FRESH LIKE AN EBIKE

LIKE YOU, I’ve been trying to take advantage of this oddly warm February weather. And maybe like you, not only have I’ve been feeling that typical mid-winter lack of motivation, but I’m also…I’ll just say it out loud…REALLY BORED with the typical places and routes I’ve ridden over the last few years.

ARE WE MEN OR MICE? So after a well-made plan to do a Cleveland urban assault fell apart as quickly as it came together, I jumped at the chance when Egg, the Ride Incubator, hatched an idea to join Mike J. for a ride from his house near New Franklin, west of the Akron/Canton metroplex. (More on Mike later – he’s a real deal OG whose Wanted poster once allegedly appeared on the CVNP Rangers office wall.) Mike dropped from the scene for quite a while but recently, he’s been getting back into riding and he does some cool stuff down by Portage Lakes.

The “new” in New Franklin sounded like the perfect antidote to the burnout crouching on my horizon.

A BUNCH OF TOOLS: Mike J led me, The Rik, and Egg on a tour of the upper Tuscarawas River Valley then the Nimisila Reservoir and Portage Lakes Area. Nimisila Reservoir: very cool, bald eagles and ospreys and such. A new-to-me oasis. It was nice to tool around Portage Lakes, drink a beer and shoot the shit. Reminded me of cruising around the suburban lakes of SE Michigan.

Thirty five miles and 1600 feet of climbing felt just right on a sunny 50 degree day in February.

SO THE NEXT DAY, after seeing the brutski gravel route Paul M. and Matt O. did in the hills of north central Ohio, I decided it was time for a good ol’ solo ride with navigation. I converted their 50 mile, 5000 ft route into a shorter 30 mile 3500 ft. route starting in Killbuck. Peaceful, quiet, meditative climbing (the climb out of Glenmont is particularly ball-busting). But the Stache’s meaty beaty big and bouncy 2.8 Rekon up front left me picking bugs out of my teeth on the hairball “technical gravel” descents.

THREE THOUGHTS:

#1 I would have ridden my “gravel bike” (which is really no more than my original 29er circa 2005 made new by converting it to drop bars) but alas, it is sadly, embarrassingly, and unfashionably devoid of this: Coast Suspension. Probably my next purchase — if I can get the seat post unseized.

#2: Once my headphones took a shit around mile 10, and I could no longer listen to turn-by-turn directions from Ridewith GPS, I was left to stop at most intersections and check the route visually on my phone (which I do not have mounted to my handlebars). For years, I have resisted plopping down $300 for a Garmin, a tool I thought I would only use on infrequent rides such as this. But with retirement and more rides such as this also crouching on the horizon, the lure of Lezyne’s well-reviewed cycling gps unit is becoming tastier and tastier.

#3: Dude blows by me on a dirt bike at about mile 20. He looks like he’s having fun. Honestly, I am too. But so does Jeff Jones in this video posted recently on BikeSnobNYC:

Not only is Jones on a 29+, but the video is from 2021, and the motor on his prototype is removable – worthy of a Zwift thumbs-up flurry. QUESTION: How much more fun would I have had with a little kick in the pants on some of those climbs?? The jury in my mind is closer and closer to rendering a verdict.

EXCEPT…with its mud pits and goo, an ebike wouldn’t have helped in this ^^ particular section of the route. (note the cool 29+ bike). All in all, the Killbuck/Glenmont area is a nice new alternative to the typical gravel routes out of Mohican.

A FINAL NOTE: I’m up to a whopping 2 subscribers! And just surpassed 1000 views! Although I have been accused of being an Influencer, I assure you I’m just doing this for fun. Nevertheless, thanks to Bill M. and my lovely wife for allegedly reading this thing. I’m seriously thinking, though, about pinching off the monthly fee to try to get rid of the ads for dick pills and belly fat cures.