Great Lakes - Columbus, help me out please!

I'm on a 50 day work assignment in Columbus, OH and am staying in Dublin just off Tuttle Crossing Rd. I have my touring bike with me and would love suggestions for routes I could ride before and after work.

I feel like I'm in suburban (dangerous for cyclists) hell. Is there a way out? I picked up the maps that the Columbus Outdoor people produce and they seem to have little good news. What routes to most people ride?

thanks so much for any ideas!

Best I can tell you is to check Columbus Outdoor Pursuits they have a web site also check some of the bike shops, I ride rail/trails and there are a bunch in the Dayton area, look up miami valley trail. Good luck
Dave

thanks! i picked up those maps- they're somewhat useful.
coming from Chicago, i'm surprised at how few safe routes to the city there are... it's clear that few people use bikes for transportation around these parts.

This might help:

http://bikesourceonline.com/page.cfm?PageID=126

Chimblysweep,
Yes,all of us in Ohio read about how bike friendly Chicago is,(I think 3rd. place?).Whatch out for beer bottle glass if you ride that popular trail around the lake,your in buckeye student territory.
Some great bike shops around there,and some good hockey games.

i haven't tried the trails yet. i rode down Dublin Rd. from Tuttle Crossing to Marble Cliffs or whatever to get to work today and it was a little... scary.

I'm going to try riding out away from the city tomorrow morning... the map says there are bike lanes in 42? I'll check that out tomorrow AM.

Here is a map of some trails around the Columbus area.

http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/images/04-06-17-DispatchMap02.jpg

THanks!

Can anyone guess as to how up to date that bikesource list is? I clicked on something from 2005. Are those rides still happening?

I really appreciate all your help!

Within a couple of miles you can be out in the farm roads. If you are at Tuttle go out Rings road west, take a right on Emerald Parkway, Follow it to Tara Hills Drive, take a left on Tara Hills (neighborhood), take this to Avery Rd, take a right on Avery follow to Brand Road, take a left on Brand Rd to Hyland Croy Rd, can go right or left. If you go right are heading further out in the country can go to Brock RD turn left go over to Industrial Pkwy take a left and it comes back into Post Rd. Use Google Map to see what I'm talking about.

I usually ride the Olentangy bike trail, but it's often littered with inconsiderate joggers running in packs. I've yet to venture out into the farm land.

rural roads are the best for traffic free riding. if you must ride in the city the bike trails are decent but as said before, theyre covered in debris and ******-type runners. so with that said, i just get on the roads and act like i'm supposed to be there (and by law, i am). i try to stay on roads that have 4 lanes of traffic (2 going each direction) so cars feel they can get aound me easily and i also try to stay off the road during morning and afternoon rush, but thats not always possible.

also, if youre interested, a good group ride meets up at OSU campus (15th ave and High St) on Monday nights at 930-945. usually pretty chill.

wow, that sounds perfect. i'll try to be there at 930pm tonight!

didn't make the 930, but rode west. what i learned: the US-42 bike lanes on the map do not exist. (In fact, the road's under construction and rather scary.)

As far as I know there arent any bike "lanes" in columbus or its suburbs PERIOD. Bike paths yes, bike lanes NO.

The main bike paths run along the rivers north and south and part of another one out east towards the airport along johnstown rd. Some are very much still works in progress, but the olentangy trail is done and very much in use al the time. Parts of these trails are broken in places and require riding on the street to pick the trail back up, signage is usually halfway decent. If your looking for traffic free riding, get out of town. If your looking for lots of fairly safe city, college campus neighborhoods, and suburban riding Columbus has tons of it. Downtown is actually easier to deal with than some suburban areas, but the burbs inside I-270 arent too bad if you stay off the 45mph thoroughfairs. Ive been all over the city, not many places I wont ride.

Check out http://www.columbuscycling.com/. Go to the forums, and then to the "routes" area. There's a few maps posted for your neck of the woods. Also, find the thread on Wednesday Night Worlds, which has a map of that route, leaving from Avery Park in Dublin. It gets out into the country from its start in suburbia in about 2 miles.

If you're not heading to the country, I'm with pedex on the city options. Stay inside 270 and you'll be ok. CMH is a very ridable town if you just stay out of the 'burbs.

There are some bike lanes in and around Columbus, one is from Pickerington to Baltimore on rt.256 and also there is one on Schrock road, but overall Columbus sucks as a bike friendly-hell even car friendly city, and the wondrful planners still are putting roads in without curbs, shoulders or even sidewalks...the spent tons of money putting handicap corners on roads where there are no sidewalks????
Dave

Chimbleysweep,
Why not jump on rt.33 east and try the new paved trail between Ohio University and Nelsonville?
Its about 1 hr. east of you in Hocking county.The country roads are pretty cool also.Check out the Hocking county web site.I believe the trail is aprox 20mi. long and follows along the Hocking river.

sounds great! thanks for the tips.

about the World Wide Wednesdays- how long is the course and how fast do folks go?

thanks!

wednesday night worlds are basically death marches, ride till you get dropped or drop everyone else, expect speeds in excess of 25mph most of the time

wednesday night worlds are basically death marches, ride till you get dropped or drop everyone else, expect speeds in excess of 25mph most of the time

The Worlds is truly not for most mortals (one night this summer the ride averaged over 24mph!). But the route is a good one that you could explore anytime under less, uh, brutal circumstances.