Texas - Tentative 51st Birthday Route

Okay it's a bit early since I'm thinking of doing this Sat. Aug. 29th one day after my birthday but this is the route I'm thinking of doing:

Tentative 51st Birthday Route (http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/houston/674124690692138012)

It takes advantage of a lot of bike trails and bike street routes and kinda winds it's way though neighborhoods I've lived in ( for example between the ages of 3 - 7 years I lived just off Fairview near Waugh ) and places I have some good memories of.

Anyway I'm showing this here to see if anyone has any comments, ideas, suggestions. A lot of this I worked out using the Houston Bike route map and Map My Ride in hybrid mode. I marked some rest spots like the first one near Montrose and Westhiemer since I know there are lots of stores there.

I know it will be hot, I'm not expecting anyone to kill themselves in a bomb fest. It'll be pretty much take it easy, no drop, if you need to stop for food, drink, or repairs we'll all stop and help out. Another reason for laying out the route before hand is that it is not required to ride the whole way if you want to ride with me. This is basicly MY route that I will ride. If you want to catch part of the ride you will be able to intercept us and drop off where convenient (one good thing about the more urban part of the route is you can use a bus as SAG cause there will be none, this is a totally self supported ride meant for entertainment purposes only :D ).

Looks like a long ride. I will try and keep that day open. How long do you think this ride will take?

I'm thinking less then 6 hours. I'll start out at 6:00 am at my starting point at the library at Clairwood and Fondren and be back and done with the victory lap before noon.

I"ve spaced out rest stops at stores and restroom roughly 13 miles apart (though we might make more frequent stops as needed).

Also no one but myself really needs to ride the whole route. If anyone wants to wait somewhere along the route and flag us down to say, "Hi" or ride a little ways just to hang out for a little bit that's fine too. Pretty much it's just something I want to do and if anyone else wants to meet somewhere then that's cool. I'm thinking that the route covers a large enough area that there will be quite a few BFers that live somewhere close to some part of a route that goes down Breas Bayou to Alameda filters through Midtown and the Montrose area up Waugh to Washington through Memorial Park, Tanglewood, Fountainview, San Felipe, Memorial, Briarforest, goes through Terry Hershey Park and comes back down Briarforest etc.

I have written this into my appointment book; hope to make it this time.

The Walter Library is a good start. Six hours travel time would be a noon finish. It will be hot, but at least I will be home in time to beat the afternoon heat. Count me in at this point.

Sorry I've been off the net for a bit. Seems AT&T was convinced that we had canceled our DSL service with them for some reason and it took them a week to sort out what happened and bring service back up.

It's nice to see some early responses already. I'm looking forward to this ride.

im hoping by that time I can do the whole route with ya.

Don't know your specs but I'm 50 (going to be 51) 5'10" and over 200 pounds. I also had high blood pressure (though last time I stuck my arm in one of those drugstore machines was fresh from the ride I did with kwrides down Breas Bayou and it was dead average). By the time the ride comes around I should have a new wheel set on my SE Draft and I'm trying to decide if I want to ride it fixed or not (leaning toward fixed).

Since it would be rude to drop the guest of honor I guess I'll be setting the pace, so pretty much unless the temp is some kind of ungodly hot there shouldn't be too much of a struggle to ride the whole thing and finish for anyone reasonably comfortable with a moderate distance.

Would this be your first half century? I'm not envisioning some kind of torture fest here. It's just a friendly celebratory ride kinda hitting some of the old neighborhoods.

Since I found this on the second page I'm bumping it up to ask whose meeting me at the Library on the 29th? Who wants to be picked up along the way some place like the bench at JCC or one of the rest stops?

This ride will be a go.

I plan to make at least some of this ride.

I hope I can make this ride - not sure yet if I will be off from work.

I am planning to ride. I have to be back at home by 1:00 pm, so if it gets too late I might have to peel off early.

T.A., will this be a good ride for a skinny-tire road bike, or should I ride something with more meat to the tires? I have a Rivendell Canti-Rom with 700x35 tires, for example, but it is not as agile and easy-rolling as some of my road bikes. Since I will be stretching my endurance, anyway, I will ride the lightest/easiest-rolling bike suited to the substrate conditions. I will put my best saddle on the bike I intend to ride, take it for a shorter ride to verify fit, wear my best bike shorts, and hope for the best. :)

Just saw the part about who will meet you at the library. I would like to meet you there, but may opt for joining y'all along Braes Bayou at about the West Loop South or Stella Link, as I am near there. Anyone else thinking of meeting up with this ride along Braes Bayou?

This is a great idea to celebrate your 51st. I hope it's a success. Happy birthday.

I agree with Paratroper, this is a cool way to celebrate the B-Day. A lot of us set out to ride our age, but having a group type ride is way cool.

Happy Birthday Tex, and I hope everyone enjoys the ride.

I tried to do this last year as a way to meet some of the BF folks. Ended up riding George Bush Park and Terry Hershey Park with CP Blue. That was the day my left crank fell off my bike and to finish the ride I had to stop frequently to tighten down the crank again.

Rex: I'm thinking that this is going to be a mostly paved route. There might be some sand patches on THP portion. IF it helps my tires are 700c X 28. I'm sure whatever you want to ride will work fine.

aggarcia: If it goes long then there will be short cuts you can take to get back quicker.

Cool. I bought some new Conti Duraskin tires for my Zinn, in case I take it, but they are still 23C skinny. My Rivendell's front shifting just went out of tune a bit; but perhaps I will just be using the middle ring, anyway. For good measure, I have a Bianchi Veloce in a good state of tune. Sometimes it pays to have a collection!

My road bike has 23 tires and I have never noticed any issues with them. are we still set for a 6:30 start?

I'm set and ready.

aggarcia - I'll meet you at JCC in the morning. I guess Rex will be at Stella Link or West Loop. I'll give you a call to find out where to meet you.

I am set to go. I figure I will meet you, Tex, at the library, at 0600, if that is still the start. I had a bit of equipment drama, as the anchorage of the main strap of the left MTB shoe I was going to wear broke loose when I tightened it. So, I thought, no problem, I have a spare pair of MTB shoes. Well, those shoes turned out to be too tight; I bought them a decade ago, or so, but my feet have spread a bit with age. I don't wear 43 anymore; more like 44.5. OK, so I put road pedals on the bike. Well, the only road shoes I still have that are usable are a second-rate pair I also bought a long time ago, as a spare pair, and so, I looked at the size. Yep, 43. Well, these road shoes are not as tight as the size 43 MTB shoes, so I am going to wear the road shoes, and TRY not to fall on my face when I put my foot down. Or, I may put the MTB pedals back on the bike, and DUCT TAPE the darn shoe.

Between the lack of rest, lack of much riding recently, and too-tight shoes, I may well not be up to the whole 51 miles. We shall see. Good Lord willin', and the creek don't rise, I will see y'all in a couple of hours. :)

1st one home! Broke my chain right after I left you guys.

Hope you had a great ride Tex!

:bday: to Tex_Arcana

Y'all had a beautiful morning for a ride. Coolest its been all summer.


Broke my chain right after I left you guys.

Something about BF get togethers and broken bike parts is a bit unnerving!

THP is not flat.

Sleep the night before a ride.

Hitting curb and diving onto sidewalk is something that we in Texas call a bad idea.

I remembered how to apply a bandage. Thanks to aggarcia and Tex Arcana for the help.

Tex, thanks for putting this together!

Good to meet kwrides and aggarcia for the first time, and good to see Tex again, even if I do forget his name. Sorry about that!

Ok, I have been awake since 1:15 PM Friday; time to sleep.

Yep, weather was beautiful cool morning. Nice cool breeze. Except for a few personal challenges for my ride partners it was a good day.

I think it was a pretty good route I planned out with a lot of varied landscape. It was my longest completed ride since I got out of the hospital in early August. Thanks everyone, for helping me recover a little more.

What is a ride without incidents. Between falls from the bike, missing turns, and impressive blowouts . The weather was exellent. THP has some hills and lots of walkers and joggers.

My biggest issue was a impressive blowout from road debris. Something that I hit ( I did not see anything ) cut right through the tire and tube. We replaced the tube and booted the cut. I wAs running late, so I was riding at 18 mph. I almost made it home before the tube burst. I ended up walking the last mile home.

I guess Monday I will start shopping for a new tire.

Wow, and I thought I had it bad!

Maybe Yeamac is right and we ARE jinxed!

I have learned to expect the unexpected on these rides. Who would think that a crank arm would break. Riding in a urban area I assume we get more flats and other damage related to all the debris on the roads. I am glad that so far no one has been hit by a car or any serious injuries from a fall. Let's keep riding.

When is the next ride?

You mean body-surfing on the sidewalk is not a normal event? ;)

It's a relief to hear Houston BF get togethers are about like the Dallas ones, lol. Happy B-day Tex.