OH! Ride the Triple Nickel

Want a great riding trip? Ohio’s got one that you need to put on your radar. Here’s why:

• The Triple Nickel

• Excellent road conditions

• One central base—new ride every day

• Rider-friendly everything

• Did I mention the Triple Nickel?

So, here’s what happened. Several years ago, I was on the Bridgeport CT ferry back to Long Island. I stood next to my sport bike and three men stood by their Harleys. They glanced over and I gave a polite smile and soon, we were all chatting. I told them where I had been that day (I honestly don’t remember, but they were impressed with the mileage). They started telling me about routes I had to do.

One guy said to me, “You have to ride the clovers… it’s incredible. Google it when you get home.” I googled the shit out of it and couldn’t find it. A few years later, one of my riding buddies texted into the group chat, “Hey, I want to go ride in Ohio. They have a series of roads they call a clover.”

I couldn’t text back “yes” fast enough. Finally!

I’ve gone twice. The first time we stayed in The Plains, OH, and rented an Airbnb. I trailered our bikes there and the house had a garage we could use. We liked being able to pull the bikes in at night.

Anyway, there’s a map for riders they call the Windy 9. You can request a paper map here (the Airbnb had a few for us at the house already) or you can download one from the site here. They often refer to it as a clover. Stay in the center and each day take a different route. The routes are labeled much like ski slopes by difficulty levels. As we’re sport riders who ride long distances on the regular (and a bit quicker pace than most cruisers) we combined the routes and did a few each day. Each night we’d plan our next day, adding new routes in and repeating our favorites.

The triple nickel is “famous.” And rightly so, lots of really fun inclines, descents, and twists and turns. And you really should stop for lunch at the Triple Nickle Diner.

I’ve gone there twice. Once in early Spring and then last Fall. Some of the cool spots were the Big Muskie: The largest excavator ever built. The massive bucket is now on display. It’s impressive. We had an amazing lunch at Lake Hope Lodge. If you’re near there and like gorgeous views and great food—you should stop in.

We went again last fall. Unfortunately, on the first day of riding, there was a spill of whatever product they pour on the road lines, and we had a man go down. It’s as slippery as ice. He was the ride leader and had the unfortunate luck of being first. In true form, he brushed it off and wanted to continue riding. I feigned being cold and wanting to return to the hotel. Once I did--we got in my truck and went to the ER. Turns out, he broke his ankle.

Unfortunately, that ended our riding for the weekend. I was using a hitch hauler for my bike and didn’t have ramps with me. But one of the guys suggested we ask if we could borrow ramps from a moto shop. They were super cool about it, and we got his bike into the bed of my truck. Of course, we bought a bunch of expensive--but really nice--ratchet ties while we were there.

Normally, the Ohio area has incredible road conditions. The views are fantastic. There is basically little to no traffic, other than other groups of motorcycles or sport car clubs.

I have an eagle eye when it comes to newly painted road lines now though. That really sucked.