Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for July 25th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Tour de Paris 2012 Ride Report
By: Phillip D. Dye             The Wheel Brothers

I rode Tour de Paris 68 mile (110K) last Saturday for the second time. The people in Paris are very accommodating with a true gratitude for riders participating in the event. We choose to participate in the $5 Spaghetti Dinner on Friday and the after ride burger fest with all of the trimmings. …

Henderson takes over ownership of Trialtir
HOUSTON, TX (BRAIN) Wednesday July 25 2012 4:34 AM MT—Trey Henderson, Trialtir USA’s general manager, has taken over ownership of the Texas distributor from Massimo Bartolini.

According to Henderson, the two “remain the best of friends” and it was an amicable sale. “A couple years back Massimo moved back to Italy as his business interests became increasingly centered there,” Henderson said.

“He wanted his company to continue on, and I had already been working with him and knew the potential this company could attain,” he added.

The Houston-based company is the exclusive importer for De Rosa bicycles, LAS helmets, Enervit energy…

Fort Worth Receives Grant for Bikeshare
BikeTexas | Texas Bicycle Coalition

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA), a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has awarded The T in Fort Worth a $941,728 grant for “bus livability.” The T will use this grant to implement a new bikeshare system in Fort Worth as a component of the city’s transit system. According to the FTA, “Bike stations will be placed in areas that have dense neighborhoods with high activity and access to a variety of transit connections. Bike stations will also be placed at the…

Ride a bike: Build a house
BY SUZANNE LOUDAMY Reporter            www.tricountyleader.com
As of now, 17 otherwise intelligent people, will gas up their vehicles, load up their sleek bicycles and head for Wichita Falls to ride 25, 50 and some even 100 miles in the 31st annual Hotter’N Hell Hundred. All are members of the First Baptist Church of Whitehouse cycling group.

This ride promises to be the toughest that most of the group have ever attempted. With record numbers of riders from all over the country expected as well as the ever-present extreme summer…

5 Mile Mistake – July 25th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Keeping with the ride theme this week I set out on a route last rode on June 13, 2012.I modified the route a little at the beginning with a different exit route from Kingwood from the June ride. I figured this would add about 3 miles to the 37.13 miles in June. What I did not calculate though was the extra 5 miles I rode because I looked up the streets for the Commons of Lake Houston and it showed Hargraves Street connecting with Kingwood Drive (east of the river version) via Commons Park Drive which I missed. Once I realized the mistake I backtracked to the streets that I knew went where I wanted to go. So the route today ended up at 47.28 miles.

The reason I wanted to ride through the Commons of Lake Houston revolves around the no shoulders on FM2100. While the traffic on FM2100 is not too heavy the road surface gets bumpy so dodging those can be troublesome.The streets in the Commons are relatively new and smooth in most cases. There are even stretches of concrete roads.

With this longer than planned ride I still managed to average 15.4 mph with a 22.0 mph max speed. My legs got tired around the 30 mile point so I slowed down some. I think this could have impacted my cadence which averaged 78.2 RPM. This is the same as Monday’s ride. Riding time came in at 3:03:56 plus 44:46 time stopped. This is about an hour longer than my typical ride lately. Mileage marks as of now: 124.45 this week, 449.23 for July and 3762.65 YTD.

The weather tried to get me. For most of the ride scatter clouds ruled the sky but in Huffman just as I got ready to leave for the ride home it started to rain. It didn’t last very long but the pavement got wet with puddles of water. I waited a little over 5 minutes after it quit and then started riding. Within 2/10 of mile the pavement dried with no signs of any rain from that point all the way home. Temperature ranged 85 to 95, humidity 74% to 47% and the wind was not a factor at 8.1 mph from the SW. After I got home I could hear thunder in the distance but no rain.

My right brake lever continues to not return to the fully open position even though I worked on it a couple of times. So after calling two local bike shops and not finding the cables I wanted I order them from Amazon.com. One shop did not have just the cables but cables with housing which I don’t need. The other one only had some low priced cables which I don’t think will last very long. I wanted coated cables which I think will operate smoothly and not rust for awhile. Aztec cables should fit the bill. Now that Amazon.com collects sales tax I wanted to shop around but their pricing still looked good plus the 2 day shipping cost looked reasonable.
[iframe http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203088670 98% 825]

RideWithGPS.com data and map link.

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for July 24th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

The Price of Gold Launch Party
Our own Ian Dille, of Super Squadra fame, has co-authored a book with Olympic track cycling champion, Marty Nothstein.  Join us on Wednesday, August 1st from 6 to 8 at our Lamar store to meet Ian, snag a book hot off the presses and enjoy some cold beer and munchies.
About the Book

Marty Nothstein might be the most successful and talented cyclist that you’ve never heard of. Nothstein was the last American to win an Olympic gold medal in track cycling, and his new memoir, The Price of Gold, is an inspiring and eye-opening look at what…

Bike Ride at NAACP National Convention
by Susan Wilcox            BikeTexas | Texas Bicycle Coalition

After pausing for a group photo from across the Kinder Lake at Discovery Green in downtown Houston, approximately 100 riders from the NAACP National Convention set out for a seven-mile early-morning bike ride on July 7.

Heading southeast out of town past Emancipation Park, the riders paused at the Project Row Houses and Workshop Houston’s Third Ward Bike Shop before taking a midpoint rest stop at the student center at…

If You’re Into Biking, Just Go Ahead and Move to Fort Worth
By Eric Nicholson            blogs.dallasobserver.com

Dallas and Fort Worth are similar. They’re both in Texas, both have oversized conceptions of themselves, and both came of age in the automobile era. The cities also developed similar bike plans, involving miles of designated bike lanes, at about the same time. And that’s where, transit-wise at least, the two cities went separate ways. While Dallas all but shelved its bike plan, Fort Worth took the yellow jersey in the Tour de Decent Bike Infrastructure in North Texas. …

Friends remember avid bicyclist
by Audrie Palmer | Staff Writer        www.mywesttexas.com

Friends who knew Rene Joseph Ulmschneider said it wasn’t unusual for him to take his bicycle on weekend trips and vacations.

It was on a trip to far West Texas that the 60-year-old member of the Permian Basin Bicycle Association died after being hit by a car.

Ulmschneider was in Marathon for the weekend with his wife, Emmy, a recently retired science teacher at Carver Center. …

Fredericksburg Fall Foliage Frolic
November 3, 2012 8:00 am
Lady Bird Johnson State Park
432 Lady Bird Dr., Fredericksburg, TX
Registration includes a ride souvenir.  Supported rides with maps, rest stops with snacks, drinks  and  port-o-potties.  Sag support. After the ride lunch.
RIDES:  Not a mass start.
Ride distances available
APPROX.:
SHORT:      25 miles
Medium:     48 miles
LONG:     60 miles…

Pooped Pop Enjoys a Post-Pop Pop
by Chris Mathews        Plano Bicycle Association

George Markus knows how to recover from a Popsicle ride!

A Route Revisited – July 24th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

This week I am trying to ride routes that I don’t ride very often and longer than 36 miles. Today’s route is one I last rode on August 20, 2011. I did change the route a little using a shorter exit from Kingwood that reduces a route about 4 miles. The last time I rode this route the distance was 41.82 miles while today I rode 38.08 miles with the difference being the different exit roads. This route takes me on some back roads through Roman Forest and Splendora with low traffic although that is not the only reason to ride these streets. I did notice today that Roman Forest Blvd. is rather rough surfaced from US59 for about 3 miles. When I got to the back of Roman Forest the streets got much smoother. Tram Road is especially smooth with a relative new asphalt surface. I think they were about to put the new stripes down when I rode last August. FM2090 west from Tram Road to US59 also has a nice wide shoulder and smooth surface.

One of the nice characteristics of this route is long stretches of non-stop riding. This helps get the average speed up since starting and stopping hurts that. Today’s 15.6 mph average speed and 21.4 max speed pointed to the minimum number of stops. Average cadence came in at 72.9 RPM but that is not correct because my sensor was not registering for time during the ride. I think I moved the sensor yesterday when I washed my bike. I noticed the problem just before I got to Community Drive on the south bound US59 service road. A quick stop and adjustment got things back in order. Riding time was 2:26:34 plus 38:20 time stopped.

Weather did not appear to be as rainy as yesterday but the clouds were thick and puffy with some gray portions. After I got home it did rain hard for about 10 minutes so the threat was more than what I thought. Temperature ranged from 83 to 91, humidity from 78% to 57% and wind was light at 3.5 mph from the south. While I was riding there were scattered clouds.

Mileage standings after today’s ride:

  • 77.16 miles this week
  • 401.95 miles for July
  • 3715.37 miles YTD

Link to RideWithGPS.com data and map.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202692977 98% 825]