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Texas Adventure Riders Association

Joined
Jan 1, 2005
Messages
4,465
Reaction score
1,222
Location
Buda, TX
First Name
Rich
Last Name
Gibbens
Riders,

I have been thinking about how we, the Texas dual sport adventure riding community, could enjoy more consistency in the scheduling of rallies, day rides, get-togethers, and such and I have come up with an idea that I think makes sense.

The community, generally, enjoys getting together for rides and rallies but we don't yet have a consistent way of scheduling and organizing events on an annual basis. For example, the Texas Adventure Ride and the EastTex 450 were popular, well attended events but due to the lack of event organizers both have fallen by the wayside.

I propose that an adventure riders association will help solve that issue and also provide an avenue for additional opportunities for our community. As such, several riders and I have teamed up to start the Texas Adventure Riders Association.

The intent of this association is to promote dual sport adventure riding in, and around, Texas, to provide more consistency in scheduling annual rides & rallies, to welcome new riders into our community, and provide new opportunities for the community to congregate.

While there is quite a bit more to be done to get this new association up and running, I wanted to let the community know about the work we have done so far and the things we have planned.

Though the website will provide a consolidated source of all planned rides, rallies, and events I have spoken with Tourmeister and asked his permission and blessing to use the forum here on Two Wheeled Texans as "rider central" for discussion, announcements, planning, etc (basically the way it is currently being used by the community).

To kick things off, the first meet & greet of the Austin group will occur on Thursday, March 2nd, 6-8 pm, in the parking lot of Logan's Roadhouse restaurant on Stassney Lane. If you live anywhere near Austin, Tx please make plans to attend. It will be your chance to get your association off to a good start.

We will also have the first Austin monthly dual sport ride on Saturday, March 4th. Details are on the website and I will post the gpx files as soon as possible.

More events/activities are in the planning stages for Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Central Texas (Temple/Waco) and San Antonio. We will post additional information as soon as we can.

Finally, this association is meant to benefit all of us. As such, we welcome any and all who would like to participate in the association's planned events. Would you like to be active in the association? Great, we need you. Want to organize or lead a ride or rally? That would be wonderful - give me a call and let's make that happen. Do you have some ideas on how to make things better? We are all ears. The point being is that the association will only be as good as those who volunteer their time and effort to make it a viable, active group. If you want to participate, please contact me.

I realize that was a lot to read, so here is a picture of a couple of buddies riding together in Big Bend. Which, at the end of the day, is what this is all about.
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The floor is open for discussion...
 
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I like it Richard, sounds like it will be very helpful in organizing and participating in more events. Thanks
 
I like it also Richard,
a calendar with links to the events would be nice, I could bring it up and see what's happening monthly or by the year.




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I was a member of the Texas Sport Bike Association for over 10 years - it was a great way to get to know folks that shared my passion for motorcycling, but was much more than that. I met folks that had been doing this a lot longer than me and my skills as a rider improved dramatically, I learned how to work on my own bike, and was exposed to areas I did not know existed. Track days? Seriously - they let you ride on a race track?? Well that opened up a whole new world.

We had regular weekly rides every Sunday - the good ol' SMR. It's a bit different for ADV riding - especially around Houston, though of course we have the SHNF. But we also did quarterly gatherings with the chapters in other cities (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, RGV) in the Hill Country and Arkansas. We also had regular monthly meetings to discuss upcoming rides, BS and hang out, compare best strategies for dealing with speeding tickets... , and take care of any of the mundane stuff that comes with being an association (electing officers, deciding what to do with funds, etc). Those were fun too - just met up a local BBQ place same Saturday of the month. We also had swag - t-shirts, hats, stickers, and all that fun stuff.

It was a heck of a lot of fun. Died off, at least in Houston, as most of us moved either into full time track riders and went the CMRA route or moved into dirt - I took the dirt route.

So...I can see real possibilities here. Staying tuned.
 
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I like the idea and would like to help!


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I plan to organize a meet and greet for the central region beginning in mid March. I will be leading and organizing rides in central region. We are not necessarily locking routes to one area. In the end... Make some dust and have some fun!:chug:
 
" Stassney Lane"
THATS HALF WAY TO MEXICO!

I tried to pick a spot halfway between Georgetown and San Marcos and between Bastrop and Dripping Springs, figuring that was the area the meet & greet would be drawing riders from. I also needed to select a place with a big parking lot, easy access from all directions, good food, and cold beer. :eat::party:
 
What about a D/FW group? I suppose I'd be closest to them.

Richard has asked me to help out with a DFW group. I am going to give it whirl but we are basically starting out at ground zero.

A couple challenges I see in DFW are as follows:

1. The DFW area is so big and traffic is bad enough that it is tough getting Fort Worth folks to go East and Dallas folks to go West on a regular basis, especially during the week for a monthly Meet and Greet.

2. The area being big also makes it a challenge to have monthly rides that are semi convenient to all in DFW because of the time it takes to get across town.

3. The last challenge is personal for me and that is my current work schedule will prevent me from doing much if any scouting to come up routes "local" to DFW for regularly scheduled rides.

Since participation is key for the success of any group long term I would like some suggestions or opinions regarding DFW from those of you that live in the DFW area.

Some questions to start you thinking:

1. Is it better to have a M&G on a week night or a weekend?

2. Would you prefer a Breakfast lunch or Dinner meeting if on the weekend?

3. Does it makes sense to have an East and West DFW M&G alternating locations every month?

4. Does anyone have any favorite day rides they would be willing to share so we can get started quickly with some monthly rides?

I would like to see this be a long running success in DFW. The more local participation we have the more successful the DFW group will be.

At this point I am open to any and all thoughts and suggestions.

Feel free to post in this thread, or shoot me a PM

Thanks!

Rich
 
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I like it. Lately I'm tight on time from buying an older house in need of TLC, but I'm willing to pitch in where I can for the cause.
Regarding the DFW region, I would agree that it might need to be split. Maybe sub-group type splitting? No clue.

I am also hoping that this could, at some point, start helping fight to save places for us to ride.

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