Is highway 36 safe from Bellville to Abilene, TX?
 

Is this a good bike route?

Wide paved shoulders on Hwy 36 for the 20 miles from Bellville to Brenham. The farmer/rancher traffic on that stretch drives pretty casually on the shoulder, so watch out behind you just after you go over a hill or around a curve.

Maybe someone else has information about the rest of that route.

I have a tophographical map showing all roads in Texas and I mean them all. It's 150 pages. I'd recommend getting one of those and sticking to county/FM roads.

36 is pretty hairy around Fort Hood, to answer your question. 4 lanes, high intensity traffic.

Bumping this to the top, hoping to get more information about Hwy 36 north of Brenham.

When riding Hwy 36 through Bellville, watch out for a couple of deep wheel-eating sewer grates.

There is a rumble strip down the middle of the wide paved shoulder on Hwy 36 between Bellville and Brenham. You can ride on either side of it. The rumble strip is good because it wakes up drivers who stray onto the shoulder. It's bad because you can't ride directly on it.

This week I rode a couple of the country roads near Bellville parallel to Hwy 36. They are inferior to 36 because they have what seem to be only 9-12" paved shoulders and the traffic which includes trucks is high speed.

Highway 36 is probably one of the better, busy roads, on which to cross the state. For my part I have driven in at least 100 times in 30 years, and have biked the northern part.

You need always to watch for those friendly Texans who drive on the shoulder to let others pass. There is a good deal of four lane highway in places. The worst part will be from Milano to Temple, and then past I-35 till you get a few miles north. That part of the highway will have lots of traffic. I don't even like driving Hwy 36 in and around Temple.

From Gatesville to Abilene will be minimal traffic and rolling hills and should be great biking.