I like my new '09 Street Bob more every time I ride it. I did have problems with the stock "Butt Bruiser 350" Street Bob seat. After 425 miles on the last weekend in September ride, I resolved to make a seat upgrade so I could ride 500 or more miles on a day trip. I selected the Mustang Wide Vintage with backrest, and I'm happy I did. It is much better than the stock Harley Street Bob seat which may be OK for young hard a$$es, but I'm an old lard a$$.

The purpose of my day trip was to enjoy a 400+ mile ride while checking out the performance of my new Mustang seat. Marble Falls is part of Texas Hill Country, NW of Austin and Lake Travis. FM 1431 between Cedar Park and Marble Falls is excellent for biking. Lots of turns and some ups and downs. This is a map of that section of my route. (Not my whole route.)



I have ridden this road twice before on my '03 Road King, but I don't remember the one nifty "compression curve" I encountered that sort of reminded me of several of the Tail of the Dragon curves, only not so severe. I think the Road King suspension might have taken the "compression" part (and some of the excitement) out of the curve.

I started my 12.5 hour adventure at 6:45 a.m. Houston temperature was 68 deg. and overcast. No need for leathers.

First stop was on FM 390 in Independence where the ruins of the Old Baylor Womens University is located. I stopped for photos.







Headed north to Lake Somerville on Hwy 36. Stopped to take photos of my Street Bob parked on top of the dam.



Notice the historic marker that is fenced like Fort Knox. (Right side of photo) If it weren't for the protective fence, that marker would be part of some good ole' Texas boy's brick barbeque. They love to collect things like this as momentos to prove they were there and they stole the marker. I would have taken it but it wouldn't fit on my solo luggage rack.







Sorry, but no photos while I was running FM 1431 to Marble Falls. I was having too much fun to stop for photos. Cutting those curves is habit forming. Once I get started, I can't stop.

This is a scenic overlook north of Marble Falls, before Kingsland. It overlooks Lake Lyndon B. Johnson. I don't know why they call it a lake since it is about the width of a small river. Notice that I have pushed through the cold front and the skies are clear. It had dropped to 55 degrees at Round Rock and I was wishing I had my leather jacket.











This is a stone marker. I think it had bronze plates bolted to it with information about Lake Lyndon B. Johnson. But marker thieves pried them off the granite slab. There is evidence that they even tried to pull down the entire slab. It looks like chain marks at the base of the slab. They need to put a jailyard fence around this marker, just like they did at Lake Somerville.



The granite slab is not curved. This is an excellent example of wide angle lens distortion.






Photos taken from a scenic overlook on Hwy 281 just south of Marble Falls.





I hope y'all enjoyed this day trip as much as I did!

Total of 495 miles. Disappointing gas mileage of 41.5 mpg. Cuttin' the curves on the back roads at 80 mph with heavy braking and accelerating probably didn't help the gas mileage.

 

Excellent! Great pictures, great bike! Thanks for posting!

 

Thanks for the compliments. I wish there was a way I could find out how many of y'all are just looking at the pictures and how many are reading the trip report.

Just kidding. It's a slow night at Sailor Don's Place where nothing is happening, and I've got more numbness in my arms from pushing the friggin' power lawnmower today than from 500 miles of Street Bob (no iso-grips) yesterday.

 

Both 390 and 1431 are great rides have done them numerous times.

 

Agreed that Scenic FM 390 is a great ride, but not of the technical challenge caliber of FM 1431. Looking at the map, it doesn't have the curves of FM 1431.



FM-390 has great scenery, especially around bluebonnet time. It also has the advantage of being much closer to Houston and you don't have to make an all day ride out of it.

I have had my '09 Street Bob for less than 2 months and now have 2,900 miles on the odometer. Already I have ridden FM-390 from W.M. Penn to Independence 4 times on this bike. Over the past 6 years on my other motorcycles, too many times to count.

 

I'll have to try 1431. Nice pictures

For those who would like the rest of the Houston to Marble falls route: take a very straight ruler and lay it between the start of the route shown and draw a straight line to Houston!!!

John

 

The straight line route is what is recommended by Google Map and it estimates a 4.0 hour travel time. The route I chose was not recommended by Google Map. I had to force a lot of waypoints for it to show my route, but here it is:


I used Cedar Park as a destination since the other part of the route is on my original map at the beginning of this thread.

Google Map estimates 5.25 hours for my route. It took me longer due to photo stops, etc.

I've done the Hwy 290 route a couple of times. I don't like it any more than the interstate highways, and I don't like them. They make the tread on my tires wear square.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the photos.

Did you do a road trip from Idaho, or were you living closer to Texas when you did your ride in Texas Hill Country?

 

Thanks for taking the time to post the "first" part of the trip. I know it is a time consuming process to get the map to show how you traveled because of the necessity of numerous intermediate destinations for posting on the net for others to refer to. My comment on straight line was tongue in cheek since 290 would be the most expeditious route to get to good riding in this case. I have ridden some of the roads you used and they do beat the 10/35/45/290/90/alt 90 that are usually involved with getting from the flat featureless Houston/Gulf Coast areas to really nice riding. Google and other mapping sources tend to be overly optimistic on time estimates when the back way is used, and can be pretty easily beaten on direct routing. Thanks again. John

 

Sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention. It went right over my head. I should have known better since we ride the same boring Houston roads just to get out to the good stuff.

I'll try stay with the program next time we encounter the obvious.