bluehurry

hi all, i'm going to be visiting some friends in Houston and am trying to find some info about safe(r) routes that are either off-street or on bike-friendly streets to ride with my friends. they are not bicyclists, so it'd have to be something not too adventurous. they're pretty good about following instructions, so a little adventurous is okay.

is there such a thing as a bike-trail in the houston area? i've been looking at the bikehouston.org site and there doesn't seem to be much info there from what i could find.

i'm also looking into bicycle rental, and so far what i've found is the bikebarns rental for $45/day. anyhow, if anyone has additional info regarding either routes and rental, please chime in. any information would be greatly appreciated! thx.

Vintage Year

Try this:

https://www.terryhersheypark.org/

Also Houston is a big area, so perhaps a specification of which part of Houston would be helpful

chevy42083

https://www.houstonbikeways.org/maps/index.php
There is a link here to a VERY detailed .pdf of Houston. You can zoom in and check out everything, but it's too small to print off (I've enlarged certain areas and printed when I needed it... but that pretty much require adobe illustrator to do it effectively.)

gtragitt

Bike Barn has rentals. I think they are $35/day. If I am in town you can ride my hybrid. It has a large frame.

bluehurry

first off, thx all for the info and links! my friends live somewhere near downtown houston. i'm not sure the exact area so i'll have to ask them.

@gtragitt: bike barn is the link i was referring to earlier. it's $45/day for non-large sized bikes, which is what we need (probably small & mediums). also, it looks like bike barn only rents road bikes, which isn't really what i'm looking for. i'm hoping to find more hybrid/city bikes for riding around leisurely and check out the different neighborhoods.

@chevy4208: is this map available as a printed map at all? i think i may have read in another post that it can be obtained at the LBS around the Univ. of Houston.

scattered73

Check west end bikes https://www.westendbikes.com/WEB_rental.htm for rental also not to far from downtown. There is a bike trail that runs into downtown along buffalo bayou/allen parkway not sure of the name. Inside 610 is pretty bike friendly. You could also screen shot the the pdf zoomed in.

gtragitt

I would be happy to lend you my Specialized Sirrus with a large frame. It has been tuned up recently. The only issue is I will be out of town for 2 weeks starting Sept 28. I don't know when you may wish to use it. If you have a friend that can keep it for you while I am out of town, maybe we can work it out.

airwulf

Another bike map source https://webgis2.h-gac.com/bikewaysflex/

Rentals: www.planetarycycles.com; Bike Land 281-364-9253; Memorial Park Bicycle Rental 713-864-9335.

General bike info about Houston www.pedalhouston.com.

aaronechang

You can get a printed copy of the map at any bike shop in the city. Or just PM me your address and I'll mail you a copy.

Aaron

bluehurry

thx for the offer of lending us your bicycle. that's really generous and i really appreciate it! unfortunately none of us are going to be able to ride a large-frame if you're ever in the denver/boulder area and need to borrow a small/med frame bicycle i'll be happy to get you set up w/mine.

bluehurry

thx for the link! i'll be contacting them later today to get more info. i just looked at the map and the location seems to be pretty close to where my friends just moved to, which is an area called the Greater Third Ward. they said that it's not that safe an area for bicycling so we'll probably start & end our ride somewhere else.

bluehurry

thx for the links! as above... i'll be looking into these as well!

bluehurry

thx for the offer. apparently i don't have enough posts to be able to do a PM so i'm trying to reply to each msgs individually to get my post count high enough so i can PM you my address.

aaronechang

Third Ward is a very "bike-friendly" area in that you can easily get anywhere via bike. And it's close to downtown, the Museum District, Montrose, Rice, and all of the other bike-friendly areas. However, it is a predominantly low-income minority neighborhood and does have its fair share of incidents that get hyped up / publicized throughout the news. Part of this is reality, and part of it is just outsiders' perceptions.

FWIW my wife and I have ridden several times to TSU and other areas of Third Ward and never had any problems or felt unsafe. I'm making another trip there on my bike tomorrow afternoon to represent BikeHouston at the Space City Art Bicycles final presentation at labatonica. BikeHouston's chairperson volunteers every Sat. at the Third Ward Bike Shop, and he and I have no issues whatsoever riding our bikes around Third Ward.

Just my two cents,
Aaron

scattered73

Are you in town this weekend? If so check out https://www.houstonmuseumdistrict.org/default.asp?id=1 right around the corner and bikes will be the way to go to this event. The Houston Bicycle Museum/Boones is participating also https://www.danielboonecycles.com/.

bluehurry

thx all for the info. we just got back from the road-trip to houston. we didn't get to bicycle around the city, but i have a map now (thx aaronechang!) that will come in handy the next time.