Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for May 21st

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Team Brain & Spine Summer Picnic and Rides
Host:  Austin Cycling Team
512-569-3289
When:  Saturday, June 2 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Where: Zilker Park Pecan Grove2100 Barton Springs Road Austin, TX 78704
More…

grandpajerald        @grandpajerald        via Twitter
Britton’s 1604 ride, May 27 th. 100 miles,police escort , around 1604

Austin Bike Zoo’s Midsummer in Motion
www.digitalstreetinc.com
In the tradition of Wheels of Wonderland and An Oddity Odyssey, the pedal-powered puppets of the Austin Bike Zoo will join with some of Austin’s best actors, musicians, and circus artists to present a circus-commedia-Midsummer-Night’s-Dream-for-the-whole-family . . . ON BIKES! The Zoo will once again…

Austin Police Department Offers On-Line Bike Registration
www.digitalstreetinc.com
APD now offers all citizens the ability to register their bikes on-line on the APD website.  This may be of particular interest to people that bike to work.

APD reports that in the two-year period from 2008-2010, more than 3,000 bikes were stolen across the entire city.  However, people rarely register their…

CyclingATX        @CyclingATX        via Twitter
Yup from Austinbikes, NEW AND IMPROVED! (We got our AC fixed, finally.) Thanks for those who braved the…

Texas4000        @Texas4000        via Twitter
Learn more about 2012 rider Taylor Foreman and her story. To hear other inspiring ride dedications @ Hope Day May 26

Volunteers Needed
www.lonestarcyclists.org
There are still several opportunities to volunteer with the Tour d’Italia.

Tuesday, June 5th we will be having the packet stuffing party and will need lots of help folding t-shirts and stuffing the new reusable bags.

Thursday, June 7th we will meet at the storage shed to load all of our gear onto a truck that will carry it down to Italy. The time and location of the storage will be announced.

There are also plenty of opportunities to volunteer the day before and the day of the tour down in Italy.

Bike to Work Conflict
by Steve A            Dallas Point-to-Point

Last week, during “Bike to Work” week, I received the email shown above from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

I’ve received a number of such items from time to time, but this time, I pondered the matter a little, and THAT caused me to wonder about things. For example, what is the cutoff between “regular” and “older” adults? Are “older” adults that ride their bikes to work supposed to stop, heeding the direction to limit outside activity or are they supposed to ride their bikes in order to cut air pollution? Or are they only supposed to do that until they…

Everything you wanted to know about bike counting but were afraid to ask
by Elly            Taking the Lane
Last week I wrote that if we want to see a major increase in bicycling in the U.S., we are going to need to get mathematical about it. (This morning provided some vindication for the idea in the form of an article about a team of mathematicians who are doing something similar with public health.)

The problem of applying math to bicycle transportation, though, is that our data sucks.

We aren’t unlocking the secret to bicycling success in the US, and that’s in part because we aren’t asking the right questions, which is in turn because we are restricted to the data available. Mostly this is the census data, a…

Georgetown Grand Crit Race Weekend Results for TB&S
teambrainandspinecycling.com
Good job to all who came out and represented the team by racing, cheering, or both!  Was really a fun time at a great venue!

Age Based TB&S Results:
W 30-34:  Jenny Park 1st
W 35+:  Kim Ciolli 2nd
W 45+:  Kelly Martinez: 2nd
M 35-39:  Jason Bentley 10th,  Jeromie Payne 11th
M 40+:  James…

Pics From The 2012 WildRide! Are On SuburbanAssault.org
by dickdavid        Bike Friendly Richardson

This past weekend, we got to participate in the 9th annual Richardson WildRide! Against Cancer benefitting the Methodist Richardson Cancer Center, home of the Lance Armstrong Shaped Beam SurgeryTM program. This year, Jenny and her husband James and I rode the 40 mile route.

Viva Streets Austin Beats the Heat with Fun Activities and Impressive Turnout
BikeTexas.org
Viva Streets Austin drew a great crowd for walking, running, biking, roller skating, zumba dancing, picnicking, hula-hooping, and more! (video)

The ghost bike says it all!

Seen at the Dallas Ride of Silence 2012
by Christopher Curnutt        Biking in Dallas

This was a somber event.  There were a few speakers at the beginning of the ride, then after a quiet loop around White Rock Lake two lines of cyclists were formed where the ghost bike was walked between them.  That was the most compelling moment for me.  Here are a few images from the event.

Levee work followup #2
by ajpwilkerson        Brazos Valley Mountain Bike Association
Our BTU liaison call me back (very prompt!)  The work will start on Tuesday and will be done on Thursday.  THE EAST LOOP IS TO BE CLOSED TUESDAY THRU THURSDAY.  THE WEST LOOP IS TO REMIAN OPEN.  The equipment doing this work throws wood chunks everywhere.  On Friday, the trails will be open again.  You may have to hike a bike at a few locations.  The contractor is aware of the trails and will try to keep the entrances open  The new non-BVMBA cut trail across from BMX will be taken out.  I have questions about all of…

Quadriplegic’s cross-country bike ride stops off in San Antonio
by Jeff Vaughn / KENS 5                           Video
SAN ANTONIO — A man paralyzed from the neck down is riding a bicycle across the country. His west to east coast trip of more than 3,000 miles had Mark Stephan pedaling through San Antonio Monday.

We caught up with Mark Stephan of the Stephan Challenge. Stephan, who is from Chicago, is riding his recumbent bicycle across the country. …

 

And Then BOOM! – May 21st Bike Ride

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Friday I got a reminder call from my dentist for my 7:00 AM appointment today. Normally I drive the 3 or 4 miles there but I thought why not ride my mountain bike. So about 6:35 AM I took off on my mountain bike to the dentist. I got there about 6:55 and after I locked my bike Judy the dental hygienist told me it was okay to bring the bike inside since the other offices did not open until 8:00 and I would be finished by then. It was a little warmer this morning than it has been (70 degrees versus 66 or so) but my casual pace did not heat me up too much. The view from a bike at that time of the morning is different from the car encased one I used to get when I worked. A few people were out so I greeted them as we passed. The dentist trip went well and I moved on to other things when I got back home.

About 2:00 I headed out the door for my second ride of the day, this one on my road bike. As I walked to the bike I squeezed the front and rear tires as I normally do. The front one checked out good but the rear tire felt soft. Inspecting the tire I did not find any foreign object sticking out but there was a cut. I pulled the tube out and pumped it up to find the problem. Just before I was going to quit I noticed one of the patches had a big bubble on it and then BOOM! This tube had numerous patches on it plus with this patch rupturing I decided to just replace the tube. To be save I checked the inside of the tire for any intruders but did not find anything. Then I thought I should look at the cut area. I thought it might be over the patch that exploded so I inspected the cut some more. It look like it went through the casing and the tube under pressure might extrude into it. A week or so ago I rearranged my bike stuff drawer in the garage and remembered seeing a section of an old tire I cut out for booting in situations like this. The Continental GatorSkin tire had way too much tread left to replace it so the boot went in, the tube and tire remounted and pressured up to 110 PSI. Looking at the tire cut the boot seemed to do the job so off I went on the bike ride.

All went well on the ride with my route ending up with 31.76 miles. At the start of the ride for some reason the Garmin Edge 500 did not want to record the distance correctly. While I worked on the tire it went to sleep so I woke it up when I took off. Maybe the GPS satellites still needed to lock on, I am not sure. After a 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile it started to register so I went with it. By the end of the ride the problem seemed to have left.

With the late start (2:24 PM) the weather warmed up to the heat of the day at 93 degrees. The wind did not blow much and the scattered clouds did not offer much cover from the sun. Before the ride I lathered up with sunscreen for another project I worked on and added even more before biking. Hopefully this protected me. Humidity dropped from 40% top 34% during the ride so sweat did not stay around long. When I stopped in Huffman for a break I sat on a Greensheet paper and it did not get damp from my bike shorts.

TXdot finally put up the construction barriers on FM1960 east bound lane on about half of the right lane on the causeway. I rode next to the barrier today but the next time I think I will ride the west bound shoulder to the end of the barrier and then switch to the east bound shoulder. Traffic zips by pretty fast and there is not place to get out of their way. This might cause me to not take this route as often.

Some of the ride numbers: (based on SportTracks. Garmin Connect differs some)

  • 15.4 mph average speed
  • 22.5 mph max speed
  • 2:03:26 riding time
  • 34:35 stopped time
  • 574.43 miles in May
  • 2510.10 miles YTD
  • Breakdown for each 5 mile section

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180748694 98% 725]

GHORBA Update – May 21st

Texbiker.net Posted on by
Article category: 
General

Upcoming STS Races!

  • May 26th Justin Brindley Park Sugar Land, TX.  Click Here to Register.  Current GHORBA membership required to verify your GHORBA membership, click this link while logged in.  Your expiration date will be displayed near the membership pricing.
  • June 2nd Jack Brooks Hitchcock, TX.  Click Here to Register.  Current GHORBA membership required to verify your GHORBA membership, click this link while logged in.  Your expiration date will be displayed near the membership pricing.

If you need assistance with membership, Contact the Membership Director.

Cypresswood Temporary Access Restriction
NOTE FROM P4 PARKS – ACCESS TO TRAILS CLOSED AT COLLINS MON (5/21)-WED (5/23). PLEASE PARK AT TC JESTER OR STRACK RD DURING THIS TIME.

Enterprise Pipeline will be working on pipeline maintenance on the line that runs across Cypress Creek behind Collins Park from 7:00am to 5-5:30pm on Monday, May 21 through Wednesday, May 23 and Thursday if needed. They will have some equipment and trucks in the parking lot by the girl’s softball complex and the road that accesses the creek. The entrance from the park to the creek will be barricaded for safety and the hike and bike trail will be closed.
If you’re interested in volunteering for work parties and other improvements at Cypresswood, contact the trail steward via this link.

Double Lake Re-Opening
Jim Mackey and Kevin Highfield have been working with various Forest Service personnel over the last week and they report that the Forest Service has got all the “danger trees” (that’s the ones that are leaning) marked and several crews going into the entire DL system to get the trees removed.  As of today (5/21), we are hopeful that the entire system will be re-opened in a couple of weeks – which is really good news and a whole lot better than we’ve been thinking up until recently.  More updates will follow.

Huntsville Expansion
The current situation with the other trails in the forest being closed has diverted the attention of Forest Service personnel, but we still hope to get the approvals done over the summer so we can start building in late Fall.  Once we get Double Lake re-opened, Kevin will be getting the approval stuff rolling in earnest.

Posted in Uncategorized

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for May 20th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

San Antonio?
by vesteroid        www.bikeforums.net
I may have a job offer here and was hoping to get some insight on the area.

Anyone local want to share their opinions of the bike culture, riding season, or anything else about the area you think may be important to someone considering a move?

reply by Werkin
I don’t have much to say regarding the open ended question, for the bike centric topic a few comments. The riding season is year round. There are a few somewhat limited urban bike paths, one is central city and scenic. Regularly scheduled group rides for road cyclists are mostly in the Northeast, North central, and Northwest Bexar county areas. Challenging hills can found near the city…

June Babies Birthday ride
El Paso Bicycle Club
Saturday, June 2        7:30 AM
Meet at 6049 Ojo de Agua for this annual ride where the route will be 1 mile for every year-baseline is ride leader’s 45th birthday. Food and treats will be available afterward. Bring your bathing suit! Please park on Via Descanso behind our house. Moderate pace. Patty Van Tine, 915-667-0202

GDB Summer Bash
www.greaterdallasbicyclists.com
Come join us for the Summer Bash! Rides! Cash Prizes! Camaraderie!
Sunday, July 8th, 2012
Sunnyvale Town Center
356 Tripp Road, Sunnyvale TX
This event will replace the Sunday Roll and will have 2 routes available for riders: The Sunday Roll and The Undulating Roll. The Sunday Roll will have minimal hills and the usual Sunday Roll pace. The Undulating Roll will be a moderately paced ride and include a few of the hills surrounding the…

Memorial Day Lite Tour
Lone Star Cyclists
Have you heard about people getting on their bikes and riding from coast to coast? While most of us can’t do that, we can do a light tour over a long weekend. And here’s your chance!

May 26-28, Memorial Day weekend, we will do a light tour in East Texas. We’ll start near Tyler and pedal down to Henderson. The next day we’ll travel to Longview and then on the last day head back to Tyler.

Maximum daily mileage will be 55 miles. We’ll have the whole day to enjoy the ride, with beautiful scenery and no telling…

Song in Multi-Part Harmony
by Steve A        Dallas Point-to-Point

Chandra and I worked the riding course at the Irving Bike Fest yesterday. I was a little conflicted doing so, knowing Torrance was hosting a TS 101 course a few miles to the Southwest, but it was unclear what help Chandra might be able to count on and I knew Torrance had some help. And this was for kids. Nowadays, kids really have few sources of good…

Real Ale Ride
by Roy and Christine        Pedal Pushers

On the way to Blanco Friday afternoon, we came in on the road to be used for the ride’s return route. I wanted to take a picture of an example of some of the hills. As I found out the next day, the return route was the tame part of the ride. My Garmin showed ten 5% hills, three hills over 10%, and an uncountable number of 2-3-4%. And that was the first 13 miles of the ride to the first…

Levee work
by ajpwilkerson            Brazos Valley Mountain Bike Association
We have received word that some work may be done on the levees, possibly starting this week. This may or may not impact the trails. We are trying to get more information, and will pass on whatever news we get as soon as we get it. Stay tuned!

Viva Streets
by Ray Garza        Ciclistas Urbanos
Some interesting sites and sounds.

Livestrong Texas 4000 cyclists gear up for long ride to Alaska
Pam LeBlanc, Fit City
Nevermind the saddle sores, scorching heat and mountains the 43 University of Texas students who strike out on their bicycles from Austin in two weeks are determined to make it all the way to Alaska.

That’s nearly 4,700 miles, for the record. And it’s not all downhill.

This year’s scrappy cyclists, known collectively as the Livestrong Texas 4000 for Cancer, will launch their 70-day journey on June 2. Along the way, they’ll raise awareness about cancer and money to…