Headed north on today’s bike ride following my “Kingwood – FM1485 – Kingwood” route. I changed the route slightly taking FM 1314 east at Porter and Loop 494 to Community Drive increasing the distance to 32.42 miles compared to some previous rides. I didn’t realize how many times I rode this route this year, 15 times. This might be the route I biked the most times this year. I finished at 12:37 PM. Fall weather continues and with the blue sky humidity and dew point remain lower than typical for Houston.

Starting a bike ride this time of day seems to avoid the heavy traffic earlier and later. Some roads have a shoulder like Loop 494 (not wide, about 2 feet). The frontage road northbound does not have a shoulder but does have 3 lanes. The southbound frontage road has a shoulder from the Caney Creek bridge to Valley Ranch Parkway. Valley Ranch Parkway does not have a shoulder but is two lanes in each direction. At Valley Ranch Bend Drive new construction of Valley Ranch Parkway has two southbound lanes that are paved but not open to traffic yet. I ride on the unopened lanes because a curb has been added to the northbound lanes limiting moving to the right for passing traffic.

The wind was light to calm helping me set a strong pace and get my overall average speed up to 14.1 mph. The sun warmed the air but not too hot and with the dew point lower than normal it didn’t feel that hot. Weather summary: start 78 (68% humidity, 67 dew point), fair, wind calm; finish 84 (49% humidity, 62 dew point), a few clouds, wind N 4 mph.

My legs felt good as I spun the pedals. I ordered a new set of ICAN Cycling Alpha 50 carbon wheels for my Lynskey R300. I look forward to comparing the ride on them to the Vision 30 aluminum wheels currently on the bike. I will drop the tire size to 700Cx28mm from 700Cx32mm.