mbundick

Anyone here who has ridden the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA) and could share their experience and opinions about it?

Thanks!

MKahrl

I'm biased as I've been on 14 GOBAs but I find it stands up well next to other big bike tours I have gone on. It's a loop tour so you return to where you started by the end of the week which makes your own logistics easier. It's a different route each year in a different part of the state. The routes are on lightly traveled country roads and the overnight towns are between 5,000 and 50,000 population which makes them nice and walkable. It's very family oriented so the campsite is quiet after 9:00 pm but there is often live outdoor music in the towns and ample opportunities for imbibing in restaurants and bars. The shower trucks are fantastic and I hope they never change vendors. If you like to ride fast and hard there is cross-fit training available at each ride's end in the form of unloading the luggage truck. Most riders take a more leisurely pace with lots of socializing along the way. There are about 1700 cyclists which is a manageable crowd.

There are two or three layover days where you do not break camp and move to another town. This allows a leisurely day at the pool or library or sleeping in. For riding enthusiasts the layover days have a more challenging loop ride usually to someplace interesting. One layover day has a century ride. Since you don't have to pack your tent or set it up on layover days you make an entire day of the bike ride.

There is a bike mechanic that follows the tour route each day who is leagues better than your own LBS's mechanic. If he charged you twice as much you would still think it was a bargain. I kid you not. GOBA's least visible asset is EMS services stationed on the route and a free sick call each morning and evening staffed by a talented group of doctors and nurses who are also riding bikes on the route. My stepmother once got sewn up for an injury that would have cost her 10 years of GOBA registrations if she had gone to an emergency room.

Each town that provides a lunch or snack stop gets to exercise what it does best in providing food so there is a lot of variety. You buy whatever suits you and it's inexpensive. In towns there are church groups putting on dinners as well as restaurants. If anyone in your party belongs to any fraternal group have them bring their card as they are welcoming, serve good food, inexpensive drinks and may have some dancing! (Last year a snack stop provider was having second thoughts about hosting so many cyclists until she found out they drank beer and bloody marys at 9:30 in the morning.)

This coming year's GOBA 2020 will have layover days in Troy and Wapakoneta which are held in high esteem by longtime Gobaites as great towns for staying in. The Air Force Museum is pretty cool as is the Neil Armstrong museum. There is also something that I can only describe as a rock garden in some dude's backyard that is like nothing else you've ever seen. Guaranteed.