To experience Ohio riding....

[Guest]

Well, I'm putting together a riding loop of about 750 miles, starting in northern Kentucky then up to southeastern Ohio during the last week of April this year. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as I rush the season ahead by going south. The plan is to truck my '82 GS850G down from NH and unload it at my brother's to do four days of riding. The roads I have in mind include Rt 374 around Hocking Hills for about 27 miles; Rt 78 north from Glouster known as Ohio's Dragon Tail for around 20 miles; Rt 536 the other Tail of the Dragon for 12 miles starting in Hannabal; and then to loop back up to Rt 555 (the Triple Nickle) and it's whole 63 mile stretch heading south from Zanesville. The bulk of miles will cover scenic, non-highway roads getting to each of these spots. I'm not camping on this trip due to streamlining my load and will live in luxury at cheap hotels/motels along the way. A warm bed, hot shower, TV and a hot cup of coffee in my progressing, wiser years. I think I've had enough riding and camping in 40 degree weather over the last 10 years! All my riding will be on weekdays to avoid traffic too.

So if anyone else has a great road to recommend in that area or to just connect up for a cup of coffee let me know. Also, if you are aware of road construction happening on these roads that would spoil the thrill please let me know. It's all subject to change and the hope of good weather, but I have to start dreaming now before the winter gets to me. I was out on the old 850G for a couple of 1 hour rides a few weeks ago when it was above freezing and decent, but subzero wind chills and 15” of new snow from this week's blizzard put a stop to that.

Note:
If someone thinks that there are better riding roads in northern Kentucky rather than what I laid out in Ohio, I'm open to change.

[dorkburger]

Sound like a cool trip! It's been a long time, but there was an old state highway I traveled across retuning home from a trip in my old ElCamino. I remember thinking how cool it would be on a bike.
I have it written down. I'll take a look later.
Chuck78 should be able to point you in the right direction.

[jabcb]

The AMA museum is in central Ohio. Not on your route but is worth considering if you haven’t been there & have the time.

http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/hof/

[Dogma]

Well, I can't make any specific recommendations, but there are a ton of great roads in the general area of 555. 555 is one of my favorite roads, but it's not for everybody. It seems to have been designed to kill you. Be very diligent about sight distance. There are a lot of sudden turns on the other side of hills and other hazards. It's more of a point and squirt roller coaster than something you can carry speed on, except way at the north end by Zanesville.

[lurch12_2000]

The AMA museum is in central Ohio. Not on your route but is worth considering if you haven’t been there & have the time.


http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/hof/

Yes I had the museum on my original list, but the loop didn't quite work out heading west towards the Columbus area, but rather I would be down by the Ohio river and didn't want to backtrack over to there. BTW, if I joined AMA for $49 a year the entrance to the museum would be free as a member. Maybe I'll visit when I'm heading back in the truck along the route home to NH.

[lurch12_2000]

Well, I can't make any specific recommendations, but there are a ton of great roads in the general area of 555. 555 is one of my favorite roads, but it's not for everybody. It seems to have been designed to kill you. Be very diligent about sight distance. There are a lot of sudden turns on the other side of hills and other hazards. It's more of a point and squirt roller coaster than something you can carry speed on, except way at the north end by Zanesville.

Maybe they should relabel it as Hwy 666. BTW, I spent time years ago doing some IT consulting for Wendy's at their Mason corporate office, or at least it used to be there?

[Steve]

There are a lot of sudden turns on the other side of hills and other hazards.

And some of them don't wait for the other side, they turn ON TOP of the hill.


That is probably the greatest concentration of good roads in oHIo, but there are plenty of good roads just a bit east of there in West Virginia, too.

Probably not enough time to do them, though.

.

[Dogma]

Maybe they should relabel it as Hwy 666. BTW, I spent time years ago doing some IT consulting for Wendy's at their Mason corporate office, or at least it used to be there?

Well, if it's still here, I haven't happened to notice it. There are a lot of places a thing like that can hide from me, though.

[Joe Garfield]

It sounds like your route has the right roads/locations. SW Ohio is pretty boring on a bike. It's better near Hocking Hills and on the Kentucky side of the river from Cincinnati.

[Chuck78]

Look at the travelling picnic thread on here, I dumped A TON of detailed info out on that one.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?243189-Traveling-Picnic-JULY-2017-New-Information

These roads are basically local to me. I'm 50 minutes from state route 374 through Hocking Hills. Great road, amazing sightseeing if you can take any breaks and do some short hikes to very cool cliff areas - Ash Cave, Rock House, Conkles Hollow etc are just a few of the amazing publicized hiking trail destinations.
I highly recommend 374 south. For extra miles of curves but skipping a fun short bit of 374 (with some good elevation changes and a handful of great curves skipped on 374) to detour at the Conkles Hollow signs to head east on that eastern half of Big Pine Rd, lots of curves very flowing following Big Pine Creek, then hang a right on 664 back to 374 south.

Once you get to 374's end at 56, hang a right for a wonderful 5 mile or so stretch to a gas station at 664 & 56. Then return on 56 again because about 3 miles of it are some of my favorite pavement in the area, or for a more unpredictable tighter path, take Chapel Ridge Rd east back to 374 s back to 56. Then 56 to the Zaleski State Forest Lake Hope region. Then catch the northeastern half of 278 into Nelsonville. Cross over to Ohio State Route 78 on the other side of Nelsonville. I like to detour on the short sweet Rollercoaster of State Rt 685 there off of 78, left on St.Rt 13 @ it's end, R again on 78 for the best of it - "The Rim of the World" as its known, the Scenic Byway section of OH-78. Not really the Ohio Dragon, which it gets mislabeled a lot, it's amazing fun for all skill levels but a bit faster turns than some of the tighter roads in the region. 78 is to not be missed. 536 is the real Ohio Dragon. 536 has only about half the curves as US129/Deal's Gap Dragon, but a great road regardless.
78 from Nelsonville to 377 (and beyond to Caldwell) is a GREAT GREAT road, climbs up to a long 11+ mile ridge with nonstop curves and a few nice vistas nearing 555 & 377 when you finally get a break from the tree cover. There's a mandatory motorcycle unmarked stop at the picnic table behind the white barn next to a 1 story aluminum sided house that's been vacant for a decade or more but the owner still keeps it up.

78 gets mundane for a handful of miles around McConnelsville but picks up again nearing The Big Muskie Bucket Miner's Memorial - mandatory rest stop! Strip mining drag line bucket the size of a large house, resting on a decent elevation ridgeline...

I cut south off of 78 either at 377 (excellent mid speed sweepers road often skipping the second lower half to incorporate 266? & 792? & often part of 555 to hit the best of 676), or run it past the big muskie bucket through Caldwell to catch 158 or 260 south to THE BEST STUFF in Ohio... I love the really tight twisty roads tremendously, but I don't care for most of 555 as much as everything else in the area. Most parts of it are not flowing at all, & in April, I'd highly recommend avoiding it due to all the farms off of it. The roads will be littered with mud and debris from tractors, farm trucks, & cattle moving, making the roads very dirty in these areas. 555 is hit and miss even in summer as to whether it is clean, & some areas have pavement getting bad.

Almost all the rest of these roads I speak of have been repaved in the past few years.
374 is GREAT, 78 is a MUST RIDE, but if skipping some amazing short cliff area scenic hikes on easy paths wouldn't bother you at all, I might consider more skipping 374 and only going as far west/north as Nelsonville / 78 or even Glouster where 78 gets real good. The stuff east of I-77 & south of OH-78 is THE BEST way to spend a day in Ohio. 78 in this area isn't as good, but 260, 255,536, Dalzell Rd, 565, 537, 530 (this is mostly west of I-77 but a top top road in the state), Archers Fork Rd, Sykes Ridge Rd, the bottom section of 800... these are GREAT roads.

oh! I forgot to mention Ohio State Route 26 the "Covered Bridge Scenic ByWay!" Not as tight generally but an incredibly flowing road that mostly follows the Little Muskingum River to Marietta, with several side roads off of it that have covered bridges immediately off 26.

556 up by Sykes Ridge Rd area is another good one, faster and not as tight but very good.


I ALWAYS run 255 southbound in this area so that I can jog down the Ohio River Scenic ByWay Rt 7 up to (Hannibal?) Rt 536 north. 536 JUST got repaved end of last season. It's been terrible for years due to fracking truck traffic destroying it. When I was told it just got repaved, the next late October 75 degree day (one of last of 2016), I took a vacation day just to go ride it... WOW. Nice road!
Point of this is I only do 536 northbound generally, as there's a marked 15mph curve just south of Sykes Ridge Rd (stop sign/90 degree turn for 536 traffic @ Sykes) that is very dangerous for southbound unfamiliar riders, as it is decreasing radius and slightly off camber with a slight elevation drop. MANY southbound riders have lost traction and crossed the other lane and ended up in the field there..

[Chuck78]

How many days are you planning to ride Ohio? 4 days? Or 4 days total for Ohio/Eastern Ky/WV?
just across the river from 536, on the west Virginia side, there is a road called Proctor Creek Rd... ride this if you can! There is a 2nd road around there named proctor creek rd, but this one you catch near the Ohio River (I think it's next to a post office?) & run until it turns into Amos Hollow Rd which ends at the famous Moundsville to Hundred section of US250 in WV, which also just got paved last year after 6 years of horrible pavement...

Eastern KY has many gems as well, you wouldn't regret skipping Ohio to ride just KY & WV, but if you follow my narrative, I highly doubt you'll have any regrets running these Appalachian SouthEast Ohio roads either!
Having good insider info can make a huge difference between riding a good area with great tips from locals vs trying to plot your own route through an even greater riding area without much in the way of pointers from people experienced in riding those areas heavily.

I sent some of my GS racer/suspension tuner buddies from Pittsburgh down through Ohio on Rt 26 the Covered Bridge Scenic ByWay, a great flowing road, but not one that I personally try to run most times I'm in the area (too many even more thrilling choices, too far from home for all of them in 1 day). My buds were heading to the Red River Gorge in KY, this was just an exciting back roads route for them to get to KY. THEY ABSOLUTELY LOVED 26! I think it was one of their favorite roads on the whole trip actually...

[Chuck78]

Cut and paste of my posts from the travelling picnic thread:

called off work last october for one last warm weather ride, kaidesch (sp?) point park off of ohio state rt 536 about 350-400' above the ohio river (huge, 3x as big as the mississippi river where the two converge).


^^^dalzell rd (turns into county rd 5? @ county line 1 mile to 565) to oh-565 to jog on the awesome oh-260 to the short & sweet oh-537... Wayne national forest deep in se ohio








^^^255 south to 536... 536 was just freshly paved, one of my favorite best of the best 10 mile or so stretches of pavement in the state. Northbound-only for those unfamiliar to miss a southbound decreasing radius 15mph turn that can be disastrous if not going less than 15mph
oh-255 south to the ohio river scenic byway (state route 7 east) to oh-536 north to 78 is one of the best and most scenic rides in the state, a bit more techically challenging than 78 & 26 but those 2 are packed full of fun for all riding styles. 255 and 536 being 2 of the most techical state routes here...





^^^^^^mandatory scenic stop on ohio 78 scenic byway nearing oh-555. The house there has been vacant for a decade or more but landowner has picnic table behind barn at the edge of the ridgetop and it is a common stopping place to take a break from the nonstop sweepers and twisties of 78. The views at this point overlooking the burr oak lake valley 400' below are nearly like a lot of mid/northern blue ridge parkway type views into va... Hard to believe you're in ohio at views like behind this barn, as 70% of the state is glaciated and as flat as kansas...

[Chuck78]

From travelling picnic thread:

Stolen from an article linked from an old post of mine, I believe this is 255 in the pic (& FYI they skipped some of the best roads so follow my advice and not necessarily their route):

http://www.revzilla.com/hub-day-trip

Here's my modified slightly longer and much more awesome route for you all, covering the same territory as theirs:

https://www.google.com/maps?saddr=E+Canal+St&daddr=OH-685+to:OH-685+to:Broad+St+to:7th+St+to:OH-260+S+to:OH-565+E+to:OH-537+E+to:W+Court+St+to:OH-26+S%2FOH-800+S+to:OH-255+E+to:OH-7+N+to:OH-536+N+to:OH-260+S+to:OH-26+S%2FOH-260+S+to:Greene+St+to:OH-676+W+to:OH-676+W+to:OH-555+S+to:OH-550+W+to:Marion+St+to:OH-555+N&hl=en&ll=39.466945,-81.451263&spn=0.808901,1.234589&sll=39.588757,-81.139526&sspn=1.61494,2.469177&geocode=FRz4WQIdUmcZ-w%3BFQwsWgIdbhYa-w%3BFYMpWgIdXlkb-w%3BFZzdWgIdtaIb-w%3BFbAOXQIdeOce-w%3BFT23XgIdTyIm-w%3BFZDJXAId9BIn-w%3BFXC4XAIdtaMo-w%3BFUO7XgIdy0Qq-w%3BFcFCXgIdE0kq-w%3BFQfyXAId0EAt-w%3BFX1FXQIdxQku-w%3BFZQWXgIdIaEs-w%3BFYyBXAIdPXko-w%3BFd-uWwIdneUo-w%3BFSNcWQIdZiQl-w%3BFfwlWgIdufIh-w%3BFecfWgIdlXwf-w%3BFRSBWQIdOZsf-w%3BFZu9WQId_iEe-w%3BFWaTWgIdutUe-w%3BFYMRXAIdUCAd-w&t=p&mra=mivtw&z=10

Photos by drc32-0, a short detour off of 78 from Nelsonville eastbound to 13N to 78 is this short sweet little gem OH-685:

[Chuck78]

From travelling picnic thread:

More photos by FJR Denny aka drc32-0,
Ohio 78 near Caldwell:



And three of the best sections of OH-555 aka the Triple Nickel:

[lurch12_2000]

How many days are you planning to ride Ohio? 4 days? Or 4 days total for Ohio/Eastern Ky/WV?
just across the river from 536, on the west Virginia side, there is a road called Proctor Creek Rd... ride this if you can! There is a 2nd road around there named proctor creek rd, but this one you catch near the Ohio River (I think it's next to a post office?) & run until it turns into Amos Hollow Rd which ends at the famous Moundsville to Hundred section of US250 in WV, which also just got paved last year after 6 years of horrible pavement...

Eastern KY has many gems as well, you wouldn't regret skipping Ohio to ride just KY & WV, but if you follow my narrative, I highly doubt you'll have any regrets running these Appalachian SouthEast Ohio roads either!
Having good insider info can make a huge difference between riding a good area with great tips from locals vs trying to plot your own route through an even greater riding area without much in the way of pointers from people experienced in riding those areas heavily.

I sent some of my GS racer/suspension tuner buddies from Pittsburgh down through Ohio on Rt 26 the Covered Bridge Scenic ByWay, a great flowing road, but not one that I personally try to run most times I'm in the area (too many even more thrilling choices, too far from home for all of them in 1 day). My buds were heading to the Red River Gorge in KY, this was just an e citing back roads route fir them to get to KY. THEY ABSOLUTELY LOVED 26! I think it was one of their favorite roads on the whole trip actually...

My intent is to do 4 days of riding of about 200 miles per day, 3 nights of lodging, including the KY side of the Ohio River starting from Florence, KY and crossing in Aberdeen, OH. I do want to pace it so I can stop and look around too. I'm not just trying to rack up riding miles. Then I would start north toward Hocking Hills. I'm trying to configure a loop to include the other roads north and east of there, but not crossing into WV at this time. You listed a lot of good info that I'm trying to digest down to fit my trip. I'll be keeping my eye towards the weather forecast and warmer temps down there, since it is still going to be mid-April when I'm planning now, which is when I can do this. Otherwise I can do all the cold weather riding on twistie roads up here around New England if that's the case. I like your pics.