Texas Bicycling News – January 18, 2023

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Editorial: Why would Houston want to rebuild roads to slow cars down?

The Editorial Board | www.houstonchronicle.com

Derek Fincham poses with his bicycle in the spot where he was struck by a car while bicycling at Pierce and Austin Streets in downtown Houston, TX.Sharon Steinmann/Staff Photographer

“What is the logic behind taking a four-lane busy street and reducing it to 2 lanes and a turn lane plus a bicycle lane in a city with a population of 2.3 million?” asks Robert M., a commenter on NextDoor.

A new round of social media flame wars has erupted as Houston installs islands and crosswalks for pedestrians, and protected lanes for bicyclists along 11th Street in the Houston Heights.

The angry residents ask a fair question. It seems counterintuitive for the city to deliberately slow traffic down on a street that serves so many businesses.

The new approach makes perfect sense, though, if you hear the story of Derek Fincham. It was late October 2021. Around 7 p.m., Fincham, a professor at …

Approved reroute open and ready for use. New road and paved path going in at O.P. Schnabel park. Approved reroute in progress. Are you ready? Think you got the legs for this one? Endurance is the name of the game as participants compete to finish three 17-mile laps at Flat Rock Ranch for some sweet singletrack goodness. Bring your climbing legs, because there will be a lot of it! If that seems like too much, we also have 2-lap and 1-lap categories as well. The STORM Miles of DisComfort MTB Marathon is the final race of the 2022/23 Hill Country Bicycle Works Texas Marathon Mountain Bike State Championship Series.

How to cycle around when you don’t have a bike

Jay R. Jordan | www.axios.com

I finally have my bike back from the shop (once again, thanks, EaDo Bike Co.!), but I wanted to share what it was like using Houston BCycle in the interim.

By the numbers: Houstonians took 623,680 trips on a BCycle in 2020 and 2021, according to data published by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

The average ride in 2020 and 2021 was 76 minutes, an estimated 230 calories burned each trip.
The average trip was just under six miles.
The bikeshare estimates it reached more than 350,000 trips in 2022.

Pedaling the news: …

Evening Ride San Antonio, Texas

Simon Garcia Jr | strava.com

Moms Ride- 50 for Drew Houston, Texas

Michelle Yoder | strava.com

Texas Biking from Twitter

Flexibility: From TdZ to Spring Creek Greenway

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Flexibility for today’s bike ride. I planned on riding stage 3 of the Tour de Zwift but an appointment changed and the weather looked good before a cool front arrived later this afternoon. I’ll ride stage 3 tomorrow. Thinking of different routes not going to far from Kingwood I decided to ride to Jesse Jones Park on the Spring Creek Greenway. Before the ride I didn’t check to see when I rode there last but it had been several months not counting the times I rode through the park to other points on the greenway. To add some distance when I rode into Woodridge Forest I rode west on Adams Street and back into Woodridge Forest. I’ve been trying to re-capture the Strava local legend on Adams Street but I’ve riding the wrong direction. I rode east to west instead of west to to east. So I created a new segment, “Adams St. Westbound”. That answered a question about Strava segments, does direction matter? It does.

Strava didn’t find any matching rides because of Adams Street but SportTracks found these rides with the route name I use, Spring Creek Greenway to Jesse Jones Park.

1-18-2023 SportTracks Route Results Comparison Spring Creek Greenway-Jesse Jones Park
1-18-2023 SportTracks Route Results Comparison Spring Creek Greenway-Jesse Jones Park

The greenway was not busy today. I saw one cyclist on the way back to the US59 trailhead and a few walkers. Maybe the weather forecast kept people away. Weather conditions: start, 76, humidity 80%, dew point 69, overcast, wind S 13 mph; finish 77, humidity 76%, dew point 69, overcast, wind S 12 mph gusts 24 mph. I wore shorts, a short sleeve jersey under a wind jacket.

Getting to the greenway a strong headwind kept my effort hard. Once I got to the parking lot at Jesse Jones and started riding back to Kingwood the wind became a side wind and tailwind. Pedaling got easier and I upped my speed. Today’s ride had the second fastest average speed compared to my previous rides above. The AXS.SRAM.com ride report gives some details about my effort. I used the 35×15 gears most changing to the 35×13 on the way back after coming over the Bevill Jerrell Bridge.

1-18-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Time
1-18-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Time
1-18-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Distance
1-18-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Distance
1-18-2023 SRAM Component Summary Avg Power in Gear
1-18-2023 SRAM Component Summary Avg Power in Gear

Strava posted 3 medals on segments.

1-18-2023 Strava Ride Overview Spring Creek Greenway - Jesse Jones Park
1-18-2023 Strava Ride Overview Spring Creek Greenway – Jesse Jones Park
1-18-2023 Strava Ride Route Spring Creek Greenway - Jesse Jones Park
1-18-2023 Strava Ride Route Spring Creek Greenway – Jesse Jones Park
1-18-2023 Strava Ride Segments Spring Creek Greenway - Jesse Jones Park
1-18-2023 Strava Ride Segments Spring Creek Greenway – Jesse Jones Park

Texas Bicycling News – January 17, 2023

Texbiker.net Posted on by

No Fear: 7-year-old Friendswood BMX star racing to the top

abc13.com

FRIENDSWOOD, Texas — The moment Monaco Jones got on a bike there was no looking back.

The 7-year-old first grader is now a rising star in the BMX scene.

He is ranked number one in his age group in the U.S. South-Central Region, and recently took 4th place at the Race of Champions 2022.

His mother, Lauren Maignaud, tells ABC13 Jones was diagnosed with autism when he was in Kindergarten and BMX riding has helped him in so many ways

"It helps him create more friends – being put in a more in a social environment with all these other riders, I think it helps his confidence" Maignaud said.

TxDOT seeks community input, Pharr District Bicycle Plan

by: Lesly Hinojosa | www.valleycentral.com

PHARR, Texas (ValleyCentral) — As a part of the Texas Transportation Plan, residents in the Rio Grande Valley are encouraged to take part in a statewide bicycle analysis survey.

This survey will help the Texas Department of Transportation address safety concerns bicyclists face on the streets such as lack of bike lanes, unpaved shoulders, poor lighting and road barriers.

Residents can also share ideas and suggestions for new bike lane locations, changes to existing bikeways, and additional safety measures.

“This plan will focus on improving opportunities to ride a bicycle along, across and near …

Pedaling along: Kingwood bicycle shop 29ers Bike Shop offers array of options for riders of all ages

By Wesley Gardner | communityimpact.com

When Ross Lapham set out to purchase a bicycle for his family to get out of the house during the COVID-19 lockdown, he had no idea the venture would turn into a business.

“At the time, there was a high demand for bikes and a very low supply, so that made the bikes not only hard to get, but also very expensive,” Lapham said.

After an extensive search, Lapham was finally able to secure a bicycle, but an incident with a nearby shop that sold his preordered bike before he could pick it up left him concerned.

“If these guys are doing this, then I thought, ‘I could do a better job of offering this community a better service,’” Lapham said. …

Upcoming Rides

Fort Worth Bicycling Association | www.fwbaclub.org

Burleson and Beyond
Thu, January 19, 2023 9:00 AM
Spokes Parking Lot, 155 W Bufford St., Burleson, TX
Rusty Romp
Thu, January 19, 2023 9:00 AM
Benbrook YMCA, 1899 Winscott Road, Benbrook, TX 76126
Chisholm Rusty Chain Gang Ramble
Tue, January 24, 2023 9:00 AM
4936 McPherson Blvd, Fort Worth, TX
Rusty Romp Tuesday Edition
Tue, January 24, 2023 9:00 AM
Benbrook YMCA, 1899 Winscott Road, Benbrook, TX 76126
Burleson and Beyond
Thu, January 26, 2023 9:00 AM
Spokes Parking Lot, 155 W Bufford St., Burleson, TX
Rusty Romp
Thu, January 26, 2023 9:00 AM
Benbrook YMCA, 1899 Winscott Road, Benbrook, TX 76126
Chisholm Rusty Chain Gang Ramble
Tue, January 31, 2023 9:00 AM
4936 McPherson Blvd, Fort Worth, TX

Tuesday San Antonio, Texas

Eduardo Salas (Cyclones) | strava.com

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Silver Tipped Shoes, Kit Indecision

Texbiker.net Posted on by

After successfully renewing my driver’s license I was back home in time to start today’s bike ride earlier than yesterday. I got ready but I couldn’t make up my mind on what to wear. I usually don’t have that problem but the temperature was borderline between cool and warm. I finally decided on a poly long sleeve T-shirt and a wind jacket over top. I also decided to wear my new Shimano RC702 shoes since the chance of rain was very low. I didn’t want to get them dirty on the first ride.

I left the driveway at 11:06 AM to ride my Atascocita – Walden – Huffman route on my Cervelo Caledonia bike. The Cervelo was shiny after getting washed from the wet roads on yesterday’s bike ride. I only needed 5 miles today to reach my 300 road mile goal for January and this route usually is 33 to 35 miles long depending on which streets I use. Today I rode 34.24 miles putting the month at 329.7 miles. In January 2022 I rode 259 road miles falling short of the same 300 mile goal. January 2021 I rode 323 miles exceeding my goal then. With 15 days left I could get more road miles.

I saw 3 other cyclists on Old Atascocita Road just west of FM 2100. You can see them in the video clips.

SportTracks retrieved these past rides on the same route name to compare with today’s ride. The exact streets are probably not the same but the distances are close. Strava only found 1 other ride to match with today. I’m not sure how Strava matches rides, maybe the GPS.

1-17-2023 Rides Comparison Atascocita-Walden-Huffman Route
1-17-2023 Rides Comparison Atascocita-Walden-Huffman Route

How I used the Cervelo’s gears from AXS.SRAM.com ride report.

1-17-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Time
1-17-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Time
1-17-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Distance
1-17-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Distance
1-17-2023 SRAM Component Summary Avg Power in Gear
1-17-2023 SRAM Component Summary Avg Power in Gear
1-17-2023 Strava Ride Overview Atascocita-Walden-Huffman
1-17-2023 Strava Ride Overview Atascocita-Walden-Huffman