Today was a change of pace ride – June 5th Bike Ride

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Today was a change of pace ride on my Motobecane 700HT mountain bike. I have not rode this bike is several months plus my front on my road bike must still have a very slow leak and I did not want to take to fix it before riding. So I hit the dusty trails in Kingwood. When I say dusty I mean DUSTY. One thing I was quickly remind of was the muscles and skills are different from road biking. Going over bumps and rough surfaces takes a different set of muscles and reactions from the road in many cases. Dry grass sounds different from asphalt and concrete. Thankfully when you ride on the trails there tends to be tree cover so the sun is not beating down on you so much.

The cadence sensor was not being picked up by the Garmin Edge 500 so I am not sure how fast I was pedaling but it seemed fast at times and real slow at other times. I rode 12.78 miles at an average speed of 10.5 mph which is much slower than the usual road average.

The weather continues to be more like July and August. It was 98 degrees when I got home with 35% humidity, clear skies and light 8 mph breeze. There could be a record high today and tomorrow. No rain in sight.

Tomorrow I will not ride because of an online seminar I am attending so Tuesday will be the next scheduled ride day.

June miles update:

  • June miles  121.55
  • Miles this week 160.84
  • Year to date miles 2299.26

6-5-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for June 4th

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7:00am – Cup o Joe
by Scott Franklin
When: Sat Jun 11, 2011 7am to 8:30am  CDT
Where: Ronny Crownover Middle School
Event Description: The Cup o’ Joe is a beginner level ride of around 15 miles. The ride heads south to Hickory Creek and stops for drinks at Starbucks on the way home. The ride leader for this ride is Bob Troyer. http://www.corinthcycling.com/bob.html bob.troyer@verizon.net The route can be found by clicking on the link below: http://classic.mapmyride.com/view_route?r=818129813031270566

The RAAM does not come to Texas but at least one sponsor is from Texas.

Hertz NeverLost® Navigation Sponsor for Race Across America
PLANO, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Navigation Solutions has announced Hertz NeverLost® as the official Navigation Sponsor for the venerable 2011 Race Across America, a continuous 3,000 mile bicycle ride across the United States, starting June 14-18 in Oceanside, CA.

“We are proud to be the official Navigation Sponsor for RAAM and to support these outstanding athletes, their coaches and crew, and fans with Hertz NeverLost travel services and our state-of-the-art NeverLost GPS Gen5 system”…

Kit Mcconnico Lost Arrow Mountain Bike Trail
Lufkin, Texas
Description: You don’t expect to find much purpose built mountain bike trail in east Texas and you’ll be surprised at what you find in Lufkin. This trail is around 6 miles of rolling, twisty singletrack. With only 100 feet of elevation in the park, you’ll soon notice that it seems like…

I started to hear a tap-tap from one of my wheels – June 4th Bike Ride

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The temperature was a few degrees cooler than I expected when I left on my ride this morning. With the shade from the trees it was comfortable until about the 25 mile mark when the sun got higher in the sky. The weatherman was predicting a 20% chance of some badly needed rain and when I checked the radar when I first got up there were some patches to the north of Montgomery County but by the time I left they had vanished. Clear blue skies and a light 6 to 7 mph easterly breeze made this a perfect riding day. It was 95 degrees when I finished. The humidity was 35% at home when I finished. This is very low for the Houston area.

Around the 17 mile mark I started to hear a tap-tap from one of my wheels. This can be a forewarning of something stuck in the tire and could cause a flat. Whenever I stopped pedaling it still made the sound. The first time I stopped to check it out I looked at the rear tire and did not find anything. When I stopped at the 20 mile mark I found a piece of wire sticking out of the front tire. It did not appear to made it into the the so I pulled it out and continued my ride. Everything was going okay until about the 35 mile mark when I noticed the front tire was a little softer than it should be. Usually this is not a good sign and the tire goes flat before I can get to convenient place to fix the flat. In this case though the tire lasted to my usual stopping point at the Valero station on FM1314. (At another Valero station on FM1485 the unleaded regular gas was priced at $3.489 which is a good sign).

After I ate my two banana and FiberOne Bar snack I removed the tube from the front tire. It took a while to locate the tiny hole but I found it after pumping the tube up rather large. I patched the tube (it now has 4 patches on it) and pumped it up. It was still at full pressure when I got home 11 miles later. Today was the day to ride over objects. I ran over a picture frame that I did not see far enough in advance to miss and earlier some rocks. I thought for sure I was going to get pinch flats but no effects have appeared yet.

June miles are starting to accumulate.

  • June miles 108.77
  • Miles this week so far 148.05
  • Year to date miles 2286.48

6-4-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

6-4-2011 Home Weather Finish

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