Texas - Austin/ Round Rock, TX (questions)

Hi,

I thought I was going to be moving to Colorado, but now it appears to be Round Rock, TX. I've never been to Texas... is this area good for road riding? Do they have bike lanes on all/some/none of the county roads? Is this area road rider friendly, etc? Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Lots of guys from Austin area in the Road forum ... ask there too.

The area is good enough for Disco to hold training camps in ;)

Not many bike lanes except downtown Austin. Lots of the roads have nice shoulders, but most of the county roads are just roads. East is pretty flat. Austin and west is the start of hill country. Lots of short steep rollers. Check out http://www.austincycling.org/index.html

Another good site is:
http://bicycletexas.com/austin.htm

sam

Austin has some great riding.

Roundrock is well known as a place you should avoid during rush hour
when leaving Austin.

I live a little north of Round Rock and the cycling is great. Hill county on the west side of I35 full of ranch land, east of I35 mostly farmland. Entire area full of beautiful ridable back paved roads that you can wander forever with varied terrain. Most do not have bike lanes but have very little traffic. And of course, we ride ALL YEAR here!!!

Try these http://cyclopathsoftexas.com/
http://suncitytxcyclists.org/
http://www.austincycling.org/index.html

As of last year when I looked, US Highway 79 had a 130 mile stretch with very wide bikeable marked and paved shoulder all the way from the east side of Thorndale, TX to Palestine, TX. US Hwy 79 has no shoulders to speak of between County Road 123 to Thorndale, but there is a network of county roads that could take you from Old Settlers Park in Round Rock to Thorndale.

There's a tremendous amount of construction around Round Rock so local information gets outdated real fast.

The cycling community is pretty large and, in general, the drivers tend to be fairly accomodating. There are several different organizations that hold group rides throughout the year. The Austin Cycling Association (http://www.austincycling.org) schedules two rides on both Saturday and Sunday. One ride will start from North Austin or Roundrock, the other from either Central or South Austin or even further south. It's a great way to learn the area.

There are also a fair number of organized rides each year. Several are tours of the hill country in the Liberty Hill/Burnet area, typically draw 500 - 1000 riders and are well managed.

Let us know when you hit the area...hopefully we can put together a BF group ride.

Thanks for all the responses and websites! I'm actaully going to be in Austin this Friday thru Sunday checking the area out and hopefully looking at a few homes for sale, etc.

I love riding out in the country east of I35 between Roundrock and Georgetown. Btw - you might look for a house in Georgetown. You can get more house for your money out there and I love that little town. That whole cliche "small town feel with big city ammenities" definitely applies. If you work in Round Rock the commute wouldn't be that bad at all.

I'm a recent transplant to Round Rock from Chicago. Cyclings good here. Who knew I'd have to whip out my ice tires last week?

Hey,

I have not personally riden in Round Rock but I have in Pflugerville, which is just se of RR. It is mostly gently rolling with beautiful TX country to look at. See Austin Cycling Association, they have lots of routes available and regularly ride in the Austin area.
REI is building its first ever 'store of the future' in rr this fall. The retail space will be featuring green construction and a large bicycle and accessory assortment.

I'm a recent relocatee to Austin from Seattle and I have found lots of rides here and people seem to be quite nice.... I'm sure they are hiding something :-) The ACA (austincycling.org) is pretty good and there are always rides from the local bike shops as well. It is hot here, I am always suprised about the heat.

Let us know when you come to town and we can meet up at an ACA ride.