Traffic advisory: the Toys for Tots motorcycle parade comes up Route 40 through Speigletown and Melrose today

If you are heading out on Route 40 around midday today, plan on sharing it with a few hundred motorcycles. The Brunswick HOG Chapter’s 27th annual Toys for Tots ride is Sunday, October 18, rain or shine. Registration runs 9 to 11:30 a.m. at Brunswick Harley-Davidson on Hoosick Road (Route 7) in Troy, and the parade departs after registration closes. The flyer lists the route as Troy, Melrose, Mechanicville, Clifton Park and Round Lake, ending at The Mill on Route 9.

The Patriot Guard Riders of New York list the ride as a special mission again this year, so expect the column to run as an escorted group rather than a loose stream of bikes. In past years the parade has numbered in the hundreds and taken a while to pass any one point.

What to expect on our end

The chapter has not published the roads, so this is our reading of the flyer, worked out in our earlier story with a map. The timing is approximate.

• Route 40 from Leversee Road north through Speigletown and Melrose: the long straight leg, roughly late morning into early afternoon. Traffic waiting to turn onto Route 40 from side roads and driveways will sit while the column passes. Give it a few minutes rather than pulling into a gap.
• Route 67 through the village of Schaghticoke and over the Hudson into Mechanicville: the four corners and the bridge will be slow for a few minutes as the group comes through.
• Route 7 and Route 142 in Brunswick and Lansingburgh: where the parade forms up and gets moving, right after 11:30.

If you need to be somewhere on time, leave a few minutes early or use Route 4 along the river. If you want to watch, the Route 40 shoulder through Speigletown and the village are the natural spots; park fully off the road. Ride marshals and any escort direct traffic at intersections while the column is passing; follow them even if the light is green.

Anyone can still ride: admission is a new, unwrapped toy or $20 per person, and donations are taken before and after the run. Questions go to 518-279-1145 or 518-369-7104. If the chapter posts a different route on its Facebook page this morning, that one wins.

Sources: the Brunswick NY HOG Chapter’s 2026 Toys for Tots flyer, shared by a reader and reproduced in our October 9 story; the WGY community calendar listing for October 18, 2026; the Patriot Guard Riders New York current-missions page, which lists the Brunswick Harley-Davidson Toys for Tots run for Sunday, October 18 as a Region 4/5 special mission; and WNYT and CBS6 coverage of earlier rides for turnout. The roads are our reading of the towns the flyer names, not a route the chapter has published.