RT

Sorry for the cross-post, but I figure I'll get a lot more exposure here in the 41.

Hey Texans. I'm very familiar with Plano/McKinney/Frisco/Carrollton, but only in the sense of driving it. I'll be spending a week down there, will be driving with the bike in the trunk, and would like to get some miles in while I'm there. Where's the safest/best place to ride? Not a hardcore roadie, but prefer road riding to MUPs. My experience down there in Plano is that I did not see many cyclists on the road, and not many bike lanes. Any advice is welcome!

Kolelo

White Rock lake in Dallas is not too far, 20-30 min drive, from the areas you are refering to. It's been about 10+ year since I rode there but I think it is around 13 miles. The trail at the time used to me mostly asphalt. The trail mostly curves around the lake and is pretty safe.

Also go here - https://www.mapmyride.com/ and type in the city's name in the search. You will get some ride ideas for each area.

Racer Ex 

PM me. I'm in (sort of) McKinney and there's actually a lot of great roads just north of town.

DMF 

Lots of group rides on the weekends, especially. They get out on the back roads to the NE of Plano that you probably don't travel much.

There's a big club up there, but their web site isn't much help for visitors such as us because you have to join and pay dues before you can post such questions. :bleh:

Almost no hills, but LOTS of wind.

DieselDan

Richardson's Bike Mart had weekend rides, and check out the Plano Bicycling Association's website.

RT

Hey, thanks for the responses. I have checked out the PBA site and will be getting in touch with them. At the risk of making this an Advocacy thread, what is up with the lack of bike lanes in Plano? I'm no Yehuda Moon, but I've never been to a place with so little area covered by room to ride a bike in town.

alpha_bravo

No matter where you go in Texas you can expect much the same (with the exception of Austin). There aren't really many places which are cycling friendly. However, you can find places where cyclists are well tolerated. As mentioned above, check out PBA, they've got a ton of good group rides.

If you haven't been already, go see the guys at Plano Cycling, it's a quality local bike store. When the weather's crappy or it's too dark to ride, you can hit the trainer with Bikin Mike's classes.

DMF 

Plano is a relatively new town; the roads are already half a mile wide and generally straight with good visibility. In town just take the lane. In the boonies traffic is sparse, and one wouldn't expect bike lanes out there anyway.

dalava

It's really dangerous out there for cyclist. The roads in Plano/Frisco are better than Richardson since they are newer and wider. But people there drive really fast and vehicles are bigger in general, so you have to be careful when taking a lane. Definitely try to make yourself big and visible as much as you can. White Rock Lake is a good idea but it's a bit of a drive from north. Heading out north/east from Richardson is not too bad, much less traffic, but the roads are narrower.

There were no consideration paid to cyclist when they built roads/neighborhoods in Texas except certain parts of Austin. I have several friends giving up cycling after moving to Plano/Flower Mound. It's that dangerous out there.