Northern California - What is the "classic" Berkeley Ride?

I posted in this forum a few months ago wondering about living in Berkeley and I appreciate all of the feedback I got here.

I will be in town next Friday (14th) and want to ride a 40 mile classic ride. By this I mean the one ride that the locals love to take visitors on.

I have been looking at various rides on mapmyride.com and there seems to be a number of versions of three different rides from Berkeley:

1. 3 Bears
2. Pig Farm
3. Orinda-Moraga

Please give me some feedback on which one might fit the bill and if perhaps I am overlooking another one. I will be starting my ride around 1pm or so.

I look forward to hearing what you say.

Justin

The Berkeley hills are pretty well known for their steepness and the great view on the bay--never ridden them myself, though.

Check out bikely.com (www.bikely.com) for routes.

Thanks for the reply. As I mentioned I have found plenty of great routes already on www.mapmyride.com and want some feedback form the locals on what they might suggest. I like bikely too, but seem to find better rides on this site overall.

Hmm I would say Pig Farm. It has a nice combination of hills, and fun descends. Plus it hits three bears on the way back. You take your out of town friends on this ride who are not used to hills, and you want to see them suffer a bit. :D

sounds good so far - would this be the Pig Farm loop you speak of?
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/168305242

sounds good so far - would this be the Pig Farm loop you speak of?
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/168305242

Not sure, my webbrowser freezes when I try to open that link. Here is the route I was thinking of: http://calcycling.org/?q=node/191

Has anyone taken Old Tunnel road lately? They created a detour that definitely gets the blood flowin early in the ride. It's a doozy. I saw a dude look at it and turned around.

Skyline is open again so I decided to take that to Pinehurst. Pinehurst all the way to Redwood and on down to Castro Valley and turned around. First time ever doing that section.... I swear it was uphill both ways. I wanted to do a higher cadence/recovery ride today with a little bit of exploration mixed in. I picked the wrong route. Turned into a 55 mile ride.

Check out Klimb.org. Download the eastbay region and you will be good to go.

Another awesome ride is to do 3 bears, turn on Alahambra road and go thru Martinez, Pinole, Hercules, and hook back up with 3 bears. I believe that one ends up being around 60 miles.

Here are the 2 classics imho

1. start at Campus, go up Euclid, down Wildcat Canyon, do 3 bears counter-clockwise, up Wildcat Canyon, up grizzly peak, down Centennial.


2. start at Campus, go up Euclid, up Grizzly Peak, across Skyline, do the Skyline/Redwood/Pinehurst loop, back on Skyline, back over Grizzly Peak, down Claremont, Centennial or Euclid.

Both are nice.

Here's my classic Berkeley ride:

1. Start at Sather Gate, Sproul Plaza, on the south side of campus. Go south to Telegraph Ave.

2. From the edge of campus, go down Telegraph one block to Durant Ave., turn left.

3. A couple of hundred yards up the street, stop at Top Dog. Feast.

http://www.topdoghotdogs.com/shop_pics/southside.jpg

4. Optional: Work it off by doing someone else's idea of a "classic" Berkeley ride.

The Berkeley hills are pretty well known for their steepness and the great view on the bay--never ridden them myself, though.

Dude. You're in Berkeley, and you've never ridden into the hills? Not even Grizzly Peak? Do you even own a bike? :rolleyes:

sounds good so far - would this be the Pig Farm loop you speak of?
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/168305242

That's it but I'd go a little farther south on the trip back over the Berkely Hills to take Pinehurst up to Skyline... that's a must do. Really.

Here's my classic Berkeley ride:

1. Start at Sather Gate, Sproul Plaza, on the south side of campus. Go south to Telegraph Ave.

2. From the edge of campus, go down Telegraph one block to Durant Ave., turn left.

3. A couple of hundred yards up the street, stop at Top Dog. Feast.

http://www.topdoghotdogs.com/shop_pics/southside.jpg

4. Optional: Work it off by doing someone else's idea of a "classic" Berkeley ride.

Wow! Top Dog is still there! I used to feast there when I was at Cal. Last time was 31 years ago, though :( .

Someone should have the route slip for the grizzly peak metric century ... that has a good mix of hills, including Pig Farm, 3 bears .... but you'll have to wait for the ride in May to enjoy the glorious layout of food ... it rocks!

Tapeworm has it right - the classic is, IMHO, is going to be along the ridge-line with a turn through the redwoods on Pinehurst. Much more scenic than bears and pig farm (two rides I do all the time). Fantastic views most of the way and dropping into the redwoods is really cool. Literally. And, depending on where you start only one or two traffic lights in 40+ miles.

Where are you starting from? I'll give you directions from there...

Tapeworm has it right - the classic is, IMHO, is going to be along the ridge-line with a turn through the redwoods on Pinehurst. Much more scenic than bears and pig farm (two rides I do all the time). Fantastic views most of the way and dropping into the redwoods is really cool. Literally. And, depending on where you start only one or two traffic lights in 40+ miles.

Where are you starting from? I'll give you directions from there...

+1 I cut my teeth on the bears, so to speak.

Funnily enough, I just went UP pinehurst to Skyline today for the first time early in the morning; absolutely fantastic ride. The scenery is awesome - just riding there makes you glad to be alive; man I love cycling in the east bay.

RelevantCycling - I'll be starting from Walnut St. near the gourmet ghetto just north of campus. I look forward to checking out your route.

Thanks-
Justin

RelevantCycling - I'll be starting from Walnut St. near the gourmet ghetto just north of campus. I look forward to checking out your route.

Thanks-
Justin

Ride East two blocks to Spruce and take a left (North, up the hill). At the top take a left on Grizzly Peak Blvd. Distances below are from the corner of Spruce and Grizzly Peak and are not exact (but are close) because I usually ride from my house on Grizzly Peak.

Follow Grizzly Peak until it ends at Skyline Blvd, 7.5miles.
Go Left
Follow Skyline until it ends at the light. 12.5 miles.
Go Left (Skyline continuation)
At the next light (4 or 500 yards) go Left (Redwood Road)
Drop down Redwood and take the first Left, Pinehurst Road. 16 miles
Pinehurst to Skyline.
Right on Skyline (22 miles)
Right on Grizzly Peak (this is the only turn you may be in danger of missing, watch for it 200 yards past the entrance to Robert Sibley Park)
Left on spruce

The route from your start is about 35 miles with apprx. 3,700 feet of climbing.

I've eaten at Top Dog twice this week because of this thread.

Thanks Relevant -

here is how I mapped it out based on your directions. Let me know what you think:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/250245446

Ride East two blocks to Spruce and take a left (North, up the hill). At the top take a left on Grizzly Peak Blvd. Distances below are from the corner of Spruce and Grizzly Peak and are not exact (but are close) because I usually ride from my house on Grizzly Peak.

Follow Grizzly Peak until it ends at Skyline Blvd, 7.5miles.
Go Left
Follow Skyline until it ends at the light. 12.5 miles.
Go Left (Skyline continuation)
At the next light (4 or 500 yards) go Left (Redwood Road)
Drop down Redwood and take the first Left, Pinehurst Road. 16 miles
Pinehurst to Skyline.
Right on Skyline (22 miles)
Right on Grizzly Peak (this is the only turn you may be in danger of missing, watch for it 200 yards past the entrance to Robert Sibley Park)
Left on spruce

The route from your start is about 35 miles with apprx. 3,700 feet of climbing.

+1

This is a great, classic Berkeley ride. I did it this past weekend. It has a little bit of everything: nice views on Grizzly, nice descents, and plenty of climbing. Have fun.

A combination of those two routes is likely to be the nicer than either one. On the http://calcycling.org/?q=node/191
route, it would be much nicer around mile 35 to turn left at San Pablo Dam Road, go a few miles to Wildcat Canyon Road and then go back on the first five miles of the
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/168305242
route via Wildcat Canyon Road and then down Spruce St back into Berkeley.

Thanks Relevant -

here is how I mapped it out based on your directions. Let me know what you think:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/250245446

That's it - enjoy!

roydyates - how's this look?

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/82646329

roydyates - how's this look?

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/82646329

That's a pretty awesome ride. Its nice you got the best part of pinehurst as well as the pig farm. However, if you decided you just wanted to go just 30-35 miles, the grizzly-skyline-redwood-pinehurst route suggested earlier is really the best.

If you do decide to go on this longer 50 mile ride, my only suggestion would be to think twice about going up Marin Ave! I know it's way to steep for me with on a compact double with 25T in the back. I ride by marin Ave pretty much each day, and I never see anybody climbing it. Check out

http://www.inl.org/bicycle/deathride.html

for a description. If you want to go up one way and down the other, go up spruce and down euclid, or the other way around.

That's a pretty awesome ride. Its nice you got the best part of pinehurst as well as the pig farm. However, if you decided you just wanted to go just 30-35 miles, the grizzly-skyline-redwood-pinehurst route suggested earlier is really the best.

If you do decide to go on this longer 50 mile ride, my only suggestion would be to think twice about going up Marin Ave! I know it's way to steep for me with on a compact double with 25T in the back. I ride by marin Ave pretty much each day, and I never see anybody climbing it. Check out

http://www.inl.org/bicycle/deathride.html

for a description. If you want to go up one way and down the other, go up spruce and down euclid, or the other way around.

Anyone here done Marin? I checked out the Berkeley Hills Death Rides link a little while back; I cramped up and fell off my seat just reading it.