Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for November 26th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

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10 Tips for Teaching Kids to Ride a Bike
by Maryanne Williams             www.shareananny.com
Teaching your child to ride a bike can be either a fun or a frustrating experience, depending on how you approach tackling the task. If you know that you have a problem with patience, you may want to leave the job to someone else. On the other hand, the time spent bonding with your child during bike riding lessons can be a lot of fun, and will definitely create memories that will last a lifetime. Check out these tips to make the lessons less stressful.

1. Confirm that your child is ready to ride – Remember that kids develop differently. Your 3 year old may be ready to ride, while your 5 year old would rather keep both feet planted firmly on the ground. Don’t push your child into…

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Lakeway Trails Ride Pics – 11-25-12
www.austinbike.com
If you haven’t been out to the lakeway trails, you owe it to yourself to make the trip.  Lots of climbing, hairy downhill runs, plenty of technical features, definitely worth the ride. The weather was beautiful, what started off as a cold morning became very moderate before we even hit the trail.  Some strong sunshine really helped to light up all of the switchbacks that hide under the tree canopy.

Today we were out there and ran into one of the trail builders, they’re building another run down the backside of the main hill. Definitely going to add some significant mileage to the overall trail.  We climbed about 1100 feet in less than…

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Cyclocross Cup Race 3 of 5 – SE Park
West Texas Cycling Association
Date: December 2, 2012
Location: Amarillo, TX
Contact: Sun adventure Sports        806-351-2453
Details: $20 entry fee with cash payouts. Any bike can race. Best 4 of 5 races count for the series.

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Georgetown Cyclopaths
December Rides

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2012 Holiday Boutique Ride – Dec 15th
by UrbanPedal            Dallas Cycle Chic
It’s that time of year again! Since last year’s Holiday Boutique ride to West Village and Knox St shops was such a hit, we’re doing it again. Only this year we’re spreading the love to Deep Ellum and Exposition Park!

And, since we have a new bike-friendly group in the neighborhood, we’re partnering with Bike Friendly South Dallas too.

So grab your basket, panniers or milk crates – we’re going holiday shopping Cycle Style.

You’re going to be blown away by the collection of places we found nestled between restaurants and businesses over here. Some real gems you’ve probably never heard of! Best of all, our ride will end at the Deep Ellum…

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Testing bike trails at Waco’s Cameron Park
By Pam LeBlanc            Fit City

Ever eager to wage battle with dirt, tree roots and rocks this long holiday weekend, my husband and I lashed our mountain bikes to the pickup truck and headed north to Waco.

Yes, Waco.

Even though we’ve got Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park and the Barton Creek Greenbelt and an assortment of other savory places to mountain bike here in Austin, I wanted some new scenery. I’d visited Cameron Park on my bike once, about five years ago, and Chris had never…

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Forest Service Survey
by bobdole            GHORBA
The Forest Service is writing a master plan for the next 20 years and is requesting input from land users such as yourself. The survey is wide in scope covering all USFS lands in the State of Texas so it is not just limited to Double Lake. This is a good opportunity to voice your input and make known how you utilize these public lands as the Forest Service moves through their master planning process. This master plan will guide the decision making and the user opportunities that will be available on these public lands. This survey is being hosted on the Sam Houston Trails Coalition website and is available at this link http://trailscoalitionoftexas.org/survey/
Responses must be submitted by December 10th 2012.

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Tweets

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83 Degrees in the Fall – November 26th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

What can I say about the weather today? This is one of the reasons I like living in the upper gulf coast area of Texas. Mostly cloudy skies, 83 degrees (yes, it is November 26th) and a strong SSW wind of 12 mph with 18 mph gusts pulled me out onto the road. Not really, I wanted to go and this was icing on the cake. As I rode by Atascocita High School the message board showed 84 degrees and later in Huffman the sign at Action Signs repeatedly said 83 degrees while wishing everyone happy holidays. The weather is supposed to turn cooler tomorrow with a front and a small amount of rain.

With such nice weather I decided to ride a little longer route than yesterday. I thought the route would end up around 33 miles but I got lost in Walden at Lake Houston so I rode 36.03 miles. I upped the average speed to 15.6 mph from yesterday even though I battled the wind going west on FM1960 over Lake Houston. I think I was tired from riding fast with the wind that the reserve was used up when I turned into the wind. The radiator effect hit whenever I rode east of Lake Houston and on FM1960 over Lake Houston. The cooler water lowered the wind temperature enough that I could feel the difference. Riding on Fairlake Drive east and parallel to Lake Houston I could feel the coolness though there were houses and about 200 yards of land to the lake. My top speed was 21.9 mph at 79.2 RPM average cadence. Riding time was a little longer than usual at 2:18:35 and 25:02 stopped time. November miles now total 290.61 and YTD totals 6230.84 miles.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for November 25th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

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Cranksgiving 2012 Ride Pics
www.AustinBike.com
It was a beautiful day today out at Pace Bend. Rumor had it that there were over 100 riders – I even saw a tandem (and not Jay).

The trails were in great shape, but Leif left them a little dusty for us. Only managed to get in two laps before I had to head out, but at almost nine miles and 650 feet of climbing per lap, that was a respectable day.

If anyone wants full sized pictures of themsleves, ping me and I can toss them up on the server for you to download.

Location: Pace Bend – Spicewood

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A BIG drop in the bucket!
by drsduve            Austin Ridge Riders
Hello All,

I had an awesome and empowering day riding in the 2012 Cranksgiving Race at Pace Bend!  This “bucket list” first mountain bike experience was a life affirming moment in time for me…I know I can do this and more!  As it turns out, I’ve got the bike bug and will come better equipped next event.I met some great people like Laura and Jeff who greeted me and thankfully withheld their trepidation when I approached the registration table as a naive…

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A Tale of Two Cut Corners
by Steve A            DFW Point-to-Point

Ian Brett Cooper, in his blog, here, wrote: “Woman on cellphone turns left, cuts corner, nearly kills my daughter She turns left onto our road, narrowly misses the curb, travels towards us in her left hand lane (our lane)…”

Four days later, riding home from work without considering the irony, Steve A turns left, cuts corner, considers how doing so violates the “Land Rover Rule” and how he’s got no regrets.

Of course, Steve A does not advocate cutting corners, nor riding the wrong way, not even when visibility is great. OTOH, Steve IS a fan of physics and of going where no motorist can go in preference to trusting a lady with her…

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Tweets

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Escaped Thanksgiving Without Gaining – November 25th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

First ride after Thanksgiving waited until Sunday. Friday featured sporadic rain and Saturday slowly warmed up to 67 degrees. I had my doubts about the temperature reaching the 75 degree forecast but it got close at 73 when I finished at 2:31. When I left home at 12:31 the sky lacked any clouds but as I rode some wispy clouds started to move in from the south and southwest. I dressed like it was going to be cool with a long sleeve jersey over a short sleeve one. I am glad I did because in the shade the 10 mph breeze made it feel cooler than you would expect. I think the pavement cooled down with two nights in the 40’s so when the wind goes by it cools down. I notice a similar effect when I ride over Lake Houston and the water is cooler than the air.

Fortunately Thanksgiving did not add any to my weight. In years gone by I have been known to add 7 or 8 pounds. I would like to drop a couple of pounds but that is not such a big deal.

My route selection today took me north to Porter where I turned east on FM1314. This was my first time into the wind and I could feel the coolness even in the full sun. This alternated as I turned back north on Loop 494 to Community Drive where I went west for a short distance and then took the US59 south service road to Valley Ranch. Once I crossed over US59 on Community Drive (the high elevation point for the ride) it was into the wind most of the time. This route totaled 28.37 miles at 15.4 mph average speed, 22.9 mph top speed and 78.4 RPM average cadence. With this less than 30 mile distance the riding time came to 1:50:40 plus 9:05 time stopped. Mileage totals: 75.94 miles this week, 254.58 miles in November, and 6194.8 miles YTD.

A sad point on the ride happened when I got to the Old Sorters Road and FM1314 intersection. About 200 feet west of the intersection a full size pickup and a small pickup collided. I stopped at the traffic signal as a Porter fire truck, Montgomery Country Sheriff and a Montgomery County Hospital District ambulance all arrived at the scene. There were several people standing around the big pickup. I could not see the damage from where I stopped. With the traffic backed up I waited until the green light to cross over FM1314 and continue my ride.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com data views.

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