I’m moving to Columbus, OH in a couple weeks. My wife and I are both OSU graduates, so we know the area well, but I wasn’t much into the tri scene in college.
We bought a home in Clintonville right around the corner from the Bike Source on High Street. I am looking for a bike shop that can do some high-end wheel building for me. Anybody have a recommendation?
Any input on group rides, good long ride routes from Clintonville, where to drive to start a good long run/ride would be much appreciated!
I live in Dayton and buy my wheels from Big Bang Bicycles in Pittsburgh. They can build you anything you want even very exotic things. If you don’t feel like making the drive, they can also ship them to you and you will save on sales tax over buying local Or picking them up which can be a big deal depending on the price.
ridenet.net has a whole list of rides. Tritech does a alternate TT/Group ride every Tuesday at 6, and a group ride on Sunday at 11.
There are a few tri groups, but I haven’t joined any, but they’re there. Not sure about wheel building though.
Don’t know about shops, but there are a few options for riding groups. COTT (Central Ohio Triathlon Team, www.cott.us) does a lot of stuff throughout the week. Columbus Outdoor Pursuits (www.outdoor-pursuits.org) puts on a lot of great rides, I normally do the Thursday New Albany rides in the summer, it gets a big crowd out there, and the A group keeps a pace that will satisfy anyone. OSU actually has a large tri club these days with 90+ members, and at least a few usually show up to the COP rides. From Clintonville there’s always the Olentangy Trail if you’re taking it easy and don’t mind high traffic, but I’d recommend riding west towards Hilliard/Plain City and getting on roads out there. It takes some time to get out of the city, but once you’re out its great. Shoot me an e-mail and I can either suggest some low(er) traffic routes out that way or meet for a ride out that way.
I think the Performance Bike in Worthington does group rides. Great run starting option is the Olentangy river bike path. theyre building out the bike paths like made. As for wheelbuilding I didnt get into hand made wheels til I left there. One option might be Triformance which is one of the tri shops in town. if they dont have anyone in house for wheels they may be able to recommend. Bike source is only so-so in my opinion. Also make sure you move any old stuff you dont want that isnt super high end over at third hand bicycle co-op so less fortunate folks can benefit from it.
Also theres the good city park up on north high street (highbanks I think?) thats good for some running.
Wednesday night worlds out of Dublins Avery park at 6:30 is a good group ride with mostly serious cyclists (as in don’t show up with a tri bike) and these are usually good http://www.outdoor-pursuits.org/calendar.php?setFilter=3 The thursday ride is my favorite (usually has an A-group and a B-group so you can ride it tempo/race or endurance/rest)
Make sure to check out tri tech sports for any bike needs; they are a great and super high quality tri specific shop.
Welcome back to the Cbus! I’ve been tri-ing here since 1991. In my long course days I drove either north to Mohican or south/southeast to Hocking Hills or Buckeye Lake for my long rides. After getting hit by a car in ‘99 I don’t ride from campus to the quiet roads to the west anymore. I stick to the bike path if I want to ride from home (Arlington/Grandview). Hopefully within the decade you’ll be able to get on the bike path in Clintonville and ride to Cincinnati. http://www.ohiotoerietrail.org/ Love Highbanks for the long runs. You’ll find plenty o’ company running long on the path on Saturday mornings.