It’s time for another installment of the I Bike Richardson series, where we put a face on Richardson cyclists. We’d like to introduce, Stephen Hazelton. He took the time to answer a few questions about biking. Enjoy:
Name:
Stephen Hazelton
How long have you been riding?
Five years. I rode when I was a kid, but hadn’t really done much riding since High School.
How often do you ride?
More or less daily. I’ve been riding Greater Dallas Bicyclists Tuesday-Thursday rides at Poteet High School, ride randonneuring rides on weekends, and just ride my daily route or out to White Rock Lake otherwise.
What’s your favorite route?
The most common route, not necessarily the favorite, is out East Fork Road down through Sunnyvale, continuing on around the airport if desired. On occasion, I’ll take Dallas Bike Route 280 down to White Rock Lake, and on weekends, have been doing randonneuring rides. I’ve done quite a few charity rides in the past, too.
Why do you cycle?
I started off bicycling to lose weight, now I’m trying to lose weight to bicycle better. It’s been loads of fun. The last two years, I’ve been doing randonneuring rides, and having a blast.
What is your perspective on riding – in general or in Richardson?
I’m not in Richardson, I just pass through on occasion, and have been over specifically for some of the rides in the area. But I ride in quite a few areas. I live in Garland, and my daily rides take me into Mesquite, Sunnyvale, or Dallas most commonly. A lot of the randonneuring rides start well out out of the Metroplex. A while back, I was counting up how many Texas counties I had ridden in, and I think it was over 60. I’m too busy riding to advocate riding, if that makes sense, and a lot of the people I ride are pretty similar in that respect.
Tell us about your bikes.
I started on a $100 Academy mountain bike, which both wore out and was stolen after a year. I rode a Worksman cruiser for a couple of years and still have it. Most recently, I’ve been riding a Raleigh Sojourn on the longer distance rides. I’ve also got a cargo tricyle, several unicycles, and a couple of other old bikes. At some point, I’d like to upgrade to something a bit lighter than the Sojourn, but have no immediate plans to do so.
We want to thank Stephen, for sharing his perspective on Richardson cyling.
We’d also like to extend an invitation to any cyclist who lives and/or rides in Richardson to share their story as well. You can either answer the questions (above) or send in a story – along with some pics to bikefriendlyrichardson(at)gmail.com.
Filed under: I Bike Richardson, I Bike Richardson, Local Bike Riders, Stephen Hazelton
dickdavid
atomicmama68
bibliosk8
Adam
howardmaher
jennyrilling
bergerandfries
What and where is Dallas Bike Route 280?
What about Dallas Bike Routes 1 through 279?
I believe Stephen is referring to the old Dallas Bike Plan map: http://dallascityhall.com/development_services/bike_links.html
It’s a series of share the road bike routes that will get cyclists around Dallas. Many would argue that it’s geared more for experienced/confident cyclists and why Dallas has not become a bike friendly city.
I personally haven’t tried any of these routes.
Actually, it is more like what “bike friendly” cities call Bicycle Boulevards. Low traffic, neighborhood streets that have been carefully selected and signed.
Agreed. The map does show some great low traffic routes – some of which (I’ve just noticed) I travel quite often.
However, there are some questionable ones for less confident cyclists. One example would be the 370 (Frankford Road route). That road is definitely not low traffic.
Here’s another website were you can see these routes:
http://opencyclemap.org/?zoom=12&lat=32.7801&lon=-96.80001
Stephen, if you want to share more about randonneuring I would be interested – such as how many miles is your typical rando ride, what do you bring, etc.
I would love to know more information about this too.