Texas - Hello from NE Texas, Paris area

I recently purchased a 2008 Trek 7.3FX for fitness and all around general riding. I had a great buying experience at RBM(Richardson location) and must admit I purchased the bicycle for fitness but have come to learn I like getting out and riding. I think I might have found a new hobby.

Some of you more seasoned veterans might help a rookie out by telling what all applications would my bike be good for....trails, off-road, on-road only? I really like the bicycle but it is very rough to ride on the county roads in my area and was wondering where guys go to ride. I found the stick for DFW trails but what ones would be good for a rookie?

As mentioned, I live out in the Paris area but I'm a firefighter in DFW, so I would be interested in meeting up with members of the forum to learn all I can and of go riding.

Thanks, guys and be safe

Gari
Firefighter/Paramedic
IAFF Local 4182

Welcome to the forums, from SE Texas! :) Sorry, I don't know anything about your specific bike, so I will let others answer that part. Be safe and well!

Welcome to the forums. I'm here in Garland, and was just up your way for the Tour de Paris. My first idea for routes would be to look up the route map for that ride. Also, they have a ride coming up in Greenville that has routes going up to Wolfe City, and you might check into those routes. Where I go for day-to-day riding is the local bike trail which just happens to run near my house; that and some city streets that it connects to. And on weekends, White Rock Lake and charity rides.

I remember here a while back, one of the faster forum members was looking for a riding partner to go from Garland (or somewhere down here) to Paris and back. That's a little far (correction: a Lot far) for me, but I think a good bit of that route is pretty rideable.

That bike should be great for chip seal roads. Does it have the 32mm wide tires that are spec'd on the Trek website? If so run them at about 80psi and it should be a smooth ride. Others may not agree, but most of the mountain bike trails around are pretty smooth and flat and could be ridden on that bike if you ride sensibly and avoid jumps and drops. Slicks on dirt trails will make you develope good bike handling skills.

There's a Randonneuring route at http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Rockwall-to-Paris that you might find interesting. It's from Rockwall to Paris and back and shows 300K. This route was created by George Evans (Lonestar Randonneurs member), and his routes are always well laid out and avoid much traffic if at all possible. There's no reason you need to do the whole chunk, but you might want to check out the roads that he used out of Paris.

Steve

- c m shooter...What is a chip seal road? Most everything around here is paved with a course black gravel and the 700x32's on my bike transmit every single pebble in the road. To be more accurate as to my location, I live in a small community in Delta County...Klondike. I ride by Cooper Lake when I go that route. I have noticed after I aired my tires down to 85psi the ride was much better.

StephenH - Oddly enough my girlfriend lives in Garland...Centerville and Duck Creek. I have noticed bike path signs along Duck Creek Rd and was wondering if that was a good place to ride?

From Garland to Paris and back seems a long way on a bicycle. I just started about three months and have worked my way to up about 16 miles over an hour. I think I'll hold off on the complete route but may check out parts of it.

Thanks to the other members for posting great info on routes in my area.:thumb:

Gari
Firefighter/Paramedic
IAFF Local 4182

The signs you see on Duck Creek Road are just an on-road bike route. That route goes from Broadway/ Duck Creek all the way up to Walnut or so in downtown Garland, and then continues on out toward Hwy 75. Some of it is side streets, some is on busy streets, so it's not an especially good or bad route. There are one or two places where the signs are missing and you just have to know where the route is. I live near Duck Creek and Oates, and I've ridden up to the Dart Rail Station on Walnut several times that way.

Where I mainly ride, though, is a bicycle/walking path that goes up and down both sides of the creek itself. If you come about 1/4 miles from Centerville on Duck Creek Drive, you'll see a little parking lot on the right. The path starts there, and you can ride all the way to I-30 on it. Then on the other side of the creek, it goes into Audobon Park. Just explore it on bicycle sometime when you get a chance. The actual trail itself is maybe 6-8 miles total, and won't take that long to see all of it. It's not as fast due to being winding and having pedestrians on it, but still worth riding. I add some road loops on to it and have a 10 or 12 mile loop when I'm done.

By the way, I think my wife's cousin and husband used to live in Klondike, not sure if that's still where they live (they were in the country before and still are but in a different house now).

"Chip seal" is one of those biker terms - it refers to the coarse black gravel asphalt that TXDOT seems to like for their highways and shoulders. And it's hated among cyclists for that constant vibration you've noticed. A good pair of padded gloves will help a bit. Also learn to use your legs against the pedals to support most of your weight, instead of leaning full-force on the handlebars.

700x32 tires at 85 psi are suitable for gravel roads, assuming you weigh under 190 or so. I know this because it's what I ride all the time, on the white limestone gravel we have around here.

Pick up a copy of The Roads of Texas, it's an atlas published by Mapsco, at any big bookstore and many Staples/Office Depot type places.

From Klondike, there are lots of county roads you can explore, mainly to the North of course. Just slap the book on a copy machine, blow it up 2x or 3x and make some copies to take with you on your ride.

Rowlett Creek Park is a good MTB trail, suitable for this bike and not too hairy as long as you avoid the "left hand" loops (#7, 14, 12, 13).
http://www.dorba.org/

Also check out Sister Grove on Lavon, it's a fun one and not technical at all.

Where are you stationed in DFW? Depending on shift / daylight you can bring the bike with and we'll help you find rides near the station.

I've done a good bit of walking out at Rowlett Creek Preserve. Loop 7 actually has places you could fall off of. A couple of the loops over by the creek have some big dips and humps, but there are also strategic bypass trails to skip some of the hard spots.

Creakyknees- I'm around 165lbs. Also I'm 2A for Crowley Fire Dept...off of IH-35W between Ft. Worth and Burleson. I make the drive in from Klondike, Texas.



Gari

Man that's a haul of a drive, cross-town to boot.

Look in your Roads of TX p. 71 you will find tons of county roads SW of Crowley for exploring.

Also check out the Fort Worth club's maps, I know they have a bunch that go thattaway:
http://www.fwbaclub.org/ride/maps.cfm

Cheers
Creaky

If you haven't checked it out, take a look at www.bicycle-stuff.com (http://www.bicycle-stuff.com). The calendar shows upcoming rides (including rides in Greenville and Bonham in the next couple of weeks). Take a look at the pictures and you can get an idea of what the rides are like. Read the reviews for info as well. I've enjoyed getting out on these rides.

This is chip seal, it suckes after only a few miles of riding.

http://www.ci.olympia.wa.us/NR/rdonlyres/97CEEAC7-DDC1-4817-AC6A-4BC6F8122BDD/0/chipweb2.jpg