The right cycles

[Daniel Eads]

Cap Metro is a decent option to get to your office, especially if you work downtown (and a mere 3 blocks from the train station in my case). But what about getting from your house to the train or bus station? I just moved to Cedar Park - the train does a great job of closing (most of) the gap. The 5-ish miles from my house to the station though are frought with traffic and no bandwidth increase really would help for the roadways.

The solution is hopefully low-tech and as good for me as it is the environment.

(real bike seen outside the Atlassian office in Amsterdam)

So what are your tips for bike commuting from the burbs to a Cap Metro train station? What are the most helpful bike shops? Any accessories you highly recommend?

Has anyone gone the DIY ebike route and can provide tips on say, installing a rear hub motor?

How do you manage to bike to work without dying of heat exhaustion?

[Daniel Judd]

Daniel, welcome to ATX! I live in Cedar Park and work in the Arboretum. I cycle to work about once a week.  

As for routes, Parmer/ Ronald Reagan is the main artery. Its the lifeblood of cycling up north. Its intimidating at first as its 60mph, but the shoulder is huge. You'll also notice the bike shops are located off that. If you trying to get to the station of Lakeline, I always take Parmer, to Avery Ranch Blvd and cutover on Staked Plains. 

As for shops, I'm partial to Bicycle Sports Shop. They tend to have best selection and turnaround time for service. AJ's cyclery and The Peddler are the other two options I use up north. 

Accessories, insulated Camelbak water bottle. Nothing worse then drinking hot water when the asphalt is melting. 

[LarryBrock]

I'll second what @Daniel Judd said, especially the "Welcome to Austin!!".  We should get together for lunch or and after-work beverage sometime!  Not sure if you're east or west of the Lakeline station but Parmer, Avery Ranch, and Staked Plain are good roads.  Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with roads west of 183 but I'll ask around and post again if I find any useful info.

[Daniel Eads]

Thanks yeah! I'm up to the north, so looks like the 183 multi-use path is gonna fit my needs very well. @Daniel Judd that is a great point about water that I wouldn't have considered! It's probably going to be a few weeks yet to save up enough pennies for the bike and the electric wheel conversion, so hopefully the temperature will go down, right? RIGHT?

Stoked to drop down to one car whenever reliably biking can happen :)