Continued from previous
Day 4 of my bike trip across Ohio. Cedarville to Cincinnati.
It’s the last day and it looks like a good one. No rain in the forecast and my ill-fated rear tire seems to have held air overnight. I set off from Cedarville first thing.
The first ten miles takes me to Xenia Station, which is the junction of several bike trails. I jump on the Little Miami Scenic Trail which should take me all the way to Cincinnati.
The plan is for Mrs. Kong to drive to the Cincinnati suburb of Newtown, and then ride north to meet me in Loveland. For me that will be the 50 mile point.
I’m making good time, right up until the 20 mile point when the rear tire goes flat yet again. For those keeping score this will be the forth time in two days.
This time I swear I’m going to get it right. I carefully remove the tire and tube as a unit so that they stay in position. Then I inflate the tube with my hand pump and reach inside the tire until I feel the air leak. Noting where it is on the tire I remove the tube. Sure enough, there’s that tiny piece of metal embedded in the tire. Or maybe it’s a different one. I have no idea what I rode through back in Columbus. It’s not even a millimeter in length but it’s sharp enough to cut my fingertip. I wish I had a pair of tweezers but instead I try to dig it out with the tip of a pen knife. It’s so small I can’t tell if I get it out or just drive it deeper into the tread.
Meanwhile every rider on the Little Miami Trail (and there’s a lot of them) stops to offer assistance. Unfortunately there’s not much they can do for me. Hardly anyone on the trail rides 650b tires, that’s more of a gravel bike thing. An extra set of hands wouldn’t do much good anyway. One woman can make a baby in nine months but nine women can’t make a baby in one month.
I have one final card that I haven’t played yet. I carry a section of an old inner tube in case I completely trash a tire and I figure that’s what I’ve done here. I cut a large patch with my knife and position it between the tire and tube where that pesky metal sliver was - just in case it’s still hiding in there. Now a smart person would have brought an extra tire on a trip like this, or at least had one in the car, but you have to remember who you’re dealing with here.
Thankfully that seems to have done the trick and I have no more tire problems for the rest of the trip. I normally get maybe one flat a year. Four in as many days has really left me frustrated.
I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it.
One final obstacle remains between me and lunch in Loveland. At Kings Mills, just north of the old cartridge factory, is a very busy road (Grandin Rd) that the bike path used to cross. This area is under construction to route the bike path under the road and is normally impassable.
I came down this way a couple weeks earlier to ride the suggested detour and didn’t much care for it. It required a rather steep climb and riding several miles on less than bike-friendly roads.
It is, however, Sunday morning and nobody is working.
Paragraph redacted under the advice of my legal team at Dewey, Cheatem and Howe attorneys at law.
Once past the detour I make it to Loveland with no trouble.
Loveland is a very popular spot on a weekend. Fortunately Mrs. Kong has arrived ahead of me, secured a table at a sandwich place and even ordered me food.
From Loveland it’s around 30 miles to downtown Cincinnati. This section of the trail is busy on a Sunday afternoon.
Kong’s first rule of bike paths — a single walker or jogger will not hear your bell or verbal warning because they will be wearing earbuds.
Kong’s second rule of bike paths — a group of walkers or joggers will not hear your bell or verbal warning because they will be talking to each other.
Kong’s third rule of bike paths — when you say “on your left” half the time they will only hear “left” and move in that direction.
Kong’s fourth rule of bike paths — that jogger right in front of you will suddenly make a 180 without looking because their fitbit told them it’s time to turn around.
Kong’s fifth rule of bike paths — three people on a bike path will all meet at the same point at the same time even if they are the only three people in a hundred mile radius.
We ride past our car in Newtown and continue towards downtown. This route goes past Lunken Field, which was the original Cincinnati airport, and then along a couple roads with bike lanes until picking up the Riverfront Trail to downtown.
The Reds are playing a home game and downtown is crowded. We carefully make our way to the public boat ramp for the obligatory tire dipping on the Ohio River.
Under no obligation to ride any further I consider taking an Uber back to get the car but we both feel good and it’s probably just as quick to ride the ten miles back to the car.
The Riverfront trail is rough and parts of it run along some old trolley tracks. Mrs. Kong swerves to avoid a group of pedestrians, hits a track and goes down hard. Damn. Not how we wanted to end this trip. Fortunately it’s just scrapes and bruises and she is able to ride the ten miles back to the car.
More importantly her bike was OK (just kidding honey).
Special thanks to the Fulton Yards Coffeehouse for being so nice to Mrs. Kong who was obviously not having a good day at this point. She got a free croissant and use of their first-aid kit.
Total mileage for the day 87. Total for the entire trip 348 with 5300 feet of elevation.
It’s not going to get me into Paris-Brest-Paris but pretty respectable for a guy my age.
Here is the full route and statistics if anyone cares
Would I do it again? Maybe. I actually felt pretty good at the end and thought I could have gone further. Adding a fifth day and staying overnight in Massillon would probably make it an easy trip.
Oh, and I would bring an extra tire.