Back on May 1st when I biked to SH242 I noticed the construction barriers were gone and traffic was on the previously closed lanes. Exploring SH242 was the focus for today’s bike ride. The last time I rode on SH242 was July 8th, 2019. That’s how long construction made riding there not possible. I wasn’t sure the work was finished all the way to Old Houston Road but I wanted to find out. It took a couple searches in SportTracks to find the route name and map to replicate for the ride; SR242 – Old Houston Rd – FM1314. The July 8th ride was 46.01 miles but today I left off about 2 miles riding through Kingwood to US59. From there I followed the same route. I should’ve started earlier than 10:54 AM to avoid some heat. With the longer ride I left the waterbottle at home and took the CamelBak. The bike for the exploration: Canyon Endurace CF 7.

As I rode north on the US59 frontage road I saw the GoPro camera bouncing around a lot more than usual. Looking at the Garmin mount on the GoPro one of the tabs broke off. At first I was going to keep the GoPro in a jersey pocket but that is awkward to get out. The computer mount on the Canyon has GoPro tabs under the computer so I decided to put the GoPro there. No hand video shots but the wireless mic solved the reason I don’t put the GoPro there anymore.

SH242 sports a concrete shoulder about 10 ft. wide. There was a place west of FM1485 where the shoulder narrowed because the new east bound lane aren’t open and a left turn lane used the available space. That was about 100 feet long. I can now put this route back on the list riding both directions. I took this photo at FM1485 and SH242 at the store where I stopped for a short rest break.

The headwind gave me a hard time on FM1314 back to the southeast. I stopped at the Circle K at sorters Road for some PowerAide and leg recovery. Weather: Start 86 degrees, humidity 73%, dew point 76.8, cloud cover 61%, wind SSE 14 mph; Finish 89 degrees, humidity 70%, dew point 78.1, cloud cover 26%, wind SSE 13 mph gusts 19 mph.