Orny's Cycling Journal

I’ve been in Austin for six months – although only cycling for four – so it’s time to share my initial impression of cycling in Austin. I’ll cover the bike shops, clubs, group rides, organized events, routes, road conditions, drivers, online community, and weather.

These are my limited observations, so they may not accurately reflect anyone else’s experience. Ready?

Downtown Austin from Town Lake boardwalk

Mellow Johnny's Friday Truancy ride

The Fire Ant Tour

The Veloway

Bike night at the Circuit of the Americas

Looking back from the top of Ladera Norte

Bike Shops

Austin is still dealing with the fallout from everyone’s favorite independent bike shop being bought out by Trek in 2020, in an effort to force Specialized out. The friendly Austin Trek staff are trying their best, but they’re hampered by being brand-tied and the bad blood the company earned in that buyout. In a city preoccupied with losing “the old Austin”, it was a prime example.

Specialized is recovering, but slowly. They’re now based in a cramped showroom in an inconvenient mall north of town, but much of their operation is run from a sketchy, anonymous warehouse in South Austin, while presumably looking for more functional retail space.

Of course, you can’t talk about bike shops without mentioning Mellow Johnny’s, still owned and operated by Austin’s disgraced former pro cyclist. I found the shop unfriendly, but their support of the local cycling community robust.

There’s also a Rapha store, which – in addition to hawking their overpriced wares with a pretentious attitude – coordinate some popular group rides. And there’s also REI and several small neighborhood shops of unknown quality.

Clubs & Group Rides

There are lots of opportunities to ride, although surprisingly few of them are run by the local bike shops. Here are some highlights.

Mellow Johnny’s has a popular Friday Truancy ride of their own, but many of their rides are led by the Violet Crown Cycling Club, which I naturally refer to as the “Violent Crowd”. Due to time conflicts, I haven’t been able to ride with them yet.

The Phenom Cycling Club runs a couple challenging hilly group rides. That’s fine I guess if you want a hard workout, but they predominantly cater to young racers, and don’t spare much attention for laggards.

Long-distance riders are served by the Hill Country Randonneurs. However, they require membership in Randonneurs USA, whose policies I take exception to, so I really can’t ride with them.

There’s an exceptionally popular monthly Breakfast Club ride which again I haven’t made because of timing. I’ve heard mixed opinions about it.

There’s also an overnight Full Moon Ride every four weeks. I enjoy night rides, but it’s a pedestrian ride. Although they’re around, I’m really not interested in the casual populist rides like Critical Mass, Social Cycling Austin, and some of the Meetup groups.

Aside from many group rides happening at difficult times (i.e. early mornings and Saturdays), I haven’t found anything that suits my level: non-competitive but serious enthusiast. There’s lots of rides for young, fast, elitist racers; and plenty for slow, pot-smoking townies and commuters; but nothing for us devoted middle-of-the-road riders that I’ve found.

Organized Events

Here’s another area where I’m struggling to find my place. Perhaps it’s because of the Texas heat, but despite scouring the online ride calendars, I’ve found shockingly few organized events around Austin to suit my preferred ride distance of 100 to 200 KM.

One option is the infamous Hotter’n Hell 100 (August), although that’s a solid 5-hour drive away!

And there’s the Texas MS 150 (April), whose century route starts in Houston. I passed on it this year, having lost too much fitness over our move.

Austin is also home to the Livestrong Challenge, which several New England friends take part in, so hopefully there’ll be reunion opportunities when that rolls around in September.

And there are occasional smaller, less-familiar rides. Rather than enumerate them here, I’ll point you to my work-in-progress Austin Cycling Calendar webpage.

For my Pittsburgh friends, there’s a local semi-organized hill ride in the spirit of the Dirty Dozen. The Tour das Hugel takes place in November and incurs a whopping 175 KM with 3,200 M of climbing.

But so far I’ve only managed one 100 km ride, the Fire Ant Tour up in Gatesville, which I wrote about here. It was fine, but I’m still searching for my first century even as we enter the forbidding heat of summer in Texas.

Routes

There are a couple unique cycling facilities that are especially noteworthy. One is the Veloway, a winding 5 KM circuit that is limited to cyclists and skaters. It’s a delightful wooded loop on the south side of town. However, it’s a bit far to ride to, and I imagine it gets busy on the weekends.

And in the spring and fall, the Circuit of the Americas racetrack – which normally hosts Formula 1, NASCAR, and MotoGP races – regularly opens their 5 KM track to cyclists from 6PM to dark. It’s a memorable experience, but again it’s a bit far away to make it a regular event.

For racers, there are criteriums at the Driveway: a private track designed to instruct auto racers. Not being a racer, those are of limited interest to me, save perhaps as a spectator.

In terms of bike paths, there are a couple around town. The most noteworthy is the Southern Walnut Creek Trail, which is pretty long, quite rideable, and one viable way to get out of the city and into the outskirts.

Shoal Creek is partially an on-street bike lane, but there are off-street segments. While it looks like a straight route into downtown, part of it is shut down long-term, and it’s more suited to leisure rides than getting somewhere in good time.

And there’s an extensive network of jogging paths around Town Lake. While scenic and featuring an amazing investment in elevated boardwalks over the river, these gravel paths are crowded with oblivious tourists and locals, so they’re of limited value for road cyclists.

I’ve spent a lot of time exploring Austin’s roads, but I’ve still only just scratched the surface. As when I moved to Pittsburgh in 2015, I’ve had excellent luck identifying fellow roadies through Strava’s Flyby utility and then following some of the routes they frequent. That’s given me insights into popular local routes as well as further afield (such as over toward Manor, or out Spicewood Springs and the Volente loop).

And I’ve found several methods of getting from my base in the Northwest Hills across town or into downtown, including Balcones Drive to Scenic Drive or Pecos Street or Exposition; or Winstead to Atlanta; Jefferson or Bull Creek or Shoal Creek; 51st Street for heading east; and Mesa and Jollyville heading north.

As for hills, we’ve got hills. I’m on the border between the flatter terrain to the east and the hilly terrain of the Hill Country’s Balcones Escarpment to the west. In fact, I have to climb a short but vicious hill just to escape my little cul-de-sac. But I’ve explored some local hills that would be right at home in Pittsburgh, including the infamous Ladera Norte, which is now part of my regular workout. If you wanna climb, there’s no shortage of it; but (unlike Pittsburgh) there’s plenty of nice flat riding, as well.

Road Conditions & Drivers

My memories of Austin from before I moved were of narrow roads with no shoulder and high-speed traffic, and that’s proved out. But those are the urban roads and suburban highways that are popular for cars; there are other roads that are calmer and quieter, and in town there are a number of side-roads that are adequate for cyclists getting around town.

And there’s a fair amount of bike infrastructure, including my first experience with parking-protected bike lanes, which are about as appealing to me as licking an electrical outlet. God save us all from well-intentioned bike advocates!

Road surfaces vary a lot, but they’re generally rougher (and thus slower) than I’m used to up north. The rural roads bake in the sun and can develop dangerous cracks. I managed a quadruple snakebite puncture by hitting one of those on a descent! And down here they use the term “sealcoat” for their variant on the universally hated oil-and-chips road surface treatment, which Texas uses more than any other state.

Drivers… For the most part Austin drivers have been surprisingly conscientious, although there are hundreds of online tales of absolutely insane driving. Of course, there’s self-important drivers going too fast for the conditions everywhere, and streets that pit all road users against one another, but in 200 hours of outdoor riding over four months, I’ve only experienced one legit instance of harassment on the bike.

Connecting Online

Another surprise: I have yet to find any useful Austin cycling forums online. There’s the Reddit group /r/BikingATX, but it’s not especially active or useful. If there’s a forum that’s commonly used – say, hosted by one of the bike clubs or something – I haven’t found it. Honestly, Strava has been the most useful online resource for finding other riders, clubs, and routes.

The best events calendar I’ve found has been the state-wide WheelBrothers Texas Bike Rides page.

Weather

From February through May, the weather was absolutely stellar. Of course, we had temperatures below freezing for short periods (including a devastating ice storm), but most of our days were between 10 to 25° C. That was delightful.

Then the heat came. We’ve had four straight weeks with high temps around or above 37°C, which limits outdoor riding to either mornings or short daytime rides. Save for a couple major events, summer is the off-season for riding.

Which brings up the question of when and where to use the indoor trainer. Over the winter, I could get away with riding it in the unheated and un-insulted garage, so long as it wasn’t too cold outdoors; but I wonder whether it makes more sense to bring it inside. Over the summer, it’s too hot to ride in the garage, but I’m not convinced it’d be much better if I set it up inside. Still needs some figuring out, so we’ll see!

Conclusion

The bottom line is that I’m getting settled and finding my way around both the cycling community and the city, but with a lot more still to learn. I can’t quite say that Austin is a cycling utopia, but I think it’s quite workable.

Specific things that I still need to look at are:

• Check out the group rides I’ve missed, including: Violet Crown, Taking Care of Business, Breakfast Club, Major Taylor, and Rapha
• Find more organized 100 to 200 KM and imperial century rides
• Find the subset of roadies around town that aren’t hardcore racers
• Build up an inventory of routes and rest stops for longer solo rides outside of town

But for only having been on the roads for a few months, I’m pretty happy with Austin’s cycling scene. And delighted by the weather, even at its hottest!

Who drives more than 8 hours, does a 100-mile bike ride, then drives another 8 hours home? Well, here’s the thing...

Last winter, when I was spending a lot of time on the indoor trainer and Zwift, much of it was riding with an organized club called “The Herd”. Because we use Discord for voice chat, over time you get to know people and form friendships irrespective of where folks are physically located.

The Herd's Fast Group

Caught in Samsara!

The Herd @ LHT

Tim W. & Chris S.

Brad, Chris A., & Tim W.

Ornoth @ Little Traverse Lake

Chris S.

Tim W., Timm M., Brad, & Louise

Tim W.

Tom

Chris A.

Ornoth @ Grand Traverse Light

Early in the year, The Herd announced their first big real-life get-together, at the Leelanau Harvest Tour, an organized century ride in Traverse City, in the northwestern corner (the pinkie) of Michigan. Since that’s just within a day’s drive from Pittsburgh, I added it to my calendar.

In the end, we had 16 attendees: several from around Toronto, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, eastern and western Pennsylvania, but also individuals from as far away as Boston, Oklahoma, and one of the group leaders (Marius) traveled from Norway!

Several of the ride leaders had met one another before, but for others it was their first time meeting other Herd members in person. Gathering to meet "online-only" friends from various locations is a familiar feeling for me, having gone to the internet’s first-ever Chatcon in NYC in 1985, several Where’s George meetups, and having run a dozen "summits” in various locations for DargonZine, the internet writers’ group I founded in 1984.

The Herd event was extra ironic for me, because our 2005 DZ summit actually was held in Traverse City, co-hosted by a writer based in Ann Arbor. I never imagined I’d visit there once, never mind a return engagement fourteen years later!

So on the morning of Friday the 13th I hit the road, leaving Pittsburgh at 7:15am. A long drive with a bad achilles (right foot, of course) wasn’t a lot of fun. The weather was fine except for my brief passage through a rain front, but I arrived, got into my downtown hotel, and showered.

I was surprised there was no group meeting Friday evening, but that gave me the opportunity to dine at one place in Traverse City that I really wanted to hit: a Thai restaurant with the amusing (to a Buddhist) name of Samsara! Samsara (wikipedia) being the name for the endless cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth, I had to get a selfie and make a couple inside jokes.

The place had no pretensions. Located in the side-back of a strip mall, with a linoleum floor, drop ceiling, and about six tables. My “ghang gahree” was delicious, but was served "Thai-hot”.

I returned to the hotel and bedded down, a little disappointed that with such a short amount of time to spend together, there was no welcoming activity before the ride. But that was tempered with the understanding that other folks might take their pre-ride preparation more cautiously than I do.

Saturday morning I grabbed some Gatorade and drove up to the Suttons Bay ride start, where the petulant ride organizers made dozens of us stand in line while they strictly waited until 7:30am for the official opening of registration. After gathering my cue sheet, wristband, and tee shirt, I pulled my bike out of the trunk and began putting everything together, happily discovering that the group’s van—where everyone was to meet up—had parked a couple spots down from me.

I don’t know why technical difficulties tend to crop up at major events, but this is where my trials began. Having brought my Nut-R mount for my GoPro action camera, when I went to attach it to my rear axle, I couldn’t close the wheel’s quick-release, even after removing the Nut-R. I feared I might not be able to ride, but Julie H. wrenched the quick-release back into shape so that it would close properly. But even then, I had trouble threading the Nut-R onto the quick-release and wound up not using it at all.

We waited around for everyone to get ready, assembled for a group photo, and rolled out about 20 minutes later than the planned 8am depart. The first 11 miles were along the Leelanau Rail Trail, providing a pleasant warm-up and the opportunity to chat, enjoy the beautiful morning, and take a few action photos.

With 16 riders all having different expectations, priorities, and experience levels, it was inevitable that the group split into fast and slower groups shortly after we left the bike path, when a gusty headwind and a couple small hills provided natural sorting mechanisms. Although we weren’t pushing it at the front, I found myself in a reduced group of five, with Brad H., Louise B., Chris A., and Tim W.

At the Mile 25 rest stop, my GPS battery was low, so I went to connect it to the portable battery I carry on long rides. I usually attach it to my handlebars with an elastic band, so I can ride and recharge the unit at the same time; however, my elastic chose that moment to disintegrate, and I discovered that I’d somehow misplaced its backup. I fell back to using an extra hair band, which only barely worked.

We began the second segment with three additional riders: Tom W., Timm M., who had flatted, and Chris S., who had paced him back to us. As the course turned north through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the eight of us enjoyed a delightful tailwind on a long section of smooth pavement. While pulling at the front, I amused the others by sitting up, taking my hands off the bars, and flapping my arms like a seagull leading a formation of birds.

All too soon, that segment ended at the Mile 39 rest stop, which fronted on the stunningly blue waters of Little Traverse Lake. I consulted the mechanical support dude, who remembered that new inner tubes often come wrapped with an elastic, so I happily used one of those to secure my external battery.

The next section featured consecutive rolling hills, which the group ate up without complaint, and long stretches along the banks of Lake Leelanau. We saw an occasional tree with a tiny bit of color, but that ominous hint of autumn was made up for by the brilliant gradations of blue in the lakes and the perfectly clear sky. The turquoise waters were repeatedly compared to the Caribbean.

At the next lakeside rest stop we said goodbye to Chris, Tim, Timm, and Tom, who resisted our attempts to persuade them to switch from the 65-mile route to the full hundred. Although eleven Herd riders had registered for the century, only four of us continued on: myself, Chris A., Louise, and Brad, who diligently pulled at the front, as he’d done nearly all day.

Passing through the tiny town of Northport, Louise flatted, but we were fortuitously spotted by the SAG wagon driver, who had been fetching coffee for his crew, so we were back on the road in short order.

After navigating a three-mile construction zone, we reached the end of the road: the northernmost tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, which featured a state park of the same name, as well as the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. We stopped and marveled at the high surf and the azure expanse of Lake Michigan, then returned the way we’d come, back through the road construction.

The final 25 southbound miles were a slog against the headwind we’d forgotten about on our way north. My achilles began hurting, and as the miles added up, our group of four lost cohesiveness. At the Mile 84 rest stop, the others inexplicably left without waiting for me; I promptly caught them up, but by this point we were riding at our own individual paces. The route had a fun and interesting finish: a gradual, mile-long 3% descent, followed by a mile-long 6% climb and equivalent descent right to the finish.

At 4pm I completed 101 miles, discovering that the parking lot where we’d started was almost empty. I’d expected the team to hang out at the lunch offered by the organizers, but they’d all gone back to their lodgings to shower. The four of us who had ridden the century together packed up and followed suit.

Between the easy pace, the 4pm time, and the fact that everyone else had gone home, I figured we’d ridden ridiculously slowly, but it was actually a 7h38m century, which is casual but not especially self-indulgent.

After the ride, I went back to my hotel, showered, and headed to the group’s post-ride gathering downtown at Seven Monks Taproom. I nibbled some ribs and socialized, enjoying more time with both the friends I’d ridden with and those I hadn’t. But it was awfully loud, and I was hoarse by the end of the night.

After abbreviated sleep Friday night, Saturday night was worse, with a thunderstorm that left me fully awake at 4am. I opted to try the hotel's 6am breakfast, which was utterly indefensible.

As the rain tapered off, the bleary-eyed group gathered for a final brunch meetup at the “Flap Jack Shack”. One of the odder moments was when David T. perceived a likeness between me and the portrait of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, then extended that idea to others in our group. We chatted and pretended to eat for an hour and a half before everyone went off on their own again: some homeward, others following their own local plans.

Tired, headachey, and nauseous, I went back to the hotel and slept for a couple hours, skipped dinner, and watched some footy until bedtime.

Having planned to be ready for group activities on Sunday, I’d booked my hotel through until Monday. After another uncomfortable night, I was up early for the long drive back to Pittsburgh. Along the way I passed the immediate aftermath of a tractor trailer that had Storrowed itself: misjudging a bridge and peeling itself open like a can opener. But the day’s real highlight was arriving home, receiving a warm welcome, and passing out in bed.

Looking back on the event, other than a couple missed social opportunities, I only had two minor disappointments. Although Herd team jerseys have been in the works for nine months, they weren’t available by the time of the ride. And the event’s date unfortunately collided with one of my favorite Pittsburgh events: the Every Neighborhood Ride, which I rode in 2018, 2017, and 2016.

But overall, it was a wonderful time. I enjoyed the ride’s route, the gentle terrain, gorgeous lakes, and especially the delightful weather. After the wettest year in recorded history last year, somehow all of my major rides with fixed dates in 2019 have had stunningly beautiful weather. And it was great being able to meet and ride with so many Herd members whom I’d previously only known online.

This was my record-setting 13th century of the year, and the final major event on my calendar. Honestly, after nine 100-mile rides in the past 12 weeks, the prospect of not having any more centuries is pretty appealing! The Herd gathering was a very rewarding and fitting way to close out the high season, and now it’s time for some well-deserved rest, healing, and a trip to the doctor to treat my achilles injury before contemplating a return to Zwift over the winter.

Follow this link for my full 2006 Pan-Mass Challenge ride report, including writeup and photos.

Big weekend for cycling, even if I didn’t do any long rides as such…

First, Saturday night was a party for all the Quad Cycles riders who participated in the Mass Red Ribbon Ride and the Pan-Mass Challenge. Graciously hosted by Jeff Ichikawa at his loft, it featured a barbecue and good conversation with Bobby Mac and a dozen or more riders. And we also got to see lots of photos taken during the two rides, some of which will appear shortly on my cycling photos page.

We also had a viewing of the three hundred photos that Joseph Santos took during a Quad Cycles training ride on August 19th. Joseph has a sweet Nikon D70 DSLR isn’t afraid of using it, and so the photos page will also be graced with one or two of his shots soon, as well. The updates are coming fast now!

The photo you see at right, however, came from the official Pan-Mass Challenge photographers. It’s the first close-up shot they’ve taken of me in my five years of participating in the event, but it was really worth the wait. You can click on the photo for bigness, or you can just head on over to my newly-revised cycling page, where it’s the featured element. Verra snazzay, I must say!

You can also get to my 2005 PMC ride report from there, although I didn’t tell you that! The writeup is complete, but I’m still adding and arranging the photos that go with it before I announce it to the public. So feel free to check it out, but come back again later to see the additional photos I’ll be adding!

But wait! There’s more!

I was in the bike shops this weekend, and one of the things I did was finally replace my five year old Shimano cycling sandals. They’ve served me very well—about 12,000 miles worth!—but they’re getting a bit stinky, rusty, and worn, so I picked up replacements, which I’ve actually been looking for since before the PMC. They’re almost identical to my old pair, but I’m having a bit of difficulty with the new cleats, which are being obstinate about clicking in and out. That’s okay, though; they’ll work their kinks out soon enough.

In addition, last week I thought about the list of big-ticket items I’ve been jonesing after since getting a steady income: a new laptop, digital camera, GPS, bike, iPod, cell phone, CD player, speakers… You get the picture. When I thought about it, something became obvious: I can buy any of those things during the winter except for the bike. Bikes you have to go test ride, and you can’t get a decent test ride in January, so…

This weekend I started out test riding the two bikes I’ve had my eyes on. I’ve long wanted a light, fast road bike that also had a more relaxed fit and more supple ride than a racing bike. Racing bikes are twitchy, skittish, rough, and not even remotely ergonomic. I found two bikes that made a good compromise between speed and smoothness, climbing ability and all-day comfort. And this weekend I tried them out.

I tried them both out at two different dealers. I did a 9-mile loop around the crater-strewn roads of Belmont that include Park Street hill via Spring Street on Saturday, and a 12-mile loop in town that included Summit Ave today. Both were good tests of the bikes’ ability to deal with flats, wind, climbing, insanely rough roads, urban traffic, descents, and so forth. I put each bike through about 21 miles and nearly two hours of riding.

Months ago, I was pretty sold on the Specialized Roubaix. It’s really the first bike of its kind, that intentionally tries to produce a softer ride and more relaxed position within a bike that still can cook. But in the weeks leading up to my test ride, I discovered the new Cannondale Synapse, which has received great write-ups that make it sound as compliant as the Roubaix. It also is a much prettier bike. But the more I rode them, the more I was sold on the Roubaix.

The Synapse Ultegra isn’t a bad bike, and I might well choose it in the absence of the Roubaix. It was definitely more responsive and faster off the line and in sprints than the Roubaix, but it also transmitted more road noise to the rider. As I say, it’s a beautiful looking bike, but ultimately looks are secondary to comfort and fit, and neither shop I went to could provide me with a test bike any larger than a 56cm frame, which is kinda like putting me on one of those tiny bicycles you see clowns perform on. The final negative is that the wheelbase was so short that in a turn the front tire could hit my toes as I pedal, which is something I really want to avoid.

The Roubaix Comp Double, on the other hand, rode a bit like an Oldsmobile. It was plush and absorbed road shock, almost to the point of having a bit of boaty bounce as you ride along a straight, smooth road. It sure didn’t want to sprint or shoot off the line, but once it was spun up, it felt like it just wanted to keep going. The seat was far superior, but the clearcoat carbon finish is a bit ugly. The position is much more upright, and I tested the 58cm model. There was plenty of clearance between my toes and the front wheel when cornering, and the Roubaix had a little display of what gear you’re in on the shifter-cable, a nice design feature that the Synapse lacked.

So I’m very much leaning toward the Roubaix right now. Of course, I have to let Rustem at Quad Cycles have a crack at me, but I really don’t think he carries a bike that’ll knock the Roubaix off the top of my list. And I’m out of town next weekend (on a trip you’ll no doubt hear more about), so it’ll be a couple weeks before I jump, anyways. I might also wait a few weeks to see what Specialized says about the Roubaix for 2006.

But even if I can’t jump just yet, it’s nice to have some time to think the decision over, and it definitely was a blast trying out some new, happy wheels.

Follow this link for my full 2004 Pan-Mass Challenge ride report, including writeup and photos.