Texas Bicycling News – January 8, 2023

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Marshall, Texas Afternoon Ride

David Hollowell | strava.com

Letter to the editor – Bike donation figure reported incorrectly

Jeff Stegall | www.tdtnews.com

I wanted to clarify a recent misunderstanding concerning a generous bike donation to Feed My Sheep Temple.

A letter to the editor on Tuesday stated that we received a donation of $14,000 to purchase 15 bikes. This rightfully created concern over the price of the bikes as this would make them roughly just under $1,000 apiece. The actual donation was for $1,400 and with this we purchased 15 bikes making them roughly $93.33 a piece which is a very good value in today’s economy.

I know it is not a large matter, but as executive director of Feed My Sheep Temple, I wanted to clarify this misunderstanding as good use of financial donations is very important to our organization.

Austin, Texas New Bike Day – Hard Launch

Parker George | strava.com

Salsa Warbird – ft. some new wheels and way too many headset spacers

Houston, Texas Lunch Ride

Joey Martinez | strava.com

Afternoon Ride with Dylan- I was going for rad but cute will do Houston, Texas

Alison Carey | strava.com

Marshall, Texas Afternoon Ride

Roman Brantley | strava.com

Spring Creek Greenway via Mercer Arboretum from ? Home Harris County, Texas

Chander Kasiraj | strava.com

Trying out a new route. The I45 intersection sucks! The road planners should be shot. No consideration for anything other than cars including pedestrians. Very poorly designed with no sidewalks. There is a high school on that intersection with many kids crossing those streets dangerously. This seems to be the general approach here and I have seen this elsewhere. This makes me sad that I live in Texas.

Kendall County, Texas Dirt Church W/ @teamendurolab

Brittany Parffrey | strava.com

Sunday Funday w/ Friends [50K] Houston, Texas

Nate Eguia | strava.com

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Zwift – Neokyo Makuri Islands Wandering Flats

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Today ended the first full week of 2023. I rode every day, 3 days on Zwift and four days on the road. A very good start for the year. I am ahead of all of my previous years that I have mileage data for.

Before church this morning while eating breakfast I watched the women’s UCI Cyclocross World Cup Zonhoven, from Belgium. Then after church I watched the men’s UCI Cyclocross World Cup Zonhoven. Lots of sand.

No sand for me. I decided to ride Zwift to wrap up my week of biking. I wanted to ride at least 15 miles and Makuri Islands looking inviting. Opening the Zwift desktop program Makuri Islands wasn’t listed as a free ride world. So I went to the companion app and created a meetup in Makuri Islands on the Wandering Flats route. The route was 16.2 miles including a short lead-in and 476 feet of climbing according to ZwiftInsider.com. Almost all of the climbing was on one hill starting around the 18km point. My actual climbing 492 feet and 16.26 miles long. The climb had a 10% spot but it didn’t last long and my legs got me over the top. My Wahoo Kickr Core upped the resistance but I stayed in the saddle all the way up. This was my third ride on this route.

Because Makuri Islands wasn’t a free ride world there wasn’t many other Zwifters. The nearby Zwifters ranged from 1100 at the start down to 800 at the end of my ride. I rode with a few people for short periods but mostly alone.

While I rode inside I lost my Strava local legend for the VR Drag on Valley Ranch Parkway. But I got this 2nd fastest time on Wandering Flats (58:01). Relative effort for this week shows “steady progress”.

1-08-2023 Strava Zwift Matched Rides Makuri Islands Wandering Flats
1-08-2023 Strava Zwift Matched Rides Makuri Islands Wandering Flats
1-08-2023 Strava Relative Weekly Effort
1-08-2023 Strava Relative Weekly Effort
1-08-2023 Strava Zwift Overview Makuri Islands Wandering Flats
1-08-2023 Strava Zwift Overview Makuri Islands Wandering Flats
1-08-2023 Strava Zwift Map Makuri Islands Wandering Flats
1-08-2023 Strava Zwift Map Makuri Islands Wandering Flats
1-08-2023 SportTracks Week Bike Rides Summary
1-08-2023 SportTracks Week Bike Rides Summary

Texas Bicycling News – January 7, 2023

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Self-driving car caught on camera in West Campus bike lane

www.fox7austin.com

An Austin cyclist captured on video a Cruise driverless car attempting to make a left turn, but ending up driving in the bike lane.

This Texas Highway Is Being Expanded To Hopefully Reduce Congestion

By Dani Medina | www.iheart.com

"One of the top most congested highways in the entire state of Texas" is getting a major expansion in hopes of reducing congestion.

The Texas Department of Transportation announced this plan this week, FOX 7 reports. The "giant" expansion project will specifically focus on the stretch of I-35 from US 290 E to State Highway 71. "This project has been envisioned probably for two decades. This stretch of I-35 has not been expanded since the mid-1970s," said TxDOT District Engineer Tucker Ferguson.

These improvements, which are a "long time coming" include:

2 non-toll HOV lanes in each direction
Rebuilt cross-strait bridges with bike and pedestrian accommodations
Shared use paths for bikes and pedestrians on both sides of I-35 N and S
Realigned frontage roads for a boulevard-style system ...

MS150 Spring 2023 Recommended Ride Calendar

mssociety.donordrive.com

The Recommended Rides are hosted by Local Non-Profit Organizations; fees vary per ride. The Recommended Rides are not organized or supported by the National MS Society.

Join one of the Recommended Rides to train for the Texas MS 150.

*Please note some of the Recommended Ride event websites may not be updated for 2023. Be sure to check the Recommended Ride event website for further details.

Date Recommended Ride Recommended Ride Website* Sunday, February 26, 2023 Tour de Houston https://www.houstontx.gov/tourdehouston
Saturday, March 4, 2023 Pedaling the Prairie (Waller) http://www.pedalingtheprairie.org
Saturday, March 11, 2023 Gator Ride https://heartsandhandsofbaytown.com/gator-ride/
Saturday, March 25, 2023 Just Ride for a Just Cause (Simonton) http://www.justrideforajustcause.org
Saturday, March 25, 2023 Riverside Ride (Victoria) www.riversideride.com
Saturday, April 1, 2023 Zuhnë Education Expedition (Fort Bend) https://bit.ly/FBISDEducationExpedition
Saturday, April 15, 2023 Tour de Braz (Alvin) http://www.tourdebraz.org
Sunday, April 16, 2023 Gran Fondo Texas (Montgomery) https://granfondotexas.org
Sunday, April 22, 2023 Tour de RACHA http://www.familytiesfrs.org/tour-de-racha-ride-against-child-abuse1.html
Sunday, April 23, 2023 Bluebonnet Express (Waller) www.BBX.bike

Faith and Cycling

Drop Bar Texas by Paul Negrete | anchor.fm

Fr. John Bullock, LC discusses his booklet on faith and cycling titled A Cyclist’s Spirituality: Spiritual Lessons Learned from Riding a Bike. We discuss experiences in faith and cycling including that these do not need to be exclusive of each other. An introduction by Paul Latino of Downrock Creative and illustrator of the book provides additional insight.

Looking for Drop Bar Texas gear? Click here for the Jakroo DBT store.

Links: A Cyclist’s Spirituality, Q&A with Fr. Bullock, Downrock Creative, BellVelo Gravel Series, Cedar Hill Race Festival, and Smithville Gravel Weekend.

Music: Back to the Woods by Jason Shaw

Afternoon Ride before the rain and before nightfall.

Sharon Irving-Whitfield MTHCC | strava.com

Mission, Texas The Quickie

Daniel Cruz | strava.com

Houston, Texas Who’s on FIRE?

Reynaldo Juarez | strava.com

Salado, Texas Monuments rise, planets circulate, innocence lives, beautiful things…..precious things, they fall…..fall some more. But like the beacon of the universe, they rise for a straight 59 years that create the epitome of integrity…….THE Mrs Rivers

Sanora Baptiste | strava.com

BBRSP: West Contrabondo

Casey Gudgell | strava.com

North loop is in rough shape, barely rideable in places. Floods did lots of damage to the trails. Going to pass on the epic loop this year

San Antonio, Texas Saturday Ride

Mark Noblitt MTCCSA | strava.com

Part solo, part CRSA. Burned too many matches early! Late start, so no time for that last 15 miles. Next time!

The Woodlands, Texas 85 for Capt Rich

Adrian Williams | strava.com

Beat ride of the year. #LoveIsLove.

Harris County, Texas MT. Pleasant Road

Veloharmony | strava.com

Fort Bend County, Texas Little of Everything-

Nicole Volek | strava.com

Tiny group to the big group to tiny group to solo miles!?

I needed food so I accidentally stopped Garmin. What a gorgeous day!!!

Bexar County, Texas Kendalia Ride!

Eduardo Salas | strava.com

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Brain Strained, Reversed Route Looks Different

Texbiker.net Posted on by

For most of my rides when I choose the route I don’t have to think too much about which direction and streets will be in the ride because of the number of times I rode them. Today I challenged my brain with the route. I took my Atascocita – Huffman – Walden route and reversed as many chunks of it that I could. To differentiate I made the route name Atascocita – Huffman – Walden Reverse. I would guess that about 40% of of the ride was in the reverse direction. Some of the streets I’ve never rode in reverse but most I have at one or another.

The first reverse section came at the start of the ride and continued until I got to Kings Harbor at W. Lake Houston. Because there is only one way to cross the bridge that limited reversing. From Kings Harbor to Fairlake Lane I was back on the usual roads. At Fairlake Lane I stayed on FM 1960 to FM 2100, south on FM 2100 to Old Atascocita Road and turned west. Old Atascocita Road and Fairlake Lane took me back to FM 1960. That was all in reverse of my usual Saturday ride. FM 1960 west, south through Walden, north back to Kingwood was in the usual direction. When I got to Kingwood Greens I turned left and that began the next section of reversed biking. The reverse direction took me from there to the end of the ride. In Bear Branch I had to think because I never rode the side streets in reverse and knowing which side street wasn’t a dead end. I started the ride at 10:15 AM and finished at 12:55 PM.

The reverse on FM 2100 brought me a Strava 2nd fastest time on Huffman to Old Atascocita Rd (3:21). I lost the local legend on another segment though.

The 10:15 start time wasn’t too late to see other cyclists. I think I caught all of them in the video. I waved at the driver of a car with a bike on the rear rack on Fairlake Lane when we passed.

To help with all of this brain work I watched the women’s and men’s TELENET SUPERPRESTIGE GULLEGEM UCI C2 CYCLOCROSS races. This gave the weather time to settle into a good range for my ride.

Weather at the start and finish of my ride: start 71, humidity 84%, dew point 66, mostly cloudy, wind SE 4 mph; finish 78, humidity 64%, dew point 65, mostly cloudy, wind SW 7 mph. I wore my new Voler wind jacket.

1-07-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Time
1-07-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Time
1-07-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Distance
1-07-2023 SRAM Component Summary Gear Usage by Distance
1-07-2023 SRAM Component Summary Avg Power in Gear
1-07-2023 SRAM Component Summary Avg Power in Gear
1-07-2023 Strava Ride Overview Atascocita-Huffman-Walden Reverse
1-07-2023 Strava Ride Overview Atascocita-Huffman-Walden Reverse
1-07-2023 Strava Ride Map Atascocita-Huffman-Walden Reverse
1-07-2023 Strava Ride Map Atascocita-Huffman-Walden Reverse
1-07-2023 Strava Week Relative Effort
1-07-2023 Strava Week Relative Effort
1-07-2023 Strava Ride Analysis Atascocita-Huffman-Walden Reverse
1-07-2023 Strava Ride Analysis Atascocita-Huffman-Walden Reverse