Guest Blogger - Riding the roads of Ohio on a Motorcycle

 

On Tuesday of last week we had an awesome day of riding the motorcycle.   We have been riding for over 25 years now and the roads we have found here are some of the first ones where I know not to talk to Cliff through the intercom.  No matter how exciting I find the cows in the field or the general store with a cute name, I know he is in "the zone" and I should not distract him.  When we got home I mentioned that I can explain the fun of being on the back of the bike, but maybe some of our friends would like his take on what the roads are like from "the rider's"  point of view.   He agreed to do this guest blog for me - so people who ride (or even those who don't) can get a feel for what it is that we love about it.  If you watch the video, please take note that we did not almost fall and we did not pass anyone at high speed.  We did have lots of fun though.

 

 

 

One of the reasons Patty and I wanted to see America in an RV is because we wanted new home-bases for motorcycling. For us, there’s nothing like seeing the world from a motorcycle. And the roads we like best are twisty, hilly, windy roads with little traffic. If you’re a motorcyclist and you like twists and turns, you’ve probably heard of the Tail of the Dragon. It’s a road on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s 11 miles long, and has 318 turns.  We’re going to ride that road sooner rather than later. But we’re in Ohio now, and at our first stop (northeast Ohio) you’d be hard pressed to find a road that wasn’t flat and completely straight. We had a great time seeing the area, but these weren’t our favorite motorcycling roads. Once we moved to SE Ohio, everything changed (yup, we planned it that way). Our first day of motorcycling brought us to roads I only used to dream of. Lots of turns, elevation changes, and good, smooth asphalt. And no traffic!

 

While on-line looking for more of the best roads in the area I came upon the Ohio “Triple Nickel”, route 555. For the folks that have done both, they say the 555 rivals the Tail of the Dragon in technical riding challenges. Since we haven’t ridden the Dragon yet, I can’t compare the two. But I can say the 555 is the toughest, most fun road we’ve ever ridden. If you ride it end-to-end, it’s 62 tough miles. Most people only take a section at a time. We did 27 miles of it, twice (out and back; 54 miles total). Why is it so fun? LOTS of turns, almost no traffic, and every challenge a road engineer can throw your way. Sharp turns, steep sections, switchbacks, decreasing radius turns, you name it.  The guy who designed this road loved to put the turns on the top of blind, steep, hill crests. You can see the tops of trees directly over the crest of the hill, and they run left and right (so you know the road doesn’t go straight), but you don’t know what way the road is going to turn at the top of the hill. I like to ride aggressively, to become one with the road, but I didn’t want to leave a piece of us on the road, so I was careful. Other great features of 555?  A true 55 mph speed limit on 99% of it. Trust me; unless you’re a very good rider and know this road very well, you won’t be bumping up against that speed limit very often. There are very few straight sections, and many of the turns are labeled from 15 to 40mph. Those estimates are reasonable (unlike NY where you could double that speed). And the road quality was very good. A couple areas of gravel in a turn (where cars had “splashed” it up from the road shoulder), and a couple areas that were nicely patched, but none of the dreaded “tar snakes” that other states like to use for temporary patches. How was the scenery? Well, all I remember is that we were in rural hilly country. Other than that you’ll need to ask Patty. This is one time I didn’t let my eyes or focus wander from the road. I wish I could have taken a picture of sections of the road, but that would have required stopping, and it was just too much fun to do that.  If you’re interested what it looks like to ride, check out this 7 minute YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrZ8WpLkEI). Keep in mind that the video shows less than 1/10^th of the 555.  It’s a beast. Having ridden many other Ohio roads by now, I can say that most are excellent. And the 555 is the icing on the cake.