The fog would not burn off so the sky was overcast – December 31st Bike Ride

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The fog would not burn off so the sky was overcast. I decided to ride my mountain bike and head out because I needed to be home by 2:30 for the Liberty Bowl. My Alma Mater, the University of Cincinnati, was playing Vanderbilt. It did warm up some from the 67 at the start to almost 72 at the end of the ride. The wind was gusting to 20 mph from the south-southwest so when I was going into it I had to pedal hard. Mountain bike aerodynamics are not quite as good as my road bike.

My final ride of the year was 17.97 miles. December mileage ends up at 269.41 and the year’s total is 5640.72 miles. My total biking time for the year was 385:32:15. My average speed for the year was 14.6 mph. Average cadence for the year was 79.8 RPM. 2012 could be more miles since I do not have to fit my biking around a job.

Link to the Bike Ride at Garmin Connect.        Link to the Bike Ride at RideWithGPS.com

12-31-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

12-31-2011 Home Weather Station End

 

Texas Bicycling Daily News Roundup December 29th

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Why 2011 Was the Best Year of My Life
By Shawn        Texas Mountain Bike Trails
As much as I look forward to 2012, I will always look back at 2011 as one of the best years of my life.

I don’t often talk about what is going on in my personal life, even outside of my twitter feed (@TexasMTBtrails), but this marks the end of a year and I want you to feel like you know a little bit about who I am. I want you to feel like I am the kind of guy that you want to race through the trails with or grab coffee with. I am a fanatic fan of both.

For those of you reading who don’t know anything about me personally, you are about to receive a brief crash course. Today’s post is entirely about the things that have happened in my life over the…

Year End Airing of Grievances – Bike edition
by minorbaker            Austin on Two Wheels
The time is now for everyone to stand around the Festivus pole and air our grievances. I see it as my purging of the bad mojo before the start of a new year. As a highly cynical individual I have plenty of people and situations I would like to grieve, but for the purpose of this post, I will keep it to bike related items.

Rear Derailluer adjustment is for the birds….at least in my case. All other elements of basic bike maintenance I can now perform to at least an adequate level, but no matter how much I read, or how many YouTube videos I watch about adjusting the rear derailluer, I still struggle to make it function perfectly. When I do stumble into a…

Spring Creek Trail Looks Worse Than I Thought
by dickdavid        Bike Friendly Richardson

Last week the City of Richardson announced that they would be closing off portions of the Spring Creek Trail for repairs. Since I typically ride the west section, from the Routh Creek Parkway ramp to the Central Expressway underpasses, I didn’t know the extent of the wear and tear on the trail.

I took a spin thought the entire length this morning and discovered that it was much worse than I thought. Here are some pics of just a few areas marked for…

I have to admit I would not be caught dead with a bike bell but this looks very sharp.

Crane Bike Bell, life’s simple pleasures
by Christopher Curnutt            Biking in Dallas

The Dallas Chic Boutique ride began at Transit Bikes the other day and it was awfully nice of them to serve us all Mimosas while we waited in their shop for everyone to arrive.   I wasn’t really in the market for new bike bits until I saw the modest collection of bike bells.  I recalled I’ve meant to add bells to all of my bikes so I took this opportunity to pick out a nice, shiny, brass bike bell made by Crane.  In fact it’s so shiny I could not take a close…

St. Kitts-Nevis Association of Houston, TX Donates to Police Force
By L.K. Hewlett            www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com

The St. Kitts and Nevis Association of Houston, Texas has donated two bicycles to the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force.

At a brief handing over ceremony at Police Headquarters on Wednesday (Dec 28), SKANA Houston’s representative Dennis Warner presented Police Commissioner CG Walwyn with the two Smith &Wesson bicycles. Warner said it was more than a privilege to be able to give back to the…

Evolution Resolutions Love
“All endeavors start out stupid; the trick is making them smart” – The Plano Cyclist.

The only thing that has been consistent about this blog for the past few years have been the “resolutions” posts that I put up at New Years, so even though this is Friday and I should be linkdumping, I’m going to be resolving instead. So here we go:

1. I want to continue to grow my readership. As you can see, I have put up a ton of posts this year, adding product reviews, a regular feature (Linkdump) and a little more structure to the blog. I have nearly reached 10,000 views, and I hope to…

The weatherman nailed the forecast today – December 30th Bike Ride

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The weatherman nailed the forecast today. The temperature was 72 degrees, skies were a clear blue and the wind was a light 6.1 mph from the south-southwest. There was some fog early in the morning but it burned off right on schedule. I delayed the start unti1:30  so that I would not be tempted to over dress. I ended up wearing bike shorts, a long sleeve jersey and a short sleeve jersey. At first until I warmed up it was a little cool but by the time I rode 3 or 4 miles I did not notice the cool any more. This probably had more with being the sunshine than it getting too much warmer.

I thought I might see some other bikers out with school being on vacation and some businesses on shorter hours this week but there was only one that I saw from a distance.

After my previous ride on my mountain bike my rear end was more comfortable on my road bike saddle. The muscles were cooperating much better. The 29.19 mile route was good for a 15.6 mph average speed. The max speed was an even 21 mph with my average cadence at 82.3 RPM. The average speed and cadence are much higher than my mountain bike ride a couple of days ago. This is probably why my heart is into road biking. December is now up to 251.44 miles and year to date I biked 5622.74 miles.

Before my ride I was looking at some of my logbooks from 1990, 1991 and 1988. I was getting ready to scan them so that I could get rid of the paper before it becomes unreadable. Back then my annual mileage was 4300 to 4400 miles. It was harder to fit biking in with the rest of my life.

Link to the Bike Ride at Garmin Connect.        Link to the Bike Ride at RideWithGPS.com.

12-30-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

 

12-30-2011 Home Weather Station End

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for December 29th

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The Racing Post – January 2012 Issue
The Racing Post is a monthly magazine dedicated to those who ride bicycles and like to ride them – fast.  Event coverage includes Road racing, Off-road racing, Track racing, Triathlons, Bicycle rallies, and all levels of bicycle training.

New Years Day ride at Flat Rock Ranch
by Laura Scagno         Austin Ridge Riders
This is a Public Event posted by Doug with our friends at STORM (South Texas Off-Road Mountain Bikers)
Sunday January 1, 2012   Start Time 10 a.m.
Flat Rock Ranch, 342 Flat Rock Creek Road, Comfort, Tx 78013

New Years Day ride at Flat Rock Ranch. Wheels down at 10:00 am in the parking area. This will be a good ride for anyone who is not familiar wtth the ranch trail system. I plan to lead a no drop ride ride on the Lower Loop. If anyone wants to ride faster they are welcome to go on ahead.

The Centex Mountain Bikers and Racer’s Edge (CMBRE) is a meetup group of riders and racers in Central Texas. CMBRE will be an organized scheduler for races and other events, assisting racers in keeping up to date on what is happening where and when. CMBRE will also include scheduled ride calls at various trails around the state and even a few trips out of state. There will be skills clinics, some for free and some for a fee to help riders…

The following two articles show how the sellers are trying to limit the buyers (you and me) from finding bargains.

Sinyard letter spurs discussion
Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
Mike Sinyard’s letter to retailers this week regarding Amazon’s Price Check App is escalating an industry-wide conversation and examination of the interaction between brick-and-mortar stores and the many alternate retailing channels popping up online.

Sinyard, the founder and president of Specialized Bicycle Components, warned his dealers about the new app and urged them to consider their loyalty to brands whose products are available through Amazon. He named…

Cateye cleaning up discounters
Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
BOULDER, CO (BRAIN)—Cateye USA president Thomas Prehn went on an Amazon buying spree of sorts last spring and summer. He has an office full of receipts and packages to prove it.

“I was probably Amazon’s best Cateye customer,” Prehn said Thursday.

Prehn was buying his company’s own products off of Amazon to try to identify their source so he could shut down deep discounters.

While Cateye sells some products direct to Amazon, oftentimes its products show up at discounts from unauthorized sources. While Cateye can’t tell a retailer what price to sell at, the company can identify…

After my bike ride on Tuesday saddles were on my mind thus this review made Texbiker.net today.

Review: Syncros FL Carbon Rail Mountain Bike Saddle
posted by Tyler (Editor)        www.bikerumor.com

Syncros’ FL product family is their lightweight, XC-oriented group of components. FL stands for “Freakin’ Light” and thus far, we haven’t been disappointed when we’ve thrown FL goodies on the scale. Most recently, I reviewed their FLavor tires and, despite a thick coating of leaves and mud on the trail, can’t bring myself to take…

Why You Should Check Your Chainring Bolts
posted by Tyler (Editor)    www.bikerumor.com

…So this doesn’t happen to you mid-ride.

While bike shops and warranty departments hate to hear it, this truly did happen while Just Riding Along (aka JRA). Coming around a corner, I put a mild amount of acceleration into my ride simultaneously heard and felt a crunch. The bike came to an immediate stop. Looking down, I assumed the chain had simply fallen off or…

Bicycle Safety Ordinances Considered
by Plano Star Courier
By Bill Conrad
One of the goals of the Plano Bicycle Association is to increase rider safety through education of both cyclists and motorists. A new ordinance being considered by the city council may make its job a little bit easier.

Earlier this month, the council heard a report from Police Chief Greg Rushin concerning an ordinance drafted by his department, with strong input from the association. It is modeled after a bill that was passed by…

Del Rio man completes cross-country bike race
Tumbleweed Smith         www.mywesttexas.com

The Race Across America, known as RAAM to bicycle racers around the world, is an endurance race that started in 1982 when four individuals raced from the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles to the Empire State Building in New York City. Racers who finish RAAM are in a unique group of athletes who have unbelievable strength and determination. A privately owned enterprise, RAAM has more distance and more varieties of terrain and weather than any other bike race. At 3,000 miles, it is 30 percent longer than the…

Tour de Life – Steve
WHAT’S GOIN’ ON…
I’m going to be biking all around:
Texas for 3 months, from January-March, 2012 (around 4000 miles)
Louisiana during April 2012 (around 1000 miles)
WHERE EXACTLY IN TX & LA ARE YOU GOIN’?
I have a little site that shows the route plan that I’ve come up with thus far. That address is: trackmytour.com/6434

There you’ll find a stop-by-stop text itinerary as well as an interactive map for the tour. From the tour route, I plan on sending in frequent dispatches from the road via writings/photos/videos…

I had to include at least one person who reflected on the year and what he plans to do in 2012.

So How Did I Do?
By Justin        The Plano Cyclist
Every year I have made some New Year’s resolutions for myself on the blog, and I like to check in at the end of the year and see how well I kept them. This year is no different – well, generally the check and the new resolutions are in the same post, but this year they will be…