Best Places In Northern California To Cruise?
- Thread starter Yeti1452
- Start date
Dionigi
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Santa Cruz & Pittsburgh
If you look a little south to Santa Cruz there are quite a few great loops. Check out the Santa Cruz Cycling Club they have an extensive list of Ride With GPS rides. Although you might have to be a member to access the list.
Slaphappygamer
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Aptos
Nisene Marks doesn’t allow e-bikes any more, but I still see them. A few trails have eroded there due to fast and heavy bikes rutting out some tracks. Lots of pedal striking there now. Wilder Ranch is getting bad too. These are bike trails, not dirt bike trials.
Sand City, in Monterey, has a nice long, paved, multi-use path. Killer ocean view also. Lots of cyclists park near the Target, by Starbucks. Please use caution.
I actually heard about that list. I can't find anyway to access it.
I'm confused? What would I be trolling?
rayray
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Rome is the troll. You’ll want to put him on ignore.
PedalUma
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Petaluma, CA
@Yeti1452, Come see my town for the day. Take the ferry to Larkspur Landing and the SMART train to Petaluma. Tell me more about the rides you want. Do you want to see Victorians, bird watch, flat rides? One epic ride is to head up B St to Oxford Ct. and into Helen Putnam Park. Ride the trails there and out Chileno Valley and back on Spring Hill. Petaluma has a super cute downtown with lots of great places to eat and very friendly people. https://www.petalumawheelmen.org/page-86823
www.visitpetaluma.com
Home - Visit Petaluma
Things to do Petaluma offers an array of activities to cater to every interest. Shop till you drop at the city’s charming boutiques or explore the surrounding great outdoors. Get your culture fix by visiting the vibrant art galleries or attending one of the city’s renowned festivals. If you’re...
www.visitpetaluma.com
This is the kind of feedback I was looking for. Definitely my next trip!@Yeti1452, Come see my town for the day. Take the ferry to Larkspur Landing and the SMART train to Petaluma. Tell me more about the rides you want. Do you want to see Victorians, bird watch, flat rides? One epic ride is to head up B St to Oxford Ct. and into Helen Putnam Park. Ride the trails there and out Chileno Valley and back on Spring Hill. Petaluma has a super cute downtown with lots of great places to eat and very friendly people. https://www.petalumawheelmen.org/page-86823
View attachment 155815Home - Visit Petaluma
Things to do Petaluma offers an array of activities to cater to every interest. Shop till you drop at the city’s charming boutiques or explore the surrounding great outdoors. Get your culture fix by visiting the vibrant art galleries or attending one of the city’s renowned festivals. If you’re...
View attachment 155813
HAHA! Good to know. I was very confused there.
PedalUma
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Petaluma, CA
@Yeti1452, You can park your bike in front of Smith & Bergen Bicycles where it will be watched with other bikes or at Big Bowl when you rent a boat or paddle board for an hour at the float house. It is fine to take your bike on the train. It is a relaxing 30 minute ride with views and of course the ferry ride on Golden Gate is beautiful across the SF bay.
www.thefloathousepetaluma.org
The Floathouse Petaluma Boat Rental Center
The Floathouse Petaluma is Sonoma County's Go-to for Paddle, Pedal & Rowing Boat Rentals. We have the widest variety anywhere. Powered by people, the wind and electric motors, our fleet includes kayaks, stand up paddle boards and pedalboards, Hobie pedal boats, Hydrobikes, Schiller water bikes,
www.thefloathousepetaluma.org
Awesome!!! Can't wait.@Yeti1452, You can park your bike in front of Smith & Bergen Bicycles where it will be watched with other bikes or at Big Bowl when you rent a boat or paddle board for an hour at the float house. It is fine to take your bike on the train. It is a relaxing 30 minute ride with views and of course the ferry ride on Golden Gate is beautiful across the SF bay.
View attachment 155819The Floathouse Petaluma Boat Rental Center
The Floathouse Petaluma is Sonoma County's Go-to for Paddle, Pedal & Rowing Boat Rentals. We have the widest variety anywhere. Powered by people, the wind and electric motors, our fleet includes kayaks, stand up paddle boards and pedalboards, Hobie pedal boats, Hydrobikes, Schiller water bikes,
View attachment 155820View attachment 155821View attachment 155822
PedalUma
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Petaluma, CA
mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
there's an almost infinite amount of great riding within riding distance in and around san francisco. tell us more about yourself. age, level of fitness, type of e-bike, level of comfort with traffic, etc.
here's where i've ridden (mix of ebike and regular bike) in the last 2 years.
looking more closely at SF proper, the green ones are what i'd call beginner friendly, relatively safe (either closed to cars, separated bike path, separated bike lane, slow street, or very low traffic), and generally pretty scenic. for example you could ride from the ballpark around the embarcadero to crissy field, up through the presidio to the golden gate, across the golden gate and back, through the presidio and lands end, and all the way through golden gate park from west to east without encountering too much vehicle traffic. may 75% of it would be in separated bike lanes or off street paths. the yellow are heavily cycled, but a little more challenging due to more traffic, intersections, very steep grades, etc.
tell us more about yourself and we can help you more
here's where i've ridden (mix of ebike and regular bike) in the last 2 years.
looking more closely at SF proper, the green ones are what i'd call beginner friendly, relatively safe (either closed to cars, separated bike path, separated bike lane, slow street, or very low traffic), and generally pretty scenic. for example you could ride from the ballpark around the embarcadero to crissy field, up through the presidio to the golden gate, across the golden gate and back, through the presidio and lands end, and all the way through golden gate park from west to east without encountering too much vehicle traffic. may 75% of it would be in separated bike lanes or off street paths. the yellow are heavily cycled, but a little more challenging due to more traffic, intersections, very steep grades, etc.
tell us more about yourself and we can help you more
sanyata
Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Sierra Foothills
I'm curious, why don't you just skip over the thread and not replay, especially since it seems to get under your skin?
apologies for upsetting you with my thread.
Jeremy McCreary
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Don't apologize. It was a reasonable question. I'm 100% sure that there are nice rides in my own area that I know nothing about. Also that there are rides that look great on paper but turn out not to be worth the time and effort.
Lived in Sausalito in the 1980s and Orinda in the 1990s. Lots of great road, gravel, and MTB riding nearby in both places at the time, but the road and trail traffic is surely worse now. Ebikes weren't a thing back then, so no idea about access now.
Leaving ebike access TBD, if you're after scenery and don't mind driving your bike to rides from SF, look into the Mount Tamalpais area in Marin and the Grizzly Peak, Tilden Park, Redwood Park, and Sibley Park areas on the Oakland-Berkeley ridge.
Farther away, there's a huge paved and gravel road network around Mount Diablo. If you've never been to the summits of Tamalpais and Diablo on clear days, do so by any means necessary.
Lived in Sausalito in the 1980s and Orinda in the 1990s. Lots of great road, gravel, and MTB riding nearby in both places at the time, but the road and trail traffic is surely worse now. Ebikes weren't a thing back then, so no idea about access now.
Leaving ebike access TBD, if you're after scenery and don't mind driving your bike to rides from SF, look into the Mount Tamalpais area in Marin and the Grizzly Peak, Tilden Park, Redwood Park, and Sibley Park areas on the Oakland-Berkeley ridge.
Farther away, there's a huge paved and gravel road network around Mount Diablo. If you've never been to the summits of Tamalpais and Diablo on clear days, do so by any means necessary.
m@Robertson
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
I'll second that. Big time. You can start at, say, up the street from the beach a bit at Asilomar, take the beach route to Lovers Point. There the trail starts. It runs along the coast for awhile, then thru Monterey past a pier and the naval museum, past another pier and a beach you can walk out onto. Then you're on a tree-lined path for awhile. And THEN you hit the part of the trail at Sand City, which leads through to Fort Ord Dunes State Park. But the actual dunes are all done once you get past Sand City. You can then take the trail all the way to a good turnaround at Fort Ord Dunes State Park, which is where Stilwell Hall used to be (is just a parking lot but has a picnic table elevated up in the back that is always unoccupied), or you can go a little further and take a side path to Marina State Beach, which is another good turnaround.
This path is my regular artery to get around, with the segment out to Fort Ord Dunes leading me to some shopping in Marina.
This was on Monday on the way back from Costco. If you guessed I am at Sand City you'd be right
In the middle of the Sand City segment is Eolian Dunes, which is a bit of beach you can ride down to and still get back up out of so long as you stay on the upper segment. this is actually a reclaimed city dump but you'd never know it now. That rock outcropping I pulled up to is actually artificial and sculpted to look natural.
Many spots with benches like this on this section to pull off to.
You can go right thru Cannery Row if you like. This was a crowded weekend day and on the street, but the bike path has restaurants you can pull up to, lock your bike and eat on the patio.
Also if you are up for it, you can ride out to Laguna Seca Raceway, which has overnight campgrounds and extensive low rolling mountain bike trails, as does CSU Monterey Bay which is on the grounds of what was the old monstrous Fort Ord.
Also if you are brave, and you have a serious bike, you can ride down from Eolian Dunes and traverse the actual beach. But this is a very challenging ride as it is deserted, and has no land access from that point (that you can get a bike up) until you get to Marina State Beach (which has an electrical plug outside at the bathrooms), or you turn back.
Here's a Google Maps of the whole route from Asilomar to Marina State Beach. Zoom in to street level.
FISHWIFE to Marina State Beach
www.google.com
m@Robertson
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
On that particular beach, at the start you often see fat tire tracks that go for about 10-20 yards and stop. Its coarse, deep sand with a slope so steep it has a severe riptide. Without the biggest tires aired down to about 6 psi you sink immediately. But your front tire submerges no matter what. My solution is to do it on a 2wd, which that fat ti bike is. Then the ride becomes just very difficult because of the surface - you're one wrong zig away from a (soft) faceplant. I need a big battery to get to the other side in Marina.
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