Top 5 Best Motorcycle Rides in Texas (2021 Riding Season Year-End Review)

We looked at a full collection of 2021 motorcycle riding season data when millions of riders visited MotorcycleRoads.com to find the best motorcycles rides and routes in the USA, Canada, and abroad.  For over 20 years now, MotorcycleRoads.com has been documenting the best/most-popular motorcycle roads, routes, and rides and for about a decade, we have published annual reports after diving into the website's statistics (which routes are riders researching the most, which routes are getting the most photo/video/comment uploads, etc., etc.) to determine which of the motorcycle routes have risen to the top in motorcycle rider popularity.  We look at a complex set of factors (see Note 2 below) to determine which of the motorcycle rides in each of the states and US regions are the most popular and rated to be the best by motorcycle riders just like you.  Our very popular annual "Top Motorcycle Rides per Region" guides cover the best rides for each of the four official riding regions of the USA: the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West.  This year we took things a step further and decided to gone one level deeper and develop guides outlining the Top 5 Best Motorcycle Rides in for the US states and so you are seeing one of those such guides on this page.   

Texas, as the second largest state in the USA, has a vast vast collection of roads to choose from for motorcycle riders. With the incredible size of the state, comes a wide diversity of scenic environments and topographies spread out through a state that is larger than many of the world's countries.  Yet, even though the state excels in vast road riding options, there are a few favorite Texas motorcycle roads that rise to the top in the Lone Star State.  So, we'll start from #5 and working our way down to the #1 best motorcycle ride in Texas.

After reviewing an entire year of activity of Texas motorcycle riders, here are the results:

Top 5 Most Popular Motorcycle Rides in Texas!
 

#5 Texas Hill Country Twister

This twister route starts at Marble Falls and is roughly 35 miles long. It is a laidback scenic route where high speeds are not recommended as it does have some tight twisties at time along with some pretty sharp elevation changes.  The road ends at Lago Vista.

#4 Hippie Hollow Horror

The Hippie Hollow Horror trail starts at four points – outside the northwest of Austin. This road for many is the most technical road they ride in Texas hence the name – “Horror”.   It is known for having a lot of bikers and some of them driving pretty wild on the tight turns so be careful.  This road runs to the northwest and through the edge of Lake Travis. Some great attractions here include the County Line BBQ along the Colorado River.

#3 Bend Region - Rio Grande River Road

The Bend Region road starts at the Alpine and takes you all the way south to Highway 118. If you want to head to the Mexican border, you need to head west on 170.  If you go in the spring, you’ll be treated to some great views of Bluebonnet flowers blanketing the hills along the road.  The scenery is world class and riders come from all over the state and other parts of the country to take it in!

#2 The Red River Cruise

The Red River route starts and ends at Denton. If you are heading from New York, you will see modern wind power generation plants, along with beautiful hills and countryside.  This is another route that gathers biker groups from around the state.  Its also nice because it is far enough away from the local towns/cities that it maintains its low traffic characteristic. 

#1 The Three Sisters - (AKA The Twisted Sisters)

The Three Sisters is a 130-mile loop and one of the most challenging motorcycle roads in the state. It contains many twisty curves yet there are twistier routes.  However, when you combine the great scenery, with the twisties, with the elevation changes, and the mystique of the Three Sisters being one of the most popular motorcycle rides in the USA (and world for that matter), you get a world class motorcycle ride that has essentially been the #1 motorcycle ride in Texas for over a decade now!!!

Note 1:  All facts and figures below were gathered in Dec of 2021 and will change over time as new motorcycle roads are added to the collection.  For an update listing, you can go to MotorcycleRoads.com at any time, search on a state of your choosing, and you'll be presented with a list of the best motorcycle roads in that state.  You can also search on the newest motorcycle routes to be registered in that state as well as sift through the routes based on other filters.  Some examples of filtered searches you can do is to filter results based on - only the routes in your state that have 5-star scenery ratings, or only routes with a 5-star driving excitement rating and at least a 3-star rating for scenery, etc. etc.

Note 2:  How were these popularity ratings calculated? 
A motorcycle road’s popularity can be based on a wide variety of factors.  Our analysis considered some obvious indicators of motorcycle road popularity such each roads’ “Rider Rating” scores (star ratings) and which motorcycle road description pages were visited the most.  But, the analysis dug deeper and looked at some less obvious yet valuable indicators of a motorcycle road’s popularity such as how often a given motorcycle road was added to riders’ “To Ride” lists, how often a given motorcycle road was added to riders’ “Rode it” lists and enthusiasm indicators such how often photos and/or videos were uploaded for a given road and which roads are attracting the most buzz among motorcycle roads indicated by those roads that are receiving the most number of new/recent comments.  For the sake of being consistent and as objective as possible we use a popularity algorithm that “crunches those number” and allows us to develop a ranking of the popularity of each of the motorcycle roads used as a basis for this guide.