Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for September 10th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Thanks to the MTBR Dfw folks…
by Knights511            forums.mtbr.com
I was accused of being antisocial within DORBA and not participating in events and stuff…..

I was accused rightfully so.

I did my first social ride today (I actually just posted on FB that I was going to go for a “fat guy” ride and left it as an open invitation), and I got to meet 3 good folks who came out. Funny how one of them has been around DORBA for a long time and had the same complaint about a lack of social based rides and stuff…. so yeah…. there will be more “fat guy” rides down at CHSP in the future, …

Be Part of the League’s Annual Ride Guide!
bikeleague.org
Whether it’s a single day or a full year, whether its 10 miles or 1,000, one ride can change your life. And we want to hear about it! We’re putting together our most popular magazine of the year — The Ride Guide & Tour Finder — and we need your input.

If you’re a League member club or advocacy organization: We want to include your top ride for 2013 in our national list. Please enter ONE ride into our registration system here by September 17.

If you’re an individual League member: Tell us about your favorite ride! Submit 100 words describing the most memorable ride of your life and we’ll include them in the issue! Email your submission to Carolyn@BikeLeague.org by September 17

City Cycling Classes
www.austincycling.org
City Cycling Classes at Local Universities
Free to the public
Thanks to a Community Transformation Grant from the City of Austin with funds from the Affordable Health Care Act, the Austin Cycling Association is going to be presenting City Cycling classes at five local universities during September. Registration for these classes is free and open to the public.

City Cycling is a three-hour program developed by League Cycling Instructors to present basic information about riding in an urban setting. It includes techniques to avoid crashes and enjoy using a bicycle for transportation. One of the basic tenets of…

Lancaster Loops
Lone Star Cyclists
Pace: Touring
Date: Saturday, September 15, 2012 – 8:00am
Location: Lancaster, on the Square (NE corner of Dallas Ave/Hwy 342 and East 1st Street)
Distances: 31 and 54 miles
The Lancaster Town Square address is 159 East 1st Street (Google 32.593194,-96.756222).

We’ll revisit some of David Chamberlain’s routes, although some roads have changed since he did his maps 10 years ago. I got to watch a stunt plane doing tricks over the Lancaster Airfield as I drove the routes so maybe we’ll get another show on Saturday.

September Trail Maintenance
by salsaTopp        Brazos Valley Mountain Bike Association
Before and After
Great thanks this month to:
James “the maintenance machine” Munnerlyn, and Jason “the brave guy who got paired up with ‘the maintenance machine’” Foster who spent from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday morning working. Mikey, Joel, Kim, Ali, and Christopher.

The directives this month were to “CLEAR ALL POTENTIAL DEADFALL!” from rollercoaster, wild flower and Munnerlyn. Let me tell you folks, there was a Lot of potential…

Krueger Canyon-River Road Ride
San Antonio Wheelmen
Date:     09/23/2012
Time:     08:00 AM-11:00 AM
Location:     Schertz, TX
Details: Krueger Canyon-River Road (NE) [R to H].  Routes of 28, 48, 55, and 72 miles available. Ride up Krueger Canyon to the hills of Canyon Lake and then cruise back to the school on River Road. The longer route includes Devil’s Backbone/Purgatory loop.  Take I-35 N to Exit 177, then left to FM 482, take a right on FM 482 and continue about 4 miles to the John Paul II Catholic High School (this school was previously called Comal County Elementary).  Park in the parking lot across from the school.  Contact:  Tony Beauford (210-865-2645)

Day 3: Vega to Dimmitt – 50 miles – Flat, Windy and A Lot of Bull
Monday September 10, 2012
Cycling Across Texas
By Jim Fox
Yesterday served up tons of hills and with todays route being flat I was looking forward to an easy day of cycling today. Best laid plans… Yes, the route was flat with only a few small hills, but wow, the wind sure provided a challenge. My route today was 50 miles straight south. Guess which way the wind was blowing? Yup, blowing straight north at a whopping 20-25 mph. The entire route was against a very strong wind. Yet another day when I had to be content with an average speed much slower than I was hoping. I’m just glad that I didn’t have this wind with yesterdays hills. I didn’t have any problems at all, I just had to adjust my expectations for an average speed of 15+ mph.

I stopped in for a quick lunch at Hereford, TX (named after the cattle breed, of course) and then got on the bike for another 20 miles against the wind. The wind seemed to get stronger the further I went. I thought surely it was just me getting tired of fighting the headwind for so many hours, but a quick check of the internet here at the hotel and sure enough, the wind DID get stronger throughout the afternoon. According to the weather webpage, some of the gusts were about 30mph. If those would have been crosswinds instead of headwinds, it would actually be a bit dangerous due to the risk of literally blowing my…

https://twitter.com/BikeMS_DFW/status/245245739238821890

Almost Non-Stop Riding – September 10th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I missed the gorgeous weather yesterday but today was not bad. Between the nice blue sky and the 2 mph north breeze I don’t think I could have asked for a better day to ride. The humidity was so low that my gloves were dry when I got home. The wrist bands were wet but not enough to wring any moisture out of them.

I left the house at 10:12 AM so the temperature had a chance to get up out of the 60’s. At first I pulled out a long sleeve jersey but I put it back in favor of a short sleeve one since the temperature increased to 76. By the time I got back home my weather stationed showed 88 degrees and 33% humidity. It felt so good I rode the entire 36.93 mile route without stopping other than traffic lights and stop signs. Until I got into the Kingwood residential streets near the end of the ride I averaged 16.2 mph but then with slow streets and stopping it fell to 15.9 mph. Pedaling almost required no effort which shows from the 82.4 RPM average cadence. Max speed got up to 23.7 mph.

From the table above I spent the vast majority of the ride in the 17.3 – 20.6 mph range. Road traffic was light and I managed to get the green for several traffic lights. Moving time totaled 2:19:42 plus 1:28 time stopped (I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get this low before). September miles now total 183.66 (just 1 mile less than last year) and YTD miles are 4900.92. Visit RideWithGPS.com map and metrics for a comparison of data.

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Texas Bicycling Daily News Roundup for September 9th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

San Antonio Rider On Northwest Trails
by jasmorg1075            forums.mtbr.com
I’ve been meaning to post these for a long time. Work took me to Seattle for two weeks and I stayed the weekend to do some mountain biking. I rented a bike from Kirkland Bicycles, they were very helpful and great guys. I rented a Santa Cruz Nickel, not my typical bike but I was excited to ride trails out near Mt. Rainier.

I ended up picking Black Diamond, WA, which used to be an old coal mining town. They had a great map and lots of trails with different types of terrain. Enjoy the pics. …

AAAaaahhh, Finally some cooler weather !
by Ted_R            forums.mtbr.com
I knew a cool front was coming through San Antonio today so I waited till around 10:30 am to hit the trail and rode till about 12:30.

For the first time in a long time I came back in dry clothes. …

Ctx riders!!
by EmbraceTheHate            forums.mtbr.com
Hey guys just got into the sport. I ride by myself since I have no friends that do. I live in kyle, looking to meet some guys to show me around. I tried the Barton creek green belt today. Trail is poorly marked and its a little advanced for me. I went walnut creek and was blasting down there single track loved it!!

Anyways if you don’t mind taking a slow poke pm me and we can meet up somewhere. …

Great time at Lake Georgetown!
by LeeC            Austin Ridge Riders
The Goodwater Trail proved friendly and fun for all riders!  From middle schoolers to retires, from beginner to expert, all seemed to have a good time.  The weather was fantastic.  No conflicts with the
dove hunters.

Jeff did a super job on the fajitas and several folks contributed with great sides.  Mark went out on an afternoon ride, so Jason, Jeff, Todd, Roddy and I held down the beer cooler…

Koble Rides Away
Corinth Cycling

The Adam Bomb was dropped on the P 1-2 field in Farmer’s Branch on Saturday afternoon as Adam Koble attacked out of a small break and soloed his way to the victory.   Congratulations to Koble and all the Corinth Cycling/Harden Dental racing team who competed this weekend.  Complete results can be found at…

Violet Crown Weekly Rides
The Bagel Ride – Saturdays
Einstein Bros. Bagels at 12400 N. IH-35,  7:45am roll-out.

Check the VC Yahoo Email Group on Fridays for changes.
3-5 hours. Routes decided at the start. Ride FAQ

The Freewheeling Ride – Sundays
Freewheeling Bicycles, 2401 San Gabriel St., 8:00am roll-out.
Check the VC Yahoo Email Group on Fridays for changes. Ride FAQ

Violet Crown group rides are open to members and non-members.

FUn, and tiring, ride today!
by Don Bynum
I joined 2 fellow geezers, Doug Miller and Don Senzig today to do some cycling. At age 68 I was “the kid” in the group!

We did a counterclockwise loop across some very hilly hill country between Spicewood (we started/ended at Opie’s BBQ… good thing we ended there!) and Round Mountain for a total of 40.40 miles that burned 2,623 calories while ascending a total of 2,103 feet (I SAID it was hilly!) with one ascent involving a 25% grade (ooowwwww!) My MaxHR was 152 with an average of 122.

We earned that BBQ! Peggy met us at Opie’s and joined in the scarfing of nourishment.

Most of the Blanco County portion of the county roads involved indicated that the road department plans on winning the “sorriest rough big grained chip-seal in Texas award.”  Their county roads are just awful because they use the roughest chip-seal they can find. Its so rough the cow chips disappear between the rocks in the chipseal. It may be imported from Oklahoma it is so bad! (hush, Okie cousins, just hush!) There was one short, new looking, stretch that was just plain wonderful.  I suspect some poor Blanco County Roads Department guy is having to buy the beers for the next two years to make up for doing one so well.  Blanco County is also leading in the “crappiest cattle guards” competition, followed closely by Llano County.

Grumping about the stupid choice of road materials in Blanco County and the perverse selection of cattleguard components aside, we still had a great ride through beautiful country with challenging, very manly, terrain to be conquered! Gonna grin for a couple of days from this ride.  With cooler em,ps we will find some new challenges to joust!

https://twitter.com/CharlieZamastil/status/244863988335247360

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for September 8th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club
September 8, 2012 8:30 am
A Memorable Ride in town
McAllistar Park, 13102 Jones Maltsberger Rd, San Antonio

September 16, 2012 7:30 am
Stinson Field Mission Parkway Ride
Stinson Municipal Airport, 8535 Mission Road, San Antonio

September 23, 2012 8:00 am
MS 150 Training Ride
Walmart at Loop 410 and Rigsby, 2100 Southeast Interstate Loop 410, San Antonio

Stepping Down the Pyramid with Mirrors
by Steve A            Dallas Point-to-Point

In the last couple of weeks, I was prompted by a couple of events to think again about mirrors when using a bike. Namely, how might mirrors help a cyclist reduce unsafe (“at risk”) behaviors; which are the base of the safety pyramid. Some of those behaviors belong to us cyclists. Other unsafe behaviors belong to our motoring companions. It isn’t always easy to separate the former from the latter. To REALLY be safe, we need to find…

Fourth Annual International Cycling Circuit Race to Run in South Laredo
A smooth highway cutting through the quiet South Texas brush country landscape will be the backdrop for the fourth annual International Cycling Circuit in Laredo, to be held Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, starting at 7 a.m.
By: Special to The Laredo Sun

LAREDO, TX. — With a little over $2,000 in cash and prizes being offered, this race is the continuation of what organizers believe is becoming a major cycling event for professional and amateur bike enthusiasts alike.

“Laredo offers the perfect environment for cycling races in September,” said Mayor Pro Tempore Cindy Liendo Espinoza, one of the principal sponsors of the race.

“We want to showcase different areas of Laredo and offer the type of atmosphere that a circuit race requires,” she…

Texas A&M Cycling Racing Schedule

First cyclocross race in San Angelo set for Oct. 3
by San Angelo Standard Times
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Cyclocross (CX) season starts in a month, with the first race of the local San Angelo CX series scheduled for Oct. 3 and the statewide Texas Cup series kicking off Oct. 6. If you want to be ready when race season starts, now is the …

Nine-state bike trip loaded with memories for Buda girl, father
By Ciara O’Rourke            www.statesman.com
BUDA — Fifty-five days. Nine states. Thirty-six doughnuts.

Bianca Derka’s father promised her an increasing number of the pastries for every border they crossed this summer while biking from his home in North Carolina to hers in Texas. Glazed rewards for cycling more than 2,000 miles, often in triple-digit heat, carrying about 70 pounds between them.

Pavel Derka said people warned him not to pressure his 12-year-old daughter to take the trip, that maybe she said she wanted to go to please him. But Bianca buoyed him when he questioned whether…