Northern California - A NorCal cyclist sighting at UC Santa Cruz

I wanted to stop you to say hi but didn't want to mess up your groove. I was at UCSC moving my son into his dorm when I saw you circle the campus at least twice. Maybe I'll bring my bike next time I'm at UCSC and ride your route.

So who's the mystery cyclist? Where do you park your car or do you begin your ride from home? Beautiful campus, isn't it?

qpliu?

I wanted to stop you to say hi but didn't want to mess up your groove. I was at UCSC moving my son into his dorm when I saw you circle the campus at least twice. Maybe I'll bring my bike next time I'm at UCSC and ride your route.

So who's the mystery cyclist? Where do you park your car or do you begin your ride from home? Beautiful campus, isn't it?


It wasn't me, but I did ride my duaghter's bike from the car to one of the bike racks during her move in at stevenson. I was thinking of doing rides when I went to visit also. It might be a mountain ride w/ my duaghter. I may be interested in other rides, I'll have to see how it goes when I visit.

It is an very beautiful campus, the view on Sat was amazing. I'm jealous.

Jeff

Sunday afternoon around 3-3:30? That was me. I live a couple blocks from the south entrance, so I ride up there several times a week.

Yup, Sunday afternoon. Nice place to ride for sure.

Jeff, my son's at Cowell in a quad dorm. I moved him in on Saturday but spent the night and toured Santa Cruz and the campus all day Sunday. Next time I will definitely bring my bike and just ride around campus like qpliu. That's got to be at least a 5 mile loop with a good portion of it uphill.

Yup, Sunday afternoon. Nice place to ride for sure.

Jeff, my son's at Cowell in a quad dorm. I moved him in on Saturday but spent the night and toured Santa Cruz and the campus all day Sunday. Next time I will definitely bring my bike and just ride around campus like qpliu. That's got to be at least a 5 mile loop with a good portion of it uphill.


I may bring my bike on my next visit. It seems like a bike friendly place. All the bike racks at stevenson were packed by the end of sat. Does your son know about the bike co-op? Does anyone know about empire grade? seems like it would be a good ride to boony doon or something.

Might be a few weeks before I go down there.

Jeff

UCSC has a cycling team too. Mountain and road. I do a lot of the management for the road division. We're looking for more members, so you should tell your kids.

Empire Grade is great for some quality climbing. I think the average grade over the first 9 miles is something like 5-6%, but the climbing comes in between small flats and descents making for some steep pitches. Has fast traffic at times but if you turn off onto Smith Grade you get a nice low-to-no traffic descent followed by a small climb over to Bonny Doon Rd, which is a very nice area.

- Colin.

Are there tryouts to get on the team? What do you look for in team members? My son tried out for the water polo team but didn't make it. Not a fast enough swimmer as he's built like a rugby player. He probably won't be a fast enough cyclist either but he's in really good shape, aerobically and very strong.

I think the water polo teams go to nationals on a regular basis so I can see them being pretty harsh. We're a club team so there's no tryout involved. Just gotta pay team dues and like riding bikes, whether that be road, XC, downhill, whatever. We have a few jetsetters but for the most part we function at a Cat4/5 level.

Thanks crbrown for the info (my last name is brown, maybe we're related :) ) My daughter is going out for rugby. She might be interested in the bike team. She has a hard tail mountain bike. Also, she's a freshman in the dorms so having a nice bike there might be a problem.

How bad is the traffic on Empire Grade. From a map it looks like sleepy quiet roads, but I guess that is decieving. Also, Booney doon road puts you on Hwy 1. Is there much of a shoulder? I saw that the rail line is going to be converted to a trail, but that's probably years away.

I guess I could always bring the MTB and do wilder ranch.

Thanks,

Jeff