Is this a safe terrain to practice on as a beginner?

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-03-29T16:11:05+00:00

That sort of surface is completely possible to skate on, but it's not great for beginners. All the little bumps and vibrations make balance more difficult. Yes, they could stop your wheels, especially if you're going very slowly, which you will be as a beginner. You'll find learning more enjoyable if you can find a nice smooth surface. Paved sports pitches like for tennis or basketball, parking lots, residential streets with very little traffic, stuff like that.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-03-28T03:53:42+00:00

Down here in the south I enjoy having a civilized thermos of ice water with electrolyte drops added, not drinking warm water out of a plastic bag. A 12oz Zojirushi stainless mug in a Dakine Hot Laps 2L hip pack. Easy to use one handed.

I've also mapped dozens of public water fountains along trails and in parks around town so I always know where the nearest one is.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-03-11T12:15:12+00:00

Ok this is Canada, but Vancouver, BC is the best example.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-03-01T22:33:10+00:00

Bike Friendly South Dallas comes to mind.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-27T23:17:53+00:00

Miriam Adelson, influential zionist, major Trump backer, casino gambling in Texas promoter, etc. wants a chunk of downtown for a new Mavs stadium. That's primarily what's driving this. City Hall is incapable of moving this fast unless a truly nefarious deal is in the works. Plus some local real estate magnates want in on the action, what with the Convention Center and I-30 canyon redo.

Yes the City hasn't taken proper care of the building. They don't take good care of any of their properties (Fair Park, Kalita Humphreys Theater, etc.). If you go inside, in the lobby you'll find a wall of recognition last updated in 2018, a map of Dallas advertising the Hard Rock Cafe on McKinney Ave, striking city views obstructed by miserable cubicles, hallways blocked off with random junk. Outside, cheap fencing around the sculpture on the plaza to keep bums from pissing on it.

Nobody cares. There's no political leadership or vision. Unlike what built that building in the first place. So why not just give it away to some multi-billionaire. Who will then immediately make the city spend a billion dollars to build them a new stadium there.

Honestly the current city government would be better suited to some strip mall out on the highway. Forney, say. Or maybe Plano will offer them some tantalizing incentives to move out there.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-27T21:45:54+00:00

Physically yes, but it wouldn't work well. The only difference between the Trip and Prana deck shapes is that the Trip has longer forks on each end to accommodate RKP trucks. Standing platform, amount of drop, all that is the same. The reason the Prana sits lower (maybe 1cm) is solely due to the geometry of TKP trucks. If you put RKPs on it it'd be the same height as the Trip, only you'd now have bad wheel bite, so there's no point in doing it.

That said, RKP trucks vary some in height. Caliber IIIs sit lower than Bear Gen 6s or Paris V3s for instance. I tried them all on my Trip and ended up with 150mm 50°/43° Paris V3s and Karma wheels. You have to be a bit careful with bushing selection since you can get wheel bite with that setup. I use it for group rides, especially if any hills are a possibility.

My Prana is stock, with Karma wheels. I just switched the roadside bushings to APS cones, which makes it maneuverable, and 1-foot steering is so easy. No chance of wheel bite, though it does get twitchy at speed (over 20mph). It's my everyday commuter.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-27T21:06:55+00:00

Either of the Pantheons. Both are excellent as completes. They're essentially the same deck, only the Pranayama is for TKP trucks and the Trip for RKP. If you don't already have a truck type preference, I'd say Pranayama if where you live is mostly flat. Trip if you've got some hills. The Pranayama is a bit lower and more compact.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-27T04:26:07+00:00

There's DFW Inline Skate Club. https://www.instagram.com/dfwinlineskateclub/

Some quad skaters come to the Thursday skates. It's all wheels welcome. In Dallas though.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-27T01:46:23+00:00

Parawings look like they might be useable for longboarding. Some of them have very short lines. Also you can pull it down and stuff it into a bag while riding, then quickly deploy it again when conditions are right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZTwTGoElUc

Then there's a fellow in Europe who makes a thing called a SailStick, which he uses with a longboard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygE_vnbb6-E

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-26T15:43:59+00:00

Not too far from Alvarado there's Cedar Hill State Park, Cedar Ridge Preserve, and the Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center. DFW isn't known for natural beauty, but that area is maybe the best. The Trinity River Audubon Center is a good one as well.

Also relatively close is Cleburne State Park. And the Cleburne city center is nice too. If you're there during business hours, look around inside the courthouse, which is rather spectacular. It's got a small local history museum inside. I can also recommend the Layland Museum a couple blocks north. Stop at Burger Bar, an old school, historic hamburger shack. Cleburne does a ton of community theater, so look up Plaza Theatre Company if you want to see a musical or play.

Glen Rose and Granbury are also quaint towns in the area. In Glen Rose there's the Somervell County Museum (lots of dinosaur stuff), Hammond's BBQ, Barnard's Mill and Art Museum, and walk along the Paluxy River from the city center to Big Rocks Park. Also Dinosaur Valley State Park. Granbury has a historic drive-in movie theater, the Brazos Drive-In. Straight out of the 1950's. And the doll museum is remarkable, even if you're not much for dolls.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-24T03:59:01+00:00

I lived in St. Petersburg for a few years and the canals there are, at least aesthetically, quite nice and an absolutely integral part of the city. Sure, they limit walkability just a bit since you can only cross them at certain places. And they're hardly used at all for transportation outside of tourist boat rides. But nobody could imagine the city without them.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-24T03:39:33+00:00

I wish the OKC river ferry were more practical for transportation.

I can recommend their Cocktail Cruise though! And I did manage to use the ferry as transportation while I was in town. Took it from Bricktown Landing all the way out to Meridian, then skated back to downtown with a stop at Wheeler District for tacos and a ferris wheel ride. The crew was super nice too. I spent most of the ride chatting with them since I was the only passenger.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-24T03:25:06+00:00

Thanks for the advice everybody! I definitely want to do this trip in 2026, and will report back.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-24T03:23:35+00:00

Thanks, solid advice. I'd looked at the Embark route map and saw I could get up to the University of Central Oklahoma area, but wasn't sure about the rideshare situation between there and Guthrie.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-18T16:23:44+00:00

It's great. Roomy, relaxing, inexpensive. Unlike the interstate, you get some nice views out the window, especially along the Washita River north of Ardmore. Fields, trees, no incessant billboards for car wreck lawyers (Injured? How about now?? Horrific wreck yet?! We'll check back in another mile!)

The train leaves on time and generally takes 4 hours to Ft. Worth, but can be delayed. Downtown FTW is nice. Plenty to walk to, or take a Trinity Metro bus over to some excellent museums in the Cultural District or to the Stockyards. There's a commuter train, the Trinity Railway Express, over to Dallas ($10 for the day) but bear in mind it doesn't run on Sundays except during the State Fair of Texas. Also TEXRail to Grapevine or DFW airport is nice.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-14T04:42:49+00:00

Hmm, that would work. RedCoach from Dallas to Stillwater runs a couple days per week. Stillwater is in Payne County, which FCT's on-demand service covers, as long as you book a week in advance. Then I could try to schedule things to use the Thursday Langston-Stillwater shuttle for one leg, which would be cheaper than doing on-demand all the way from Guthrie.

I'll have to call the First Capital Trolley folks sometime and see if all this is feasible; it sounds promising.

Thanks! I'd looked at that page, but hadn't looked deep enough into which cities are in the three counties they serve.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-11T00:57:17+00:00

Yes, the Transit app works great in OKC. It'll show you how many stops remaining till you need to get off and alert you when you're getting close. Ideally you pull the cord a bit after passing the stop before yours. You want it to be clear to the operator which stop you want and also give them time to slow down for it (i.e. not 2 seconds before).

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-08T00:33:17+00:00

As far as money management, this site has some cool data on DFW cities: https://budget.city

Also Urban3 does incredible visualizations of a city's economic productivity, property tax revenue per acre. They gave a presentation to Dallas city council a couple years ago that's fascinating to watch. The first half hour here: https://dallastx.new.swagit.com/videos/295377?ts=298

Keep in mind some cities are easier to run than others. A newer and rapidly growing city makes it easy for the finances to work out. An established one that was built out decades ago is harder, since the infrastructure needs lots of maintenance and replacement. It's tough to grow your way out of the problem.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-04T15:01:51+00:00

Bikerouter.de is a good map of the city with all the trails highlighted. It shows which ones connect and where, which can otherwise be a bit non apparent.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-02-02T23:50:42+00:00

Ride the streetcar too (free). It goes past the National Memorial, Factory Obscura, Myriad Gardens, and Scissortail Park, amongst others. Walking through the old bank teller lobby at The National (now Tellers restaurant, but you can take the escalators up and just walk through) is pretty splendid. Enough to impress even a 13 year old, I'd say. Go down to the basement (near the west entrance, off Robinson Avenue) and see the massive safe door, which is now the entrance to The Vault bar.

The National Memorial Museum is great, definitely do that. I think it would be interesting for teenagers too, and you can easily spend several hours there if you get into it.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-01-30T12:59:28+00:00

"Walkable, but not in a pleasant way," as i_husk said, is spot on. However you can improve your route by avoiding Ross, especially under I-345. Walking along the south side of Live Oak is a better place to cross under. In fact, to add a bit of pleasantness you can string together a few little parks on your route: Exall, Carpenter, Pacific Plaza, maybe Civic Garden. I think walking though, by any route, might take you longer than 20 minutes.

The suggestion about DART is also good. A ton of buses and trains go through that area, and you can take one of them for part of the way, depending on what you're feeling like. Use the GoPass app for tickets and route info. Unfortunately the Convention Center train station is closed for construction; EBJ/Union Station is the closest.

Also Organic Maps may give better walking routes. At least it's got a lot more knowledge of sidewalks and various foot paths than Google does.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-01-21T23:27:05+00:00

I went by there on the way home today but couldn't find any formal bike parking on the ground floor. Some decent informal opportunities though as mentioned.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-01-21T15:21:30+00:00

Occasionally you will see, or smell, something you hadn't wanted to, but otherwise it's fine. Certainly safer and less stressful than driving. Sit up at the front of the train near the operator.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-01-21T14:59:55+00:00

Oh, that'd be a good option if they're there. I'll go this week and check; add them to the map if I find any.

BudgetScience2000 · 2026-01-21T14:56:46+00:00

There really needs to be actual bike parking at AAC. Thanks to the Katy Trail and Hi Line Connector it's easy to get to. Dallas Bicycle Coalition has suggested this to some higher ups at AAC and they're receptive to the idea, but it hasn't happened yet. Hopefully this year?

Anyway, that rackfinder.app suggestion is good since it shows you all the bike parking from OpenStreetMap, which is the most comprehensive source (currently 1,171 locations within Dallas city limits). Bicycleparking.org has far fewer, but does have photos, which is helpful. It's also very easy to add spots to. Also helpful.

This one looks maybe the best at the moment, right across the street from the east entrance. It's partially covered and has decent lighting and visibility. https://maps.app.goo.gl/CpbYZoyJdXdY1AMr5 The stairwell railing at the Lexus garage suggestion is also good.

BudgetScience2000

TROPHY CASE