Suburban Assault

It’s been a while since my last post. Quite frankly, I just don’t have the time anymore. Between work, family, art and actually riding, it’s just hard to find a moment to share my thoughts on riding.

I still post photos on instagram, on the Suburban Assault feed, on the Bike Friendly Richardson feed and my own personal feed. Please feel free to jump on, follow and comment over there.

I hope all of you had a great year of riding in 2016. I was able to meet my goal and surpass the previous year’s total miles, but not my much. I hope to do the same in 2017, but with bad weather and laziness, I’m already off to a bad start.

I’ve also joined STRAVA, but I haven’t decided if I wanted to pay for the premium service. There are a few features that Endomondo gives you for free, that STRAVA puts into that premium service. Still, I like STRAVA‘s social connections as well as their stronger community. I’m also interested in their heat map feature (also in their premium service). Until I decide to bite the bullet and upgrade, I’ll be using both services to clock this year’s miles.

I also plan on retiring as the President of BikeDFW, this April. Three years is my limit. I hope to spend more energy on bike education and Bike to Work Day.

I hope to see and hear about your rides, this year. Hopefully, I’ll get better at sharing mine.

We’ve been doing the Black Friday Ride for 8 years. Each time we learn something new, to try and improve upon the previous years. This year, was one of the best group rides that we’ve done, so far. It was the perfect combination of great weather, great planning, great refreshments and—most of all—great riders.

This year’s route was planned by active BFR member Howard and his wife Rita. It was nice and flat, and stayed on the east side of Richardson. In past years, we tried to accommodate the group by splitting the ride onto both sides of town—crossing Central, a major interstate highway through town. We decided to avoid that and start alternating these rides, doing the east side this year and west side next. This kept the 8.5 mile loop safe and easy for all riders.

We also decided to start and end the ride at Yale Park, one of Richardson’s local public spaces. This allowed us to hang out and visit, brew some coffee and snack on some pizza. A nearby playground was great for the kids of all ages. The park allowed us to mingle without interrupting the traffic and crowds of a local business parking lot, our typical starting point.

The ride took us to fellow BFR member, Jenny’s house, where we enjoyed some nice shade, a warm fire pit and some great refreshments in her back yard. The 5 minute pit stop turned into a 20-30 minute social gathering. It was great to enjoy the company of my fellow riders.

There were a few other surprising highlights from the ride:
– We truly had one of the broadest age range of any group ride – all practicing great ride etiquette.
– Richardson drivers were super friendly, going out of their way to accommodate our larger, relatively not-so-fast, group. It was pleasant to wave a ‘thank you’ and get a genuine smile and wave back.
– Although some of the group fell behind, several folks stepped up to make sure we kept together – waiting at corners and hitting the ‘walk’ button at intersections.

THIS is the stuff that makes riding welcoming for all.

Here are some pics from the ride. Click here to see the whole set.

Well, it happened. I got to 50 years. Although I’m not one for big celebrations, I do recognize that it was a significant milestone. To help me recognize this, I decided to do a 50 mile ride.

My original plan was to take part in Pondero’s Eighth Annual Fall Finale Fifty-ish Mile Country Path Ramble. This would have happened, but my mother came to town to help celebrate my birthday. She doesn’t get up here as much and I’ve come to understand, through a coworker’s unexpected parental loss, I cannot to take these visits for granted.

The all-day Ramble was out.

I still wanted to recognize my milestone with a significant ride, so I decided to just do a quick ride on the same morning. Instead of an all-day tour, my ride took a few hours and I was finished by 10:30am. It wasn’t nearly as fun as the Ramble, but mission accomplished.

I ended up riding through 7 cities—Richardson, Plano, Frisco, Carrollton, Addison, Farmer’s Branch and Dallas—to accomplish my goal. It wasn’t a nice, open-country ride, but it had it’s own significance.

Perhaps, I will ride the Ramble next year.