Are there any places I can ride my road bike not on the road in Houston? Because of my schedule I usually can't ride with a group and would feel safer on a bike trail than riding alone. I have a bike trainer but want more outdoor experience.

Houston sucks for riding. Every time I ride there, I feel like I'm scared for my life...only sort of joking.

Not sure what area you are on, but karbach does a crapload of rides. Some are official, some unofficial and they are all abilities riding.

I live way outside the loop so I can ride out in the country. But I see many friends on Strava ride along the bayous. Some of them have paved paths that go for 20ish miles.

What kind of riding and what area of town is accessible to you? The network of dedicated bike paths along the bayous (and elsewhere) has expanded a lot since I rode in town (mostly to/from the trails in Memorial Park).

I did ride along Braes Bayou all the way out to Gessner a couple of times. I turned around when I started seeing more and more pawn shops and check cashing stores.

Do people still ride the picnic loop at Memorial Park?

Memorial Park to the Heights via Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou is about 9 miles one way. I have only gone as far as Stude Park, but there is a way to get back on White Oak Bayou not far from there and it goes on for a long way after that. I just can't vouch for the biking on White Oak Bayou west of Stude Park, but if the section east of there is an indication, the section west of there should be good.

I long run Memorial >> Buffalo >> White Oak quite a bit, so I just ask that you announce if you ever come up on me. There's been a few bikers that have flown past me without announcing that got a rather colorful piece of my mind in the past :-)

I'm in Friendswood, but am willing to drive into town to get to a dedicated trail.

Braes Bayou west of Gessner gets really shady really quick. I used to live in Maplewood and would run all the way out to Kirkwood early in the morning. I honestly have no idea why I did that, but it was definitely a make sure your insurance (both health and life) is in check before you go type thing.

There was always an all night club that was bouncing on weekend mornings. It would be 5:30am, I would be hopped up on Gu Roctane, they would be hopped up on Peruvian marching powder, and no one knew what to do with the other. Good times right there!

On a more serious note when it comes to Braes Bayou, the big thing to be mindful of is all the construction that has been going on and will continue to go on there. I have run a piece of it around Rice and the Med Center pretty recently, and it's been good but that's only a couple of miles of it. I know that the parts that they were doing construction on when I used to cover more miles were torn up pretty substantially.

People still ride picnic loop in memorial park. It's a shorter loop (1.25-1.5 miles) so I don't do it often. I typically take white oak bayou as far northwest as it'll go. Down and back for me (getting on at tc jester in cottage grove) is 25 miles. You can take the heights trail to downtown then do the buffalo bayou loop and back. Starting at the same place that's about 17 miles for me. So you could pretty easily get 40 miles just combining those into one loop.

I ride approx 2500 miles/year (for many years), mostly inside loop 610, roads and trails. Here are some suggestions learned over the years.

Trails
Go to Google Maps, click on the bike trail link (on a pc, the 3 horizontal bars top left) and you'll see all the bike trails. Google does a good job keeping this up-to-date. There are a lot of trails now.

Terry Hershey trail from Fry Rd to Beltway 8. Roughly 40 miles round-trip. Quite nice

White Oak trail from downtown to past Rosslyn. Not sure but maybe 30+ miles round-trip. A few areas to branch off for options, lots of riders on weekends.

Brays Bayou trail from Gessner to Mason Park. The western edge is under construction from Harvey, so you can't go all the way out currently. Lots of street crossings. You'll have to ride on MLK for about mile east of MacGregor Park to get to the northside trail by UofH. One block stretch by Mason Park is under construction now. The part on the far east is the prettiest (except for the stretch under I-45). If you're adventurous (like me) try the trail between Broadway west to just shy of the RR tracks at Mason Park. Very pretty and you'll be isolated. Nobody's there except some shore birds.

Buffalo Bayou from downtown to Shepherd. LOTS of people all day. More for slow cruising.

Buffalo Bayou east of downtown. Fairly isolated, one stretch gets muddy just west of Lockwood as the pavement was never completed.

Roads
I greatly prefer the east side. Fewer cars, light traffic on weekends. Fewer car honks than elsewhere.

Without a doubt try the area of Clinton, Harvey Wilson & Armour between Lockwood and Wayside. These 3 roads are super-smooth (one RR crossing on Armour and Harvey Wilson) and little/no traffic on weekends. There's a steep bridge on the east end of Clinton. I've put in LOTS of miles on these roads going back and forth for years. You can also to the bigger Lockwood bridge. Or take Clinton west to Hirsch for another good bridge. Take Clinton east to Dorsett, Labco & McCarty for some long stretches.

There's a 2/3 mile loop just north of downtown. Burnett, Hardy, Leona, Fulton. I've racked up many miles on weekends here doing loops. Smooth roads, few if any cars. Nice view of downtown.

Lawndale from 610 to to RR tracks at Scarsdale is wide open with no cars on weekends. The Central St bridge going south onto Lawndale is fun nice hairpin turn to the right.

Hardy is getting a dedicated bike lane from downtown up to 610 and Kelley is getting a bike lane going east from there. I've ridden these many times without a bike lane and they're fine.

Lindale Park between Cavalcade up to 610 has parallel streets that you can go back and forth. Wide, smooth roads. Just loop on Fulton & Irvington (both have sidewalk protection if needed) to get between streets.

Groups
Facebook HTX Bike Social, Blue Line, Urban Bikes, ICycle, East End Bike Ride, Karbach, Nite Bike, Tap & Pedal, etc will tell you of group and social rides. Some are regular & some are occasional. Some fast, some social.

Are you on Strava? Would love to look at some of your rides...

Terry Hershey Park/George Bush Park. Just let us runners know when you're about to pass us.

htxag09 said:

---

Are you on Strava? Would love to look at some of your rides...

---

Cyclemeter.
Good friend of mine recommended it to me years ago. It works absolutely great....except I don't know how or if it can export routes.

I can certainly help with routes. I used to lead group rides with Blue Line years ago through the east side. I know just about every pot hole on that side of town!

I could probably suggest some options for you to explore, depending on how far & what you're looking for.

....as a starter - you can ride Clinton from Jensen to over the bridge close to Wayside. Then loop Harvey Wilson & Armour. Go back to Clinton back to Hirsh, take the bridge to Navigation. Go east all the way to Canal (cruise up along another bike trail to Hidalgo Park for a nice view of the bayou on the way to Canal if you want). Take Canal to 75th down to Mason Park (this is a lovely park with trails, pedestrian bridge over the bayou, actual hills). Or back in on Canal to left on 72nd, to Sherman over the tiny RR tracks to the oldest rails-to-trail in Houston (Harrisburg Trail) back into downtown for a refreshment at Moon Tower or Tout Suites.

Getting to the east side from the Heights, no lights or stops:
take the White Oak trail to just before downtown, quick left at the UofHDowntown statue/logo. Cut through to Naylor to Conti to McKee to Nance to Jensen (stay right! look behind you for exiting cars!). Left on Clinton, you're good to go.

Spring Creek Greenway at Hardy and 99. It goes from Spring/Woodlands to Humble on paved bike trail. No roads.

13.5 miles each way. 26+ round trip.

Live off Fry so I go through George Bush park to past the Beltway and back is just over 40 miles round trip.

I failed to mention that Navigation, from about Ninfa's out to around 75th is a great stretch of road. Wide lanes, the right lane is very wide. There's a nice bridge just west of Wayside. Navigation has a few curves and rolling terrain a bit. There are quite a few cyclists along here on weekends.