AustinBike

I started mine early and got in ~4 long training rides. Right now I am in the middle of a 2 week vacation and have been eating like there is no tomorrow (not drinking that much, but making up for it in food.) I will have an extra 10 pounds to shed and hope to be on the bike every day between my return and the EB.

And, finally, from yesterday’s walk, apparently there is a no car bomb zone:

An interesting way to deal with the problem of inflatable tires on bike share cycles. Does anyone know if Austin’s bikes have solid tires?

And I think I have your new Apple eBike, Brian:

Very nice pic, how does it ride?

And, lest you think that our bikeshare program (B Cycle) is a success, here's a view of the bikes lined up outside of Tiantandongmen station. I took this picture after we had walked past about 80% of them. Probably close to 800-1000 bikes outside the station in all.

And, also, while we are at it, the e-bike battle lines have been drawn and now the other side is gearing up already.

OK, and to un-derail this thread, I give you (some type of) BIKE ALCOHOL!!!

AWESOME game. As a former desktop publisher/designer I am ashamed to have scored a 67. Especially considering that I nailed two 100's. F'ing Baskerville always gets me.

Yeah, check your seat post. Also try pedaling unclipped. Often the creaking problem is in your cleats. Then get off the bike and push up and down on the suspension. Sometimes that is the culprit. The bottom bracket always gets the blame and it is typically not the problem. When you pedal every part of the bike moves.

Too much front brake?

Waking through Beijing tonight on our way back to the apartment we came across a huge underground bike parking area. Would love it if Austin had this many riders. Then my wife pointed out the typo:

RidingAgain, here's a helpful tip: Take a position on something. When I look at your threads they are often "here's something" with no context. Is this good? is this bad? Do you agree with this? Do you think this is BS? That is why people might be reacting to you the way that they do. It comes across as either "do my work for me and tell me if this is worthwhile" or "here, let me stir the pot and then jump in on people." If you say "hey, here's something interesting and here are my thoughts" (pro or con), you'll foster a much better discussion. Just my 2 cents, you're free to disagree with me, just an observation that I have seen several times on your posts.

Used SPD for years. Then switched to Time when I had knee issues. Been on Time since then and never had an issue. SPDs are more universal, but they do bring some unanticipated challenges to your body. Times are more forgiving. As for flats, I use them periodically and I am so used to clips that flats scare the crap out of me. Clipped in = confidence, flats =no confidence for me. I like going into a sketchy section without any worry that my foot is going to come off the pedal. As a kid I had an incident with a foot slipping off a pedal, catching the pedal at speed with my achilles tendon, which stopped the bike cold and threw me over the bars. Not fun. I prefer the confidence of being hooked in. That also forces me to attempt more features, because I am basically committed to forward momentum.

I went straight up jester. The new 42T cassette gave me enough leverage. But man was I going slow.

Yeah, thanks to Albert and Shane for waitin g for me so much. We did 50 and even got dumped on with rain in the last 3 miles. What a day. I averaged ~9.5 against the 10 from Monday. The humidity is to blame. After Monday I thought I have this thing in the bag. After today I think I need more training.

We may see you out there. Based on the weather I am pretty sure there will be a lot of mountain bikes on the streets trying to break the cabin fever of all of this rain.

Is that still working? I gave up weeks ago because of all of the Chinese spam.

If you start at 10 and ride hard you might catch us 😉

Yeah, the trails will still be too wet so I am going to do another veggie buffet this Sunday. If anyone wants to join, I will start at Ramsey Park (https://goo.gl/maps/jCfcL7m8y7A2) at 9AM. At my pace it should take about 5 hours, so we should be back ~2 or 2:30. Route will follow the EB route to Zilker, MoPac frontage, up 360, Courtyard, City Park Road, lap around the outside of City Park, Jester, 360, Spicewood Springs to St. Ed's, Yaupon, Jollyville, Duval, S. Walnut Creek trail, then back down Shoal Creek to the start. This is not an official ride, just my training ride, but if you want to join, we'll see you there. This means I am not responsible for you, it is self paced and you are just there for the fun. If you fall behind or get lost I won't be responsible. My pace is ~10-11MPH and I will be on a mountain bike, not a road bike.

Depending on trail conditions I might be up for that but I would be on a MTB, averaging ~10MPH. I'll ping you once I know what this weekend holds. Starting from our neighborhood ~8-9 would be my schedule, it is a 5 hour round trip, no need for me to start before the sunrise 😉

We just stayed in Canyon on our way back from CO, that Best Western was a great deal, included a (mediocre) breakfast and allows dogs. Didn't get to ride PD this time around but we did drive through and it was spectacular, as always.

Palo Duro, definitely Palo Duro.

Bah, keeps raining and stopping here. Bagging the ride for this week 😞

OK, we're going to skip the 4:30 and only do a 5:30, from Ramsey Park. If there looks like rain we may just head for beer.