the sci guy 

We went for our first ride on Saturday morning. Parked at the lot on Memorial, and took the right fork toward GBP. Went north on the path and then paralleled I10 until we got to a sign. Then rode back. It was about 10 miles round trip in the blazing sun which we weren't prepared for because we didn't know the GBP path is out in the complete open.

We're going again tomorrow morning but going to go down the bayou path instead.

jeanHTX

eeeep i just moved to houston too (3 months ago, but i've only had my bike the last 3 weeks).

jeanHTX

alright i just caught up on the thread. what a disaster with that other complex! i am new here, but i already have kind of the hang on where the good areas to live are and not. I live uptown, just west of the Galleria and i absolutely love my apartment complex.

the electricity thing i thought was strange, too, austin didn't give you an option. i had to really do math during my hunt. i looked at my old electric bills, found that i averaged 250 kwh and my highest ever was during a cold month (haha) at 500 kwh. a lot of the electric companies charge you a fee (usually about $20) if you don't use "a minimum" of 1000kwh, so i stuck with one of the few companies that had no minimum and was at 9 cents.

the sci guy 

hah yeah the power thing is really freakin weird. we just went with 1 and we'll see how it turns out. we did 6 months. if it ends up sucking we'll switch for the last 6 months of our lease here.
the complex we moved in to has been pretty good for the first full week we've been here. once we get really settled and whatnot, we'll start exploring neghborhoods and maybe find where we want to buy a house. i don't have the energy to move apartments after 1 year. if we aren't ready to buy a house, and we probably won't be, we'll stay here for another year - assuming nothing awful happens in the next 11 months.

we went to the galleria mall earlier in the week, it was nice. we've sought out Ikea as well, as we love it there. i do like our proximity to terry hershey park for sure, so living on the west side is definitely going to be a must i think.

so far so good in houston!

the sci guy 

Alright, someone help me out.

Do I want to get a Houston EZ Tag, or a TxTag?

texbiker

Depends on how much driving you do outside of Houston. In some cases the Houston EZ tag works other places.

the sci guy 

Well I always like to get the thing that prepares me for travel, even if I don't need it right away. i guess the question would be is the TxTag accepted on all the toll roads in Houston? - especially I-10/Katy fwy?

the sci guy 

Anyone been to West End Bicycles? They're basically the only stocking Surly dealer in the area aside from REI, but I'd rather go to smaller LBS. How is this shop?

I want to Bike Barn, and Houston Bicycle World or whatever out this way yesterday - just typical bike grocery stores - still looking for a more personal experience.

big_heineken

EZTag will work anywhere in Texas, so there really isn't much difference.

MDfive21

look at bikesport and boone cycles. i've had good experiences at both. bikesport has a younger, more modern feel to it. boone has been around forever and can support vintage bikes in addition to their modern selection.

https://bikesport.com/
https://www.danielboonecycles.com/

rfctx

West End is a unique and good store, don't miss it.

the sci guy 

Went to West End today. perfect bike store. also got to finally see a cross check in person and ride it briefly. definitely like it. will definitely be making West End my LBS. .....even though it took like 25-30 minutes to get there...

kcarbo

West End Bikes rocks! Pretty far trip for you living out in the boonies! But I only go to WE. If you ride MTB, next time you're "in-town" check out Memorial Park. Great trails and they're in the shade, for the most part...well, before all the freekin' trees died in our massive drought. Anyway, out west is great for long road rides, urban assault riding is more my style!

the sci guy 

Nice!
Well, we probably won't be living out this way forever. Coming from out of state, we just wanted to find a place close to my wife's work. I don't have a job yet, so that will determine ultimate future resident area as well. I'd like to move more towards downtown not only for biking, but for the "stuff" - restaurants, stuff to do, farmers markets, city type culture stuff. I do like that Terry Hershey Park is right around the corner for a good 20 mile round trip. Road riding out here is near suicidal. I don't MTB currently, but am hoping to get my old 90's Trek hardtail down here from my parents place in NY to try some riding on the Anthills or Memorial. I'm new at it so we'll see what happens eventually.

Glad to hear that West End is the place to be. I really liked it there.

CAn anyone tell me if I-10/Katy Fwy is a toll road? Google Maps directions says it's not, but just looking at the road and the regular maps it says it is. Is part of it toll and other not?

MDfive21

i-10 has 2 hov/toll lanes each way, and 4 or 5 regular lanes.

waitforme

Ride on the city surface streets is no fun, for a better experience get out to Fulshear and the surrounding areas, lots of relatively quiet country roads and lots of cyclists. Many of the bike shops on the West side have organized rides out there. The MUP's in THP are intended for families, kids etc. not roadies screaming along at 20+ mph p*ssing everyone off and giving cyclists a bad name.

Just my 2 cents...

txags92

If you go past the sign by the constable's annex onto the road, and turn left at the stop sign, you can rejoin the path through the rest of the park and get a much longer ride. The section through the middle has alot of trees adjacent to it, so as long as the sun is not directly overhead, you can generally get some shade.

the sci guy 

excellent. thanks for the info!

I hear ya - we aren't roadies though (don't even have road bikes - hybrids!). THP MUP can be pretty packed, but there are a lot of casual recreational riders like us. But, w noticed there are a crap ton of annoying roadies flying down and not announcing or cutting people off. Pretty obnoxious. Just google-mapping fulshear looks like it's pretty far west. what's the best way to get down there and where do you park?

We reached the stop sign where the skate park is - is that where you mean? We saw a lot of people turning left down that road - looks like it goes by a few houses then turns into nothingness lol. is the whole way paved? neither of us have off-road/gravel tires on our bikes. do you take it all the way down to westheimer parkway? or cut through somewhere else?

txags92

Yes, the road dead ends into another path entrance maybe half a mile south of that stop sign. The path beyond is paved asphalt and goes several miles to another parking lot in the middle of George Bush Park. If you keep going through the parking lot, there is another path entrance at the west end. That path is paved all the way out to Fry Road. From the parking lot you started at to Fry Road and back is a little over 20 miles round trip.

the sci guy 

very cool! I see that on google maps now and see where you are talking. Hopefully can give that a try this weekend.

cycl0ne

Either straight down Westheimer/FM1093 or I-10 west exit FM359 (Brookshire) and go south to Fulshear. There's a city parking lot on FM359 just south of the FM1093/FM359 intersection.

the sci guy 

So, my wife's new boss gave her/us this book to borrow

it's not available anymore unfortunately, and it seems the last printing was in the late 90's.

Has anyone seen/used it before? Some of the routes look like a lot of fun - and a lot are pretty far away (from 15-80 miles out from the city). In the route descriptions it says a lot of the routes have light traffic on a lot of the roads - but I wonder how much that has changed in the last decade since this book was printed.

Anyone have any insight?

texbiker

I have the book. The routes generally are good but at least one is not valid any longer (Liberty page 62). With all of the road construction I would be careful and drive the routes before biking them. Sometimes I see the book at a bike shop.

the sci guy 

Ha, cool. Thanks. The Galveston one interests me the most, and a few of the west/southwest ones.

the sci guy 

did this yesterday.
went from the memorial lot, all the way to fry road and back. 26 miles round trip. that path is awesome. talked to a guy that was looking at the map where the split it to go either fry road or the soccer fields, and he said that if you cross fry road, go to the right through the park you can follow another paved path along the spillway for another few miles.
can't wait to do this again with my wife. she will love it.