Question... Switching States

[dieziege]

DZ, what part of Dallas are you headed to? Have you decided where you'll live or what the commute will be? We've got family and friends in Dallas and Ft Worth, so its a little familiar.

I've been looking at places around Little Elm, The Colony, and so forth... my employer is in one of those cities just north of Dallas and I'm thinking I'll find some place even further north. Or maybe I'll get an apartment for a while just to see what the area is like. I've spend a couple of months there over the past two years but it's been two weeks at a time and is all kind of a blur now.

The whole "plains" thing hasn't had a chance to grow on me yet I guess. I'm used to mountains and coastlines and hills and such. Most of Dallas seems horribly flat to me.

[Nalian]

There are folks on another board I frequent who recently went to Texas - they warned others to be careful with the DMV paperwork because the DMV conveniently left the M off of the license when it transferred, and they had to fight tooth and nail afterwards to get it back without taking the test.

Good luck with the move!

[Zagnut]

The Little Elm area is just about10 to 15 miles from me...I'm in Denton. Your commute will probably be south into Frisco or Addison or points beyond. Not really a good ride. Your commute will just be traffic, although depending on your route and time of day, it may move pretty well...

You mentioned a 300 mile range...there is some pretty good riding in that range. I think you'd be surprised at all the wilderness...or at least rural type riding you can find in this area....after all, we're Texans.. we loves us some rural... hunting and fishing and what not...

Get on mapquest and check out the areas to the between Denton and Decatur. The area to the north of that stretch has some nice back roads (1655, 455, 730,677, 922, etc.). Zoom in on Mapquest because alot of rodmaps don't show the FM (farm to market roads) they're just 2 lane highways with little traffic. Go up 677 north of a hole in the wall town called St. Jo...kinda reminds me of the TX hill country.

If you head the southwest of Ft. Worth there are some really good windy roads. Look between FTW and Stephenville to the south. Get a detailed map (or zoom in on mapquest...if you don't zoom in a bit , these roads won't appear on the map) and check out that whole area...and if you just keep heading south you get into Texas hill country. lots of good riding and some elevation changes.

I bought two good TX atlases that show all these little roads that don't show up on most maps. These atlases will even show blacktop back roads...very detailed.


http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookse ... 3059&itm=2

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookse ... 3205&itm=1


The book in the first link is the more detailed of the two as far as backroads go.

I like to pour over these books plotting my courses for my weekend rides and then head out on a new FM road that I've never been down before.

Also, here is a link to a site that shows some good riding roads that have been submitted by folks. It breaks the state up by region. Check it out.

http://www.motorcycleroads.us/tx.html

At any rate, I think you could have alot of fun with your current bike. I ride a cruiser but I pass alot of sport bikes on these back roads. You don't need to trade it in on a Harley dresser or a Goldwing just yet. It ain't Cali but it ain't Kansas either.

There seem to be three kinds of riders in Dallas: 1) very wealthy wannabes on $35,000 Harleys, Iron Horses, and Big Dogs, 2) spoiled teenagers on crotch rockets (often seen on the sides of the road needing to be scraped up), and 3) poor slobs on rat bikes.

I think when you get here you'll find that although we have our share of these types, this is a bit of an over simplification. DFW riders are as diverse as riders anywhere. If you look around you might find a few riders that don't quite fit into these these 3 molds...although we do got some R.U.B.'s and squids up in here..

Anyhows...sorry for the ramble... I'm trying to get my thoughts out fast before my boss comes in here and catches me.

...Welcome to Tejas!...(pronounced Tay-Hoss!)

[Shorts]

kinda reminds me of the TX hill country.

Aww heck ya! The hill country is awesome I use to work out in Kendalia at the wildlife rescue and I had a good ol' time driving out from 1604/I10 in SA.

Good post zagnut

[Koss]

Hey thanks Zagnut, ive been thinking of moving back to the DFW area since im pretty much done with my schooling here. Good stchuff!

[dieziege]

Zagnut, great ramble... much appreciated.

Pretty much hit the nail on the head -- south to Addison, a bunch of traffic, roads that are all torn up/still being built, and nuttiest of all no filtering/lane splitting (or severely constrained splitting) ... which pretty much rules out motorcycle commuting as far as I'm concerned. I'm crazy but I'm not suicidal and it's just nutty to ride a motorcycle as though it was a car in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Sounds like there are plenty of back roads with light traffic though... that's a major plus compared to around here where the population density is something like 2.5 times the national average.

Hunting and fishing are a major plus of the move actually. Not from a motorcycle maybe, but still they are interests so no worries there.

It'll be fun in any case. And it sounds like, as long as I make sure the DMV transfers the M, I won't have any problems with the move. Cool.

Thanks to everyone who has posted... and to anyone who wants to post as well.

[Zagnut]

This last Saturday I had the ol' lady drop me off in McKinney to pick up my bike from at the shop (being serviced). I decided to ride a section of FM 455 I've never been on.. the part between HWy 5 and Hwy 377. It was mentioned on that Texas roads website. I took rd 543 north to a tiny town called Weston. It was a nice road with some curves in it and the leaves are starting to change in that area. Nice road. As I reduced my speed on the outskirts of Weston, a town I've never been through, I see it's one of those little towns with a main street. The kind with those flat facade buildings that run down the entire length of the street...and I see that they have American flags out on the poles lined all up and down both side of the street. I thought to myself, "What a warm welcome these small town folks have given me." It looked like something right out of a John Couger Mellancamp video....when I got home my wife reminded me that Saturday was Veteran's Day.

Anyhows, I got onto FM455 and rode it to Pilot Point. On the map this section looks like a bunch of right angle turns, but whan I rode it, is was a bunch of 90 degree sweeping turns. It's a nice ride. It had all these sweeping curves, but it was flat and I coudn't figure out why they made the road turn so much if the terrain was flat....oh well. Nice ride anyway except for the two patches of dirt road I hit. They are redoing sections of the road and I had to ride over two sections of unpaved road each about a mile or two long. No big deal really, but my bike is too pretty for such uncivilized roads.

These roads are within say 20 miles or so of Little Elm. I think you'd dig them.

I also rode 2450 (I believe it was running north out of Boliver and 156 south from to Boliver to Justin, and then FM 407 headed east from Justin toward Lewisville and 1830 running north of 407 into Denton. I've been down these roads before. Thay are also nice roads with some curves and country like settings.

It was a good days ride. Yeah, there are some decent roads around here...