Cycling Around The Globe: Houston We Have A Problem
by Rudy Pospisil         blogs.theprovince.com
It felt like home in British Columbia. The green grass waving in the wind, trees, streams and cooler weather after the extreme heat in the deserts. I longed to lie in tall grass again so I pulled off the road and dropped my saddlebag down in the tall grass for a pillow and gazed up at the small figures the puffy white clouds made. I drifted off to a short sleep dreaming of bed bugs biting me at a cheap hotel room. I awoke to see vultures that were following me circling over head. The bites in my dream did not stop. I jumped up and my legs were covered in red ants right up into the inside of my cycling shorts and they were biting me with a painful sting.
Frantically I kicked off my shoes dropped my cycling ginch to my knees jumping and rubbing the thousands of stinging ants from my body.I did what must have seemed like an Indian rain dance to any farmer watching me. Likely I would have been shot…
Team LIVESTRONG Challenge 2012 in Austin, TX
by WB admin            The Wheel Brothers – Cycling in Texas
The Team LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin 2012 invites you to join their ride on October 19-21, 2012 starting at Palmer Events Center – 900 Barton Springs Road, Austin, TX
We were lucky enough to be granted an interview with Matt Florio of Team LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin to ask some questions about their upcoming ride.
How long has the event been around?
This is the 16th year of the event.
What was the motivation behind starting the tour and who benefits from it?
Lance Armstrong started the ride, originally called the Race for the Roses, in 1997 to raise money for cancer survivors and their families in Austin. The event has blossomed as the Foundation has grown and matured. The money raised goes back to LIVESTRONG and is used to fund programs and services for people affected by…
Visiting houston
by yourideit         forums.mtbr.com
I’ll be visiting your fine state and I’m bringing my adventure bike. It ain’t a road bike or a mountain bike, and it definitely ain’t no hybrid. I’m looking to get in two rides. Day 1). A longish gravel/dirt road ride. Day 2). Non technical single track. I’ll have a car and am willing to drive a bit. Can you guys point me in…
Houston Bicycle Club Meeting
Tuesday 11/13/12 at: 7:00 PM HEB Community Room at I-10 and Bunker Hill. Refreshments are served at 7:00 pm followed by business reports and program at 7:30 pm. Meetings are held in the Community Room of the HEB store at I-10 and Bunker Hill. Enter directly from the parking lot.
Tour de Fat Austin Has Arrived!
www.austincycling.org
Hold on tight, because Tour de Fat is heading back to finish up another fantastic season in our backyard! New Belgium Brewing’s cycling circus, Tour de Fat, is returning to town for one day on Saturday, October 20 at the West End of Fiesta Garden. Tour de Fat rookies and veterans alike are encouraged to grab a bike and join us for a whimsical day of entertainment and two-wheeled revelry, all while raising money for Austin Cycling Association and Austin Ridge Riders. …
#Austin: Cycling Party Celebration
by Darryl         lovingthebike.com
If you’ll be in Austin next Saturday, October 20th please join us at The 263 for an afternoon of bicycle celebration. RSVP on Facebook.
There is the great new restaurant that recently opened up on Cuernavaca Drive and it just happens to be located on one fantastic cycling loop that you all should add into your ride if heading west down Bee Cave Road. …
Bike Lane Update
by dickdavid         Bike Friendly Richardson
From the City Of Richardson‘s weekly newsletter:
The City Council received an update on efforts to expand the Bike Transportation Program in Richardson at its work session on Monday. The City is among many other municipalities and organizations in North Texas working to provide more bike lanes and improve safety for people who commute by bike. Many of these bike routes are designed to connect across the region when complete.
Expanding Richardson’s bike lane system and enhancing pavement markings and signage is one of the City Council’s near-term goals. Ten miles of a planned 20 miles of bike lanes have been…
8:00am – Harden Dental Team Ride
Corinth Cycling Club
When: Sat Oct 20, 2012 8am to 11am CDT
Where: Ronny Crownover Middle School
Event Status: confirmed
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.
Upcoming Events
by bobdole         GHORBA Anthills Work Party Saturday 10/13 8:30 AM – The Anthills crew will be working on removing old bridges, cleaning up the trail and completing a few trail work projects.
General Meeting Monday 10/15 7:00 PM – GHORBA will be hosting a general meeting at Star Pizza on Norfolk. Come out and meet the Board of Directors as well as your fellow members. We will be covering topics on current events facing the trails as well as opportunities for the organization. If you have an idea for the board this is a great time to come out and share it. Since pizza will be provided, please RSVP if you are planning to attend.
Group Ride Saturday 10/20 10:00 AM – GHORBA is hosting a beginners only group ride at Sugar Land Memorial Park on 10/20. Much of the well shaded, triple-wide track runs along the banks of the Brazos River which offers a couple of nice views from high up. Roots, rocks, and long climbs are nowhere to be found! Instead the…
Each cyclist has a personal experience in regard to a donation. Josh Canal is this year’s Lone Star Circle Bike Tour title honoree.
Canal received a new heart at age 17 and passed away less than 15 years later. …
PT bike, run scheduled for Oct. 13
Submitted by Ellysa Gonzalez      lubbockonline.com
The Student Physical Therapy Association of Texas Tech University Health Sciences School of Allied Health Sciences will host a bike ride and 5K fun run to raise money for burn patients on Saturday.
Bike ride participants can ride 25 miles or 50. The 50 mile bike ride will begin at 9 a.m. and the 25 mile ride will start at 9:05 a.m. Bike riders are required to wear a helmet.
Race day registration for the event will be $15 for the run and $25 for the bike ride. Students can get $5 off with student ID.
The great riding weather continued today but my yard desires moisture. The weather forecast does not reveal any moisture for the foreseeable future. I started riding today at 10:22 earlier than any other day this week. This allowed me to finish by 12:44. The temperature was pleasant ranging from 79 at the start to 86 when I got back home. Partly cloudy skies kept the sun from hiding and the 10 mph SSE breeze helped keep the heat at a reasonable level.
I rode to Huffman and the route was 30.61 miles long. I added an extra section to the start to get close to that distance and it worked. I averaged 15.5 mph and topped out at 22.8 mph with 78.6 RPM average cadence. Riding time was 1:58:36 with 23:15 stopped time. I did not see any other bicyclists along the route. I did not encounter any problems during the ride. My buzzing front seems to have settled down but the speeds have not been as fast as last weekend in Lufkin nor the roads as rough. The bearings are in transit and when they arrive I will checkout the installation steps.
Mileage standings: 150.21 miles this week, 349.11 miles in October and 5645.95 miles YTD. The YTD surpasses my previous record (2011) of 5640.72 for a whole year. So with 2 1/2 months to go I could make it to 6,000 miles. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com for today’s ride.
Think about it, that cherished bike that you love to ride so much spends more time hanging out waiting for you to ride it than it does actually on the trail or road.
That’s not a knock against you or how much you ride, its just fact. You have to sleep, work, eat and can’t be riding your bike 24/7 even though we would all like to.
Sure, you can lean it up against a wall or a piece of furniture, but that takes up awkward space and your bike could easily fall over. And in my experience, when I have to lean my bike up against something it’s often times not that convenient to get to or to work on.
Wouldn’t it be better to have a dedicated space for your bike where it’s not taking up valuable space but is still convenient to get to? That’s why you need a good bike rack.
The problem with retail bike racks
So you need a rack, but now what kind? If you check out the local bike shop you will find several varieties, most range from $50 or $60 all the way up to $3-400. Personally I don’t want to spend that kind of money on a bike rack. Remember, I’m all about keeping costs down in this often times incredibly expensive sport.
My favorite example of a crazy high price tag is the VeloGrip Bike rack. It is a beautiful system for hanging your bikes upright against a wall where they are easily stored out of the way. I love the idea of this rack, it has a storage shelf, it holds multiple bikes and you can even store extra wheels as well!
But this VeloGrip bike rack also costs $250+. There is no way I can afford that.
That’s why I set out to build my own. Sure, it’s not as pretty as the VeloGrip with their multiple color options and slick paint job but it works just as well and it costs 1/5th the price.
DIY VeloGrip Bike Rack
This bike rack was really simple to build and is great for keeping the more seldom used bikes out of the way. My wife for instance greatly prefers road riding and so her mountain bike unfortunately doesn’t get used that often. This rack keeps it out of the way and yet very neatly stored.
Here’s the materials you need.
1 6 foot iron or lead pipe
3-5 Husky Hang-All straps
2 or 3 heavy duty shelf supports
Heavy duty zipties
3-5 metal O-rings
3-5 metal S-hooks
3-5 metal caribeaners (optional)
I had to do some digging on this to find a suitable replacement for the VeloGrip brand velcro straps that wrap around the wheels. But finally I found the Husky Hang All straps available at The Home Depot for about $5 a strap. I chose the 36 inch version, which in hindsight may have been too long and I would probably recommend the 24 inch.
All in all, the materials for this rack only cost me $60.
Mount the heavy duty shelf supports to the wall, and make sure you mount them into a stud. Lay the iron pipe over the top of the shelf supports hooks and then slide the O-rings onto the pipe. Once the O-rings are in place use the zipties to secure the iron pipe to the shelf supports. Finish it off by hooking the Husky Hang-All straps to the S-hooks and caribeaners.
Your DIY VeloGrip bike rack is ready to use!
This has been a great bike rack for our family and I really like the way it allows the bikes to swivel sideways to take up less space. It does not however make it a convenient place to store a bike that I ride frequently. I inevitably still leaned my bike up against my workbench or a wall after a ride because I knew that I would be back on it the next day and didn’t want to go to the trouble of hanging it up.
PVC Bike Rack
So I got to looking online and found a few examples of PVC bike racks that looked to be very secure and convenient, made a few modifications for mountain bike tires and built it up.
This is a great rack for convenient access to my daily rider and it looks terrific with the paint job. The best part is that it only cost about $10 to build, PVC is super cheap!
I will admit that my 29″ tires are a little bit snug and I may make some adjustments in the future so that they better fit in this rack. My roadbike and other 26 inch mountain bike tires fit perfectly though.
Here’s the materials you need to make this.
1 10 foot piece of PVC
8 90 degree PVC elbow joints
6 T-shaped PVC elbow joints
A measuring tape or ruler
A hand saw, skil saw or PVC cutters
A sharpie
Spray Paint (optional)
PVC cement (optional)
Start off by cutting your PVC pipe down to the lengths you will need. Measure out each length with your ruler and mark it with you sharpie. Then take your saw or PVC cutters and cut along that mark. You will need the following lengths of PVC in order to make a bike rack for 1 bike
2 – 23″ lengths
2 – 14″ lengths
4 – 7″ lengths
3 – 2.5″ lengths
2 1.25″ lengths
Once you have all of your pieces cut, just adjoin them using the 90 degree elbows and T-shaped elbows. PVC is great because it’s like adult legos, just snap them together and your pretty much done!
I chose to paint my rack to give it a little extra style and also chose to use PVC cement for a more permanent seal between pieces.
Final Thoughts
I’m really happy with how both of these racks came out. They are very functional, convenient and best of all cheap to create. Certainly, these aren’t perfect by any means and especially the Velogrip knock-off could use some prettying up.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how these DIY bike racks work out for you if you try them or if you have other ideas that could be just as great. Â Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Edit** One of our readers, Lars, mentioned in the comments that there is a similar rack to what I have built on Amazon for only $16! THAT IS NUTS! You can check it out through this link.
Be aware though and read the reviews of it. According to the reviews it only fits some bikes, many 26″ MTB’s with disc brakes don’t seem to fit and I would be doubtful that a 29er would fit. But it is a great deal for road bikes or disc-less MTB’s.
