Author: Barron Fujimoto

I found a great 1.5 hour ride from my house. It’s got twisties and elevation changes, a nice relaxing slow “sight-seeing” section with plenty to see, then on the return trip, the twisties again, but from the other direction. I’ve been down Cow Creek before (video) but this time was a lot more fun just because I am a lot more comfortable riding now. There are a couple potential water crossings (they were dry this time) that lead up to some tight turns and they were a little tricky the last time I went this route. This time was a breeze, however. The slow-speed maneuvering practice really pays off.

The weather was absolutely perfect for riding – plenty of clouds overhead to keep the lighting interesting and the temperatures down, a very light wind. I really like Cow Creek because there is no traffic to speak of. I saw two cars and one person out for a morning walk.

The highlight of the ride was seeing my first-ever skunk in the wild. I was riding at around 25mph and I saw it crossing the road from right to left up ahead. By the time I passed him, he was on the edge of the road and I saw his tail flip up. I scooted out of there pretty quickly then had to laugh to myself.

After Cow Creek, I headed back south to meet up with 1431 again for the ride back. That stretch of 1431 is the most fun part IMO of that road. I kept it in 4th gear the whole time, which kept the bike in a nice powerband. I saw more people riding their motorcycles than ever before on 1431, which was pretty cool. But I honestly was getting tired of waving at everyone. Still, I stuck my hand out at everyone to not be a jerk.

Anyways, this is one of my favorite rides and I am sure I will be doing it many more times.

Time: 1H 35M
Odometer: 65.36 Mi
Moving Avg: 41.0 MPH
Max Speed: 68.1 MPH

On Fathers’ Day morning I went out for a ride that I found out about on Two-Wheeled Texans. It follows Old Hwy 20 which runs roughly parallel to Hwy 290 east of Austin. It’s a pretty nice ride with a couple miles of hard-packed dirt. That’s the part I was really looking forward to actually. I haven’t really ridden off-pavement so I was pretty excited to ride on it. The Metzeler Tourance tires did fine on the hard dirt; the bike never got squirrelly except when I hit a larger stone. I even got to stand up on the pegs (even though I didn’t really have to).

Another nice thing about Hwy 20 is that the route goes past pine trees, which are not common in Texas, at least central Texas. The pine trees smelled so good too!

One part about the ride that I didn’t enjoy was that I had bought a coolmax skullcap. It’s supposed to act as a helmet liner which will soak up the sweat and keep your helmet padding cleaner. Well, about an hour into the ride I started getting a headache and it got worse and worse. I was thinking it was because I didn’t have any caffiene yet or that I was getting dehydrated or something. I was actually drinking plenty of water, and the headache didn’t feel like it usually does when I skip my morning coffee. Plus it was a little early for the caffiene withdrawal to hit. So eventually I figured out that it must be the helmet liner. Sure enough, as soon as I took it off, the headache went away and the ride was enjoyable again! I guess I got too small a size or something, which is a disappointment because I spent $10 on the thing.

I learned a couple things on the ride. First, riding on the hard-packed dirt is fun! I also learned that the footpegs on my bike are too narrow. Most people replace them with wider pegs. Standing up on the pegs is really fun too, but you need to kind of use your knees to stabilize yourself against the tank. Also, you can’t look in the mirrors when you are standing up! I’d really like to take some off-road classes sometime. Maybe for my birthday I will ask for some as a gift. Would be really cool!

Odometer: 147.43 miles
Moving Time: 3:38
Moving Average: 40.5 mph
Max Speed: 74.0 mph

Took a nice morning ride out east to Taylor TX, then north a bit and back across west through Georgetown and back home. Was pretty windy, but really nice clouds and not too hot. A fun ride!

Moving time: 1h 35m
Moving average: 43.1 mph
Odometer: 68.71 miles

I’m going to have to come up with some different titles for these blog posts because I can see myself exploring the smaller county roads of Texas quite a bit! Today I had a few hours of alone-time and decided to go for a long ride. Actually, I knew I would have this “time off” for a few days now so was just hoping the weather would be nice for a ride. As it turned out, the weather was beautiful! I didn’t really have a plan, except that first I would stop by the library to return some books. After that, who knows?

Leaving the library (I used the drive thru dropoff which is kind of fun on a motorcycle) I found myself traveling north to see a newly developed neighborhood in Cedar Park. Just new houses, but it seems like the traffic-circle is making a comeback around these parts. Just for the record, I enjoy them. Some people seem to freak out on them, but these little circles are nothing compared to the insanity that is the traffic circle just south of Signal Hill in SoCal. I remember having to negotiate that thing when we would go to Zed Records’ location at that time. I actually thought that was pretty fun too.

Continuing on, I traveled north (while keeping an eye on my GPS unit) into the Blockhouse Creek neighborhood. I’ve never been there, but it seemed pretty nice. A couple good-sized swimming pools were being put to good use this afternoon. As I rode by I caught the sweet smell of sunscreen. Eventually, I found myself on 183 and headed farther north. As soon as I could, I made a left onto a county road, hit the insane cruising speed of 35mph, popped the visor open and took in the scenery.

It’s interesting to me to see how people live farther out in the country. As someone who has only lived in the suburbs and larger cities it’s kind of fascinating to wonder how life is on a ranch house with a few acres of land. You know, I don’t even know how big an acre is! So cruising past these homesteads is really fun to me.

I also get a kick out of seeing different animals while out riding these back-roads. On this particular trip I saw some of the widest horns I’ve ever seen on a bull before. Yes, there are lots of longhorns here in Texas! In addition to those, I saw plenty of smaller cows, horses, mules, jack-rabbits, goats, and I even saw Tina. But the highlight of the ride was probably when a blonde-colored snake, about three feet long, slithered across the road in front of me. That thing was moving! It kind of shocked me. I realized that this is maybe only the 2nd snake I have ever seen in the wild. The first was in the backyard of my old house, so that wasn’t really wild, was it? Anyways, I continued riding the backroads enjoying the sights and smells or rural Texas.

I did ride a little bit of hard-packed dirt, which is always a little sketchy. But it all turned out fine (it was only a hundred yards or so). Another really cool stretch of road went parallel to some train tracks for a mile or so. I stopped on that road to have some water and could hear gunfire in the distance. I guess some folks were enjoying their Sunday afternoons with some target practice. Of course, for the next few minutes, I kept expecting to get hit by a stray bullet. Anyways, on the way back home there was a mini-water crossing which added a little more dicey-ness to the day. Hey, even these slow rides have excitement!

GPS Stats:
Moving Time: 2:38
Moving Average: 36.8 mph
Odometer: 97.2 miles