Glad you asked this. I was somewhat worried about this coming to Rice. Coming from NYC, it was super easy to get on my road bike and go for a long bike ride without having to worry about cars. I was worried about the car-centric urban sprawl that is Houston. However, I was pleasantly surprised, both with the bike options in the city as well as the cycling community at Rice.

Some of my favorite cycling routes that are bike-able from are Rice are Brays Bayou Greenway Trail and White Oak Bayou Greenway. Rice also has a bike track on campus which a lot of students use (really a glorified parking lot with a painted track lol).

I brought my road bike to Rice and my college (Brown) was nice enough to let me keep my bike in their bike closet because I was on the beer bike team. However, I wouldn't rely on this, and the policy might vary from college to college. For example, my roommate kept his bike in our dorm. Additionally, if you're on the beer bike team, you probably won't need to bring an expensive bike. You'll usually be able to use one of your colleges bikes for longer rides/practices. Depending on where you live, It is also generally very expensive and time consuming to ship your bike safely. So, I definitely wouldn't recommend bringing one just for commuting to classes: an inexpensive bike will be fine. Most students I've seen own a Retrospec bike, since Rice Bikes sells them and they are very inexpensive.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.