Riding the 3 Sisters

March 10th I wake up hardly having slept at all. The reason? Probably too eager to get started on my trip to the Texas Hill Country to ride the famed trinity, 337, 335, and 336. If you don't ride or aren't from that part of the state those numbers likely don't mean very much. But if you are in that small group that knows the signifance of those roads or better yet have actually ridden the trinity, you know why the mention of those roads is enough to bring a smile to any rider's face.

Tucked away South of Kerrville and West of San Antonio is some of the most beautiful country the Lone Star State has to offer. Dramatic landscapes, rivers, valleys, hills, and gorgeous roads.

I've uploaded a sampling of pictures taken during the trip and they're available here:

Photobucket Pics

Our trip started at a Starbuck's. Jim, a friend who shares the love of motorcycles, flew in to Dallas and rented a fantastic FZ6 for the trip. We were joined by Bill who I met through twtex.com, a great site for Texas riders. Bill was only able to join us for the first day as he was trying to get to San Antonio.

Here we are getting ready to leave Starbuck's:

Day one came to about 350 miles. Big thanks to Stephen for an excellent route recommendation to get us to Bandera. Toward the end of the day Bill suggested we stop for pie in Medina and boy, that apple pie really hit the spot.


Day two started with a gorgeous morning, a little foggy but it soon cleared to a beautiful day with clear blue skies. Our route took us along 337 from Vanderpool to Leakey and on to Camp Wood.

From Camp Wood we went North on 336 to 41. We took 41 East to 335 and headed back South towards Leakey.






By end of the day we were pretty much done in and had clocked about 250 or so miles. The scenery was incredible and we couldn't have asked for better conditions.



Day three found us pretty worn out and eager to head back home. Jim had a flight out of Dallas that evening so we had to make pretty good time. We took a more direct route put still managed to make a few good stops.


The final total came in at just a bit shy of a thousand miles and the last couple of hours were hard on the backside, but we hadn't been off the bikes for more than half an hour before we started talking about when we might be able to do it again. Hopefully I'll have a chance to do it again this coming fall and who knows, maybe Jim and I will make it a yearly event.

Red Raider

So... I'm cruising along trying hard to be patient. How hard can it be to wait for April right? I was getting the occcassional fix by taking the little ninja out every now and then but with such nice weather I really kept wishing I had my bike so my wife and I could go riding together. She said she didn't quite feel ready to ride on the streets alone yet, and to be honest, I didn't think she was ready for it either. Then it happened. The deal that was too good to pass up. I saw a listing for a Yamaha YZF600R. The bike was in excellent condition and priced so well that I knew I could ride it for 6 months and then turn around and sell it and recoup most if not all of my money. It seemed like a great interim solution.

Here's a pic of "Pokie" (name the prior owner gave the bike)


Now comes the catch. "Pokie" which I have since started calling "Red Raider" is sooo much fun to ride. It's so capable yet so forgiving. A really nice blend of performance and all day comfort. My plans with the FJR haven't changed, but I'm thinking the Red Raider has likely found a permanent spot in the stable. Time will tell.

What now?

So here's the scoop. I've always been more than a little leary of these blogger types who feel compelled to share all sorts of things with the world. So why am I doing this? Maybe for posterity's sake but primarily as an easy means of sharing some of the goings ons of one particular aspect of my life with family and friends. So you're not going to come here and find all sorts of drama or angst. What you will find here are regular updates of my developing life on two-wheels.

About a year ago I started to consider getting back on a bike. I've never been much of a cruiser type so a Harley was never really an option, but I really didn't think my body (especially my back) could stand up to the contortions of a modern sport bike. I spent a lot of time thinking and reading and finally decided a sport tourer would not only fit the ergonomic part of the equation but would also preserve the fun factor while allowing me to get out and see the sights.

As I started looking I found that there were many solid options out there. BMW has some great models but I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of initial investment along with the maintainance cost associated with them. Honda has a fantastic ST, but a little more on the tourer side of the equation. I finally decided the FJR1300 from Yamaha had the right mix of sport and tour. The downside is that Yamaha does this funky PDP program which means I had to deposit last October and have been not so patiently waiting for April to roll around so I can take delivery.

You can dig up more info on the FJR here: http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/products/modelhome/180/0/home.aspx