zekni

I'm from Las Vegas, NV where the roads are wide through most of the city, have large shoulders and/or bike lanes.
I just moved to the Dallas, TX area, more specifically, Garland. I've been here four days and the weather's been beautiful. I'd love to go for a ride, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but these roads are scary in my car, let alone on my bike. The lanes are narrow, everyone drives FAST and there are no shoulders.
I tried a local bike shop and they weren't real helpful or even very nice when I tried to ask about places to go.
Where can a girl go around here to find some nice 15-50 mile rides without much traffic (or shoulders on the roads)?
Would an occasional hill be too much to ask?

Thanks for any help guys. This is my first time to Dallas, so please be very specific with me, 'cuz I don't know my way around.


zek

Muttleyone

Trust me these roads around here look scary because they are, lol. I don't ride around Garland but there are a lot of riders around here. One will chip in here soon and give you a hand. Don't pay too much attention to the guys in that shop. Just mark them off your list and try another one in town. They have some great shops around here just keep checking around. Welcome to Dallas.

Mutt

wneumann

Do you mind if I ask whereabouts in Garland? I'm more familiar with the northern end, and could be of more help up there, but I might be able to figure something out given a rough starting location. In the meantime, a couple of bits of info:

* Yes, the road riding conditions here suck. There's a reason Bicycling named Dallas the worst city in America to ride in, and there's a reason why the White Rock Lake trail is so busy. However, that doesn't mean it can't be done.

* If you want something more like a group ride, your best bet is to hook up with the folks at the Plano Bicycle Association . I don't ride with them because they set out way too early in the mornings, but I may join their midweek rides one of these months...

* If you're looking for something more social, you may want to hook up with the FMD ladies. They hold one or two weekly rides, usually starting near Mockingbird Station, so if you can get to a DART blue line station, you can meet up with them for a ride.

* There's also Bike Friendly Richardson who have rides around Richardson with the goal of showing people where the better riding can be found. I'm putting on a ride for charity with them on Feb. 20 if you'd like to join in (go to the BFR page for details).

* Getting a bit further away from Garland are the good folk at Bike Friendly Oak Cliff who
occasionally host rides as well. There's a link to them from the BFR page I linked to above.

* As I mentioned above, there's also White Rock Lake, if you can get too it (one possibility is the blue line to Lake Highlands station and then ride to White Rock Trail then down to the lake. Once you're at the lake, I can get you on a trail/road mixed route up north into Plano and The Colony if you want a nice long ride (I can even promise you a hill up there!).

Anyway, if you can get us a rough starting location in Garland (a nearby park, landmark, or crossroads) we might be a bit more able to get you started. Hope this helps for now.

zekni

Okay, I'm off of S first and Carolyn. Miller is pretty close too. I have a gps, so I should be able to find my way to the lake. Someone at the gym mentioned that lake as well.
I really am not looking for group rides, I'm not a morning person. I just thought that if drug myself outta bed early once or twice and did a couple, they could show me where to ride.

Thanks for your help so far guys. Much appreciated.

MMACH 5

Most of DFW requires that you ride rather vehicularly.

I would do something like this:
Carolyn to WRL

A few points to note for a less stressful ride :
Point B - Continue West in the alley and pick back up at Point C.

Point D - This is actually cutting through the DART station/movie theater parking lot.

Point E - Don't turn onto Garland Rd. There is a break in the bushes at the bus stop sign that will get you onto Gaston Pkwy.

Point F - Cut through the church parking lot to avoid the traffic light.

Here is a map of the path around the lake:
https://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...rock_lake.html

And a map of the path going north from the lake:
https://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...ock_trail.html

StephenH

Note that Glenbrook Drive is a designated bike route. Going north, you can go up Glenbrook to Belt Line, across and down to Century Park Drive, and north to Apollo. Then you can take Apollo most of the way to Hwy 75. That's all urban riding with bumps and redlights.

Going south on Glenbrook, turn east onto Kingsly, across the bridge, and back south on Ridgedale, which puts you back on the bike route. Take Ridgedale south to Woodbury, back to 1st Street, south on 1st Street, and across Centerville to Duck Creek Drive, which is also a bike route. You can stay on Duck Creek, or watch for the parking lot where a hike/bike trail starts, and get on it. It goes down to Greenbelt Parkway and then out by the Walmart. For longer rides, stay on Duck Creek Drive, go across Broadway onto Rowlett Road, down the hill to Bobtown, turn east. Go to the tee at Roan/ Bobtown Road, turn right. Stay straight to go on Lyons Road, turn right on Diana, left on Christina, right on Bobtown, left on Barnes Bridge Road, right on Polly Road, left on East Fork, left to stay on East Fork, to the tee at Tripp Road. Turn left on Tripp Road, down the hill and round the curve, follow it out to Hwy 80. Go west on the service road, take first overpass, go back east on the other service road and turn on Lawson Road, by the barbecue place. Ignore the "road closed" signs, watch the bumps, go to the barricades, walk around them, and continue south past Scyene Road on Lawson. Turn right on Berry Road, right on Berry/ Faithon/Lucas, left on Newsom, right on Clay Mathis, back across Scyene, right on Long Creek, right to stay on Long Creek, turn east onto the Hwy 80 service road, go to the first overpass and across (same overpass as earlier), turn west on the Hwy 80 service road, and back north on East Fork, right on Tripp Road, and back north on East Fork, and then go back the way you came. There's lots of variations on this, and you can go farther south, down I20 and beyond. Look this up on a map first, these directions aren't meant to be riding directions. From my house (near Duck Creek and Oates) to Hwy 80 is right at 10 miles, so round trip is my daily 20 mile ride.

Don Johle's Bike World has a Saturday monring non-drop ride that takes variations of this route, check the website, www.donjohlesbikeworld.com, or come on down Saturday at 10:00 AM. If the Saturday ride is canceled due to rain or cold, message me, as I'll likely be riding somewhere anyway. I think Richardson Bike Mart has some group rides going from Poteet High School in Mesquite that use some of this route as well.

Another route: Work your way down to Wynn Joyce, go south past 635 to Barnes Bridge Road, and turn right. About halfway down the block, you'll see Bike Route 280 starting, and you can follow it as it zigzags through Dallas to White Rock Lake, go around the lake and back up. See the sticky for "Texas Rides" up there for links to maps for Bike Route 280 on the Dallas website.

zekni

Fabulous directions. Thank you. I wish I could make a saturday ride, but I just landed a job today where I'll be working weekends and probably won't be able to make it. The position is in Frisco, off of Preston and Lebanon. Any good riding to be had near there? Maybe I could get some rides in before/during/after work if there are.

Joe Bicycle

Check Plano Bicycle Association web site for their ride routes. They have some really good routes mapped out for that area. Also check out Richardson Bike Mart for their bike routes. Congrats on getting the job

lotek 

at Preston and Lebanon you're about 1/2 mile from Richardson Bike Mart,
and maybe 2 miles from the Superdrome.
There is a lot of good riding in the Frisco area, Preston is pretty heavily traveled so I wouldn't
suggest riding there but you could set up a nice lunch time loop going down Lebanon to Legacy,
Legacy to Panther Creek, Panther creek to Teel, Teel to Lebanon and back to work. Thats about 18 miles total.
If you go to Mapmyride.com there are pages of rides around the Frisco area.

Marty

zekni

You guys are lifesavers. I thought I.. might have to... take up spin classes.

StephenH

I mapped out the route above, with some minor variations:
https://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx...26483195456458

Around Lyons Rd and Bobtown Road, there are several different ways you can cut through. Our normal bike-shop route is to stay on Lyons, but I prefer to cut back on Diana as shown.

If you go west on Barnes Bridge Road instead of east, you have a good long uphill (for this area) between Collins and Beltline. Barnes Bridge Road is a good ride all the way over to Galloway. The light at Beltline won't trip for a bike, just walk over and hit the "walk" button and it will trip.

On the route mapped, there's a good hill north of Tripp Road ("Church Hill", because there's a church right at the top of it), and then you go down a good hill on Tripp Road.

For a shorter route, you can skip going across Hwy 80 and just come back down the service road to East Fork and back in, or ride on down to Paschall or Collins and come back up to Tripp Road and back over to East Fork.

The Hwy 80 eastbound service road has been closed between Collins and S. Paschall, and will route you onto Hwy 80.
Scyene Road and Larkin Road are good riding that make alternate cut-offs on the route.

Instead of turning at Berry, you can stay on Lawson Road down to I-20, then onto McKenzie Road over to Faithon P Lucas and back in for a longer loop.

When you get down to I-20, you're also running into the routes used by the Mesquite Rodeo Ride, and can extend it on farther south if you so desire. See their route map here:
https://www.rodeobikeride.org/pdf/RouteMap2009.pdf

Lawson Road between Hwy 80 and Scyene is in bad shape, but still surprisingly rideable, with barricades down by Scyene that you can walk around.

Another route I have done a number of times is to go up Country Club Lane to Pleasant Valley Road, out to Elm Grove Road, and back in via Liberty Grove Road and Rowlett Road, or variations thereoff. That route is scenic enough, but does get into some rough roads in places, and it's not all low-traffic, either, particularly coming back in.

Mr_Christopher

Explore the Dallas Bike Trail system, there are over 100 miles of dedicated, bike trails in Dallas. I can combine the Preston Ridge Trail, UTD Trail, and Renner trail/sidewalk to I-45 and back and do a good 15 miles and I'm only on the street for the length of one house lot. Check out White Rock Creek Trail, White Rock Lake Loop, the Santa Fe Trail. Lots of great places to explore on bikes in Dallas without having to ride on the road, or not much of it.

The bike trails in Garland are all under 1 mile in length I think. Welcome!

Chris

Mr_Christopher

Hey Stephen why do you use the "map my ride" thing instead of just using google maps? I'm not suggesting you should do it any differently, I'm simply curious. I'm planning to map a ton of stuff this year so if there's a reason to use something other than google maps I'll want to know!
Thanks

Chris

StephenH

I don't know of any way to input an arbitrary winding route into Google or Yahoo maps. You can let it pick a route between two points, then drag it around and stuff, but that doesn't always work real well, either. If I'm just looking at roads, then I do use Google. If I'm missing something, clue me in.

I'm not too impressed with mapmyride, either. It gets slower and slower as the route gets longer, for example, and it's about all you can do to put a 200 brevet into it. And they have irritating ads, but I'm not going to pay for a site that doesn't work any better than that. There's bikely.com and maybe one or two other sites, but I haven't used them myself.

My experience with the mapped routes in Dallas is that they're usable, but not fast (traffic lights + rough roads + numerous turns, etc.) If you want to ride fast and long, get out of town by the quickest way possible. If you want to meander around for an afternoon, or just go someplace you haven't been, or actually need to commute, then go to those bike routes.

To Zekni- one other thing I'll mention is that Richardson Bike Mart use to have Tuesday and Thursday group rides in the evenings, I think leaving from Poteet HS as well. They may be doing that after Daylight Savings Time starts up- but I used to see them ever once in a while. Also, I think a bike shop over in Rockwall may use that route some, too.

StephenH

I went ahead and mapped out my Pleasant Valley route:
https://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx...26619883535402

I started and finished this route at Gatewood Pavilion, 4917 Duck Creek Drive, as it is near my house. I suggest revising this part of the course as you see fit to just pass on through. There's certainly not any reason to drive or ride to that pavilion and then start riding the loop, just get on wherever is handy.

If you take Curtis north to Commerce, you'll find Commerce "closed", but I was pleased to find that they had made a bike path so you can still go through there.


I've been watching them build this water tower over the last year or so, right near Curtis and Commmerce.


An old house. I like stuff like this. I wonder how many kids were raised in that old house, and what memories it holds for somebody somewhere.


The nature trail. If you go out Pleasant Valley Road to Elm Grove Road, then turn left into the parking lot instead of right. I think it's about a mile loop of smooth wide trail. I normally ride thorugh there looking for snakes, but have yet to see any.


Made this shot coming down Main Street in Rowlett. It's at the Museum.


I tried putting this into Google maps and had a lot of trouble there. The map kept not wanting to move when I tried to grab it and move it, and then I'd mess up somehow and the whole route I'd input would just disappear. Tried it two or three times and never did get it in, no problems but slowness at Mapmyride.

Fat Tire

You may need to take a spinning class to get a break from Texas Summers which can stretch into December. Yes, Las Vegas is warm, but in Texas one longs for autumn, some years. And this year is NOT a typical year.

JMallez

This was my ride today, once you get to white rock lake you can get to AAC and from white rock lake you can take the white rock trail / north trail up past 635 near hillcrest...my start stop location is 635 & greenville

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/28633251
*as far as my slow pace today, it was pretty windy ok!

I'm curious how to connect to the preston ridge & cottonwood trail, if even possible, because then round trip would be a pretty good distance!

StephenH

Update on some of my routes above: Where Lawson Road is closed between Scyene and Hwy 80, I understand the police are now enforcing the no-through-traffic there. Also, the service road eastbout on Hwy 80 from Collins was closed but is now open again.