Texas Biking News November 3rd 2019

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Country Club Creek Greenbelt Trail

By cxagent | austinmountainbiking.com

I thought I had already posted about this new trail in southeast Austin. I could not find such a thread even when I searched for it. So here it is –

The Austin Ridge Riders has built a new trail on a PARD property called Country Club Creek Greenbelt. It is at the dead end cul-de-sac on South Pleasant Valley south of Oltorf. There is not much parking so it is best to ride to the trail. There are sidewalks and bike lanes that make that pretty easy.

The trail is just over 2 miles long right now. Given time it may be extended – there is a lot more land that could be used. The trail is on the easy side – think easy trails of Walnut Creek or SATN. There is not much terrain that works for more technical trail. There are few rocks (almost all dirt) and limited elevation change. Much of the "technical features" are tight trees or off camber dirt single track. It can still be a fun ride even though it will never be a BCGB kind of trail. A lot of people are riding cross bikes on this trail.

The reason I was here to post about it is we had a work day on 11/2/19 for "It’s My Park Day". We had over …

Tech/Maintenance

By Chief | austinmountainbiking.com

I was thinking it might be beneficial to some of us to have a technical and maintenance thread. Especially for those of us who wrench their own bikes and for those who might want to learn to do their own maintenance and repairs.

So let me kick this off with a little brake maintenance that I believe gets over looked but shouldn’t be. This is something you may want to consider doing if you notice you have a brake pad dragging. A dragging brake pad may be an indication of dirty brake pistons sticking when trying to retract.

To start I got on one of my bikes the other day and realized the brakes weren’t as good as the brakes on my other bike. I was getting no stopping power when I would try to stop. The bike has been sitting unused for a bit so I figured the brakes may have gotten contaminated just sitting in my garage. I do a lot of house type stuff and vehicle maintenance in the garage.

Step one was to remove …

Biking With Horizontal Horses Before Turkey Taco Thanksgiving

Durango Texas | durangotexas.blogspot.com

When one lives in what used to be one of the locations of the wild, wild west one never knows what historical remnant one might come upon whilst rolling ones bike’s wheels around and about.

Today my handlebars came upon the scene you see here.

A pair of exhausted horses laying down, unhitched from …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBS-u0-1Yi0

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

CDT Farewell Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

During the early morning hours CDT waved goodbye until spring. With the departure the evening grows shorter each day. Before I retired I depended on CDT to ride after I got home from work. Now that I joined the ranks of the retired CDT is not as important for biking. But I still like the sun to stay up later in the evening. The 4:05 PM finish time felt much later based on the position of the sun above the tree.

Today’s bike ride started at 2:08 PM after a longer than normal church service and lunch. I hoped the weather might warm up to what the forecast called for: 69 degrees. But the best it could do at the start of the ride was 67. I chose the “Atascocita – Walden” route due to the time limit and the mileage. I wanted to ride about 24 miles to stay on track to reach my goal. It turned out to be 23.92 miles. The week’s total comes in at 149.78 miles which combines road miles and virtual miles. November stands at 69.88 miles, again a combination of road and virtual miles. Goals for November: 360 road miles and 100 virtual miles. On today’s ride the Canyon rolled over to 14,009 miles since I bought it in Febraury 2018.

At the beginning of the ride I noticed the cadence sensor did not connect to the Wahoo Elemnt computer but I spun the cranks and it connected but disconnected before I started out the driveway. I pedaled hoping that would wake the sensor and connect but it didn’t. As I started on the trail at the end of Golden Leaf Drive I was focused on the cadence sensor and almost rode in front of another biker on the trail. We avoided each other and I decided to stop and check on the sensor. After spinning the cranks again it connected and I resumed riding. I should’ve have taken the hint that the battery was low. The last time I replaced the sensor was 6/19/2019: odometer 10472 miles, 3,537 miles ago. I suspect the cool weather hastened the demise of the battery. During the ride the cadence stopped around 11.5 miles and it dawned on me the battery died. I tested it when I got home and it confirmed the death. A new battery revived the cadence sensor for the next ride, hopefully tomorrow.

Weather during the bike ride: start 67 (45% humidity, 44.6 dew point), partly cloudy, wind SE 8 mph. Finish 64 (51% humidity, 45.9 dew point), partly cloudy, wind SE 8 mph. I dressed accordingly: shorts, leg warmers, thermal long sleeve jersey, and windbreaker jacket. When I rode in the shade I felt the chill but the sun warmed me up. The shade time seemed to outnumber the sun time.

Monday’s weather calls for a mid 70’s temperature with a lot of clouds.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

11-3-2019 SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Relive ‘Atascocita – Walden CST 1st ride’

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles

Texas Biking News November 2nd 2019

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Spyder Mountain Bike Park in Texas

CodyDog | www.bikeforums.net

Bluff Biking Almost Crystal Clear Wichita River

Durango Texas | durangotexas.blogspot.com

This post Halloween first Saturday of the 2019 version of November is another clear blue sky semi-warm day at my location nowhere near being deep in the heart of Texas.

Of late, well, the past couple weeks, I have been enjoying actual hilly bike riding via rolling on the Wichita Bluff Nature Area section of the Circle Trail. …

CC with Chrissyboy

Tommy Smith | www.strava.com

The gift to self

Wilson Santos | www.strava.com

Willow City Loop for the win!

Chip Voss | www.strava.com

Strike // Bicycle World Gravel #3

Brady Reed | www.strava.com

“Ride fast and don’t die.” – Pamela Ferguson

Meggin Crawford | www.strava.com

Texas Biking from Twitter

https://twitter.com/DPDBikeSgt/status/1190688801485705217

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Chilly Bike Ride Around Kingwood Streets

Texbiker.net Posted on by

After several days of not cooperating weather it finally warmed up above 60 degrees and I hit the road. I waited until 12:43 PM to start the bike ride to allow a couple of extra degrees to appear. With the later start I chose the “Kingwood Streets” route and rode 24.4 miles. These are the first outdoor miles for November towards my 360 mile goal. I need to bike 12 miles each day to reach my goal. That is not a lot but with the weather and change in time that can be challenging.

Before the bike ride I changed the seat bag on the Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike. The reason I wanted to make the change was to make room for the NiteRider taillight to attach to the seat post rather than the seat bag cloth strip. Removing the light from cloth strip required extra effort because NiteRider designed the clip to not easily come off during a ride. That’s great until I need to take the light off and charge it after each ride. Moving to the light holder provided by NightRider makes removal much easier. Some photos of the old ToPeak seat bag setup and the new Lezyne bag arrangement.

The Lezyne bag is smaller than the ToPeak bag but includes three dedicated pouches, one for a multitool, one for money, and one for patch kit items. I used the first two but not the patch kit one. I swapped multitool’s in order to get a more compact one to fit in the pouch. The bag held a tube, tire tools, patch kit, cash, and a multitool. As you can see in the photos the old bag allowed the light to droop more than the new mount. (click on the photos to enlarge them)

Back to the ride. With today’s miles I need 15 more miles to reach 14,000 miles on the Canyon bike. After 3 days of Zwifting a real ride felt good event though the temperature fell below my comfort zone but above my cutoff threshold.

Weather while I biked: start 65 (41% humidity, 40.5 dew point), partly cloudy, wind -. Finish 65 (43% humidity, 41.9 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind N 15 mph. Because of the chill I dressed heavier than since spring time. I wore shorts, leg warmers, thermal long sleeve jersey, and wind breaker jacket. The first jacket I tried on the zipper broke so I moved to a Pearl Izumi one. the zipper broke on a fairly new Voler jacket. I kept somewhat warm but the strong north wind put a chill in when I rode through the shade or headwind.

Real wind feels different from riding on Zwift. I am learning more about how Zwift simulates biking from the ZwiftCast podcast and reading. I am not sure a mile in Zwift equals a mile outdoors. I looked at Rouvy today and may give it a try.

Sunday should warm up a few degrees and I plan on biking at least 12 miles to keep on track to reach that goal.

sportTracks Bike Ride Summary

11-2-2019 SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Relive ‘Kingwood Streets in the coolness’

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles

Strava Year Progressions YTD Bike Ride Miles