers/status/320716846888255488

https://twitter.com/willcome23/status/320622425240899584

https://twitter.com/thejurgy/status/320620266763976704

Three Bikers Chilled – April 6th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Today I met two other bikers at the Kings Crossing Shopping Center to ride a south and east route. When I left the house at 8:45 the temperature was a paltry 55 degrees  so I dressed in two long sleeve jerseys, leg warmers, shorts and a windbreaker jacket. By the time I got to the shopping center I was warmed up and ready to brave the cool temperature. The wind was calm when we pulled out but as the ride progressed it picked up and when I got home the weather website reported 15 mph from the south. No wonder our speed dropped down when we turned into it. By the time I got home it was 70 degrees and my jerseys and jacket were soaked

As we approached FM1960 to go over Lake Houston we started to see many bikers coming from the east probably headed home or to Bike Barn as part of their Saturday ride. We kept seeing them until we turned north on FM2100 away from their route. I guess we saw 35 to 50 bicyclists. This was the first time my fellow riders had ridden this route. In the future I will have to take them on a tour of the grass farms over by Crosby. When we rode south on Timber Forest we stopped for a few minutes waiting on a number of runners to cross the street. Every time it looked like a break here came another bunch of runners. This is a switch from when I go on organized rides and people stop for bikers.

Our route was about 35 miles long from the shopping center but mine totaled 39.33 miles because I rode from home and back at the end. This increased my April mileage to 135.26 and 1449.90 year to date. My average speed was 15.4 mph. Traffic seemed a little heavier for a Saturday but some areas were having garage sales. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com.

Yesterday I was wondering how many miles I had on my current set of Continental Gatorskin tires so I looked in SportTacks, a program I use to track my biking. My front tire was mounted on 3/12/2012 at odometer reading 6439. Today’s odometer reading is 13018 which says the front tire has 6579 miles on it. I have never had a bike tire last that long. Usually I got 3000 miles on tire before the flats increased to a point that I replaced it. The current rear tire is not as long lived. The rear tire I installed on 3/12/2012 lasted 4224 miles and I replaced it on 10/5/2012 with my current rear tire, a Continetal Gatorskin. I replaced the tube at the same time because it had 5 patches. Since 10/5/2012 the current rear tire has 2355 miles and looks good. The number of flats dropped quite a bit with these tires. I did switch to a wider 25mm tire with the Gatorskins. I may rotate the rear tire to the front and install a new one on the rear. This should allow another 4000 miles on both tires before a need to change them.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for April 5th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Thursday Ride at Walnut Creek – Beginner/intermediate ride level
The Austin Mountain Bikers Meetup Group
Thursday, April 11, 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…

Overnighter with Bike Friendly Everyone
Bike Friendly Arlington

Simultaneously in different locations across the metroplex cyclists were packing their panniers or clipping into their pedals. We would soon converge at the same location to do one thing and one thing only: party.

Big thanks to Bike Friendly Midcities for putting the event together. The first — of hopefully many — one-day camping trips was a big hit with us. A S24HO (sub 24 hour overnighter) is meant to be an alternative to the state-line-crossing bike tours. It always last less than 24 hours so you can get back to your real life, in an out in time for laundry the next day.

Two of us set out from Arlington a little after noon. Leaving from Fuzzy’s Tacos we had a…

Action Alert: Complete Streets and Safe Passing Hearing in House Transportation Committee on April 9
BikeTexas.org
BikeTexas Executive Director Robin Stallings testified to the House Transportation Committee in the 2011 Session.Great news! Complete Streets (HB 1102) and Safe Passing (HB 2225) have both been scheduled for a hearing in the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday, April 9. We’re thrilled that both of these bills have reached the next step toward coming to a vote. Now you can help get them out of committee and onto the House floor!

Some members of the Transportation Committee are not yet ready to vote…

Cycling event to benefit disabled adults
Author: Julie Parr            www.ktbs.com
Texarkana, TX – It’s one ride through three states.
The first annual “Ark-La-Tex Challenge” kick’s off Saturday, April 6th.

Money raised from the event will benefit programs for the Texarkana Resources for the Disabled. The non-profit provides life-skills training, pre-vocational training and supported employment for…

New Wednesday Evening Tweener Ride
Plano Bicycle Association
WEDNESDAY NIGHT TWEENER RIDE!
FIRST RIDE- WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 6:00 PM

CARPENTER PARK- 6701 COIT RD
(South Side-Near Restrooms)
Come out and enjoy a moderately paced group ride with your fellow PBA cyclists!

Feature: Greater Dallas Bicyclists Club
WheelBrothers

1. How did the club come to life?
The Greater Dallas Bicyclists club started in 1970; this will be our 43rd season. It started as just a local group of riders that organized mainly for safer rides.

2. What is your cycling clubs mission?
Our cycling club mission is to promote health and fitness in a social atmosphere, nurture new riders, maintain and develop safer routes in collaboration with local authorities, and to do community service projects as they apply to our…

Tweets

https://twitter.com/FtWMntBikers/status/320144213431963649

Biking After 1 Wet and 2 Chilly Days – April 5th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

At 7 AM this morning it was 47 degrees. This meant I needed to be very optimistic that it would go up 25 degrees to reach the 72 degrees in the forecast. While I waited on the weather to heat up I watched the Tour of the Basque Country. As I ate lunch the temperature fluctuated between 68 and 70. Finally as I left the house on my ride at 2:00 PM my weather station reached 71 degrees. At first I was going to wear a long sleeve and short sleeve jerseys but i changed my mind to a long sleeve jersey and windbreaker jacket and no leg warmers. This turned out to be a good decision with the sunshine and calm wind. I was very comfortable and when i got back home I saw the temperature moved up to 76. After two days of overcast skies, rain on Wednesday and 55 degree max on Thursday it was great to get back on the bike.

I chose today’s route to get some extra miles to make up for the shorter routes on the two rides earlier this week. Riding north to New Caney and west on FM1485 this route totaled 37.66 miles, above the 32 miles I averaged per ride in April 2012. The calm wind helped me ride at 15.8 mph on average today and the two rest days probably played a part. April miles now total 95.93 and 1410.57 miles year to date. I did stop in Porter on the way back home to rest. I enjoyed the sun and Diet Pepsi as I sat on the concrete.

Tomorrow I will ride with the Houston Cycling Club Kingwood/Humble group. So far 3 of us plan on heading south and east through Huffman to the Liberty County line.  The weather looks like it will be slightly warmer on Saturday. This route should be around 40 miles.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com alternate route maps and stats.

Put your mouse pointer on a picture to pause the slide show.

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