I am riding to South Padre Island for the start of the RAT Insanity Gold. The Motorcycle Tourer's Forum have hosted this event every few years, since 2006, to the delight of riders from around the country. I was the Ride Master for the RAT in 2014. Iron Butt Association
Now, with the approval of the IBA and MTF, Hard Riding Adventures is hosting the 2017 - Ride Around Texas Insanity, "Tropical Adventure" starting May 1, 2017. The RAT Insanity is to ride around the perimeter of Texas in less than 85 hours or 70 hours for Gold!
I'm finalizing the details with the host hotel for next year's event on this trip. So, I'm off for some Saturday and Sunday fun in the sun before departing at 6:00 am Monday for a clockwise RAT Insanity Gold. You can follow along with me on the SpotWalla map below.
Full SpotWalla Map Realtime Texas Weather Radar Map
Epilogue:
The weather was great for the entire ride. A little hot in Big Bend and a little chilly around Guadalupe Mountains. During this ride I had no close calls, defined as the need to perform evasive maneuvers. I did not use excessive speed, unsafe riding techniques or get to meet any LEO the entire ride. Most all the roads between communities were 75 mph, even small two lane ranch roads. Got to love Texas! My new BMW R1200GS Adventure performed excellently. All my comfort farkles did their job well as I did not notice any comfort stress during the ride.
The clockwise route worked out well for me. My objective was to match each leg of the route to my optimum riding time and get good rest in a hotel. Below are the stats for each leg of my Ride Around Texas
- Leg 1 - RAT Start to Anthony; 6:00 to 22:18, 1,010 miles, 16.3 hours
- Leg 2 - Anthony to Paris; 5:00 to 23:20, 1,239 miles, 18.3 hours
- Leg 3 - Paris to RAT Finish; 6:00 to 19:55, 845 miles, 13.9 hours
RAT Start to Finish; 3,094 miles, 61.9 hours, 70.5 Mvg, 49.9 Ovg MPH
Ride Planning and Itinerary
The ride planning was done in Garmin BaseCamp. There are 18 mandatory checkpoints on the RAT Insanity, including the South Padre Island start/finish points. Below is my route sheet after putting in dwell times for stops and anticipated rest. (The symbols colors indicate day or night conditions at arrival)
