You're crazy. That 35 mile FM, Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon loop is the best kept secret in DFW. I would argue the groups add to the safety as it's well known by the people who live in those areas that bikers love that route. Plus, the police are everywhere in those towns looking for people speeding and rolling stop signs.

It all depends, I guess. It is down to 2 lanes, but there's also not much traffic up there(especially if you ride early on the weekends) and I feel like the people that live/drive out there are relatively used to cyclists using the road so they give you some room when they pass. You can ride up the parkway until it dead-ends into FM 428. FM 428 is chipseal, but it was laid down 3-4 years ago so it's starting to wear down & not be so rough. You can head up that way, hit the softball fields for a pit stop, then head over to Preston/289 & keep going north all the way to the Red River if you're so inclined. I did that once, there's a good shoulder until about 15 miles left to the river, and there's no chipseal once you get a couple miles north of Celina(at least last time I was there about 1.5 years ago). I'd do that route over 380, personally. Fair warning though, it's a straight north/south route so you're likely to ride into a headwind all the way back.

I grew up out there, I used to ride my bike on Highway 26 and 121 -- can't do that anymore, that's for sure. The roads are mega-dangerous.

The best-kept secret in the D/FW area is that there is a ton of good XC biking. You can't call it mountain biking because there are no mountains, but there are lots of really fun trails and a cool MTB scene. When I lived there, my bike training was either indoors, XC on the many great trails, or looping over and over around WRL.

Texas Motor Speedway is probably another good resource, I hadn't considered that one. They used to do (and probably still do) road races around it.

You'd have to come down to the Grand Prairie/Joe Pool Lake area. You can start at Joe Pool Lake and head south towards Midlothian/Maypearl. That's about as country as you can get...

Any particular area in DFW for this? Up here in N. Dallas/Plano there's Arbor Hills, and to be honest I haven't been there yet. I'd like to get more in trail riding in the winter. I've been doing Tris for 6 years now, and having been road riding all throughout each year.....would like to mix it up this winter.

You can ride up the parkway until it dead-ends into FM 428. FM 428 is chipseal, but it was laid down 3-4 years ago so it's starting to wear down & not be so rough. You can head up that way, hit the softball fields for a pit stop, then head over to Preston/289