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Motorcycle Routes - West Houston/Katy etc.

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Grover

Grover

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Can someone here point me in the right direction for some of the better/best roads for a 1/2 day to 1 day trip leaving from Katy, West Houston area?
 
Not my area of expertise. Best road suggestions I have are FM1458 between Pattison and San Felipe, FM1291 between Frelsburg and Fayetteville, FM3090/FM244 between Navasota and Carlos, FM149 from Montgomery to Richards, and FM390 from Burton to a bit past Independence.

PS: Also FM1489 from Brookshire to Simonton.
 
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Most of the area west of Katy and north of I-10 will be more interesting than south of I-10. I found most any of the routes between New Ulm, Round Top and Belville enjoyable and relaxing. Push towards LaGrange and you can pop up onto the Balcones Escarpment going south on 77. That's an interesting geological feature.

Going towards the Gulf the roads only get straighter and flatter. Of course, if someone likes that there is plenty of that all the way down to Corpus Christi and beyond.
 
William Wolfen said:
Not my area of expertise. Best road suggestions I have are FM1458 between Pattison and San Felipe, FM1291 between Frelsburg and Fayetteville, FM3090/FM244 between Navasota and Carlos, FM149 from Montgomery to Richards, and FM390 from Burton to a bit past Independence.

PS: Also FM1489 from Brookshire to Simonton.
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These are all roads I take on a regular basis.

A "quick" loop I do (that I literally got back from 20 minutes ago) is from Katy down I-10 to Brookshire, South on 1489 to Simonton, west on 1093 to FM1458, then north on 1458 through Frydek, back across I-10 to the north side of 1458 from San Felipe to Pattison (and I take a little detour loop on 3318 just after the Brazos River bridge around to Robichaux road back to 1458), then north on FM359 to a little street called Adams Field Road to Wilson Road, then take a right on 362 to Morton, which will bring me back home.
Depending on your exact start point, it is just under 2 hours to ride it and around 75 miles.
Google maps link

Another road I like is FM331 off FM 529 just outside of Bellville. The north side of it turns into Oil Field Road, and is paved, but rough. That brings you up near Hempstead, but you can take Racoon Bend (turns into FM 1456) towards Buckhorn, then head north on FM 1371 which will bring you almost to Chapel Hill. You can ride 1155 North of Chapel Hill up to 105. Once there you can either turn right to head towards Navasota to ride FM 3090, or turn left to ride towards independance to ride 390. If you ride 3090, you can head back down towards Anderson and then ride 149 to Mongomery.

There are tons of roads in Austin, Grimes and Washington Counties that are great 4-8 hour rides.
Some of the funner roads I have ridden I found just by riding around and turning somewhere off the main roads. 390 was one I did not know about and just came across it one day.

Just curious, what bike you ride?

dukey33 said:
... Push towards LaGrange and you can pop up onto the Balcones Escarpment going south on 77. That's an interesting geological feature.
...
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That road was a huge, fun surprise the first time I rode it. I never knew it was there till I was heading down it.
 
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Thank you all for the route advise. The map link was especially helpful +1!!!

I just picked up a 2022 BMW R1250RS today. I am back in the saddle!
 
Oooh, fancy new bike. Fun. :thumb:

That map link is something I ride probably 2x a month. It is close, fun and does not take a ton of time.

This one I ride probably weekly. about an hour ride from when I get on the bike till I get off. I am off some weekdays, so when I go, it is usually mid morning and minimal traffic.

Just get on google maps and find curvy roads and head in that direction. Take the back roads if you can.
If I am going somewhere specific, I do tend to take the freeway more, but when I am just out riding, I try to stay off of interstates.
There are a ton of FM roads N/NW of Katy area. Like I said, Austin, Grimes, Waller, Washington, and Montgomery Counties all have some good roads that are close enough to do in 1/2 day to day rides (non interstate).

Katy to Mongomery Via Chapel Hill and Navasota

Katy to Independence Via New Ulm and Round Top

Both these are about 2.5-3 hours riding to get the end point, then you still need to ride back (even riding fasted route home ads another 1 to 1.5 hours to the trip). Plenty of places to eat in a lot of these towns as well, so if you time it right, you can get to one of the towns around lunch and grab a bite as well.
You also need to remember that google maps gives best times. I find that if I am riding more than about 1.5 hours, I have to add 10-15 minutes to each hour estimate of google time for breaks and fuel and such if I want to figure out how long it will actually take.
 
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Congrats on the new bike! I echo the suggestions for 359, that is a fun road. A little further west, 390 out of Burton back towards Navasota is also a good ride on a nice day.
 
Im just west of bw8 so my rides are generally west or southwest. We have a Farm in Shiner so I usually try route myself in that direction so I can stop in and check on things. 1093 through Simonton, to Wallis then to Eagle Lake to Shiner then north on 95 to Flatonia then north to Lagrange, then to Round Top, then Brenham and back home down 290. Of course there is good riding Brookshire to Hempstead, then the backroads through Magnolia. Or, go south through Damon, Brazoria and Freeport. Back up 288 and work your way home on backroads once you hit the Pearland area. I never have a route in mind. I generally just wander around on roads that look cool and are in the direction I want to head. A few months ago, I headed down 59 and before I know it I was in Laredo. Went north to San Antonio, then I10 back. Not planned and not prepared. Told wife I’d be gone for a few hours. Ended up being about 10 hours. Also got cold as night approached and I wasn’t wearing anything close to cold weather gear. It was fun though, and I’ve got that story to tell. 652 miles total
 
@grumpy48, sounds like the day I ended up in San Antonio from Katy. I just kept heading west, and next thing I know I am by the Alamo Dome, so I run around and try to get a pic of the bike and the Alamo, but way too much construction was going on.
 
blupupher said:
@grumpy48, sounds like the day I ended up in San Antonio from Katy. I just kept heading west, and next thing I know I am by the Alamo Dome, so I run around and try to get a pic of the bike and the Alamo, but way too much construction was going on.
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Ya, that ride creeps on you, and before you know it, you are way far beyond where you thought you’d end up
 
I echo the recommendations above. I ride out of Fulshear and have several loops based on how much time I want to spend out. I'm riding a GS myself now, be happy to ride out with you someday and show you my favorite run.

Dave.
 
I host group rides every weekend that meet at the Waller Bucees. We ride all of the good curvy roads that everyone has mentioned. You’re welcome to join us.
 
Morgstang said:
I host group rides every weekend that meet at the Waller Bucees. We ride all of the good curvy roads that everyone has mentioned. You’re welcome to join us.
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I am just outside of La Grange in Plum TX. I would be interested meeting you guys one weekend.
 
I started off on a ride not too long ago down 59 to Victoria. The plan was to come north from there via (77?) to I10 and back to Houston. I ended up going past Victoria to Laredo, because why not? The other side of Victoria was nice in my view. Not much traffic and arid. From Laredo I went North to San Antonio then back to Houston. Total ride was some 600+ miles. This was a one day trip. Most places aren’t too bad once you get out of the city
 
grumpy48 said:
I started off on a ride not too long ago down 59 to Victoria. The plan was to come north from there via (77?) to I10 and back to Houston. I ended up going past Victoria to Laredo, because why not? The other side of Victoria was nice in my view. Not much traffic and arid. From Laredo I went North to San Antonio then back to Houston. Total ride was some 600+ miles. This was a one day trip. Most places aren’t too bad once you get out of the city
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That sounds like a two day trip at a minimum!
 
Haha, ya my wife flipped her lid when I sent her a pic of the Laredo city limit sign. I didn’t plan on it when I left the house, and just about froze my patoot off the last 1.5 hours home. It got dark by that time and down in the mid 60s and I only had a short sleeve shirt with my mesh jacket and fingerless gloves. 65/67 degrees is fine walking around oitside, but running highway speeds it gets chilly
 
Head north. The two best motorcycle roads within a 100 miles of Houston are FM 149 and FM 3090. I've got about 150,000 miles riding around Houston and IMHO, no other roads come close to these within 100 miles.
 
jereese101 said:
Head north. The two best motorcycle roads within a 100 miles of Houston are FM 149 and FM 3090. I've got about 150,000 miles riding around Houston and IMHO, no other roads come close to these within 100 miles.
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If you go just a little bit further to the NE, there are fun paved roads near Lake Livingston, and then just beyond the lake there is FM 350, 3152, 942, 1745, 352, and 1987. I've not been out there recently so if it is like many other places, new homes and businesses are being built like crazy as people move out/away from Houston. Many of my favorite dirt roads are being ruined by "improvements" :roll:

There are also paved roads North of Huntsville that are fun: FMs 2346, 1119, 811, 1511, 831, 977, 3, 1452, 2289, to name a few.

It has to be tough living anywhere in Houston and wanting to do anything other than cruise up and down busy streets! Huntsville is a good jumping off point for a lot of decent dirt and paved riding, at least by Texas standards ;-)
 
Tourmeister said:
If you go just a little bit further to the NE, there are fun paved roads near Lake Livingston, and then just beyond the lake there is FM 350, 3152, 942, 1745, 352, and 1987. I've not been out there recently so if it is like many other places, new homes and businesses are being built like crazy as people move out/away from Houston. Many of my favorite dirt roads are being ruined by "improvements" :roll:

There are also paved roads North of Huntsville that are fun: FMs 2346, 1119, 811, 1511, 831, 977, 3, 1452, 2289, to name a few.

It has to be tough living anywhere in Houston and wanting to do anything other than cruise up and down busy streets! Huntsville is a good jumping off point for a lot of decent dirt and paved riding, at least by Texas standards ;-)
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it is hard to find good roads around Houston. That is why I emphasize FM 3090 and FM 149 they have curves and elevation changes and some points you can see vistas. I sometimes head to the NE toward Livingston but I find the roads out that way are straighter and flater and generally surrounded by trees so that it almost feels like a tunnel. I do like Bullet Icehouse out by lake livingston and there's a good FM road that runs close the the lake (FM 222 Maybe?)

A couple other good roads -- but not as good as 3090 and 149 are 362 around whitehall (great bluebonnets there) and FM 390 from burton through indenpendence toward navasota (good bluebonnets there too, but not as good as fM 362
 
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