KC8QVO

Here are a few pictures from my trip down the Ohio to Erie Trail in Ohio. The trip was to see some family in another part of the state down closer to Cincinnati. Mileage on day 1 was 71.0 and day 2 was 17.7.

I had another thread going about doing close ~100mi rides back to back. Actual mileage was a bit less, but as it turned out I only rode one way and didn't make it all the way where I was going. I hit a major slow down at the end off the trail with a lot of elevation but the killer to the trip was Mother Nature - the wind picked up enough I couldn't move. After the third time of literally being blown off the road I threw the towel in. If it was just the hills I would have proceeded as slow as it would have been, but when I was standing on the side of the road holding the brakes so I wouldn't blow backwards with street signs vibrating in the wind I tapped out and called for a ride. Hey, at least I was close.

On the first leg of the car ride home a family member said "when you think about it, you rode a long F'ing way on a bike". In the grand scheme of things, the mileage wasn't that impressive. I've done day trips close to and over 100 miles, but they have all been loops or out-and-back runs. When you stretch out the distance in one direction it is a bit impressive to see the scale of the ground covered.

I had set out to do the run in 1 day, then 2 off days, then 1 day back. With a late start and Mother Nature against me riding in to a head wind I lost several hours on the first day. When I realized how slow my progress was I knew I was going to be hunkering down for the night. After hitting the elevation off the trail on the second day I am glad I held off. If I had bull-nosed it to try to do the last ~23 miles the first night anyway I would have been in a really bad spot. Now I know to plan better.

Yea I did have a lot of gear. You can say I was over-packed, but I was well prepared. One of my large panniers was entirely non-riding clothes and my foul weather suit. Then I had a surplus of riding clothes/layers in a few other places. I had other stuff with me for the non-riding part of the trip also. In the end it all adds up. As to weight I have no clue - but it was a lot - the most I've ever rode with.

I will say, though, that the long distance trail portion of the ride was the best riding experience I've ever had. I have done ~3000 miles mostly on the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail network in IL and that is a neat trail system, also, but the Ohio to Erie trail - at least the portion I rode between Georgesville and Spring Valley-ish - was in a class by itself. Paved the entire way, shelters, huts, and porta-johns dotted along the trail, etc. It was pretty amazing. I am going to make exploring the network of trails a riding goal for the next year.

The bike is a 2014 Surly Disk Trucker, 700c, 56cm frameset (stock complete bike). Racks are Tubus - Duo front and Evo rear. Panniers are Ortleib packer plus series.

I run a 7" tablet with an app called GaiaGPS for trip recording and stats. The bike computer is a Garmin Edge 1000. I looked in to the routing ability and got the turn-by-turn directions to work pretty well on this run. Though, the route differed a bit because the marked US Bicycle Route 50 (which parallels the Ohio to Erie Trail until Xenia Station on the leg I rode) went through towns differently than I had in my route. That didn't appear to be an issue, the Edge 1000 rerouted and found the planned route as I made my way back to it. So that was good to see it finally working "well".



Where I got on to the Ohio to Erie Trail. This was about 20 miles in to my ride.





I have a few of these flexible solar panel units (I bought a few packs of them about 5-7 years ago) and this string of them has been a mainstay on my backpacking and riding trips for years. In "riding mode" here I was getting about 250mA of charge current while riding. Not bad.





I made a light bar before the trip so I could get a wider lit profile for the night portions of my ride. I broke this light off. I tipped over on a steep climb on the trail and fractured the plastic. When I was at one of my break stops later I bumped it and put enough pressure to finish it off. I carry spare zip ties all the time and they most certainly came in handy for an on-the-go repair.





My lunch stop somewhere around the 40 mile mark. I set both solar panels up to get a bit more direct sun. The larger one is on the far side of the hut propped up on a branch. Both panels combined I got close to 2 amps of charge current for a while. That was a blessing as I ended up staying out over-night and the next day was cloudy.





South Charleston, OH





Sunset near Cedarville, OH





The sun was down at this point and the shadow rays from the clouds were streaking across the whole sky like a fan. Its hard to tell with the trees on the right.





Day 2 - overcast. Looking back to the east.





Looking to the west. The tabs in the trail are a crossing for farm equipment. Judging from the brush this one isn't used. Most of them were - and being towards the end of harvest time they have very recently been used.





This bridge crosses the Little Miami River - the direction I was headed. I didn't notice this until after I was looking at the picture - but you can see the ground elevation over top of the roof of the bridge. That is a pretty clear indication of what the battle I was up against was shortly.

KC8QVO

One last picture (limit is 10 per post apparently):



This is the point I tapped out. You can't see anything moving in a still picture to give a sense of the wind, and there aren't any flags in view, either, but just imagine the wind howling and the signs/posts vibrating... The next inch my bike moved was in the trunk of a car.

jpescatore

That was a long way to bike carrying that huuuge load! Not just weight but the wind resistance, too. I'm sure if you do it again you could look at what you brought and eliminate a good deal of it.

For night riding, there are cheap high lumen LED lights that would save you that light bar.

A friend and I had planned to go from Cleveland back to his house in Columbus, mostly on that trail. Torrential rains and flooding closed many sections of the trail, and caused us to have to cancel all but the last day, from Mt. Vernon south to Columbus, 50 miles or so.

It really is a great trail system. We would have stayed in motels - credit card style touring - so just front panniers and a rack trunk bag was enough for our gear.

alan s 

You might want to put your bike on a scale and severe diet.

markjenn

I did the OTET from Cincinnati to Cleveland in 2016 on the organizer's annual supported group ride. Just a wonderful six-day trip on a superb route, 85% on dedicated bike path, mostly paved. Very highly recommended.

- Mark

bikenh

For an 8300 mile trip I carry about 1/3 what you carried fora planned 200 mile trip. Like others have said learn how to lighten your load. The climbing at the end will be much easier.

djb

yes you did, and yes I will say that you had a LOT of stuff.....BUT, and an important but, congratulations on getting out and doing this, and don't understate what you did, with a big honking bike (and wind) you rode some long distances and you enjoyed yourself.

now only you can figure out how to reduce all the stuff you took for further trips, but at least try to put together all yer stuff and weigh it all, at least as a reference, I'd take a guess and say you have a good 60lbs on the bike?

I guess all I can suggest is to make a list of everything you took, and look critically at what you didnt need, what was doubles or whatever, and think of what you can reduce.
It may take a bunch more trips, but you should be able to reduce it by a lot.

but hey, you gotta ride your own ride, so whatever you do, have fun riding, and learn from this one for the next one.

I'd experiment with your seat angle, it looks awfully tilted up, and this is from a guy who owns and rides 4 Brooks, but hey they are your cajones....

Rob_E

That really is quite a load. I pack heavy as well, but when you said you were going to bike 100 miles and spend a couple of days with family, I pictured a much lighter load: couple of changes of clothes. I have family that lives 130 miles away. I've toiled with the idea of doing that in a day, but I have always dismissed it because I would still want to camp, and once I add my camping gear into my supplies, it seems like too far to carry that weight. I wonder if you could have had more pleasant ride, without the unplanned camping, if you had just packed an overnight bag. On the other hand, if you hadn't made it, then you'd be miles from your destination with no camping gear. But I suspect that had you asked your original question about 100 mile days and included a photo of what you planned to take, you would have gotten different responses. I know mine would have been different.

I like having a solar panel on my travels. But for trips of a day or two, I just carry a battery. I don't know which is lighter, but taking time to fuss with the solar panel when my goal is to cover as many miles as possible seems unnecessary on a short trip.

It is no wonder that you struggled with that load for that distance. That's something I expect you could adjust to over the course of a longer trip, but that load with those miles planned and no comparable trips under your belt was bound to be a challenge. As others have said, you might look at what you can leave behind next time. Of course in Ohio in the fall, you have to be prepared for cold, which can change how light you can travel, but I'd still be looking to trim some. Or so I say. Somehow saying it is a lot easier than trimming my own gear.

KC8QVO

Again, if it wasn't for the wind I would have made the whole run door-to-door, just slower than I set out to do.

As for gear - lots of layers/clothes for riding and some for while I was there in case I wasn't able to get a load of laundry in. That combined with camping gear and foul weather gear was the bulk of it. So yes, as others have pointed out, there is a lot of "trimming" I could do - if I was out to streamline my ride to just riding. That wasn't the whole purpose of the trip, though. Between that and weather challenges I'd rather have too much than not enough.

As for charging batteries as opposed to running solar - that is what the solar system was for - charging. The battery I use is a 12Ah lithium 12v class (full charge is about 13.3v). I use it to run USB charging of my tablet, phone, and bike computer and my hand held ham radios can run directly off 12v or charge off 12v. I have not run off this 12v battery for as long before without charging it, so the over-night run was interesting. I charged my Cygolite headlight and tail light (USB) and my phone over night. Then I plugged the tablet and bike computer back in when I started out on day 2 for the ride. I was down to 12.9v on the main battery with no solar charging (cloudy on day 2). For the tablet and bike computer it kept up, as to how much longer it would have - not sure. What I can say is the lithium batteries hold a higher voltage through the usable draw, then once they are further depleted the voltage will tank pretty quick. At what voltage that tank happens I am not sure. I will test it some time and see what it does so I know. I've never seen under 13 volts on the battery until this trip, though, so running at 12.9 on day 2 after going all night was a bit of a concern. I did have the plug-in charger for it with me also so if I did run out of juice on the run and needed it I could have stopped to plug in for an hour or so somewhere, that just isn't convenient as it requires stopping and I can't make any miles tied to a power outlet. That is what is so nice about the solar - if I can get up to that 250mA range on-the-go I can keep up with the draw so I am effectively keeping the battery power up even when I am pulling power. Having a non-solar method of charging (that I can do on-the-go, not plugging in a charger) would be ideal - and I am looking in to making that happen somehow. We'll see what I can come up with there.

Edit - if anyone is curious - here is a link to the battery I am using. For years I used a mix of 7Ah, 9Ah, and 12Ah SLA batteries. This Lithium is a world of difference on weight and usable power. I still have my 9Ah, but for on-the-go power the Lithium has taken it's place by a long shot.

https://www.bioennopower.com/collect...abs-blf-1212as

KC8QVO

Aside from the last few miles in the hills and wind it was an awesome trip - and I've already been thinking about ways to do it again with some alternatives to the elevation gain. I am not sure that is possible, but we'll see what I can come up with.

Yea, in the last picture I noticed it looks a bit high also. I can say I have spent a lot of rides adjusting things and I haven't adjusted the seat much, if any, since. I can try to re-tune it but I am not sure the "fit" will be much better than where it is.

robow

Thanks for the write up and photos.Well done ! I and some friends will be riding the 350 mile trail from Cincy to Cleveland next May. If there are those that have ridden the entire trail and camped along the way, I would be interested in hearing your suggestions.

KC8QVO

I was talking to some guys today and we were wondering how much of the run is actually trail, let alone paved. I am pretty certain the trail portion of the Ohio to Erie from the Cincy to Grove City areas is entirely paved. Once you get north east of Columbus I think it is a mix.

I looked up the trail online just now and it looks like there are quite a few road segments around Centerburg and north of Mt. Vernon.
https://www.ohiotoerietrail.org/interactive-map/

KC8QVO

On second glance - if you are going to tackle the route in May that seems pretty early in the riding season. I would hope you have a way to keep up your fitness in the off-season so you can ramp up quicker once winter breaks.

Pratt

Nice write up and pictures. I think you did just fine. Think, if you had gone all the way, and had that wind on the way back, you would have been flying.
Some of the best experiences come in changes of plans. Learning to take what the road gives you is an important skill

Jeremiesmith77

I love the OTET. I did the whole thing over 5 days in June. I wrote up a bit about it in the Great Lakes regional subforum (https://www.bikeforums.net/great-lak...e-trail-2.html).

My house is a few hundred feet from where the trail crosses Galloway Rd SW of Columbus so I ride the trail 15 miles to the OSU campus (work) most days and ride from Columbus to Cincinnati fairly regularly as my in-laws live near the little Miami Trail just outside of Cinci. I love the trail and hope to do the full length as a 2-3 day ride next spring.

I am considering registering with Warm Showers to host bike tourers on the OTET but my wife is nervous about it. That being said, if anyone is rolling through, let me know, I’m happy to host fellow bike nerds for a meal, share a few beers, or give advice about the trail, good food stops and camping.

robow

By that time I will have already spent a couple weeks or more touring in Arkansas/mid south but I think you are correct in that being in at least decent condition allows for a more enjoyable experience.

DropBarFan

Some folks pointing out the large amount of luggage used....OK but OTOH riding into strong winds is still going to be tough esp with light training & tight schedule.

AngeloDolce

Is that an umbrella strapped to the top tube? You certainly were well prepared.
What is the vertical pole in the back?

As far as overpacking, one student from warm showers stayed with me on his first night touring (planning to go from NYC to LA). He was carrying a floor pump, had ridden 130 miles to my house his first day. Evidently he hadn't seen a frame pump before, but he was very happy to trade his floor pump for an extra frame pump I had.

KC8QVO

Yes. Easy and quick if I had to deal with shorter rain showers as opposed to rigging up a tarp.

The pole is a mount for a ham radio antenna. I usually have a handheld radio with me and the pole lets me get the antenna higher and more in-the-clear = better performance. That pole was actually one I made for backpacking. However, it works on the bike pretty well. I am in the process of making a different style for the bike (bigger diameter for more rigidity and a different connector - that one in the pictures uses a BNC-F, new one is SO-239, both have SMA-M's on the radio end of the coax). I am trying to come up with a way to attach it with a plate to the top of the rack instead of dropping down the side of the rack. The way I had the mount set up on the ride it interfered with the luggage on the top of the rack more than I expected. So with the plate idea my intent is to extend it rearward enough to have it out of the way of stacking stuff on the top of the rack (figure a little further back than where the sleeping pads rolled up extend back to). We'll see what I can come up with.

I assume he didn't make it to LA? At least by bicycle....

As to the pumps - I have had a frame-mounted pump and CO2 cartridges mounted to my bike since the day I got it in 2014. I never had a flat until one of my 50+ mile day trips a couple weeks ago. I got a flat drive tire about 10 miles in. I didn't have a spare tube, but I had a patch kit. The first object of the game was identifying where the tube was punctured. That took me an exorbitant amount of time but I found it. I inspected the tire for any stuck foreign objects that could puncture the tube again before putting it back together. Long story short - when I got it back together I couldn't build pressure. I was about to break out one of the CO2 cartridges but something told me "something wasn't right". Since I wasn't too far from home yet I sat there scratching my head over it looking at the pump, connecting it to the valve stem, trying to pump, etc. Come to find out the pump assembly was "loose" (the housing screws together). Once I got it tightened up I was able to build pressure. I decided to keep going with my trip. I didn't get solid riding pressure the first few runs, but before I got to my half way point/stop I gave it another round of pressure and never touched the wheel the rest of the day.

That was good practice - and truth be told - I aired up the tires to 65PSI for my trip in this thread and I didn't touch the tires the whole way (both days). Although I had 2 spare tubes, the patch job on the rear held pressure well enough in the time since that I wasn't worried about it on the ride. I figured if something did happen I'd just put a tube in at that point - no need to.

Actually... thinking about this a minute - the tube in that tire is the original tube from when I got the bike. The first year I put bigger tires on it. About 2 years after that I drove over the front wheel in the garage with my truck. The rim, tire, and tube were trashed. I rebuilt the front wheel with a new rim/spokes and put my original tires back on (that I am still riding on). In those tire changes the only tube I changed was the front one as that one was shredded when I ran over the wheel. So this makes 5 riding seasons on the tube I patched. Maybe it should have just been replaced. Oh well, its still keepin on keepin on.

linus

Well done brother.

I'm curious, can you post your pack list? What's the weight of the whole bike with all the gear?

KC8QVO

Trip is done and gone. The next time I gear up for a trip I can try to get some data, but not worth it going back on this one now. I have no reason to.

AngeloDolce

That's my assumption, I didn't hear about the rest of the trip. The real problem was that he only had 3 weeks, so to get to LA he'd have to average 150 miles per day. When I explained that math (and commented that I'd met an experienced local tourist who rode for 3 weeks and only made it as far west as Omaha), the new tourist decided that plan B was to see far he could ride in his 3 weeks and then find a flight.

nomadmax 

Great write up and props for riding that loaded mule. I'm in the process of trying to talk two other forum members here into doing the entire length.

dualresponse

Thanks for the post! Living up in the mountains, where everything is either straight up, or straight down, it is really nice to see relatively FLAT land. These pics make me want to get out there and MOTOR. It looks like you had some fun with the solar panels too.

dualresponse

Yeah you can, look at the little leaves on the tops of the bushes to the right of your bike blowing!!! Same thing with that bush in the distance behind the bike. Looks blustery. That wind can be brutal!

edit- perhaps on the next ride, ditch the solar and go mount a wind turbine generator instead! (or run an experiment to see which makes more power)