Touring - Your thoughts on Santa Barbara rides. . .

Hi All,
My boyfriend and I plan on doing some cycling in and around Santa Barbara, CA this weekend-- any ideas on cool routes and things to see. I don't mind moderate climbing :o and of course he loves suffering so we're down for a few nice climbs. Any ideas?

Depending on your bike type-road or mtn I would stop at a Santa Barbara bike shop and buy one of Ray Ford's SB bike maps or his SB Mountain Biking book. They cover all types of rides in the greater SB area including over the hill in Santa Ynez and Solvang.
There is also a free bike way map of SB county that shows lots of road riding options. Check the bike shops for it.
SB will be a crowded and busy place over the holiday but that is mainly along the beach front and downtown. A number of foothill roads parallel the 101 freeway inland by several miles and have good views and much less traffic-East valley Road/hwy 192 and Mountain Drive from the Mission across the back of the city through the Montecito foothills is a great ride with island views and some moderate ups and downs on decent pavement.

Danno posted a good ride in this thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=155540

You can mix and match portions of this, but Mountain Dr. and the foothills of Carpinteria are really nice places, so I'd try to incorporate that into whatever you plan on doing.

I did a short tour in that area earlier this year. It was great. From santa barbara to ventura was sure nice (if you tune out the traffic noise).

People in SB would see us with our loaded bikes and we got the rock star treatment. Everybody saying how cool it was what we were doing, how they'd love to do it....etc... The hike/bike site at Refugio state beach is very nice.

Gibraltar for a monster climb.
For a long hilly ride, you can go out to the reservoir south of town - Lake Casitas - and ride around it. About 85 miles round trip.
SB is super bike-friendly, there are a bunch of marked bike routes. Any local bike shop can give you a free map.

Have fun!

Thanks for the tips, folks! We're taking our road bikes and heading out tomorrow morning. If I take any good pics, I'll post them!
-Flips

Thanks again for your ideas, we basically followed the route posted by Danno and it was amazing! The views as we rode through the foothills were amazing and of course I didn't bring the camera. A few cautionary notes to anyone who decides to take the trip, we encountered 2 spots on the East Mountain where for about 5 feet or so a 2-3 inch deep stream of water was flowing across the road. There was some sliminess on the road that was tough to cross in our bike shoes as we held our bikes aloft. Also, once you get to the end of Mountain Rd, turn right (there's a map at the corner) and follow that road to Foothill Road. The directions weren't 100% clear on that and the area doesn't have the best signage.

I totally recommend this ride to anyone in the area, a little bit of climbing but nothing too horrible-- I'm not in great shape so a few parts were tough for me but it was great overall. Danno's directions can be viewed at http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=155540.