By Chin Wu | www.crazyguyonabike.com
2021-10-25: El Paso to Fort Hancock
Monday October 25, 2021, 55 miles (89 km) – Total so far: 974 miles (1,568 km)
Today I am heading toward Del Rio. But first I need to get out of El Paso. For that I use Google. I can see where I am on the map. And I almost missed a road that I didn’t see first and I had to use sidewalk. It felt that I was in El Paso until I got to Socorro. Then the farmlands start.
Weather wise, it’s similar the past few days. It was cool in the morning but got hot in the afternoon. There was some headwinds but nothing major. Today’s ride was relatively short and flat. There are pecan groves, cotton farms and alfalfa farms.
Twice today dogs started chasing me when I rode by. One of them, a german shepherd, was not fenced in and …
2021-10-26: Fort Hancock to Van Horn
Tuesday October 26, 2021, 77 miles (124 km) – Total so far: 1,051 miles (1,692 km)
Leaving Fort Hancock at 7:30 am, it was cold and I had to put on my down jacket. Most of the stores were not open, even the Family Dollar. Today’s ride could be divided into two parts. The first part meandered along the country road. I saw many farms growing alfalfa but mostly raising horses and cows. I know ranchers use horses to round up cows. But do they need so many horses?
There are a few border patrol agents driving in the side roads looking for something. Considering I can see the mountains in Mexico. Trying all I could, I didn’t see a border wall.
Riding in the morning was very enjoyable. The temperature was cool, and the road was smooth with very little traffic. I spent the next half morning close to I-10, mostly on the …
By Winnifred Homer-Smith | www.crazyguyonabike.com
High Island to Port Arthur: A definite reminder of the Texas love of chip seal. And headwinds.
Sunday October 17, 2021, 47 miles (76 km) – Total so far: 1,420 miles (2,285 km)
Today was not a lot of miles, and the weather is definitely cooler than it has been, so I took it easy getting ready this morning. The first 20 miles of the ride were pretty much a repeat of Friday: I rode back to Winnie, and even managed to have headwinds. Both ways. I am so used to living near San Francisco where the wind direction for much of the year is the same. Here, it changed 180 degrees over the two days. Oh, well, it wasn’t a terribly strong wind.
When I reached Winnie, I took a diagonal road east to minimize my time on Highway 73. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that road, just that it would be long and a bit dull – two fast lanes of traffic each way with a generous shoulder for me. Good choice, because when I got on 73, I realized that it had a very rough chip seal shoulder. Ugh. But, only one more day in Texas, and I knew I’d get through it.
After a few miles I looked up to see a huge, shimmering flock of birds. They were still too far away to identify, but I enjoyed watching them as they shifted and changed in the amazing way bird flocks are able to. When I reached the area, there was a …
Port Arthur to Abbeville (no, I didn’t ride 145 miles)
Monday October 18, 2021, 43 miles (69 km) – Total so far: 1,463 miles (2,354 km)
A new state! I have a goal of riding in every state. Before this ride, my total had lingered at 44 done, 6 to go. Pre-Covid, I thought I would finish in 2020, but between postponing this trip and scrapping a trip to Alaska, no states added. Now I have reached 45/5. I had already spent some time riding in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
In the morning, I decided to go for a late start. I had somehow damaged the cord that connects the spare battery to the e-bike & I wanted to call a couple of shops that opened at 9:30 to see if they had a replacement. The route looked pretty empty & I thought there might not be cell service on much of the ride. We headed out in the car towards the southeast corner of Port Arthur, at first following some of the weirder directions Google offered. We were going in more or less the right direction, but wandering through a maze of residential areas when it was easy to see on the map that there were plenty of major roads available. And yes, we checked to be sure we were getting car, not bike, directions.
Eventually we made it to a park at the base of the Gulfgate Bridge. (I was pretty happy to to have been driven through the rough roads and onto this busy, no shoulder bridge.) I called the bike shop. No luck there. But then I set off on my ride, which would …
VR Social SS | www.facebook.com
Friday, October 29, 2021 at 6:00 PM CDT
VR Social SS
317 Spring Street, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482
ATTENTION GLOW RIDERS! Get your Halloween costume on and let’s ride…..
FREE Family bicycle riding event (perfect for Trunk-n-Treat rounds). We will meet at VR Social, IN COSTUMES and ride to ColemanPark.
**PHOTO BOOTH will be open after the event if anyone wants a picture! All proceeds benefit Let Love Live Animal Rescue & Sanctuary.
Cannot wait to crowd the streets with Ghosts & Goblins on bikes!
This is part of the ScreamFEST week of events …
Jay R. Jordan | www.chron.com
The food truck-themed bar is backpedaling after putting up a marquee blaming cyclists for ‘90%’ of bike accidents.
A bar in East Downtown is reeling from backlash over a marquee sign posted Monday that drew criticism from Houston cyclists and advocacy groups.
For a short while Monday morning, Truck Yard Houston’s sign read "Study shows 90% of bike accidents can be avoided by buying a car like normal people." The message, which bar representatives later chalked up to a "stupid and ignorant decision," was quickly noted by BikeHouston and Critical Mass Houston, two organizations that seek to change the …
By Leah Waters | www.dallasnews.com
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The 164-acre Northwest Community Park would feature a 40-foot-tall “gravity riding†structure and 9.5 miles of trails.
Frisco Parks and Recreation officials on Oct. 19 presented an early concept for a “gravity riding†biking tower at a park near the upcoming PGA Frisco headquarters, as originally reported by Community Impact Newspapers.
Presented as a roughly 40-foot-tall fixture for cyclists, the tower would sit on the 164-acre Northwest Community Park east of Teel Parkway. Frisco Parks and Recreation Director Shannon Coates presented construction plans for the park to the city council during the Oct. 19 work session, a project estimated to cost $24.5 million.
Renderings showed a $2.43 million, 100-foot tower. However, Coates said the …
Katrina Webber | www.ksat.com
SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police have arrested a man who they believe was driving a dump truck when it ran over a man on a bicycle, critically injuring him.
Christian Gomez, 25, was booked into jail Monday night on a charge of failure to stop and render aid with serious bodily injury.
An arrest affidavit says Gomez turned himself in as the driver involved in the crash, which happened before 7 a.m. Monday on Fran Fran Street, not far from Highway 90 and South Zarzamora.
Police found the victim, a man believed to be in his 50s or 60s, on one end of the block, unconscious and …
by: Frank Jefferson | www.ketk.com
TYLER, Texas (KETK) – It seems like almost everywhere you look, there are construction crews working on East Texas streets.
The city of Tyler is preparing for two major changes. …
… Another plan, expected to begin that same year is the extension of the “Legacy Trails.â€
“It’s going to be our really first big urban trial that’s going to allow traffic on a bicycle in and out of town,†said Bill Lewis, Tyler Bicycle Club.
For this, the city was recently awarded a nearly three million dollar grant by TXDOT.
“We’ve competed against cities just like us all across the states of Texas and we won the grant and we want to show that we will be supportive of such a trail like this,†said Lewis.
As the president of the Tyler Bicycle Club, this trail extension is music to Lewis’ ears.
“It’s going to be something that Tylerites have thought about and hoped for a for a really long time,†said Lewis.
The open house will last over the next 10 days.
By Jake Richardson | cleantechnica.com
If you haven’t been paying attention to electric bikes, you might be surprised that the size of their global market may reach well over $60 billion by 2030. In some areas, depending on conditions, e-bikes could replace much larger fossil-fuel vehicles for personal transportation, because they cost relatively little to purchase, power, and maintain.
To raise more awareness about the presence and versatility of electric bikes, Sushil Reddy and Luis Fourzan are riding theirs around the United States, covering thousands of miles in the process. Reddy, a Guinness Book of World Records holder for longest e-bike ride, and Luis Fourzan, a clean energy advocate and outdoor enthusiast, have traveled over 1,500 miles in the US on e-bikes so far. They intend to finish in Houston, Texas, after traveling 6,498 miles. Octopus Energy, an energy provider that sources energy from renewable sources, has an office in Houston and is sponsoring the e-bike ride. …
By Gordon Collier | www.kwtx.com
WACO, Texas (KWTX) – Traveling 70.3 miles in a day is no easy feat when there are no motors or horsepower involved – and you have to swim, bike and run.
The Ironman Waco triathlon attracted people from all over the country who were up to the challenge.
All the planning and training that goes into competing in these events is time consuming and costly. It requires not only physical fitness, but a level of discipline and dedication that, quite frankly, most people don’t have.
Imagine the frustration felt by Beni Gras-Thompson, who traveled to Waco from Virginia to compete in the triathlon, only to unpack her bicycle and learn it had been smashed in transit.
Luckily, a local bike shop …
Texas Biking from Twitter
New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar
