This crazy Texas weather

This Texas spring of 2013 is downright perplexing.
During Wednesday evening’s ride with our bicycling mayor, Betsy Price, on one of her “rolling town halls,” and later with the Fort Worth Night Riders, we wore T-shirts, short-sleeved jerseys and Hawaiian shirts. The temperature was in the 80s, as was fitting for May 1 in Texas.

Bicycling Mayor Betsy Price ready to lead Wednesday night’s “rolling town hall’ ride

Today, during a 26-mile bike ride with a neighbor, the temp was in the 40s, and the stiff northerly wind felt like it had come straight from the Arctic Circle. I wore three layers of winter wear and still felt chilly.
For Thursday night and Friday morning, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth forecasts northwesterly winds of 20 to 30 mph, gusting to 40 mph, and the prospect of freezing temperatures on the northwestern edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
A couple weeks ago, in mid-April, when the temperature was pushing toward 90, we discovered that our 33-year-old air-conditioning system was kaput. Nary a breath of cool air emanated from the ducts.
Now, with a new system installed and up and running as of Wednesday evening, we haven’t even had a chance to try it out.
“The weather of Texas is remarkable for its versatility and suddenness,” a wag once said. “Oftenest told on this subject is the one about the farmer who started to town in a wagon drawn by an ox team. On the way, one of the oxen froze to death and, while he was skinning it, the other died of sunstroke.”
That pretty much sums up the past few days.

Getting oriented on the Trinity Trails

A cityscape can look strangely different from a bicycle trail.
Familiar landmarks and thoroughfares, viewed from behind the wheel of a car, afford a quick fix on a location. But from a bicycle saddle, riding along a trail, those landmarks and thoroughfares take on a different, disorienting perspective, and it’s sometimes difficult to figure out where you are.
But that problem is being remedied along Fort Worth’s Trinity Trails network, thanks to new signage being put in place by the Tarrant Regional Water District, which oversees the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River in Tarrant County.
Twenty-six new trail map signs that say “You are here” provide information on nearby amenities such as water fountains, restrooms, fishing piers and canoe launches. They also include mile markers so trail users can easily determine how far they are from certain destinations.

My bike at the trailhead at Southwest Boulevard

Identification signs are also being placed on 26 bridges that cross over the Trinity Trails, allowing trail users to know at a glance where they are in the city.
The Tarrant Regional Water District maintains the 27-mile Fort Worth Floodway as the local sponsor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It has built and maintains more than 40 miles of biking and walking trails and numerous trailheads that provide such amenities as restrooms, water fountains and parking areas.
I’ve been riding the Trinity Trails for more than two decades, and it took a while before I always knew where I was in the city. Now, it will be much easier for newcomers, especially for those who come from out of town to ride our trails.
More information on the Trinity Trails is available at http://www.trwd.com/recreation.

Is cycling the new golf?

I never cared much for golf, and I was never any good at it. The last time I played — in high school — I shot a 90-something, and that was for nine holes on a municipal course.
In later life, I never had a job in which a good golf game was a prerequisite for success.

A good way to network in London is the annual Tweed Run. Photo by Mike Goldwater/Alamy

So now the British magazine The Economist tells us that “road cycling is fast catching up as the preferred way of networking for the modern professional.”
Alas, it’s too late for me to use one of my favorite pastimes to get ahead in the world.
“A growing number of corporate-sponsored charity bike rides and city cycle clubs are providing an ideal opportunity to talk shop with like-minded colleagues and clients while discussing different bike frames and tricky headwinds,” The Economist blog Prospero reported last week.
“Many believe cycling is better than golf for building lasting working relationships, of landing a new job, because it is less competitive.”
As an example, the Economist blog cited the case of Peter Murray, a former architect, journalist and long-distance cyclist.
“Group cycling, and especially long-distance riding, is a shared experience,” the blog quoted Murray as saying. “Riders often collaborate and help each other out, taking turns to be at the front so that the riders in their slipstream can save almost a third of the effort needed to travel at the same speed. Some riders selflessly volunteer to stay in the front earning them the awe and gratitude of the entire group.”

A way to combine biking and golf: the Golf Bike

Added Jean-Jacques Lorraine, founding director of Morrow+Lorraine, an architecture practice in London: “The adrenaline rushes, the serotonin pulses and the surges of endorphin create a kind of high, a sense of euphoria. I feel open, honest and generous to others. I often find I’m saying things on a bike which I wouldn’t normally say, and equally I’ve been confided in when I wasn’t expecting it.”
But perhaps the most compelling reason why cycling is a good way to network is because, for many professionals, it’s a passion and a way of life, The Economist said.
“Getting out on the bike is what we’re all dreaming of doing whilst we’re sitting at our computers,” Simon Mottram, chief executive of Rapha, a premium cycling clothes brand, told the journal. And a shared passion is a fantastic way to start any relationship.

Open Streets and lots of bikes

Fort Worth’s new bike-share bikes got a lot of use on Sunday at the Open Streets event on Fort Worth’s near south side.

Juan Pablo’s Surly at Zio Carlo’s

Hundreds of people turned out to stroll along Magnolia Avenue, closed to traffic from Eighth Avenue on the west and Hemphill Street on the east.
Sponsored by Fort Worth South Inc., the event featured street musicians, glass-blowing demonstrations, roller derby skaters, skateboarders, food trucks, vintage clothing vendors, yoga classes, face-painting and, of course, lots of bicycles.
I took a couple of cameras but shot only a few photos, including some snapshots of three of the “elders” in Fort Worth’s emerging bicycle scene — Larry Kemp, Dave Hickey and Jon Devine — and a shot of a friend’s Surly bike at Zio Carlo’s brew pub.

From left, Larry Kemp, Dave Hickey and Jon Devine

Myths about biking

Now that Fort Worth and other cities around the country have implemented bike-sharing systems, many potential cyclists may be on the fence about whether to use the rental bikes or whether to buy a bike of their own.
They probably have a raft of questions: Is this an expensive pastime or way to commute? What gear do I need? Do I have to be in really good shape? If I commute, what about getting all sweaty and my clothes getting wrinkled? How much stuff can a bike carry? How dangerous is it to ride on city streets?
I came across a very nice graphic that answers some of those questions. Also, I’ve added a photo of an information display at one of the Fort Worth bike-share docking stations, explaining how the system works.

Shameless self-promotion

If you’ve read the past several posts on this blog, you know by now that Fort Worth has launched the first bike-sharing system in North Texas.
It was an effort fueled largely by hundreds of volunteers, a city with the good sense to realize that bicycles can play a big role in its transportation plans, a bike-riding mayor who holds “rolling town halls” from the saddle of her bike, some very good local bike shops and an ever-increasing number of clubs for bike riders of all levels of skill and experience.
And now for a shameless bit of self-promotion.
At the launch ceremony on Monday, Earth Day, the master of ceremonies, Mike Brennan, paid tribute to all of those above. And then Mike, who is board chairman for Fort Worth Bike Sharing Inc., gave a nice shout-out to Jim’s Bike Blog and another blog, Fort Worthology, by friend Kevin Buchanan.
Below is a video of the launch ceremony. The nice words about Jim’s Bike Blog and Fort Worthology begin at about 7:05 minutes into the video.

Fort Worth’s bike-share launch chronicled in photographs

Steve Reisman, a cyclist and excellent photographer who has been chronicling Fort Worth’s emerging bicycling scene, was on hand with his cameras on Monday, Earth Day, to photograph the launch of the city’s bike-sharing system, the first in North Texas.
Three hundred volunteers delivered the 300 bike-share bicycles to 28 docking stations throughout the city.
Steve emailed to me 23 of his photos for use in Jim’s Bike Blog. Here is a gallery of the photos.

A cable lock provides a handy holder for a coffee container

A member of the Manly Bulge Bicycle Club on the way to deliver a bike to its docking station

A team of veteran urban cyclists coordinated delivery of the bike-share bikes

A view of the bike-share launch gathering from an upper floor of the Burnett Plaza building

A volunteer heads out from Burnett Park to deliver a bike to its designated docking station

A volunteer rides along Lancaster Avenue toward a docking station on the near south side

A volunteer uses one of Fort Worth’s bike lanes on the way to a docking station

A volunteer fuels up on coffee before helping deliver bikes to their docking stations

At dawn, volunteers began arriving to deliver bike-share bikes to docking stations throughout Fort Worth

Bike-delivery coordinator Mark Troxler leads a group through the Main Street underpass into downtown Fort Worth

Close-up of a docking station

Cyclists who helped coordinate delivery of the bike-share bikes pose with bicycling Mayor Betsy Price

Each bike-share bike is equipped with a commodious front basket

Fort Worth Bike Sharing bikes awaiting delivery on the near south side

Michael O’Brien leads a group of volunteers out of downtown to the West Seventh Street area

Michael O’Brien, at left, leads a group of volunteers delivering bikes to the West Seventh Street area

Super Frog, mascot of Texas Christian University, heading out to deliver a bike to its docking station

Volunteer Jim Peipert all set to deliver a bike to its designated docking station

Volunteer Kyle Jensen, in a cowboy hat, heads for a docking station

Volunteers delivering bikes to a docking station near Montgomery Plaza on West Seventh Street

Volunteers ride across the Phyllis Tilley Bridge to deliver bike-share bikes to a docking station in Trinity Park

Volunteers ride past Fort Worth’s main post office on the way to their designated docking stations

Volunteers ride past the Omni Hotel on their way to downtown docking stations