Mild weather continued today making today’s bike ride pleasant. Rain is expected for tomorrow so I may take a break while the rain passes through and the streets dry off. In the meantime today’s east and south route visited the typical major points but I did go on some new streets combined with a different direction. In Walden at Lake Houston the streets offer some options to get to the exit points along Farmingham Road. I wasn’t sure of the exact length for the route but it ended up at 30.52 miles. This brings my weekly total to 124.54 miles, May to 290.2 miles and year to date 2225.87 miles. A couple of other bikers crossed Lake Houston in the opposite direction.
When I started the 16.1 mph east wind slowed me down but when it turned to a tailwind I got my speed up above 20 mph. Scattered clouds changed to overcast during the ride and the temperature ranged 79 to 84. The wind dropped down to 12.7 mph by the time I got back home. My average speed was 15.3 mph with a 30.8 mph max speed according to SportTracks. I am suspicious of that number with RideWithGPS.com and Garmin Connect showing the max speed around 22 to 23 mph. Average cadence was 80.2 RPM.
Riding time was 1:59:52 plus 33:37 time stopped. I think the stopped time is higher than it should be because when I resumed the ride in Huffman I forgot to start the timer function on the Garmin Edge 500 for about half a mile. I wondered if that would show up up as a void in my route but it did not. Normally I don’t stop the timer but sometimes the GPS goes on and off showing the ride resumed and paused. This messes up the data so today I stopped the timer thinking I would remember to turn it back on. It is hard to break a habit. Fortunately I looked down and realized my mistake.
America Bikes Releases 2012 Survey Results
Alliance for Biking & Walking: People Powered Blog
This morning at a press conference on Capitol Hill, America Bikes announced the findings of a recent Princeton survey, which shows that more than 80 percent of Americans favor maintaining or increasing federal funding for sidewalks and bike lanes.
The survey results are astounding – and bipartisan:
-Â Â Â 83 percent of all respondents support maintaining or growing federal funding for sidewalks, bikeways, and bike paths.
-Â Â Â 80 percent of Republican respondents and 88 percent of Democrat respondents think Congress should maintain or increase federal…
Lock Ultra FAIL
by Steve AÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â DFW Point-to-Point
JRA, in his One Speed: Go blog, has a recurring theme, in which he hands out yellow cards to bikes at racks that were locked poorly. You can see a representative sampling of these, by clicking on THIS link. In the past, I have always shaken my head and clucked my tongue at the horrible locking jobs he captured.
Fortunately, I learned two lessons today. Both were learned cheaply, in contrast to what MIGHT have happened. Actually, I learned three lessons. The third lesson was that John Romeo Alpha does not lurk around the bike rack where I work. There are real advantages to living in North Texas rather than…
PeopleForBikes.org reaches 500,000 pledges!
Just over two years ago, we launched PeopleForBikes.org with the goal of collecting one million pledges for a better future for bicycling. We are thrilled to report that we officially hit the halfway mark this past weekend at Bike Expo New York. PeopleForBikes.org now stands 500,000 riders strong!
At Bike Expo New York, Christine Capetola and Carolyn Auwaerter actually “tied†as the 500,000th person to sign the PFB pledge. Since they signed the pledge at the same time, we decided to…
Austin Bike Culture Calendar Events: 5/10- 5/16/12
by elliott         Austin on Two Wheels
Bike Month continues this week with lots of great riding going on including the Armadillo Classic this weekend.
Here’s a quick run down of recommended events for the coming week from our comprehensive calendar of all cycling events. As always, if there is an event you know about that’s not on our calendar contact us, and we’ll add your event on and possibly add it to the weekly round up.
Thursday, May 10
Driveway Crit Series
5 PM, The Driveway, 8400 Delwau Lane
Weekly Thursday night road racing through October that takes place on the closed car-free driving course at the Driveway. Races include Cat 3/4 women’s and juniors race at 5:00, Cat 3/4 Race and Women’s Open at 5:30, Kids Fun Lap at 6:20, Cat 4/5 Race at 6:25, and Pro/Cat 1/2/3 at 6:55. Races registration Weekly: Men $25, Women $10, College Students $10, Juniors $10. 5PM Junior race is free. Additional races $10 each. Season…
Guest Post: What does safe cycling in Dallas mean? – Eliot Landrum Cycling Savvy DFW
by Eliot Landrum      Biking in Dallas
“Be safeâ€, you hear folks tell you as you cycle away. We hear it everywhere in cycling circles. But what exactly does that mean? Wear brighter clothes? Be more vigilant for rogue motorists? Wear 1500 watt blinking lights to out shine the sun? Wear the most expensive helmet money can buy? Pick low-traffic roads? Don’t text and…
Summer Time Trials!
by salsaTopp      Brazos Valley Mountain Bike Association
2012 CU Cinco de Mayo Celebration Ride
by Ray Garza      Ciclistas Urbanos
Saturday is Cinco de Mayo an American Hispanic celebration. We Americans love holidays, even if it’s from another country! We decided to meet at the Echo Hotel again and head out to get something to eat for breakfast. Nancy’s restaurant was the lucky winner this week. Afterwards the plan was to tour some of Edinburg’s sites as we had several new members join us. Sticking close to home was the general idea with the…
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society Hosts The Bike MS in Dallas
www.prweb.com
Prescott Pailet Benefits was honored to sponsor the Feisty Devils as they participated in this past weekend’s SAM’S CLUB Ride. The Bike MS: SAM’S CLUB Ride was a two-day journey through the scenic countryside of North Texas from Frisco to Texas Motor Speedway. The event raised money for The National MS Society, which helps people affected by multiple sclerosis by funding cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy and providing programs and services that help people…
Recreational Sports Calendar & Sign-up Sheet – May 9, 2012
San Antonio Express-News
Bicycling: Today, 8 a.m., Wheelers Senior Ride, 30 miles, Floore’s Country Store, Helotes. 210-643-0314.
Bicycling: Saturday, 8 a.m., Wheelmen Picnic and Ride, 20, 27, 39, 51, 66 and 71 miles, Pickrell Park, Schertz, sawheelmen.com …
Overnight the temperature dropped a few degrees (74 to 83 for the ride) so I switched to a long sleeve jersey for today’s ride. This worked for two reasons: keep warm and no need for sunscreen on my arms. With the light north 8 mph wind and mostly cloudy sky it felt cool so I did not really mind the long sleeve jersey. With a northerly route I rode into the wind until the turnaround 13 or so miles in. Once I made the turnaround I bumped up my speed and gearing to recover the time lost. By 15 miles I recovered all but 27 seconds of what I needed to average 15 mph. When I got to 20 miles I regained the lost time with 1:20 to the good. For the full ride of 31.08 miles my average speed ended up at 15.5 mph with the max speed at 23.0 mph.
The main screen of my Garmin Edge does not show my average speed or indicate whether I above or below my average like some of the other computers. I remember the old Avocet computers had this feature and it seemed to keep me at a higher pace. My average cadence went up slightly to 82.2 RPM. Here is the breakdown of the miles spend at different speed zones. Today I biked 4:52 minutes at 20.8 mph or more in contrast to other days when this is only measured in seconds. Riding through Valley Ranch and further I made a concentrated effort to keep my speed at 20 mph or more.
