Texas Bicycling Daily News Roundup July 17th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Bikes Belong Awards $60,000 in Grants
from www.bikeworldnews.com
…Dallas Ciclovía (Dallas, TX)
The first car-free streets day in Dallas will not only provide a safe and fun event for the local community, it will also show the appeal of car-free public spaces. The event will include a design contest to demonstrate how a dedicated bicycle facility can be added… More

A Ride To Remember in Poth, TX – Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club
Start: September 10, 2011 8:00 am
Saturday, September 10:  Fourth Annual Ride sponsored by the City of Poth and the Alzheimer’s Association.  Ride starts at 8:00 a.m. with on-site registration and packet pick-up starting at 7:00.  Ride features options for a 22 mile, a 44 mile or a 66 mile ride plus a 12 mile family ride.  Cost is… More

1984 Trek 400 Review – Biking In Dallas
Submitted by Christopher Curnutt

I had been in the hunt for a road bike for some time when I spotted this 1984 Trek 400 on Craigslist, I immediately fell in love with the color.  The seller wanted $200 which I thought was the upper end of the value but well worth the money.  The problem was I didn’t have the money at that time.  I assumed it… More

B-cycle: A rapid success story
Bike-share program’s popularity fights obesity trends.
Express-News Editorial Board

There was little doubt that San Antonio’s adoption of a bicycle share program would be great for the health of its residents. The surprise is how quickly San Antonio has embraced the national program, called B-cycle, making its… More

Summer Heat and Dry Continues but the Ride Goes On – July 17th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I wasn’t sure I would get to ride today because of an afternoon meeting at my church. Sometimes a meeting lasts longer than planned but that did not happen in this case. But I did ride later than usual for Sunday with a start time of 2:56 PM. This meant the temperature would have the full time to heat up to the daytime max which it has I think. At the start the temperature was 95 degrees with the heat index of 99 degrees and humidity of 40%. The wind was calm so I was going to have to create the breeze by riding if that was going to help. By the time I finished at 4:46 PM the temperature was up to 97 and the heat index was now 102 degrees. The humidity had dropped 1% to 39% and the wind finally arrived at 8.1 mph from the southeast. All of this made for a toasty ride and a call for much ice water. Scattered clouds did not reduce the sun shine.

I decided to ride a straight forward route without a lot of branches since I did not have a lot of time. Surprisingly this still was a 26.52 mile ride at an average speed of 15.1 mph and a max speed of 24.2 mph. Average cadence was 79.6 RPM. July miles update:

  • July miles 362.92
  • Miles this week 152.18
  • YTD miles 3202.01
  • Time riding so far in July 23 hrs and 40 minutes

7-17-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

7-17-2011 Home Weather Finish

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/99916949 465 548]

[nggallery id=269]

Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for July 16th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Cyclists raise money for bike-to-school initiative
By: Jeff Stensland    austin.ynn.com
Cyclists got their pedals turning for the first ever Tres Burritos Ride Saturday morning. The event is a series of organized bicycle rides to raise money for the Boltage program, which encourages kids to bike to school.

Bicycle Short Shop hosted three separate and unique rides for the event. It was something different for 8-year-old Mason Rumaner, who is typically a few pedals ahead of his dad Todd. The two rode from… More

Dawson Lupul Builders Team Challenge winners from the first Driveway
from Violet Crown Sports Association

Dawson Lupul Builders Team Challenge winners from the first Driveway Mini Series of 2011. (Photo by Andrew Willis)

For the second Saturday in a row – July 16th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

For the second Saturday in a row I rode in the rain at the end of the ride. Today the rain began as I left my rest stop at the Valero station on FM1314 west of Porter. A friend offered to drive me home but I decided to bike home since the rain was not hard and there was no lightning. While I was resting at the Valero station I used my new LG Optimus V smartphone to check the weather ( I still need to work on typing on the touch screen) and I could see that most of the rain was to the east and north of where I was headed. Earlier as I was riding I could the clouds getting to darker to the east and I was wondering if I could get home before the rain fell. I was setting a good pace at 18 mph or more which was easier since the temperature was in the low 80’s and the wind was not that strong, probably around 5 mph.

Within a tenth of a mile from the start of the ride I met two bikers headed the opposite direction which was surprising. I do not generally encounter bikers on my street. Later in the ride at the 27 mile mark I met another two riders as they headed north on FM3083 and then one more on the back road from FM3083 to FM1314. My purpose of today’s route was to check the road surface on FM314 to see if the chip’n seal had been replaced by smooth asphalt. It has been and the road was very smooth for the 5 miles to SR242 where the new construction took over.

There was one dog sprint on FM1485 with a dog I had previously sprinted with. Fortunately I was in the north bound lane/shoulder and the dog was in the grass on the south bound lane. He made no effort to come across the road. He was fast though and ran along with me for about two or three tenths of a mile.

Today’s ride was 56.62 miles long and my average speed was 15.8 mph. I managed a max speed of 24.9 mph and the average cadence was 81.3 RPM. July miles stand at 336.4, the week’s miles are 125.66 and year to date is 3175.49.

7-16-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

7-16-2011 Home Weather Finish

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/99544540 465 548]

[nggallery id=268]