Texas Bicycling Daily News Roundup December 19th

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January 2012 Club Ride @ Rocky Hill Ranch
Austin Ridge Riders
Saturday, January 14, 2012 – 10:00
Time to rock the Ranch!
You know the place. You love the place.
Come on out and ride and set the tone for 2012!

As usual, we will break into groups based on skill level, pace and how long participants want to ride and then we roll.

You do not have to be an ARR Member to participate in club rides but you will need to sign a waiver and properly wear a helmet when we ride. And we’d love, just love, to have you sign up officially and help the club support our great programs and projects. AND…
Members in good standing will be reimbursed the…

2011 Jingle Bell Ride
Austin Ridge Riders

With 30 participants, ARR Board Treasurer Cindy W. led the group on an 8 mile tour of the beautiful neighborhoods of Northwest Balcones. Upon return to the park, hot chocolate and treats were enjoyed by all and the annual White Elephant Gift Exchange once again brought lots of laughs. The nasty can of something or other made an appearnce for the 3rd year in a row. Thanks for every who attended and this is another example of why someone else should take a camera. My photos are…

West Texas Cycling Association

Next Monthly Meeting
Date: January 9, 2012
Time: 7:00 PM
Host: TBA
Where: Lubbock, TX

El Paso Bicycle Club Ride
Sunday, January 8
Let’s all sleep in ride
Description:     This moderate ride leaves from Jaxon’s at Mesa and Remcon (next to Home Depot) for a 26-mile loop that returns just in time for a “cyclefest brew” and pub grub! Patty Van Tine, 915-667-0202.

After searching for the “perfect” saddle finding wheels is usually the next goal.

The Quest for Great Wheels
Ready for Plan B
Ask 10 different cyclists what wheels you should get and you’re likely to get two dozen different answers.  And for good reason.  There are options for virtually every circumstance and even then there are different preferences.

My quest for great wheels lead me to skip the carbon (working with only $1,000 budget) and go with an aluminum rim.  From there I was looking for a strong rim with decent aerodynamics that I could run tubeless on.  I settled on HED’s Belgium C2 rims, proven…

How Bikes Can Save Us
Alliance for Biking & Walking: People Powered Blog
We got a little gift in our inbox this weekend: a witty, engaging infographic about bicycling and health. Enjoy!

As a road biker this is a bike to wish for (or lust)!

Just in! Pinarello Dogma with Campagnolo EPS- Unboxed, weighed and first impressions
by JasonWalder         www.bikerumor.com

Finally hitting the floor at bike shops around the country is the long awaited Campagnolo EPS group. This electronic group(attached to a very limited edition Pinarello Dogma2) just showed up at Freshbikes in Arlington, VA. Complete with a set of Campy Bora Ultra 2 wheels, this dream bike weighed in at a respectable 6.77kg(14.93lbs.) More pictures and some initial ride impressions after the break…

Be a Positive Contributor
by Eric Hutchins        lovingthebike.com
I am a huge fan of the Lovingthebike site and of Darryl, its creator.  He recently asked me to guest blog about what the site means to me.  I struggle sometimes to put my thoughts into words worth reading – I’m a site fan, not a writer — but here’s my best shot:

I have a fairly simplistic view of things, life in particular.  I attribute that to my engineering education and a desire to understand and reduce things to their most…

With today’s 29.74 mile ride – December 19th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

With today’s 29.74 mile ride I accomplished my typical December 200 miles with the total reaching 201.76 miles (YTD now is 5573.06 miles). This was battling a 24 mph wind with gusts to 28 mph. I could tell when I rolled out of the driveway that I would be facing some strong gusts as I rode into the southeast wind. There were a couple of places the wind was strong enough that I had to stand up and pedal. One spot was around the 15 mile mark when I rode down a slight decline and then had to pedal back up after rounding a tree-protected corner headed straight into the wind. My speed went from about 18 mph to less than 10 mph in about 100 feet. My stretch goal for December is now 300 miles. I passed two women bikers around the 6 mile mark.

Even with the wind, or maybe because of it, I averaged 15.5 mph with a max speed of 23.8 mph. The average cadence was 81.3 RPM. Riding time was 1:55:01.

Before I left I today checked to see how many miles I needed to get over the 200 mile mark and plotted my route accordingly. The heavy clouds today point to some kind of weather change coming so I might not get to ride tomorrow. It was 70 degrees when I started today and 68 at the end. Tomorrow’s high is 67 degrees with some rain possible during the night.

12-19-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

Link to my Garmin Connect data. Link to my RideWithGPS.com data.

12-19-2011 Home Weather Station End

Golden Cheetah, Open Source Your Data Tracking

Texbiker.net Posted on by

On the past Friday I was listening the Cycling 360 podcast. The December 16th episode discussed tracking software. One of the software programs was Golden Cheetah. I have tried several programs and my default program is SportTracks. Golden Cheetah is an open source option that offers a lot of data analysis. I do not have one but if you have a power meter instrument on your bike this program can cut and slice the data in about every way you can imagine. The gallery below shows some of the sample data from my December 18th bike ride.

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for December 18th

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Wheelbrothers/UCLEAR Christmas Contest: Harold Darling – Entry
by The WheelBrothers
My favorite time of the Texas year is Spring. That is the best bike riding weather and the prettiest flowers on the hillsides. The “Greater Dallas Bike Ride” happens to be the second weekend in April, what a perfect time to see the flowers at a slow pace. This ride heads out from the square in Lancaster, south-south-east of Dallas, with a coordinated start at the old town gazebo. So you better get with your starting group and ready for a fast start…

How to Break Into the Cycling Industry – Pivot’s Chris Cocalis’ Story
posted by Tyler (Editor)        www.bikerumor.com

…beginning with the story of Chris Cocalis, founder of Pivot Cycles and the U.S. importer for BH Bikes. Before that he started Titus. How do you start multiple bike companies from scratch, build them into highly regarded brands and capture distribution rights for one of Europe’s most historic badges? Let’s find out…

BIKERUMOR: Who are you and what are you doing here?

COCALIS: I am the President and founder of Pivot Cycles and also BH Bikes USA. Pivot Cycles is a high end mountain bike company focusing on the very top end of high performance mountain bikes (primarily full suspension). BH Bikes is a 102 year old Spanish bicycle company with a strong history in European cycling…