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General Category >> Ride Reports >> FWBA Austin to Ft Worth Tour
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Message started by terranimo on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 12:21pm

Title: FWBA Austin to Ft Worth Tour
Post by terranimo on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 12:21pm

This past weekend I rode the FWBA Austin to Ft Worth 2 day tour. It was 108 miles the first day from Austin to Waco, and 100 miles the second day from Waco to Ft Worth. I usually like to do 50 mile rides so that I can be home early in the afternoon. It was nice to spend the whole weekend riding and not worrying about anything else. It was a wonderful ride with a tail wind, moderate weather and mostly cloudy skys. I rode my Baron. My fussy derailleur (whose days are numbered) decided to stop shifting into the top gear. I was stuck using the middle and lower rings. This “Blessing” forced me to learn spinning but throttled my top speed. The first day I had an on-bike average speed of 16.2MPH the second day was 17.4MPH This includes some slow rides through the cities. I sagged out 10 miles top the last rest stop during the second day when my chain derailed. So my total mileage for the weekend was 199 miles. Overall I did really good, on the fist day I cramped a little in my inner thighs. I increased my potassium intake (bananas, potato chips etc…). The experience kicked me into a higher lever of biking. I look forward to completing my upgrades to the baron and hanging with you fast Dogs! (Greyhounds) too increase my strength and endurance. :)

Terry

Title: Re: FWBA Austin to Ft Worth Tour
Post by aikigreg on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 1:17pm

Sounds like you're getting faster and faster! The spinning will help your cardiovascular fitness, which will in turn let you move a bigger gear eventually. You'll get very very fast quickly - more so if you find people to trin with, like Bud and I have this year. My own average on the P-38 is 2-3mph faster in only a month with those guys.

What did you end up doing for your wtaer situation?

Title: Re: FWBA Austin to Ft Worth Tour
Post by terranimo on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 4:14pm

I had Fast Back Systems overnight me a Double Century seat bag. It works great. Needs a little fit&finsh to keep the second bag way from the idler&chain.

BTW here is the link to the pressurized bladder I told you about. Its called a Moflow by Polarpak. It squirts out the water. http://www.polarpak.com/hydration.php?it=moflow
The idea here is to run this as a second water source for cooling oneself off. Landis won the Tour-de-France by dumping dozens of bottles of water on himself. This past weekend I use the same strategy and dumped some from water from my dog-water bottle on me prior to attacking some hills, or when I wanted to hammer down and make a good show passing someone. :) I don’t know the price of this Moflow, or if it works as expected, but I like the idea. Im thinking about a strategy of putting energy/hydration formula in my bladder and ice water in the Moflow. It should reduce the need for having to drink water and risking over hydration which forces a pit-stop to the restroom. I would run the moflow in one side of the Double Century and a regular bladder in the other side. The moflow would might need a hose extension to be able it to reach my legs. And maybe something a bit stronger then a badge retractor to keep it in place, perhaps a mini scuba retractor. Just thinking out loud here. Bicycling is a FUN hobbie.

Terry

Title: Re: FWBA Austin to Ft Worth Tour
Post by Bud_Bent on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 5:44pm

Sounds like a good ride, and you got in some great mileage for the weekend. How many riders were there?

Title: Re: FWBA Austin to Ft Worth Tour
Post by terranimo on Apr 23^rd, 2007, 6:41pm

Due to logistic restraints the tour is limited to 30 riders. It was well organized. They fill up two 14 passenger vans plus a few people in the sag truck that hauls the bikes to Austin. (Plus one extra fellow flew down ahead of time to hang with an army buddy). Some of the volunteers who drive the truck and vans swapped out during rest stop to ride a few shift. It was a full service operation. They kept one van behind the last rider in the group ready to sag anyone who needed/wanted to get off their bike. It was a great ride with a tail wind and wild flowers. On Sunday the FWBA organized a ride where people left Ft Worth and drove south reversing our route. A few of them made it 50 miles south into the head winds to our lunch stop in Milford, Then some more in Maypearl and by the time we arrived in our last rest stop Venus there were over a hundred 100 riders there that rode back with us to Ft Worth.

Terry