fun twisties close to columbus???

[Chuck78]

Be careful on 555 road has shit all over it. 377 and 78 are fun roads.

As in gravel, branches, & leaves? Or just that it's a real tchnical road?

[JBWalker]

Sultzgaber turns into pontius, located one mile south of groveport, off south hamilton rd..

[4DAIVI PAI2K5]

As in gravel, branches, & leaves? Or just that it's a real tchnical road?

as in all the above. Plus shitty drivers. The inside of turns were always littered with crap.

[Chuck78]

Got off to a late start resulting in riding the last of the twisties in the dark, but had a great ride! The first half of the ride was the best, with some big hills and technical turns right off the highway (and gravel in lots of them for the first bit), and 78 was AWESOME, more memorable than 555 for me for sure, although 555 would have been a lot more fun if the sun weren't setting on us while riding on a road that had a lot of turns with a fair amount of gravel in them.

Probably should have either stuck with the original south of I-70 portion of the Dream Ride 2012 route, or skipped the triangle/lower figure-8 portion of our route where we passed 555 on 78, made a right on 377, and then back north on 555. 377 was a repeat of some of the other moderate terrain we did, nothing too special. 555 was a well done tar and chip road , but still some graven here and there. heading back north on 555 about 1 mile before coming back up to 78 again, that part of 555 was really rad and turned back to nice pavement instead of tar and chip, but wasn't worth the extra 18 miles that we road just to hit that. North of 78, 555 was really good, but cars had kicked up too much gravel from the shoulder into the turns, so we couldn't ride it too hard.

Should have just taken 78 East to 555 and made a left, or gone south on 555 for a mile and turned around if you wanted to hit some great hills and backtrack.

669 was just decent on the portions we rode. 668 /93/217/78 was a great route, take that and make a left (North) on 555, or else just keep going on 78, looks like 78 gets better again after a short farm stretch to 377.

78 in general I think would be a fun road to do in it's entirety. If we have any warmer winter days again, I'm going to try and do a Coshocton area ride. Have to help my buddy rebuild his anemic KZ650's carbs first though so he can keep up!

Edited December 2, 2012 by Chuck78

[Chuck78]

I will also add that the ridgetop views at many points on 78 especially near Burr Oak State Park were ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL! Wow! This portion of the Wayne National Forest area is somewhat lacking in scenery, as SE Ohio in general was almost completely clear cut during the late 1800's to provide wood fuel for the iron mining industry that was booming then. This ride was mostly still clearcut areas that now is used as farmland. Some forested areas, but not like Hocking.

I really really have a soft spot for Hocking, especially after we got our preferred Hocking route tweaked to hit basically every awesome road in the region.

Hocking trip map, 2 pages, map route displays only one page at a time. This ride was REALLY REALLY FUN, I highly recommend this route. The roads leading to Clearcreek were more than a good warmup off of 33. Clearcreek is such an incredibly scenic area that I had no desire to ride fast over the vastly varied pavement conditions, I was in awe over how beautiful the valley, creek, and rock formations were. Not really a high speed road anyways, lots of hikers, fisherman, pedestrians in general. Scenery makes up for it tenfold.

http://goo.gl/maps/SM0by

Edited December 2, 2012 by Chuck78

[Chuck78]

After some poking around, I think that an amazing trip would be to take this route but stay on 78 all the way to the other segment of Wayne National Forest (Wayne's Ironton Ranger District), and then link up with OH26, which sounds like one of the best best roads Ohio has to offer. Then maybe hit the southern portion of 555, which I think I remember reading was the best section of that road.

[Pokey]

after some poking around, i think that an amazing trip would be to take this route but stay on 78 all the way to the other segment of wayne national forest (wayne's ironton ranger district), and then link up with oh26, which sounds like one of the best best roads ohio has to offer. Then maybe hit the southern portion of 555, which i think i remember reading was the best section of that road.

yes

[4DAIVI PAI2K5]

Glad you made it home safe.

[Chuck78]

Thanks! Glad we rode Saturday, so much rain today. Mountain biking at Chestnut Ridge can wait til another winter day when it's too cold for a motorcycle day trip

[max power]

After some poking around, I think that an amazing trip would be to take this route but stay on 78 all the way to the other segment of Wayne National Forest (Wayne's Ironton Ranger District), and then link up with OH26, which sounds like one of the best best roads Ohio has to offer. Then maybe hit the southern portion of 555, which I think I remember reading was the best section of that road.

This. 26 is pretty awesome and there are some really good roads on the east side of 77 down that way. Check out 83 off of 78 near the Rusty Bucket.

There are mountain bike trails at Chestnut Ridge Metro Park?

[4DAIVI PAI2K5]

This. 26 is pretty awesome and there are some really good roads on the east side of 77 down that way. Check out 83 off of 78 near the Rusty Bucket.

There are mountain bike trails at Chestnut Ridge Metro Park?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT4L5UOl8d8

[max power]

I grew up playing in those woods. Of course, it wasn't a park then.

[Chuck78]

I used to live on klondike the further north you go the more narrow twisty and gravely those roads get. Take it up to route 4 then get on 203 and follow that south some decent turns on that or 257 up that way.

Next time your near 37 and 71 find hogback road I think you'll love that one. There's a parking lot that is off of it park there look for the trail. I think its a horse trail but about 25 yards in it comes to some cliffs that over look the water pretty neat.

Here's a nice long afternoon ride that stays close to Columbus, along Riverside Dr up into Delaware and across several bodies of water, then back south to central Columbus:

http://goo.gl/maps/R0VdE - click on Satellite view for best results

That's the route I was going to try to do today to take a break from my major house renovation projects, but relatives from out of town invited themselves over instead... Hope to do this soon on a warm winter day, gotta love global warming.

cOoTeR, is that parking lot to the cliffs trail that you mentioned the one just to the west of the north end of Hogback Rd? Or is it somewhere along Hogback Rd? I didn't quite see on the maps where there were fun twisty segments of 4, 203, or 257. I mapped it out to cut across Delaware Lake, Alum Creek Lake, hit Hogback Rd, cut over to Hoover Reservoir, and then south down Sunbury Rd/Red Bank Rd and back to Sunbury Rd. This starts and finishes near my house just east of downtown, but you could pick up the route at Riverside Dr and Lane Ave and end it at Sunbury Rd and 5th Ave.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Chuck78

[cOoTeR]

4 isn't really curvy 203 has some sweepers not really twisty but its a good relaxed ride. 257 has some nice light curves on it along the river. The parking lot on hogback is about in the middle near where it opens up along the water.