Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for October 2nd

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Touring market racks up mileage at retail
by Steve Frothingham        Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
From the October 1 issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
By Chris Lesser
It was after completing a 2,300-mile bicycle tour from Oregon to Texas in 1980 that Wayne Borroughs began dreaming of opening up a bike shop to help perpetuate his love of bicycle travel. Borroughs worked at a shop in Fort Collins, Colorado, for seven years before opening up his own store, which he ran for another seven.  But neither experience truly scratched his itch for touring bikes.

“If I brought in just a dozen pairs of panniers and some good racks, and sold through them all by the end of the year, then I was doing well,” recalled Borroughs. “Before the Internet it was very difficult to focus on touring in a local market.”

Of course, then the Internet came, and as it did Borroughs closed his bike shop in order to focus on a touring-specific online store. First he concentrated on eBay sales, but by the early 2000s he began shifting his focus to his consumer-direct website, TheTouringStore.com. Today Burroughs is one of three full-time employees, and…

Tern provides share bikes for SXSW Eco conference
by Steve Frothingham            Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
AUSTIN, TX (BRAIN) — Tern, which provided share bikes at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin last spring, will do the same at a related event this month, the SXSW Eco conference.

The Eco conference is Wednesday through Friday at the AT&T Conference Center in Austin. The conference will explore challenges facing the economy, the environment and civil society.

“We’re thrilled to be back to help attendees `practice what they preach’ in terms of sustainability and…

Green Lane Project moves bicycling forward
People for Bikes Blog

PeopleForBikes.org’s parent foundation Bikes Belong is leading the way toward the next generation of bike lanes with the Green Lane Project. The Green Lane Project, launched in late May this year, is working with Austin, Chicago, Memphis, Portland, OR, San Francisco, and Washington, DC to support each city’s development of world-class protected bicycling networks, called green lanes, during the next two years.

Green lanes are safe, comfortable spaces for people on bikes on city streets. They are protected from motor vehicles by curbs, planters, posts, or parked cars. A green lane is an invitation to ride to a whole new range of people who otherwise wouldn’t feel comfortable biking on busy city streets. Green lanes address this fundamental and common concern about safety by creating dedicated spaces and low-stress routes for almost…

How is biking around Lake LBJ?
by JTBiker            www.bikeforums.net
Been biking in Fort Myers for 13 years on our Just Two Bikes (side-by-side) recumbent. We watched way too many Gator Boys & Swamp Wars episodes this summer at our MN lake cabin… wife wants to go where there are no gators, big snakes or lizards, but still be on the water. Many years ago we spent a winter on Lake Travis and drove over to Marble Falls and Horseshoe Bay for a brief tour but don’t remember much.

We like to bike 10-20 miles every day, weather permitting. My question is, how hilly are the trails and roads around Lake LBJ and adjacent to the lake? We plan to buy a home or condo on the lake if the biking is suitable for “senior leisure” riders like us. Thanks for your input. …

Ride East From the Oasis
Lone Star Cyclists
Pace: Touring
Date: Saturday, October 6, 2012 – 8:00am
Location: Lynn Creek Marina / The Oasis Restaurant, 5700 Lake Ridge Parkway, Grand Prairie
This Saturday we’ll be meeting at Lynn Creek Marina / The Oasis Restaurant and riding east to Cedar Hill and Lancaster. There are some mighty fine roads on the eastern side and we’ll be exploring them. The rains we’ve had recently have greened things up a bit, so the scenery should be pretty, too. Try to arrive 30 minutes early so we’ll be ready to depart on time.
Distances: 23 and 44 miles

October Meeting Minutes and TT awards
by salsaTopp            Brazos Valley Mountain Bike Association

Trail Maintenance will be this Saturday at 8 a.m.
With the heavy rain last weekend, there will likely be some dead fall to clean up. Trimming needs to happen at the bottom of the switchbacks. With the PowePedal coming up, we may do some work on the West loop… Maybe.

Speaking of, the PowePedal is coming up on October 13. Come on out and race!

Camping Nov. 2 at Camp Eagle is officially on the calendar as 2 shelters have been reserved for. BVMBA covers camping costs, but you will need to cover any day-use fee that might apply. ($10 for Camp Eagle?).

The annual trip to Big Bend is around the corner (pun intended!). February 14-16 is coming up fast and you don’t…

7:30am – Cup o Joe
by scottfranklin        Corinth Cycling Club
When: Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:30am to 9am  CDT
Where: Ronny Crownover Middle School
Event Description: The Cup o’ Joe is a beginner level ride of around 15 miles. The ride heads south to Hickory Creek and stops for drinks at Starbucks on the way home. The ride leader for this ride is Bob Troyer. …

Tour de Fat stops in Austin Oct. 20
By Pam LeBlanc            Fit City
Ready to take the plunge and trade your car for a bicycle for a year?

Organizers of this year’s Tour de Fat, an all-day cycling circus sponsored by New Belgium Brewing, will hand over a tricked-out commuter bicycle to someone who turns in their car keys and makes the pledge to go car-free for a year.

The swap is part of a free all-day, bicycle-centric festival set for Oct. 20 at Fiesta Gardens, 2100 Jesse E. Segovia Street. Proceeds from food and beer sales will benefit the Austin Cycling Association and…

Photos: 31st annual Chile Pepper Challenge
Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times        photos.elpasotimes.com

The 31st annual Chile Pepper Challenge, El Paso area’s biggest cycling event, was based at La Viña Winery in La Union, N.M. The event is sponsored by El Paso Bicycle Club.

About 900 riders took part in rides of 10, 20, 37, 62 and 100 miles. Proceeds benefited several local organizations, including Hospice of El Paso and Big Brothers, Big Sisters of El Paso.

Cyber Race
by Roy and Christine        Pedal Pushers

Our Saturday morning group ride was rained out (I’m not complaining), so I called our LBS (local bike shop)  and set up an appointment to workout on the CompuTrainer. One can compete against a “pacer” or ride alone. The course I have been using lately is a 10 mile track with intermediate hills (3-7%). On the start line I am in red with the pacer to the right in blue. Everyone is invited to travel with me as I race Mr. Avatar for 10 miles…

Feels Like Fall – October 2nd Bicycle Ride

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The clouds started to thicken about halfway through my bike ride. As I rode west from Huffman I glanced at the clouds to the north and they seemed dark, maybe containing some rain. This encouraged me to ride fast in case I needed to beat the rain. The wind felt cooler than when I started at 1:54 PM maybe because the wind picked up and the increased cloud cover. My route went to Huffman and back for a total of 29.81 miles at average speed of 15.7 mph (SportTracks) or 15.8 mph (Garmin Connect), a top speed of 22.3 mph and 80.5 RPM average cadence. The riding time was 1:53:51 with 37:24 time stopped in Huffman drinking a Diet pepsi and sending some messages on my new smartphone.

Maybe one of the reasons for the wind feeling cooler were the 17 mph gusts and the slightly lower 80 degree temperature from when I started. It seemed no matter which direction I rode the wind wanted to be a headwind. As I write this the radar shows some rain over the Humble area west of where my route went.

Yesterday I rode on my Bontrager wheels. Today I am back on the Mavic wheels with a patched tube. I am more use to the rear cogs on this wheelset. I maintained my speeds and did not have to pedal at quite as high RPM. The rear cassette on the Bontrager wheels is a SRAM but I don’t remember the gears. I will try to get some more miles of the Continental Gatorskin tires before I replace at least the rear one.

With two days of riding in October the miles total 61 and YTD miles are now 5357.85. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com metrics and maps.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for October 1st

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State wide trail maps for google earth
by 2000Z3M            forums.mtbr.com
I am starting to map out San Angelo state park. I will be making a shape file that can be loaded into google earth for anyone to use and see where the trails are. It will take time as I have to ride all of the trails, , about 60 miles. I want to have a massive file for all of use to use.

I am using the app my tracks from google for this. If you want to help out thank you. Right now I am looking for a place to load the file for all to use. …

Fairdale Weekender Review
urbanvelo.org

Fairdale is a young company headquartered in Austin, TX. The driving force behind Fairdale is Taj Mihelich, a former world-champion BMX rider, artist and musician. In 1998 Taj co-founded the BMX company Terrible One, which helped him gain considerable insight into the business side of the bike industry. Fairdale is also in cahoots with Odyssey BMX, which lends manufacturing and engineering expertise to Mihelich’s vision.

To many people who ride fixed or singlespeed bikes, the Weekender’s name makes perfect sense. After commuting all week on just one gear, it’s nice to have a few gears for…

West Texas Championship Series MTB Race 3
West Texas Cycling Association
Date: October 7, 2012
Location: Amarillo, TX
Contact: Team Kordestani
Details: West Texas Championship Series Race 3: Thin Mint Challende @ Girl Scout Camp

Upcoming Rides and Events
San Antonio Wheelmen
Saturday, October 6:  Big Joshua Creek Ride
Sunday, October 7:  Helotes-Castroville Ride
Saturday, October 13:  Woman Hollering Creek Ride
Sunday,  October 14:  Rebecca’s Mirror Ride

Texas Cup Action — State Road Race
www.txbra.org
Great job to those who braved the weather on Saturday at the State R/R on Ft Hood; some had a blast, some felt a blast, but everyone gave it their all…a special congrats to the ’12 State Champs!

The Anthills at Terry Hershey Park
www.houstonpress.com

“The Anthills” at Terry Hershey Park are more than nine miles of single dirt track that feature lots of ups and downs, roller-coaster-style (how the trail got its name), with some portions skirting the banks of Buffalo Bayou. It’s considered an intermediate trail, though some hills are bigger than others. Since it’s a bit farther out, it’s often less crowded than Memorial Park, plus there are paved trails nearby in case you get tired or want a change of scenery.

Bike Race Boosts Central Texas Economy
www.kwtx.com

FORT HOOD (September 30, 2012)–One of the biggest bicycle races in the state wrapped up this weekend in Central Texas. This year’s Texas State Championship Road Race had a 15% increase in participants. Despite some heavy rain this weekend, the state race on Fort Hood had more than 800 participants, which is the most in the past four years.

Race organizers say the race brings in more than just participants around the state. With the increase of participants, comes increased…

USA Elite Track Nationals Day Three
www.trackcyclingnews.com
1st October 2012: It was a thrilling day of racing on Sunday as the 2012 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships concluded at the VELO Sports Center in Carson. …. Rothe Training: Zachary Kovalcik (Portland, OR) and Stefan Rothe (Austin, TX) …

Bicycle Summit with TxDOT, October 30
Submitted by Ken Graham                Old Tascosa Cycling Club
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has requested a bicycle summit which Share the ROAD! will host on October 30 (Tuesday) at Coffee Memorial Blood Center (7500 Wallace Blvd). The meeting will begin with coffee and desserts at 6:30 pm followed by a Q&A session.

TxDOT has requested questions be emailed directly to Tracy Tellman (tracy.tellman@txdot.gov) by October 16.

Switch Out the Wheelset – October 1st Bicycle Ride

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I took two days off because of rain on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening the wind picked up from the northwest which means some cooler weather moves into the area. This morning when I check my home weather station shortly after 7 AM I saw 62 degrees, about 5 degrees higher than the weather forecast. While I waited for the temperature to go up some I ran some errands. By the time I got finished around 10:30 the temperature rose to 73. The clear blue sky beckoned me to ride even with the 16 mph northwest wind.

I donned a short sleeve jersey and bike shorts to get started at 11:40 but when I walked to the garage for my bike I squeezed the rear tire and di not get the response I wanted; it was soft. I took the wheel off and went out into the sun to look for the culprit but none appeared. Not wanting to lose more time I switched out the Mavic rims for the Bontrager rims, aired up the tires and took off. I don’t ride on the  Bontrager rims very often so I was surprised that the rear cassette start skipping in the third, fourth and fifth gears. Once I got up to sixth gear the skipping stopped so I pedaled much smoother. The Bontrager gearing is lower than the Mavic setup so getting to the same speeds meant that I must use the 9th and 10th cogs. Going into the wind as I rode north kept me going slow until I turned east on FM1314 at Porter. This put with the wind until I turned north on Loop 494. The buildings and trees broke the wind enough that I could speed up some.

When I got to New Caney and turned west on FM1485 for the short distance to US59 I hit the wind straight on. When I turned south on US59 the wind almost became a tailwind and I picked up my speed some. Over the 31.19 mile route I averaged 15.8 mph with a 23.1 mph top speed and 82.9 RPM average cadence. Now that I headed back home the wind mostly came from my back or right rear quarter. Going into Valley Ranch presented a challenge with a headwind for almost a mile but I started going south again and held my speed. I got back home at 1:54 PM with 1:58:46 riding time and 5:28 time stopped.

After eating lunch I examined the rear wheel and found another hole in the tube. I patched the tube, aired up the tire and now I wait to see if the repair fixed the problem. I could not find the cause of the leak though.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com maps and metrics.

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