Chuck78

Google maps keeps getting less and less use able & more & more dumbed down (used to be really awesome for custom route planning), but here's my quick sketch of the best roads I was able to find near the south-of-Dayton area: http://goo.gl/maps/DCQYX

Coming from the hotel in Franklin/Middletown, I'd hit a few really good turns on either Manchester Rd to Franklin, OH or go further north to West Lower Springboro Rd. The main route after that was in the areas NW of Middletown & W/S of Germantown. 123 out of franklin/carlslile to Sugar St to Mudlick Rd to OXFORD RD. Then left on either Brown's Run Rd (turns into Elk Creek Rd), or stay on oxford to puddenbag rd which turns into west Alexandria rd (look for great hill climb up Strebee Rd, then turn around & continue on route). If Puddenbag, hang a right on Elk Creek Rd. L on 122 Middletown-Eaton Rd From there do another mini loop of tighter & some chip seal roads: L on Michael Rd L on Trenton-Franklin Rd L on BROWN'S RUN RD(totally different than other nearby Brown's Run Rd, & Cloister Cliffs Dr & Myers Rd here have potential, I think I rode 1 once with big smiles up wooded hill climb) After that nice run, L on Astoria/Hetzler Rd, R on Hinkle Rd (twisty chipseal) - turns into Rocky Rd - which dumps you into Friend Rd where you can catch the NW Browns Run Rd again, or make a R on Friend Rd If you made the Right on Friend Rd, you can hang a L on Astoria Rd for a ctle of great curves where it merges back into Mudlick Rd near beginning of loop, or you can take Friend Rd further down to to the Germantown-Middletown Pike - where on Friend you encounter a few hard sharp low speed tight 90 degree knee dragger turns & then some gentle scenic sweepers on the Pike northbound. Glancing at the terrain maps, this south-of-Germantown area seems to me to be the best riding near Dayton. If you are much north of Dayton to where that is an hour ride to get to Germantown, consider heading to the Scioto Trail State Forest area on backroads from Xenia for a great short loop of twisties in the steep tight hills there, then check out Tar Hollow State Forest's main paved roads, then head over to Hocking on 56 & loop 664N from South Bloomingville all the way through Hocking & across US33 to Zwickle Rd, L on Zwickle, R on Logan Hornsmill Rd to Sugar Grove Rd westbound to 33E (southeast) to 374S (makes turns, follow signs) all the way back to 56, R on 56 for the icing on the cake for the last 3 miles of this awesome loop. That route is bad on warm weather weekends due to the traffic of all the traffic from sightseeing tourists going to check out the cliffs & waterfalls of the hocking area. Best kept to early mornings (watch for deer more carefully@ dawn&dusk), or weekdays. If you want a nice cruise to the hills more directly, head out on I-70 east or back roads to OH-56, where it gets great at the afformentioned South Bloomingville from 664 to 374&beyond. Looking at the map, I nixed 56 to the Lake Hope/Zaleski State Forest area, as Northern KY is a bit closer for you, and it is jam packed from Cincy area & east/southeast full of tight hills & lots of GREAT relatively unknown back roads. The Germantown stuff is definitely looking like the best stuff in that area anywhere near you though. Good luck, be safe.

When I was living in a hotel 4 days a week while doing contracted boiler install work in Middletown, OH just south of Dayton, I put together a very nice loop that basically started & ended in the town just north of Middletown. I could map some time for you. Mostly flat & "grid system" around there, but there are a lot of river (&creek) valleys hiding where you will find some twisties that can be quite nice. Just go to google maps & select from the Map (non-satellite view) the "Terrain" layer & then seek out all of the hilly looking areas and zoom in looking for curvey squiggly lines on the maps... If you cant figure it out there, revert back to the far superior "classic google maps " - on desktop/laptop, go to google maps & in the bottom right corner click on one of the tiny icons for menu options & select "revert back to classic maps." When it asks you why/feedback, tell it that classic maps is far better for custom route planning, & functions better. Brown's Run & Elk Creek Rd were 2 of the roads in the loop, & I think they parallel each other at one point & you could take one or the other. Then 25 minutes later I looped it into a totally different & unconnected Elk Creek Rd that was quite twisty. That one was further south. Closer to Hamilton & Cincy, I didn't have any luck finding roads closer to that as far as twisties. I linked up to a dozen or more 12-20mph ultra tight turns in that route, often near houses though, but lots more 25-45mph fun turns. No mecca of any dort like southeast Ohio, but it was a good ride every time none the less.

Big Props to you Derek for the massive amount of planning you have dedicated to setting up this ride. I doubt I can make it this year with finishing and selling my 125 yr old house and rehabbing the 110 year old house that we just bought, but hopefully next year. I checked out the route, and I know you have reasons to keep it simple and not too technical, but I saw a big section that I would definitely bypass - 339 South I would definitely skip the end of and 65% of 550 West, as they are pretty average road with only very minimal curves, and instead take 339 to 676 West (3 year old pavement, nice curves, then fairly straight rolling farmland, then great curves) to a very short jog on a straight section of 555 south, and then catch 550 west for the really great stretch leading up to 377 North. It adds 15 minutes google total trip time but in trade it adds 30 minutes of more exciting roads with good pavement and plenty of straight stretches to relax on in the middle. You'd basically add 676W->555S and bypass the less than exiting stretches of 339 and 550. Not trying to knock your route, but this is a great alternate. http://goo.gl/maps/YNkCm You sure you don't have that wrong? 78 from Nelsonville east through Burr Oak is GREAT, but then from McConnelsville to the Bucket is a total bore compared to what you've just ridden at Burr Oak, but then it picks up to be a decent road around the Big Muskie Miner's Bucket and east to Caldwell, but then sorta peters out after that where you want to dip south on Frostyville Rd or 260. I'd love to follow you on your bypass of 78, but for a large group ride with 3 or more seperate paced groups, that's way too many directions to remember. I doubt that even my subtle route change suggestion would be added to the ride for an extra 2 turns and 15 minutes. Gotta keep it simple for group rides.

Tar Hollow:

Lots of better roads, but 555 does have the most tight and technical turns though. There are a lot of other roads with sections of many tight curves that are more enjoyable and scenic to ride. 555 is mostly not forested as one might think from reviews, it's mostly farms and clearcut big hills with some wooded sections here and there. Lots of SE OH is like that really. 377 has a lot more flow. 676 with 2 year old pavement has a RAD stretch northeast of 555 and 676, like 555 but better. 550 has a very very enjoyable stretch for several miles just east of 377&550. Hocking is great, but on weekdays and off season or early mornings on the weekend (watch for deer near sunrise/sunset). Many times on the main routes on weekends, you will get stuck following slow tourists in cars that go 15 mph into turns that I want to take at 30-45mph. And the slow Harley crowd.

There seem to be quite a lot of twisty gravel roads in the Tar Hollow area, but there are a couple of real nice but very narrow (West Virginia "layover" style 1.5 lanes if youre lucky) twisty paved roads, mostly in the actual State Park area. I could point out the good ones on a map. Northeast of there between 56 and Tar Hollow there are a bunch of great looking roads from Goose Creek Rd at the edge of Hocking halfway up to Laurelville, but I suspected more than not to be likely gravel. If more are tar and chip, then I'd be way into re-exploring that area. Just gotta watch the black spots in turns in the hot summer sun (hot/slick tar spots!). I did TOSRV for the first time 4 years ago. Apparently according to some friends and bike shop people I know, it is an annual tradition to get rained on for at least part of the ride every year. That year was no exception! Not too much, but it sure rained that night when we werecamping out by the river in the football field. This was also the break-in ride for a new Brooks saddle that my wife got me, which supposely gets broken in after 100 miles... we rode 250 miles on it in the weeks prior, but that was not enough time to break in a thick leather saddle that is supposed to conform to the rider... others later said "100 miles!? More like 1,000 miles!" I concur. The end of the first day, I was pretty sore... The second day, a soggy leather saddle and 4 advils helped make things feel better. The route was fairly flat, and quite nice once you get a little ways south of Columbus. We rode to Salt Fork State Park out past Zanesville around the same time. Wow, much more hills than TOSRV... They were gradual long rollercoaster hills though, as opposed to Hocking and most of SE OH with errattic staggered hills all over that are more tightly packed, many of which have massive steep hill climbs. The Salt Fork trip was full of "ride up hill for 5 minutes at 5mph in granny gear, blast down the other side at 45mph in 40 seconds" moments. There were long straights between hills that would allow you to coast a lot. Lover's Lane out that way was where we hit 45mph and then the speedometer broke! Literally the magnet went flying off the spoke,a nd it just read zero... This was all on the first two months of riding a nice Trek touring tandem that my wife got us for my birthday. Camped for a few days at Salt Fork and then rode back home.

Did you make it out yet to run any of those roads? What'd ya think?

47 is a darn fine road, but if you are going to just wing it elsewhere for day 3, the most fun route I can think of is to backtrack on 33 to Harman (or just find lodging near Seneca Rocks, Smoke Hole Resort, Judy Gap, or Brandywine), then head north to the very twisty part of WV-72 Dry Fork Rd that climbs up and down the side of the Canaan area 1000 feet in elevation and some of the tightest turns in the state on a very narrow (ride cautious around blind turns!) paved road... then there are some more options after that. This is probably one of the best exit routes you could take , WV72 (very twisty), WV-50 (nice flowing sweepers and some twisties), and then WV-20, which is nonstop sweepers and some twisties. Then OH-536 or 255 once you cross the river, to a few favorites on the way home. http://goo.gl/maps/fOkZC

Just saw this, but not able to make it out there anymore this year due to house purchase and rehabbing old and new old houses here on out. Next year I plan to make it to WV several times, and my wife probably will grow tired again of my desire ride the tires off of my bike for 5-9 hour rides all in twisties, so I'll be looking for more riding buds. Hit me up late spring. Got rained on every day for 8 days or so in late May 2013 in WV, but there were still tons of dry/sunny daylight hours to be riding in on every day. near 70 degrees here Halloween weekend supposedly, but we are in the beginnings of deer rut time, which makes you much more likely to have deer streaking out in front of you, and even more so near dawn or dusk.

Ray's is an incredible place to ride... I used to ride BMX 24-7 from the ages of 15-25, more mountain bikes now, but still feel more at home on jumps and ramps on the BMX, as that is what it is made for... There are a lot of more mountain bike oriented courses at ray's, and many BMX style courses that mountain bikers hit a lot, as well as a lot of BMX specific rooms or sections. Doubt I'll have much free time this winter to get a group membership season pass, but I will definitely be up there a time or three this winter. Rehabbing two 120+ year old houses in my evenings/weekends is going to be my workout for the winter until I can move into one and sell the other. Then building a second 1977-1979 GS750 Suzuki out of my massive spare parts and take-offs stash...

basically any way you look at it, east of the twisty 377 heading eastbound towards I-77, you have to choose either a more flat & straight stretch on one of these three: 78, 60, or 676 (all are north to south of each other in a flatter section of the SE OH hills). Beyond Caldwell, you have tons of options that are far better than 78 there. 78 is decent by Big Muskie, and 530 and 339 are nice off of 60, but 60 is a casual river bank ride. 676 starts and ends great, and links you to the southern end of 26 (great ride, covered bridge scenic byway), and also allows you to hit 555 and/or 377, as well as the great part of 676 near 555. This weekend will be mild weather, and if the forecast stays the same as it is for the Halloween weekend, it will be near 70 and sunny then. Best luck, ride easy so you can watch for deer sprinting out in front of you at 35+mph...

That second route link I made is about 45 minutes longer than your proposed route, FYI. Also, I included a shortcut road on there that I have only looked at using google satellite view, and it looks to be tar and chip seal. Coming up 536 near the end, you can dip back west on Six Points Rd to catch a good stretch of 255 back to 78 instead of taking a pretty boring straight stretch of 78 at the north end of 536.

http://goo.gl/maps/jyp6k This is what I proposed basically. A bit longer, a 9AM-5PM ride with gas and rest stops included in that time. It nixes a whole lot of less exciting riding on 78 (and a nice stretch west of McConnelsville) in favor of more twisty roads, but does add the middle section of 676 which is gentle rolling hills farmland, but it;s very fun at the beginning and end (twisty, new pavement). http://goo.gl/maps/Co9N9 Shaved it down a little bit for time, and you get this, which Google routed it on a straight section of 60 to a really really fun stretch on 530, far better than 78 by the Big Muskie. You could do that or just do the whole thing both ways on 78, and try Frostyville Rd OH-564 there, and OH-260 on the way back to 78. All of these are great all day routes. This one would be a good 930AM-430PM with gas stops and brief food/rest breaks, around 7 hours.

After the 11 or 13 miles of "The Rim Of the World" section of 78 past Burr Oak State Park (Glouster to 555 basically), 78 is just a "decent" road to McConnelsville. After McConnelsville, 78 is a total bore for a while, but gets better near the Big Muskie bucket/miners' memorial until Caldwell. After Caldwell, it's better than the east of McConnelsville stretch, but you will be much better off taking 260 S or just before that the state route that is also called Frostyville Rd. Then at least catch 26 to Woodsfield. 565 & 537 linked together by a short jog on 260 are great as well, and you can skip a not as twisty stretch of 26 that way, but then you miss 260 between 537 and 26, which is also great. I'd either cruise through the flat/straighter McConnelsville section to get to Big Muskie/Caldwell, and then head south on 260 or Frostyville Rd and then to 26 (northeast) to Woodsfield, or else I'd dip south on 555 (many sharp turns and hills, but lots of farms and farm debris - dirt and gravel in the road in places) or 377 (maybe bigger hills if I remember, lots of winding fast smooth sweepers on new pavement through farmland. If 555, take it to 676E and you will hit one of the best stretches of road around for the first bit, then flat farmland until near Marietta where it gets more wooded and curvey again, then you can catch 26 on the other side of Marietta, which I would highly recommend taking 26-260N-537E-26-> Woodsfield If you prefer smoother/newer flowing sweepers road and less very sharp turns, take 78E to 377S, catch 555 for a shorter and less tight stretch, and then 676 east to Marietta. If you want to go some extra miles for a really flowing section of super fun road, take 377 south to 550 east for a really nice blast, and then catch 555 north to 676 east to the 26/260/537/26 route. Loop 255 south 7 east and then 536 north. whichever route you picked of my recommendations on the way there, you can take the other one back if you've got the time, or if you're worried about being out near dusk, express route back on 78 to make time and avoid deer o'clock. Get started early so you have plenty of daylight for last hurrah. I've gathered that there is one especially dangerous decreasing radius turn southbound on 536, so it is better maybe run north. If you are coming south near the top of 536, you come to a stop sign and directly forward is Sykes Ridge Rd, and staying on 536 is 90 degree right turn at the intersection. A few curves later within a few minutes you come on a blind right hand turn with the uphill on the right, and a downhill on the left. I believe it is marked as a 15mph curve. I'd recommend 12-16mph on this, as it drops off slightly at the apex and is decreasing radius around the blind curve, and many riders have puckered up on this one and lost traction and slid across the oncoming lane and into the farm field there... The dangerous thing about 536 is that there are TONS of medium and higher speed turns on this road, and you think you are in a rhythm and know what's coming, and then it will throw a handful of decreasing radius or otherwise tricky technical turns at you that could easily ruin your day, or months to come... take 536 more cautiously than the other roads for this reason, and ride cautiously everywhere, as it is the start of rut season, big bucks are running around the woods like crazed maniacs starting now, especially near sunrise and sunset. I hit one the first week or two of November last year, 57 mph, ouch.

Had 2 friends following me go down this season as well, even after emphasizing the "ride your own ride" motto... One was due to gravel & the other was pushing his heavier zrx1100 too hard for his comfort as he rarely gets out to the hills & twisties to get a lot of fun cornering miles in... Gotta rethink things next year as far as disclaimers/warnings, my speed when leading lesser twisties-experienced riders, & who to take riding to the tighter stuff...

I also am really wanting to check out 217/218/775/greasy ridge rd asap. Last time we were in that area my buddy following me didnt show up at the stop sign at the bottom of a hill after some nonstop twisties... I turned aroundto find him and our sweeper bud on a chopped xl1200c standing over my bud's '77 kz1000 as it lay backwards & upside down in a ditch after dragging hard parts too hard in a turn & breaking traction & sliding across the other lane into the ditch... Luckily we were able to limp it to kentucky with twisted triple & "straightened" bars, but we had to bypass the rest of the real twisty fun for the day.

This may turn into a solo ride in spring for me, but I still am very interested in the routes. 537/260/565 were very fun, & I have yet to check out 530 and dalzell. I hope to be able to link sykes ridge rd east to proctor creek rd, 536n,maybe 255 south, 260 north past 537&565/ backroads east to 26 s /537 west-260-565west / 530 west (heard it's best east though). I haven't plotted it, but this sounds like a solo ride, as I can't imagine many of my riding buds agreeing to a 10+ hour ride as it seems it'd be...

If doing Proctor Creek Rd there & back to/from Hannibal, is there a fitting turnaround point before hitting 250, or is it amazing all the way to the end at 250? Or any other great routes back to 536/255/260 on the Ohio side of the river??? Sounds like the caliber of road that would make a 2 way there & back more rewarding than most roads in the area. My bigger dilemma is justifying 1.5 hrs slab & back to ride good roads THAT far from Columbus vs my favorite zig zag routes through Hocking & then Lake Hope/685/78 burr oak scenic byway/669/555/676. None of my buds seem to be able to do a 5 hour ride let alone 8-10!

I wonder if it'd be worth the trip on the slab past zanesville to hit 250@ moundsville to proctor creek rd to proctor, wv to hannibal@536??? is the Moundsville to Hundred section of 250 still filled with bad pavement sections????

There's also a member on here who advertises "No Mar Tire Changes." just search those terms. Not sure if he does it mobile or out of his home shop or what.

Grant at the Rice Paddy does my tires, and they have a really fancy motorcycle specific computer balancer that even tells you if you need weights on the left vs right side. Grant always nit picks everything for me until it's just right, which I appreciate a great deal. I think it's $35 each if you didn't buy the tires from them (reg. $25 if you buy tires through them). More if you have to bring in the whole bike as opposed to just the wheels. They may farm that part out to their neighbors the Gent's Wrench (motorcycle repair/welding and fabrication shop in same compound of old warehouses). Grant, Tom, Jack, etc always take care of any issues I have with anything. They are on the corner of 11th Ave and Grant Ave just across the tracks west of the fairgrounds, near OSU campus. They are basically a vintage Japanese motorcycle parts salvage shop, with some 80's through '00's sport bike and cruiser stuff as well.

I was looking at the map, and I think I only rode 260 from 78 to a jog west on 145(?) so that I could hit the short but sweet 565 with a jog on 260 for a second and then the short but sweet 537. Both were similar terrain to 26, following a winding creek with a few jumps into the hills and back, but both were probably the highlights of the ride. There was a section of 26 more towards Marietta that was the most memorable (tighter). I hit 255 from Woodsfield to the river and back on 255 again, enjoyable ride it was, then 26 to 537 west to 260 south and back to 26 (skipped a gentle sweeper section on 26 to hit the much better 537 and 260. then back to 26. So no, I don't think I hit 260 south of 26, but it does look like the section down to Rinard Mills Rd would be a blast. Rinard is quite good I hear as well. So if heading on 26, you have a long detour bypass to the north AND south, to skip the more sterile segment of 26 just east of 260. 800 looks like an absolute blast coming up from the river for a mile or two, but as it appears and I have been told, the rest looks like easy casual riding with only a few big sweepers. If I could hit 536 from the river, link to 255 back to the river, then 800 up from the river for a short bit and jog on backroads to Rinard and south to 260 and north on 260, this would be a great zig zag ride

That info was from a supermoto forum, posted by an O.R. resident supermoto rider, MJ88.

I met hemm118 at 145/564. Down 145,up 821,530,60,7,26,I think it's Tice run rd, up 260,537,26,800,255,Griffith rd or Old SR 255 up and back down to 255,I think long ridge rd to 536 and back to 255,7,536,Sykes ridge rd <New soon to be gem< up 7,556, we split up and I went up 26 to make my way home. The top of 26 was probably the cleanest I've ever seen it, one little spot of gravel in the south lane. Over all roads were in good shape. 255 and Sykes ridge rd had the most sh!& on the road. Sykes Ridge is 3/4 new pavement with a well site at the end of the new pavement. They put gravel along side the new so some is on the road from well trafic. The other 1/4 is in good shape with some spots of gravel. Tice is a good cut over road. It's twiste but short with nice pavement. Griffith Rd, nice pavement and Long Ridge Rd, new pavement. Both are good cut over roads if needed. The only one I didn't get to today is the road off of the top of 145 with new pavement that we looked at on the Ohio Rally ride. Last edited by MJ 88; 3 Weeks Ago at 08:06 PM.