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Motorcycle Grand Tour of Texas (2022 version)

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MValspeed said:
It's unlikely I'll be undertaking the tour again next year. My finally run down to Brownsville/South Padre/McAllen with a side jaunt to SpaceX, turned into a true bun burner at 1250 miles in 22 hours. Next year will be a smaller year overall for me.
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I think our loop to South Padre had 26 stops on it and was originally planned for 34 stops but bad march weather conspired against us.
 
TWTourist said:
Congratulations on getting all 50. I’m doing it again next year but I’m thinking about trying to do it all in one trip over a four day weekend. 😁
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Sounds ambitious for 4 days.

I put pretty mileage efficient routes together and planned for about 3800 miles in two loops and wound up with just under 4100 with having to do a small third loop.
 
Congrats to all the names on that completion list!
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myemail.constantcontact.com

Hello Tour Rider, here is your Tour Update newsletter

Tour Status Tour Update Newsletter November 15, 2022 View as Webpage One benefit I get from running the tour is that I get to hear some interesting stories from the riders. Rider 127, Darwin Slaughter
myemail.constantcontact.com
 
blupupher said:
Just an FYI, if you have any stops you have not uploaded, today is the last day to do it (and I guess maybe make a run for any stops you can get within the next 15 hours or so).

I will say I did enjoy being able to get all 50 stops this year. About a 1/3 of them were day trips, with the rest being at least an overnight or multi night/multi stop trip.
Last year I got 28 with just day trips and one two night (same location) trip to the hill country, so getting them all was an accomplishment for me.
I am not sure if I will do it again next year, I will have to see what the stops are.
I have no desire to drive for hours to the panhandle for one stop. If there was another stop up in that area it would be more worth while.
I will say having paid to do it is more of a motivation to get it done that if I was just "doing some" on my own (the first year I came across it very late so did not sign up, just did 8-10 that were local to me).
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I did not do the Tour this year, but I don't know why they only had one stop in the panhandle, there are numerous things to visit. During the first year of the tour I did recommend some other stops.
 
Simmons1 said:
Sounds ambitious for 4 days.

I put pretty mileage efficient routes together and planned for about 3800 miles in two loops and wound up with just under 4100 with having to do a small third loop.
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Like a modified RAT ride without paper work 🤣 I can always add days if needed.
 
Rigid said:
I did not do the Tour this year, but I don't know why they only had one stop in the panhandle, there are numerous things to visit. During the first year of the tour I did recommend some other stops.
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I rode a part of the TOT with a friend. We stopped at a leaning water tower, The Cadillac Ranch, The Happy State Bank, a leather shop in Borger and some giant legs outside of Amarillo. How many of those were not on the TOT? Did he take me on a wild goose hunt?
 
humanrace said:
I rode a part of the TOT with a friend. We stopped at a leaning water tower, The Cadillac Ranch, The Happy State Bank, a leather shop in Borger and some giant legs outside of Amarillo. How many of those were not on the TOT? Did he take me on a wild goose hunt?
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If I am wrong I am sorry, like I said I did not ride this year. I was quoting someone else who said "I have no desire to drive for hours to the panhandle for one stop. If there was another stop up in that area it would be more worth while." I don't know how many stops there were.
 
humanrace said:
I rode a part of the TOT with a friend. We stopped at a leaning water tower, The Cadillac Ranch, The Happy State Bank, a leather shop in Borger and some giant legs outside of Amarillo. How many of those were not on the TOT? Did he take me on a wild goose hunt?
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The only stop for the Tour of Texas in the panhandle was the leather shop in Borger.
The others were just stops he wanted to see I guess.

The next closest stop to Borger on the tour was in Shallowater (outside Lubbock) 175 miles away at another sponsor.
My 2nd day of a multi day trip was Abilene, Old Glory, Borger, Shallowater, Buffalo Springs, Post, and back to Lubbock for the night. That was ~570 miles.
Just from Old Glory > Borger > Shallowater was ~410 miles.
Without Borger, my day would have been ~210 miles.

I get the point of this tour is to go out and ride Texas, which it does, but an extra 360 miles to a single sponsor stop in the middle of nowhere is something one can do only so many times.
There are many things up in the panhandle that could be added to make if more worth while since your there for the leather shop anyway.
Yes you can make extra stops on your own while up there, but why not make them part of the tour?

At least this year you had the Big Bend Biker Hotel in Alpine which is also the middle of nowhere, but you also had the Big Bend Park sign, so you got 2 stops for all that riding.
 
blupupher said:
The only stop for the Tour of Texas in the panhandle was the leather shop in Borger.
The others were just stops he wanted to see I guess.

The next closest stop to Borger on the tour was in Shallowater (outside Lubbock) 175 miles away at another sponsor.
My 2nd day of a multi day trip was Abilene, Old Glory, Borger, Shallowater, Buffalo Springs, Post, and back to Lubbock for the night. That was ~570 miles.
Just from Old Glory > Borger > Shallowater was ~410 miles.
Without Borger, my day would have been ~210 miles.

I get the point of this tour is to go out and ride Texas, which it does, but an extra 360 miles to a single sponsor stop in the middle of nowhere is something one can do only so many times.
There are many things up in the panhandle that could be added to make if more worth while since your there for the leather shop anyway.
Yes you can make extra stops on your own while up there, but why not make them part of the tour?

At least this year you had the Big Bend Biker Hotel in Alpine which is also the middle of nowhere, but you also had the Big Bend Park sign, so you got 2 stops for all that riding.
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I totally agree that there are many stops in the Panhandle that should be included. All of the ones I mentioned should be candidates. I haven't seen the list for the TOT, but as Maurice and I ride around Texas, I continually ask, "Is that on the TOT?" Maurices response is usually, "It should be." We also went into Palo Dura Canyon. Why isn't that on the list? With a limit of 50, and quite a few or those being sponsors, Texas would be hard to cover without long miles between sites.
 
I did all 50 this year and last year, but will not do it anymore. I will most likely participate next year, and will surely get my 25, but I have a few that I just won't do anymore. Obviously, like many others I probably won't do Borger again, but the stops in Lewisville and Addison were just a pain in the *** and I would prefer not to have to navigate the Dallas / Fort Worth traffic for sponsor stops. Alamo BMW will probably get scratched off my list with their new location, and there are a few others that really aren't that great that I would only do if I was in the area. The lack of effort with the Paris and Gladewater stuff is kind of disappointing, but the ride is nice. I guess like many others I will just wait and see what the list looks like next year.
 
ricks77eb said:
I did all 50 this year and last year, but will not do it anymore. I will most likely participate next year, and will surely get my 25, but I have a few that I just won't do anymore. Obviously, like many others I probably won't do Borger again, but the stops in Lewisville and Addison were just a pain in the *** and I would prefer not to have to navigate the Dallas / Fort Worth traffic for sponsor stops. Alamo BMW will probably get scratched off my list with their new location, and there are a few others that really aren't that great that I would only do if I was in the area. The lack of effort with the Paris and Gladewater stuff is kind of disappointing, but the ride is nice. I guess like many others I will just wait and see what the list looks like next year.
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Yeah, like I said, I may just see what is on the list that looks interesting and do them. If more than 25, I will register and do at least 25 just to get another patch (that will probably sit in the envelope like last years), but if less than 25, I will just ride the ones that look interesting on my own and see if I can find something else in the area to go see.
For me this year was a goal to do all 50. Just to see if I could, and I did. I enjoyed it as well, even with all my griping here.

If I were retired, I would probably not do it since I could ride more often, where ever I wanted.
With having to work though, being able to have a list presented and then paying for it gives me the motivation to do it.
 
If you guys want some changes make some suggestions to David Canada via the the contact section. I gave some feedback today and already heard back from him. The funny thing is one of the places I thought would be fun to check out in the panhandle is going to be a new stop next year.
 
Well, I got talked into it and have had fun with the TOT. Only made it to 22 locations. It's tough to get out recreationally with family commitments and working half the weekends of the year.

Oh, yeah, and having my ankle crushed in a training exercise...

I'll be back at it for next year. Hope to at least be a finisher.

It's been a lot of fun, like a sampler of things and places I want to take the wife and kids to see and do. I had no idea about many of the places on the list.
 
Lots of new stops for 2023 along with 3 alternates for those the don't the Borger stop. LOL

motorcyclegrandtouroftexas.com

2023 Tour Stops

The purpose of the tour is to explore Texas on your bike and have a fun and safe time doing so. This is a Grand Tour, not a race. Make tour stops, see cool stuff, learn about some Texas and local h…
motorcyclegrandtouroftexas.com motorcyclegrandtouroftexas.com
 
blupupher said:
The only stop for the Tour of Texas in the panhandle was the leather shop in Borger.
The others were just stops he wanted to see I guess.

I get the point of this tour is to go out and ride Texas, which it does, but an extra 360 miles to a single sponsor stop in the middle of nowhere is something one can do only so many times.
Yes you can make extra stops on your own while up there, but why not make them part of the tour?
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Because stops that aren't sponsor stops don't put money in the organizer's pocket. The fact that Borger was ever a stop beyond the first year proves that.
 
jmdaniel said:
Because stops that aren't sponsor stops don't put money in the organizer's pocket. The fact that Borger was ever a stop beyond the first year proves that.
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And because there are 3 alternates this year you don't have to go there. Which should eliminate all the whining about having to go there.
 
With 3 stops in the Panhandle (Shamrock, McLean, and Borger), the stop in Borger is not as bad as before when you had to ride several hundred miles just for one stop.
But with 3 alternatives, you could just bypass all 3 of those.

I have been to both the gas station in Shamrock (it is what the movie Cars gas station was based on) and the Devils Rope musuem in McLean (my sister used to live there and we went there).

Not sure if I will sign up this year or not, but leaning towards probably,
If I pay, I am more likely to do it (not that I really get anything out of it besides the time riding and new things I see).
 
Wildcardjeff said:
2023 will be my 1st try at the motorcycle grand tour. Any words of advice for newbie?
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Make plans, then throw the plans out.

The first year, I made 28 of the 50.
Made 50 of 50 this time.

I just had to figure out how I could make the stops work out for me in the fewest days away from home.

I started with day rides, getting all I could without overnight trips (I got 10 or so that way). Then broke the distance ones out.
I had an overnight trip to get all the ones up in Dallas, Paris and east Texas.
Took a multi day trip (link here) to get a bulk of the others in north, west, and south texas
Then one more overnight trip to get the hill country stops.

I will be looking more closely at this years stops to see how getting all 50 would be this year.
 
Thanks for the advice. I am just looking forward to new sites and some fun riding. Thinking I may head to the north early in the year to avoid 110 degree days. But like you said. Make plans and be ready for changes. :-)
 
I have gotten all 50 every year. The first two years before I retired I planned 3 or 4 day long weekends to get them all in 5 to 7 rides. A bunch early in the spring before it gets hot and whatever was left in the fall after it got cooler.

Last year I planned two big loops, to get them all. One of the loops we cut short because of really bad weather. We did one small 3rd loop and were finished with all 50 before the end of March.

I enjoy studying maps and planning routes and spend a lot of time planning and revising them before it's time to ride. That way if plans change mid stream my brain is ready to make changes on the fly.
 
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