Austin to Colorado Bend SP or Pedernales Falls?

infinitedrifter · Post by **infinitedrifter** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:56 pm

I'm hoping to do my first long-ish ride on my new 170i & thought it would be cool to ride to a nearby State Park & camp for the weekend. Has anyone ridden to either of these? Any suggestions or highway recommendations? It's my first "road trip" on my scoot; although I ride every day (1300 mi since January) it's just around Round Rock & Austin so I appreciate any tips.

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 10:41 pm

Sounds like a great idea. Be careful though: scoot-and-camping can be addictive.

I don't know the area, so I'll just offer some general route-planning tips:

I ask Google Maps to show me the route with the "avoid highways" option selected, and also to show me a bicycling route. You have to be careful with either, because the car route will still be optimized for speed, and the bike route will be optimized for distance (and will also look for no-motorized-vehicles paths). But each one can give you some ideas other than the Interstate.

Pick one of the routes it gives you, click on it, and try dragging the line to one side or the other. It will try to find a path that goes through the point you're aiming at. Routes that run alongside rivers or lakeshores are often scenic or twisty. Use StreetView to sample spots along the route to see what kind of road and landscape to expect.

hackett · Post by **hackett** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:31 pm

I can't weigh in on the merits of either park, but I can say that I've ridden Hwy 281 and Hwy 290 back and forth between San Antonio and Austin and driven the full length of 281 more times than I can count. My recommendation would be to avoid 281 with a 170cc (even 250cc isn't really enough), and 290 isn't much better.

That said, I've heard great things about both parks and always meant to check them out. Looks like there are viable alternate ways to get to either one.

infinitedrifter · Post by **infinitedrifter** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 5:32 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I read a thread once that warned about riding WOT for too long - how long do you usually ride before pulling off to take a break?

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:02 pm

Stopping for as long as you need to get gas seems to be good enough. The reports I remember here involved adding some kind of touring tank. They almost all involved thousands of miles, not a couple hundred.

cdwise · Post by **cdwise** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 12:08 am

I don't know either of those but we've camped at Enchanted Rock. Roads around that area are lovely to ride. We'll be staying in Fredericksburg this weekend for our anniversary riding our bigger scoots. So if you see a black BV 500 and silver Scarabeo 500 say hello.

infinitedrifter · Post by **infinitedrifter** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:20 pm

I'm looking at a couple different route options -
29 to 1147/old austin rd (georgetown to bertram) to 580 or 29 all the way to llano to 16, which is longer I think. I saw a drivelapse video of 29 of and it seems like an okay ride. I will def avoid 281. Those of you who've scooted in the area, any thoughts? Anything interesting I should stop to see on the way?

cdwise - I'm hoping my next trip will be to Enchanted Rock, and hopefully before it gets too hot. Please let me know if there are any cool stops or routes I should check out. Have a great weekend in the great outdoors!