History – Motorcycles On The Road Again

The History of BikerTrash and Our Motorcycle Businesses

In December 1996, BikerTrash began as a website about riders, rallies, and life on two wheels. It grew into a network of publications, events, and businesses, including Lone Star Biker, the Lone Star Rally, Motorcycles on the Road Again, and Galveston Weekends.

On December 29, 2025, we registered BikerTrash.us because the .com domain was no longer available. Our goal is to bring material from our websites and magazines together so supporters can look back over 30 years of riding and working together. When restoration is complete, BikerTrash.US, LoneStarBiker.US, MotorcyclesOnTheRoadAgain.com, and GalvestonWeekends.com will offer more than 750 articles, 12,000 photos, and a Biker Year Books section.

Reviewing those stories has reminded me how one project led to the next. What a ride it has been.

The People Behind It

Larry Gore founded BikerTrash.com, Lone Star Biker, Motorcycles on the Road Again, and Galveston Weekends. He co-founded Houston Internet Connect in 1995 and was a founder, co-owner, and president of Lone Star Rally, Inc.

Ron Limbock was a founder, co-owner, and producer of the Lone Star Rally.

Carmen Juch, my wife, was an editor and writer for BikerTrash, Lone Star Biker, and Motorcycles on the Road Again.

Amy Edgerly contributed Music Notes and other articles as a writer and photojournalist. She also served as office manager for BikerTrash, the Lone Star Rally, Lone Star Biker, and Motorcycles on the Road Again.

Christopher Gore, my son Chris, became chief technology officer of HIC.Net in 1998. He managed creative work for BikerTrash, Lone Star Biker, the Lone Star Rally, and Motorcycles on the Road Again.

BikerTrash Begins in 1996

In 1995, John Gibney and I co-founded Houston Internet Connect, or HIC.Net. The internet was still unfamiliar to most people. Netscape was making the World Wide Web easier to use, but building even a simple website took plenty of coding, and most users connected through slow dial-up modems.

As president of HIC.Net, I wanted to understand how websites could help people communicate and businesses grow. A motorcycle website gave me a way to learn while writing about something I loved.

I had ridden for years, including dirt bikes on the sand dunes in Saudi Arabia, which I still consider one of the greatest thrills on a motorcycle. In April 1996, I bought my first Harley-Davidson. My first Harley T-shirt warned that prolonged exposure to the motorcycles could cause major lifestyle changes. I had no idea how true that would be.

I registered BikerTrash.com and began publishing stories about local riders, hangouts, rallies, trips, and events. Among riders, “biker trash” was an affectionate inside joke about people who devoted their time and money to riding. It fit us.

The audience grew quickly. Email made it easy to stay in touch with riders, and by 1999 BikerTrash was receiving a million page views a month.

Turning an Audience into a Business

A popular website did not automatically pay the bills. In 1999, earning money online was difficult, so Carmen and I began organizing events for local motorcycle businesses. We promoted them through BikerTrash and our growing email list.

One event showed us just how well that could work. At the County Line Ice House, I learned that a regular known as Sarge had joined the Marines in November 1941. He was in basic training in San Diego when Pearl Harbor was attacked and shipped out for the Pacific the following January. He went on to serve in World War II, Korea, and several deployments to Vietnam.

Carmen and I quietly organized “Sarge — Tribute to a Marine” for the January anniversary of his departure, 59 years earlier. I told the ice house to expect as many as 100 people. More than 500 came.

Other businesses noticed, and requests for event production poured in. Around Texas, the word became, “If you want to reach riders, call BikerTrash.”

By 1999, Carmen and I had covered events throughout Texas and in Colorado, New Orleans, Florida, California, and Sturgis, South Dakota. Riders knew me simply as “Larry at BikerTrash.” At the ROT Rally in Austin, I handed out BikerTrash mouse pads on Sixth Street and kept hearing, “Are you Larry at BikerTrash?” After enough good-looking biker women asked, Carmen started giving me the side-eye.

Working with the Republic of Texas Rally

The Republic of Texas Rally began in Austin in 1995. Its two founders had seen the opportunity after the Harley Owners Group of Texas held an event there in 1994. Austin’s proximity to the Texas Hill Country made it a natural destination for motorcyclists.

In 1997, I offered to build and maintain the ROT Rally website at no charge. Carmen and I enjoyed the work, and it expanded our connections with riders in Texas and beyond. It also got me thinking about starting a rally in the Houston area.

Our archived ROT Rally stories and photos are available at MotorcyclesOnTheRoadAgain.com.

Developing the Lone Star Rally in 2000 and 2001

In June 2000, I was at the ROT Rally covering the event and promoting BikerTrash. The owner of a Sixth Street daiquiri shop, who also had a shop in Galveston, asked whether I had considered a rally on the island.

Carmen and I were already developing a rally concept, but I expected Galveston to be difficult to negotiate. At the time, the Bandidos Motorcycle Club opposed other riders wearing club colors on the island. As I later came to understand it, the Bandidos felt they were blamed when visiting riders caused trouble. We focused our search elsewhere in the Houston area.

On the way home from Austin, Carmen and I stopped at the County Line Ice House with a much clearer idea of the rally we wanted to create. The regulars offered suggestions and plenty of encouragement. By Labor Day, I had turned the concept into an early business plan.

I needed a partner with experience in sales and large-event production. Ron and I had belonged to the same motorcycle club in 1996 and had worked together on several projects outside the motorcycle business. His experience made him a good fit.

We discussed the plan throughout the fall of 2000. Ron was interested, but understandably reluctant to leave a steady sales job for an unproven venture. In early 2001, we rode to Panama City Beach, Florida, to visit the fledgling Thunder Beach Rally. Its founders generously answered our questions about what they had learned. We came home with a better understanding of the business and agreed to move forward.

Our first task was to secure a venue. We chose the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds in the Richmond–Rosenberg area, about 20 miles southwest of Houston, and planned a three-day, ticketed event for April 19–21, 2002.

We announced the rally on BikerTrash on July 15, 2001. Advance registration included admission for all three days and a pre-event T-shirt. By the end of that first day, ticket sales had brought in more than $10,000, giving the Lone Star Rally its initial funding.

We still needed capital to cover expenses long before the event could generate substantial revenue. I established Lone Star Rally as a Texas corporation; its corporate charter was mailed on September 11, 2001.

We presented our business plan to John B., a local motorcycle enthusiast. He agreed to invest in exchange for equity in the rally, providing the startup funding Ron and I needed to proceed.

Producing an annual rally is a lot like farming: you work all season, pay the expenses, and hope a storm does not ruin the harvest. One bad weekend can undo a year’s work. That uncertainty was part of the business from the beginning.

My archived reporting on the Lone Star Rally is available at MotorcyclesOnTheRoadAgain.com.

Lone Star Biker and the Magazine

In January 2001, I sold HIC.Net and moved into a retail center where we could combine office space with a small store. I created Lone Star Biker to sell BikerTrash and Lone Star Biker merchandise.

We also began developing Lone Star Biker magazine. Chris handled the technical work and graphics, and Carmen served as co-editor and writer. The first issue appeared in summer 2002 as a full-color, 5-by-8.5-inch magazine.

Throughout these projects, Chris, Carmen, and I continued publishing articles and photos on BikerTrash. Archived BikerTrash material is available at BikerTrash.US, and LoneStarBiker.com articles are available at LoneStarBiker.us.

Galveston Weekends Begins in 2010

In 2010, Carmen and I bought a house in Galveston and started GalvestonWeekends.com as a resource for island visitors. With much of its activity centered on Facebook, it is now in its 16th year. We also published Galveston stories through BikerTrash, the Lone Star Rally, Lone Star Biker, and Motorcycles on the Road Again.

Bringing the Archives Together

What began as a way to learn about websites became years of reporting, publishing, and producing events with family and friends. Now I am working to bring those records together and finish the restoration by the end of 2026.

Enough reminiscing. I’ve got to get back to work.