Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for August 18th

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Local Changes in Fort Worth
by Steve A        DFW Point-to-Point

For the first time in some time, I got up to the Sundance Square area, walking there from the ITC train station. Changes have been happening, in contrast to less in Fort Worth’s eastern cousin; Dallas. For one thing, Sundance Square is undergoing transformation from a collection of parking lots into some real “people” spots. We’ll see when the construction fences come down.

Another change is EXTENSIVE implementation of mostly well thought-out bicycle oriented features. For example, in the photo above, BOTH traffic lanes have sharrows and “may use full lane” signs. Fort Worth hasn’t painted “sweet spot” indicators to show cyclists where to stop in order to trigger the signal, but things were…

Extra monstrous FrankenBike set for Aug. 25
By Pam LeBlanc            Fit City

This month’s FrankenBike — the 85th since the monthly bike swaps began — is gearing up as a special one.

Three bands (The Human Circuit, Barry Whitesnake and IPD) will play the event, which will also feature food vendors (Austin’s Pizza and Chilantro BBQ), national sponsors, a raffle (with a folding bicycle from Austin’s own Tern Bicycles as the grand prize) and several…

College Station man arrested for bike theft
www.theeagle.com
A College Station man was charged with theft after University Police officers reported seeing him riding a bicycle that they had placed unlocked in at the Memorial Student Center on the Texas A&M campus.

The misdemeanor charge is punishable by…

Support growing for hiking, biking, horse-back riding trail through northeast Texas
By Allen Rich        www.ntxe-news.com

Roxton, Texas — The City of Roxton rolled out the red carpet August 10, 2012 to welcome bicyclists who will one day be rolling into town on of the longest trails in the U.S. The Northeast Texas Trail will carry hikers, bikers and horse-back riders from the trailhead in Farmersville through Collin, Hunt, Fannin, Delta, Lamar, Red River and Bowie counties to New Boston. In all, the scenic 132-mile trail will…

Big Rain in the Distance – August 18th Bicycle Ride

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When I started today’s ride the sky was overcast. The radar showed a big rain concentration around Huntsville but not really moving. The weather forecast called for a 40% chance of rain so I decided to keep the ride short at under 30 miles. It ended up at 28.3 miles at 14.9 mph average speed. The wind was not really a factor in the slower average speed so I think my legs and maybe the abundance of stops and starts pulled it down. For a change the temperature did not make it to 90 degrees while I biked with 88 degrees showing on my home weather station when I finished. With a 20.9 mph max speed and 77.8 RPM average cadence I did not display the numbers to get  higher average speed.

Also I wanted to get back home by noon to watch the open TTT for the Vuelta a Espana which I can watch on Universal Sports on Dish Network. The last time I wanted to watch the Giro d’Italia Dish ended a free trial right in the middle of the race so I switched to watching EuroSport. I am not sure why Universal Sports became available again but I’ll take it. I had to avoid stopping too much since I left at 10:00, riding time was 1:53:43, and stopped time was 7:59. I got home just as the DVR starting recording the race. I like watching from the DVR to skip most of the commercials.

My ride went well with no problems. I am waiting for my new Ultagra ST6700 shifter/brake levers to get here. I want to replace my current ones before riding the Hotter’n Hell Hundred next Saturday to test the installation and settings. The current levers are suffering from my sweat with the left one not wanting to move the gears on the crank without some coaxing from me. The right lever is working fine after I oiled it and replaced the rusty brake cable. The left lever works fine for braking but not so for going from the large rind to the small ring up front.

Other stats:

  • 169.43 miles this week
  • 417.19 miles in August
  • 4352.15 miles YTD
  • 11:10:22 riding time this week
  • 14 riding days in August
  • Link to RideWithGPS.com data and map
8-18-2012 Bike Ride Data and Map
8-18-2012 Cadence-Distance
8-18-2012 Elevation-Distance
8-18-2012 Home Weather Station End
8-18-2012 IAH Weather End
8-18-2012 Speed-Distance
8-18-2012 Splits-Time

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212018410 98% 1050]

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for August 17th

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who is going to HHH?
by bjtesch            www.bikeforums.net
Today being Thursday Aug. 16, the msn.com 10-day weather forecast extends through Sat. Aug. 25 and has a high temp that day of 93F. I realize that anything can happen between now and then and the forecast can change 10 times, but 93F would be a good temperature for a century day. It is certainly much better than what it could be. …

LBJ 100 2013 Promo
by Laura Klein Villarreal

This promotional piece is to help generate interest in the annual LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour, to benefit the LBJ National Historic Park. For more information about the ride to go lbj100bicycletour.org

Premium Rush ride and premiere
by The Announcer Guy        Biking in Dallas
Switching Gears Cycler and Transit Bikes are taking you to the movies! Pick up a FREE TICKET from either shop and join us for a ride to the premiere of “Premium Rush”. Meet Thursday, 8/23, 6pm at Mockingbird Station. Grab a drink and we’ll roll out at 6:30pm to ride to AMC Northpark. Movie starts at 7:30pm. Bring front…

Summer TT #10 – August 16, 2012
by tonkster            Brazos Valley Mountain Bike Association
Official Results:
Name     Time
Jason Foster     0:50:52
James Munnerlyn     0:45:10
JP Rheault     0:37:59
Jonathan Lidbury     0:45:17
Travis Prochaska     0:43:56
Patrick Farnsworth     0:44:55
Mike Record     0:36:10
Joel Reyes     0:43:27
David Gilman     0:51:09

Hottest Day of the Year Bike Ride set for Aug. 25
By Pam LeBlanc            Fit City
Cyclists can embrace the heat during the Hottest Day of the Year Bike Ride on Aug. 25.

The ride, scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, 400 Nueces Street, will cover 10 to 15 miles, with a midway stop at a public pool for a quick cooldown.

The ride, organized by Bike Austin, is designed to show commuters on how to safely, successfully bike even in triple-digit temperatures. All skill levels are welcome, and Mellow Johnny’s will provide on-call maintenance support.

“Experienced riders in Austin have dealt with hot weather, and know what to do before, during and after a ride to make it a better experience,” said Tom Wald, executive director of Bike Austin, formerly…

Let Bike Austin prepare you for the Hottest Day of the Year
By Michael Graupmann        austin.culturemap.com
How hot is too hot for exercise?

For some of us, the answer is: anything above 72 degrees. But for others, they’d rather crank up the heat and get sweaty.

It’s safe to say that Tom Wald, the executive director of Bike Austin, and Sheilanova Molina, the producer of Bike Austin’s upcoming Hottest Day of the Year fundraiser, belong in the latter category.

Wald hails from Minneapolis, MN, so he’s used to biking in extreme conditions, albeit on the opposite spectrum.

“My hometown sees temperatures from -40 to +110.  I wanted to push myself to bike in these conditions,” he says. “I found that in the end, these…

Interesting to ride lake’s bottom but prefer not to
By Bill Cullins            www.gosanangelo.com
SAN ANGELO, Texas — I recently organized a mountain bike expedition tasked with finding water in the Middle Concho River channel of Twin Buttes Reservoir.

We didn’t find much.

In fact, the majority of that expedition’s ride took place on parched dirt that should be underwater at Twin Buttes.

It was interesting to ride the lake’s bottom, but here’s hoping that big rains come soon and we have a long…

https://twitter.com/VSeifert/status/236542825330769920

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for August 16th

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Welcome Bike Friendly Garland to the Family!
Bike Friendly Oak Cliff

We’ve got another bike friendly group in the DFW to welcome. Bike Friendly Garland, at bikefriendlygarland.blogspot.com has been launched by Jonathan Guzman, @BicyclePOV. We met at a recent bicycle swap in Garland and I encouraged him to take the initiative and start it up, and he’s done just that. He also is a pretty good mechanic and…

Flats and Lubbock
by silver179951            forums.mtbr.com
And I’m not just talking about the topography.

I went for my first ride at Mae Simmons since I got a mountain bike a few months ago and ended up with a flat rear tire late in the ride. Later when I went to change it, I noticed the front was flat too. I pulled out quite a few small thorns and 2 or 3 bigger thorns from both tires. Do all y’all run tubeless up here, or am I just a thorn magnet? I never had any problems with flats on the trails at home (I’m up here for school), but they also aren’t located in an area with desert vegetation. …

DATES Ride and Event Schedule
Dallas Area Tandem Enthusiasts
Event Title:     DATES Ride Picnic and Pool Party
When:     Sep 16, 2012 08:00 AM
Where:     House of Tom Hogan – Plano
Category:  DATES ride
Description
This is Tom Hogan. Krista Beadle and I will be hosting a DATES ride on Sunday, September 16th. I’ll have maps for Short (12-15 mi), Medium (24-32 mi) and Long (45-55).  I’ll provide burgers, dogs, sodas, beers.  People should bring…

Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club Rides
August 26, 2012 7:30 am
Bullis County Park to Guadalupe State Park Ride
Bullis County Park

September 1, 2012 8:00 am
Exxon 471 Ride to Castroville
Exxon Station on 471, 15355 FM 471, San Antonio

September 8, 2012
A Memorable Ride in town
McAllistar Park, 13102 Jones Maltsberger Rd, San Antonio

September 9, 2012 7:30 am
Exxon 471 to Castroville
15355 FM 471, San Antonio

September 15, 2012 8:00 am
Rudy’s Ride
Rudy’s BBQ, 10623 Westover Hills Blvd, San Antonio

Three National Bike Advocacy Groups Affirm Shared Goals; Decide to Remain Separate
Alliance for Biking & Walking: People Powered Blog
After months of steady dialogue and face-to-face meetings, the leaders of the Alliance, Bikes Belong and League of American Bicyclists have decided not to pursue full unification at this time. The three groups continue to operate independently, in close collaboration, to make bicycling safer and more enjoyable for all Americans.

These unprecedented unification discussions were marked by goodwill and an open exchange of ideas. They helped U.S. bike advocacy leaders agree on a shared vision, goals and strategies that will advance the movement and improve bicycling coast to…

Hot Pick: Wine Ride for the Humane Society
by Beth Rankin            blog.beaumontenterprise.com
Local bike shops Bicycle Sports and Kickstand have teamed up to sponsor a wine tasting and bike ride to benefit the Humane Society of Southeast Texas, which is currently raising money to build a new facility for adorable local animals in…