I rode the West Out & Back 255k route yesterday. It turned into one of those tough rides that serve to remind me that, big surprise, I’m not bulletproof after all.

I joined rando friends Stephen, Sharon, Vickie, and Pam for a 6:30 am start at Lynn Creek Marina at Joe Pool Lake. From there, the route goes south to Italy, then on to West, then back. Pam had knee issues early, and we made a couple of stops and rode a pretty easy pace.

I had no problem with that. I’d already decided that I would need to ride an easy pace in this heat, and brought my lights and reflective gear, even though I figured we’d be done hours before dark. Stephen and Sharon, riding a tandem, felt great all day, but Pam, Vickie, and I all suffered from the heat before the day was over. The temperature reached 100 by shortly after noon, and we hadn’t even reached the turnaround point at West by then. By that afternoon, the temperature was 108, and we were seeing 114 degrees on the road.

I was fine when we made an unscheduled cool-off stop at Malone at mile 95, but by the time I reached a small store at Milford, at mile 111, still 7 miles short of our next control stop, I was barely moving, and feeling like I couldn’t go on. Vickie had also stopped at this store, also feeling overheated. I had fallen behind Vickie and Pam when I had a flat at mile 97, but picked a spot right beside Vickie on the store floor to rest, cool off, and recover. I looked so bad that the couple who owned the store did their best to talk my riding companions into not letting me continue. But of course, that didn’t happen.

We continued on, with frequent stops the rest of the way. I did a better job of keeping cold water poured on my arm coolers, and never got that overheated again, though I can’t say I had much speed or strength the rest of the way. Vickie and I finished the ride at 9:16, 14 hours and 46 minutes after we started it, and the rest of the crew was a few minutes behind us. I ended up with 160.1 miles. And thus ended another great rando adventure that brought on the thought: “What was I thinking?”

West Out and Back 255k route.

I took off from the Bicycles Inc store in Arlington at 8:00 this morning to join the FWBA Bicycles Inc club ride. I rode the 61 mile route, which heads south out to Venus and then back. I fell in with a group which seemed to be about the right speed for me and rode with them all the way to Venus without stopping.

Cheri Brown was among the group. The group kept picking up speed along the way, and even though they slowed down twice to let Cheri rejoin after she had gotten dropped, I still arrived in Venus with a 17.7 mph average, a much faster pace than I had intended for the day. After riding 62 miles Thursday and 30 miles yesterday, a bit easier pace was what I had in mind for today.

The other riders in the group were all doing the 80 mile route, so I headed back from Venus alone, and eased the pace quite a bit. But, halfway back, a faster group caught me, and I joined them. I couldn’t resist pedaling past the entire paceline on a long downhill run, and of course that made them hammer the rest of the way, so I paid the price for my fun.

I finished the ride before noon with 61.1 miles and a 17.4 mph average for the ride. That was an early enough finish that I joined Rose for lunch. She works nearby. I believe it’s nap time now.

FWBA Bicycles Inc 61 mile route.

I built new wheels for our Screamer tandem, and we tried them out for the first time this morning. The Screamer came with Rhino Lite wheels that are too wide for any tire much more narrow than the 1.5″ Marathons we’ve been running. I wanted to add a set of go-fast wheels and tires for the bike.

I decided I wanted Velocity Aeroheat rims for the new wheels. These are fairly light but really strong rims. I found a bargain on a 40 spoke 559 (26″) rim for the rear at Jenson and a great price on a 36 spoke 406 (20″) for the front on ebay. The rear rim was black while the front one was purple, but I decided I could live with a little mismatch in color to get a great deal. It ended up being an even better deal than I was expecting.

When the 406 rim arrived, it was a 32 hole rim, not 36 as listed. I emailed the seller and told him the rim was not as advertised. He replied promptly, telling me that, indeed, the rim had been listed wrong, that all the rims he had were 32 hole rims, that he had no 36 hole rims. He refunded my money and told me to just keep the rim.

Meanwhile, I was planning on buying hubs and spokes from Peter White Cycles. Their website points out that Velocity Aeroheat rims are very strong, and 406 rims are very strong, and if you use a 406 Aeroheat rim, it’s so strong that you never need to use more than 32 spokes, no matter what the application. Since I already had a 32 spoke 406 Aeroheat rim that I had obtained free of charge laying around, I decided to put that theory to the test, and ordered a hub and spokes for it. It will be interesting to see how it holds up.

I also had mixed feelings about how wide of tires to run. The Aeroheat rims are wide enough that I could still run something as wide as 40mm (1.5″) if I wanted, but narrow enough to run 25mm tires. I decided to try 28mm tires on both front and rear. I bought a Schwalbe Durano for the front and installed a Gatorskin that I already had on the rear. The bike rode nice with them on today’s maiden voyage. It’s noticeably faster on any downhill now. Only time will tell if these are the tires I want to run long term on the bike, but I think the wheels are winners. They still ran true after today’s 29 mile ride, so I think my build is good.

The new wheels, freshly built.

On the bike.

The rear wheel with Gatorskin installed.

The new Durano on the front.

I joined the FWBA River View club ride out of Rio Vista at 8:00 this morning. The 60 mile route sounded like the mileage I wanted, but looking at the route map, I noticed the route never passed a single store in that 60 miles. So I decided to do the 76 mile route, but shortcut in a couple of places to get the mileage down to near what I wanted.

The ride takes off from the high school in Rio Vista and heads straight west on CR 1106. It eventually joins FM 916 and passes by the entrance of Hamm Creek Park and then Painted Rock. It’s a beautiful view of the Brazos River from there, and that part of the river is my favorite winter crappie fishing spot.

Anyway, I was still with the lead group of 15 or so riders when we started down the big long hill dropping into the Brazos River valley. I pulled out and coasted past everyone, figuring I’d blast down this long hill all alone. Instead, the lead riders in the group sped up, fell in right behind me in a single paceline, and the entire lead group bombed down the hill behind me.

Once we passed Hamm Creek Park, I duly peeled off, and as soon as we started climbing out of the river valley, the lead riders were soon out of sight. I fell back with Cheri, Debbie, Cindy, and another rider, and rode along with them until we reached Brazos Point. At that point, the route goes down Brazos Point Hill, and takes those rough roads to Glen Rose. I left the route and executed my first shortcut, riding down FM 200 to Glen Rose.

After a break at the store there, I headed back on FM 200 just ahead of the lead group, which was now down to just five riders. They passed me on one of the hills climbing out of the Brazos River valley, and I stayed right behind them all the way to Cleburne State Park, where a club ice chest with refreshments was waiting just inside the gate. If I just take enough shortcuts, I can hang with the club lead group for a good while, it seems!

After a short break there, we all continued on Park Road 21, but I turned off on CR 1224 just a few miles down the road, for my next shortcut. I arrived back at Rio Vista a few minutes before 1:00 this afternoon, for a total of 63.8 miles. This is a scenic route with some good hills, and with my shortcuts, I enjoyed it a lot.

My version of the FWBA River View route.

I rode the Goatneck 200k route today. I had ridden it at a very easy pace a couple of weeks ago and didn’t feel like I had gotten, as Mick Jagger sings it, “my fair share of abuse”, so I tackled the route again today.

I joined four other riders on the route today. Steve and Sharon were on a tandem. Mark and John were on uprights. It’s a hilly out and back route that starts in Cleburne, goes to Glen Rose for the next control, then on to Bluff Dale, then back.

The first 200k ridden in hot weather each year is always tough, and today was no exception. It was 97 degrees and humid this afternoon as I tackled all the hills on this route. I had filled a 70 ounce Camelbak bladder with water at Glen Rose, 38 miles from the finish, yet ran out of water 7 miles from the finish. That’s a testament to how hot it was and how slow I was on the last leg. By the end, I was barely moving, but I did finish. I ended up with 128.5 miles.

Steve and Sharon on the tandem finished ahead of me. Mark is a very strong rider, but was planning on another ride tomorrow and didn’t want to use everything he had today, came in 10 minutes or so behind me. John DNF’d. He was behind me, and I don’t know where he quit or what the circumstances were. The heat may have gotten to him. This route is a good test for me, but right now I’m thinking I won’t be tackling it again until October or some other cooler month.

Goatneck 200K route.

I rode the 65 mile route of the Burleson Honey Tour this morning. The route had changed a lot this year. It had a new start location, the new Centennial High School off Rendon Road east of I35W in Burleson. The route was considerably different, too, though it still heads south to Alvarado first.

The 65 mile route then makes a loop to the east and back before continuing on south, then turning west through Grandview, then takes the same route as previous years back. There were some short gravel stretches on one of the southbound Johnson County roads, but the rest of the roads were in good shape. Traffic control was better this year, with most intersections covered.

There was a south wind again this year, but it wasn’t nearly as windy as last year. Scattered clouds kept it from getting nearly as hot as last year, too. I saw Greg, Dianna, Dan, and Kenny before the start of the ride. Greg, Dan, and I lined up side by side for the start.

I rode the entire 65 mile route without stopping. I didn’t get to draft much this year. Groups that passed me were too fast for me to hang on with long, and groups that I reeled in were slower than I wanted to ride. But, it was a fun ride and I’m very likely to be back next year. I ended up with 65.7 miles and finished the ride in 3:41, not a bad time for me.

The Burleson Honey Tour 65 mile route.

I joined rando friend Vickie Tyer this morning and rode the Goatneck 200k permanent which starts in Cleburne. It’s 128 miles of mostly rolling hills, a tough route that I like to tackle at least once every year, just to make sure I can still pedal all those hills.

The route is an out and back route that goes from Cleburne to Glen Rose, then on to Bluff Dale, then back. There are hills the entire route, but the biggest climbing is between Glen Rose and Bluff Dale. What I didn’t know was that Vickie had done long rides two days in a row before this ride. Her only speed after all that riding was slow, so I rode an easy pace and stayed with her.

It’s easy to forget how much easier a tough route is if you ride it at an easy pace. I stayed in the middle chainring while climbing both County Line Hill at mile 101 and Goatneck Hill at mile 110. There’s no way I can do that when I’ve been hammering on the rest of the ride.

The winds stayed light and it was cloudy on and off, a beautiful day to ride, even if it did get a little hot this afternoon. I finished with 128.5 miles in 10:38.

Goatneck 200k elevation chart from a previous ride.

Goatneck 200K route.

I took off this morning to ride the 66 mile route of the FWBA Ride Across Johnson County club ride. It started in Burleson, so it was close to home for me. From Burleson, the route went pretty much south to west of Grandview, with a stop at the Sand Flats convenience store at mile 20. Then it turned east for its next stop in Grandview at mile 37. From there, it went mostly north back to the start.

It was cloudy and cool with a strong north wind at the start of the ride. That made for a great ride to Grandview. In spite of the small county roads, curving and rough in places, and lots of turns, I still had an 18 mph average and was with the lead group as we made the Grandview stop. With the rolling hills and strong headwind as we headed back north though, I fell back pretty quickly and was on my own.

A light rain was starting as I reached the next stop at mile 54. There were bicycles parked in front of the store which I assumed to be the lead group (although they could have been riders from the shorter routes, too). With the dark sky threatening, I decided not to stop.

I was pushing myself to try and get home before the weather got wetter and was assuming the route took the shortest way back from there. That caused me to miss a turn at mile 55, and only end up with a total of 63.5 miles at the end. The rain had stopped, though, shortly after it started, and it was truly a nice day for a bike ride.

FWBA Ride Across Johnson County 66 mile route.