Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for February 9th

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Flat Rock Ranch Ride Pics – 2-8-13
AustinBike.com

Nothing better than a free day off at work.  And, how to spend it?  On the best singletrack in the Hill Country. We took a day off and headed out to Flat Rock Ranch to ride the lower loop (plus the extra) and ended up with 1500 feet of climbing and 16 total miles.

Crispy had to bail so he missed the great riding.  Maybe next time he’ll spend a little more time on the trails and less time with his fruity apricot beer.

8:00am – Harden Dental Team Ride
Corinth Cycling Club
by Scott Franklin
When: Sat Feb 23, 2013 8am to 11am  CST
Where: Ronny Crownover Middle School
Event Description: This is the weekly training ride for the Corinth Cycling/Harden Dental race team. This is a 62 mile loop on an established route. Expect a fast pace and be prepared to fix your own mechanicals. There are no stops on this ride. -8:00am

Riding the Trails in Kingwood TX

I took this series of video clips while riding my Motobcane 700HT mountain bike on the Kingwood Trails. This was an experiment using a new handle bar mount for a RCA video camera. The ride video is a little shaky as I hit bumps on the trails. I could probably lessen the bumps by lowering the tire pressure. The big problem is the noise from my WTB knobby tires. This buzz is from the tires.

Tweets

https://twitter.com/bikenoob/status/300398397175787520

 

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for February 8th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Gonna be in Temple / Killeen area in March. What trails?
akaHector            forums.mtbr.com/texas
Hey, guys and gals! Coming to visit family next month and hoping to hit the trails some. I’ve ride BLORA in the past but don’t remember it being anything special. Any other recommendations? Bringing the singlespeed hardtail 26er, so no dh action or anything crazy like that on this trip. Thanks for the replies!

Thursday Ride at Walnut Creek – Beginner/intermediate ride level
The Austin Mountain Bikers Meetup Group
Thursday, February 14, 2013        4:30 PM
Walnut Creek Park
12138 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX (map)
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 4:30 pm. We meet in the parking lot near the pool in the middle of the island.
Any question please call/text  me at…

Corinth Cycling/Harden Dental Team Introductions

Mike McCrary (The Closer) Broad shoulders and massive thighs throw that carbon SL4 back and forth as he sprints to the line at 40 miles an hour, his breathing in perfect sync with his pedal strokes. Mike is our strongest sprinter; he closes races just like he does your next home mortgage.

Very possibly our fastest CAT 3, The Closer is a jack of many trades…cyclist, mortgage lender and owner/operator of Elements Nursery in Crossroads Texas; Mike also does…

Training Ride #6: Levine Park (downtown Sealy) arrive at 7:30am
Schlumberger Cycling Club
3 Routes Available: 29, 41, and 46 miles

We are riding from Levine Park in downtown Sealy. PLEASE CAR POOL as parking is limited. Arrive early (7:30am) to to insure enough time to get your gear ready and to hear the safety and ride announcements. We will roll out at 8am. This ride offers 29, 41 and 46 mile routes. This will be our first introduction to some rolling hills.

Fort Worth Bicycling Association Rides
The Rusty Chain Gang Ramble
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 9:00 am
Fort Worth: Columbus Trail City Building

Burleson and Beyond
Thursday, February 14, 2013 9:00 am
Burleson: Commerce Street

The Rusty Chain Gang Romp
Thursday, February 14, 2013 9:00 am
Benbrook: YMCA

Joe Pool Lake
Saturday, February 16, 2013 9:00 am
Grand Prairie: Lynn Creek Marina

Lipan to Milsap
Saturday, February 16, 2013 9:00 am
Weatherford: TXDOT Parking Lot

Beginners and casual ride
Saturday, February 16, 2013 10:00 am
Benbrook: Art’s Park Trail Head

Tweets

https://twitter.com/BikePaulie/status/300056920931303425

https://twitter.com/thejurgy/status/300020388451201024

https://twitter.com/BikePaulie/status/299879280475779072

 

A Change of Pace Ride – February 8th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Today was a change of pace ride on my mountain bike. I wanted to try a camera mount to see what the video looked like and how the mount worked on the handle bar. Also I only had a short amount of time to ride because we are going to the Arena Theater later this afternoon to see the Gaither Vocal Band and Friends in concert. I rode the trails in Kingwood for 11.8 miles under a blue sky with 69 to 72 degrees and a light 6 mph variable breeze. The breeze was barely noticeable among the trees. One thing I noticed quickly was that my road bike legs do not transfer to mountain bike legs. Maybe the extra weight slowed me down. I squeezed the tires before I left and they seemed to be the right pressure but I labored up the smallest incline. On the road I have no problem with similar changes in the elevation.

The camera mount held the RCA pocket camera perfect and I started and stopped the clips easily. In the bright sun it was a problem to see if the red “record” light was on or off so a couple of the clips ended up a lot longer than I wanted. I like to keep the clips under 15 seconds and some exceeded that 3 or 4 times. When I got home and watched the videos on the camera the loud noise from my tires over powered the natural background sounds. My goal is to spend as little time as possible editing the videos so the sound is an issue. I used this camera in Coldspring but without the mount while riding my road bike with minimal noise. This leads me to think the tire noise is not tied to the mount but just the noisy MTB tires. They are rather knobby. I don’t know if I will include the video or not.

Tomorrow I will not be able to ride due to a meeting. Sunday and Monday show a 50% chance of rain in the forecast. I want to ride the Humble Lions Bike Ride on Saturday February 16th subject to the weather but I have not preregistered in case the weather is bad. One ride I have preregistered for is the Baytown Gator Ride. Last year the Gator Ride got rained out but I am optimistic this year. I may end up with a $30 T-shirt and no ride. I always enjoy the Gator Ride because we ride over the George Hartman Bridge and then go on the Lynchberg Ferry. Other than the bridge it is a flat ride.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for February 7th

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SM Wright a Complete Street?
Bike Friendly Oak Cliff
Cities around the country are moving to reduce the impact of highways and large arterial on local economic development and quality of life. They are doing it by replacing the dinosaurs of the transportation world (grade seperated highways) with at-grade multi-lane boulevards. Boulevards move high traffic volumes while creating a generous pedestrian realm and living environment by separating through traffic from local access lanes. …

Bicycle chase leads to arrest
Joe Trantham was chased by a DFC Cycle employee
By JENNIFER LOESCH        AVALANCHE-JOURNAL lubbockonline.com

A Lubbock man learned a valuable lesson Thursday: don’t steal from DFC Cycles and Fitness on Indiana Ave.

Alleged thief Joe David Trantham, 25, learned the hard way when Lubbock police arrested him with the help of a store employee on Thursday afternoon.

DFC Cycle employee Charles Cook, 20, said he and another decided to keep an eye on Trantham after he reportedly displayed strange…

Yeah Man! Northshore 6hr Race Recap, Single Speed Style
www.bigpigracing.org
First, I loved that Chaos (Race Director) didn’t make the SSrs do the road at the start and let us jump right in to the trail. Really helped me get into a rhythm quicker. That being said, I wasn’t sure what gear to run and I picked 32×20, which I discovered during the race that I should have run a 19 to get more speed in the straights. Conditions were amazing! The weather and the trail were damn near perfect! I made a last minute decision to not wear any arm/leg warmers and was glad I did… it warmed up real quick!

Based on feed back from my teammates, I didn’t kill it on the start, just started out at a pace just a bit slower than XC. I think I hit the trail about 5th or 6th place? I had mixed up severals bottles of Skratch labs and also water. I decided to try for 2 laps before swapping bottles and I think I did that for the first 4 laps. Just liquids on lap 1. I took shot bloks (one one package of 6 the entire race, laps 2-4) and I did one hammer gel shot (Lap 6?) and also stopped and…

Plano Bicycle Association Rides
Saturday B Squared Ride
Saturday DB1
Saturday DB2
Saturday OAS Lite
Saturday Step-up Ride
Starbucks First Sunday Caffeine Cruise
Wednesday Night Dinner Ride
Saturday DB Lite
Saturday Distance Builder Recreation Ride
Saturday Eastside Ride
Sunday Bikes N Bagels
Sunday Tempo Ride
Sat/Sun OAS Ride

Tweets

https://twitter.com/BBQ44/status/299521523981615105