General Cycling Discussion - Houston-Memorial Park cyclists.

Anyone here ride the Memorial Park Loop? I have just stared riding there the past few weeks. I could not help but notice the massive amount of pervert/weirdo types that loiter in their vehicle and appear to be looking for male/male companionship in the back parking lots. It's like a outdoor gay bathhouse. I dont think I will be going there much anymore.

that's a notorious 'cruising' spot, where gays go to find each other. They're probably staring at your lycra-clad ass, too... lol

try George Bush Park, Westheimer Parkway, 3 miles past Hghway 6... There's 2 different 3 mile straightaways (one is really 3.5 miles)

I didn't know memorial park had a paved path?

Or you can come up to Highway 6 and Clay road. There is a 8 mile roundtrip ride that you can start out in a nice park.

Or you can go to Terry Hershey park that has a path that goes from highway 6 to the beltway and is about 15 miles roundtrip. Depending on the hour there are many other people - walkers, joggers, etc. but it's a very fun ride if you're not looking to get a hard workout.

I just recently heard that there's a loop in Memorial Park--new lanes or something like that--that's closed to vehicles after 3 on weekdays. Was this it? How was it otherwise?

Hershey really is a lot of fun even if you can't get up much speed. There are some nice wildflowers there in the spring. There's the Braes Bayou trail too, but it's also not a good place for speed.

Where's the braes bayou trail? Is it paved?

Here's the main link, http://www.pct3.hctx.net/PBraes/

It's paved, but it's mostly street level and you have to cross some streets, unlike Hershey were all streets have nice underpasses for the trail. I believe you can actually take the bayou trail further East than is shown on that link--to at least UH main campus. I've never gone that far on it, personally. Construction in the med center has some spots mucked up, so I usually didn't go much beyond that point.

The Fruit Loop is close to 1 mile per circuit and closed to cars in the afternoons. I thought it was closed to cars all day on the weekends but it may have changed since I was last there. Either way if you got near dawn or dusk you find it near empty. With few or no rollerbladers/peds/etc you can safely ignore the 20mph speed limit and get some good tight loops in before it gets too crowded or too dark. Very nice pavement. Its advantage over the anthills is the closed and no intersections part. You can keep going all day without stopping for anything although you can only go fast a few hours you can still keep a 12-15 pace without being an ass when it's crowded.

As for the other people in the park, it takes two to tango, whatcha worried for cowboy?