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tar hollow ride


oldschoolsdime92

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I did TORSV years ago. That ride was amazingly flat (at least back then). I over did it a little the second day an it took quite a while a the last rest stop before I was ready to ride again. But I finished into Columbus strong.

 

The Cherohala metric looks interesting but the ride is the same weekend as my wife's bday. I would definitely be in the dog house if I did that one.

 

I am looking at some gravel rides this year. Road Apple Roubaix in Feb, Amish Country Roubaix in April and Funk Bottoms Metric in May. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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.

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Nice to see that there are some cyclist on this site as well, I am a cyclist myself and have spent many weekends exploring bike trails.

Do you guys also get together for cycling trips? Do you guys ride road bikes, hybrids or mountain bikes or all of the above?   

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Thats a great road bike !!  My cousin rides a Trek road bike and i'm very jealous in how it performs. I ride a hybrid Cross 300, a little bit best of both worlds. i lock out the forks when riding on the road with my cousin, or hammer some metro park trails. 

 

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Piggly Wiggly (Surly - Long Haul Trucker) for touring duties and Stealthy Ninja (Cervelo - S5) for fast rides. An OR ride sounds fun and I would be interested. Can only do Sundays, but would be cool to explore some new roads. Would also be open to having a meet up at my place and can ride thru Metro Park up here. The road has been freshly paved and looking forward to riding it lots this season!

 

Life is better on 2 wheels, with or without a motor!

 

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Nice Bikes !  would surely be up for a OR ride.

 

I've been wanting to try riding in the snow, i know Century Cycles in Peninsula rents "snow bikes" and was thinking of giving it a go but afraid i don't have the proper winter gear for it and don't want to spend alot out of pocket to find out that i dont like it.  

Looks like a hoot though 

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Nice Bikes !  would surely be up for a OR ride.

 

I've been wanting to try riding in the snow, i know Century Cycles in Peninsula rents "snow bikes" and was thinking of giving it a go but afraid i don't have the proper winter gear for it and don't want to spend alot out of pocket to find out that i dont like it.  

Looks like a hoot though 

The CrossCheck is a well abused bike. I have destroyed 2 sets of wheel bearing and bottom brackets, countless brake pads, and a pair of rims due to riding it in all weather. Currently the seat post is frozen in the frame and there are plenty of nicks dings and a good build up of grime on the bike. Still it handles about anything. 

 

In my experience if you have gear for active activities outside in the winter, you have gear for winter fatbiking. It is a highly aerobic activity so you get warm fast. Only issue is usually feet and hands. I wear winter boots and use BMX style pedals to keep my feet warm and have added bar mitts for my hands. Before that I used ski gloves. 

i have been biking in all kinds of weather for a while so I have some cycling gear. For fatbiking I am usually wearing a softshell pant, under armor cold gear top under a winter weight cycling jersey. If its actively snowing I may wear a lighter top and wind jacket instead of the jersey.

Really nothing too exotic. As long as it breaths well you can add/subtract layers until you are comfortable. Most of my stuff is discount active wear from closeouts or Costco.

 

Nothing like pegging your heart rate while averaging 6 mph :)

 

Craig

Edited by CBBaron
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Thanks CBBaron, I do have most of that stuff already. Now all i have to do is talk myself into it   lol !   I found myself in one of those  You Tube video loops for about an hour an half last night watching snow biking, Funny how there is always one more video that i want to watch.  

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