Riding Cali on hwy 1

[werts]

My wife and I are planning a road trip this spring. Plan is to fly into La see some friends and work up the coast line to see friends in Bend OR

I'm wondering about bike shops and places to either mtb or road bike along the way. Ideally looking for shops that are riding distance to a trail head so we can demo bikes and not have to worry about fitting them into the rental car.

Would love to hear your thoughts

[teledad]

Ibis and Santa Cruz do demos at their respective HQs in Santa Cruz. Ride to Wilder Ranch or explore the UCSC trails (helps to have a local to guide) or drive up to Demo. Great road riding around there too (as long as you like hills) but I don't know about road bike rentals.

Marin has good road riding but the (legal) MTB mostly sucks.

Santa Rosa has epic road riding (look up King Ridge) and some decent MTB (Annadel). Not to mention some pretty good beer (Russian River). I'm sure you can find rentals.

Heard good things about the MTB in Mendocino (Jackson Demo Forest specifically), but never been up there.

Probably too early to hit Downieville this year (assuming spring = April-May) given the snowpack. Other years that would be a possibility.

[werts]

Spring is actually late may early June. Well for me in Minnesnota at least. Thanks for the great info

[teledad]

OK. Still probably won't be clear at Downieville (the top is 7000 feet) unless it stops snowing soon. You can check http://www.yubaexpeditions.com/yuba/downieville_trails closer in though. It's a 2-3 hour drive from the coast but worth it. Shuttles and rentals in town.

[Mr. Toad]

IMO, the cool shit starts past the redwood curtain; north of Willits.

[The Suit]

Ibis and Santa Cruz do demos at their respective HQs in Santa Cruz. Ride to Wilder Ranch or explore the UCSC trails (helps to have a local to guide) or drive up to Demo. Great road riding around there too (as long as you like hills) but I don't know about road bike rentals.

Just north of Santa Cruz around Pescadero there is some great road riding that's not too hilly if hills are a problem. If hills are not a problem, there are several awesome climbs from Pescadero or San Gregorio up to Skyline Boulevard. The Big Basin area (also near Santa Cruz) has some great road riding too. I don't really enjoy Hwy 1 itself, but you can cover quite a lot of ground in that area without spending too much time on it.

[gravitylover]

Ask this guy http://blackmtncycles.com/ for info on north of the bay riding. He knows what's up.

[Edgnar]

Lots of really great road riding north of San Francisco. Hwy 1 itself is great riding in Marin County, from the Golden Gate Bridge to Stinson Beach is a fun ride with some stout climbs. Mt. Tamalpais (Mt. Tam) is a hard climb with a great descent, but the scenery is epic- from redwoods, to mountain tops, to the beach and views of the ocean along the way.

Check this out:
https://www.strava.com/local/us/san-...outes?hl=en-US
I like the Paradise loop, the Col du Pantoll route, the headlands loop, and I have used some of the Muir Woods route roads, but usually linked in different ways. Also the Alpine Damn + Mt. Tam route is amazing.

Another great tool is strava heat maps. http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#10/-...2178/blue/bike
Great way to find places to ride and roads that see more bike traffic, as well as what trails are most popular.

[dunfree]

FYI - the Pfeiffer Canyon bridge in Big Sur on Highway 1 is toast; no idea or timeframe for replacement/work around, so you might plan to avoid that section of highway one. Technically you could still drive north to Naciemiento-Ferguson Rd and go inland (I guess, for now) but that's alot of time out of the way.

[Andeh]

Most of the NorCal coastal trails are completely fucked right now by the epic rains. We have a lot of clay here that just isn't drying out. There's tons of trees down everywhere. A lot of the coastal hill roads are shut down due to landslides, so you flat out can't get to some of the good riding areas (like Demo). The ground is so saturated that we realistically need over a week (probably 2) of dry weather just for the soil to dry out to a point where riding won't totally destroy the trails.

[MataPaw]

This website has pretty good details. Lots of trails in the mountains along highway 1.

http://bayarearides.com/