Tandem Cycling - Lighthouse Century - very tandem friendly option

My wife and I almost did the flat Lighthouse Century today. We started the metric and continued to the century turnaround for about 90 miles total. Age totalizer exceeds 120 so we're not interested in 15% grades so the "flat" option suits us. This is a beautiful ride - ocean, cows, zebras, rocks, harbor seals and rolling hills; max grade I saw was 6-7%. Most of you who live in the west will have been familiar with this ride as I'm sure it's been around for a long time, but we've only been riding for a year, tandem for about 5 months. Our goal is to be able to do normal California centuries next year which will have 5K+ of climbing I would think. Time will tell.

We hadn't preregistered so it took about two days of checking the buy/sell page every 15-30 minutes to buy two entries. All and all not too bad.

Oh, and I had to do the ride in a pair of my wife's bicycling shorts as mine disappeared enroute. I'm 6' 205 and wife wears a woman's small short. Ain't lycra wonderful.

We did the hilly option last year, I don't remember anything 15%. It was a nice route though. That one descent I think it it HWY 46 was awesome on the tandem.

+1 we did the hilly century on the triplet a couple of years ago and maybe there was some 10% short grades but no 15% that I recall. This is the premier ride for Central California.

Agree. I didn't think this hilly century had 15% grades, but we're sneaking up on this century thing. I'm sure next year we'll be fit enough. The only drawback to the flat metric and century was the almost exclusive out and back nature of the courses, but the coast is so beautiful that you hardly notice.

Actually if you ride up old creak (the hilly route) it is 5 miles of 10% average grade, then 3 miles of 6% to the top of HWY 46. There are a couple spots where it gets a little steeper, like in the hairpin and near the big Cyprus tree. In years past the hilly route went straight across onto Santa Rosa Creek Rd from Old creek. That's the way I still like to go and it had 3/4 mile of 20% followed by one of the narliest descents you'd ever do. They stopped doing that route for fear of someone crashing. The lighthouse is an awesome ride, lots of fun! It's in my neighborhood so I can do it every day! :)

I've ridden up Santa Rosa from Cambria a few times.
Tried to do it once on the tandem and we did not have low enough gears, my wife was in tears and we turned back. The next time I was on my single and there were some 20%+ grades, finally made it to hwy 46 and had to climb some more to the summit and then the screaming downhill. Never tried doing old creek.

We were on the road heading south when this ride was going North....White Tandem with Blue Panniers ... my left arm got tired form waving

we rode from San Simeon to Pismo Beach yesterday
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/tourdemiller3

1,331 miles so far

bikeguy....' saw you guys as you were heading south near Harmony...you both looked fresh as a daisy and the bike and panniers looked spotless. Hard to believe you had been on the road for weeks...thanks for the waive.

rdtompki...If you were on a silver Davinci, you guys rode buy us a couple of times on the way back in from the Lighthouse turn-a-round. We spoke with your wife at one of the rest stops...lovely lady with big enthusiasim.... for only five months back, I think you are selling yourself waaaay short because you are quite fast already and you look plenty ready right now for some climbing Centuries The Riverbank Century near Modesto is in two weeks if you are so inclined...'can't find how much climbing is involved but hope it is manageable... as we'll find out the old fashion way.
BTW..nice Tandem!

Bill J.

Bill,
That was us on the silver Davinci. Appreciate the kind words. We've made a lot of progress since buying the tandem, but I don't want to push us too hard. Might just take a look at the long term weather forecast in terms of the Modesto Century; I hadn't seen that one advertised. BTW, we're using a 13-30 9 speed cassette which is almost perfect with our 24-36-28-60 chainrings. Give up a bit of top end as we're not spinners, but the 24-30 is low enough for us old folk.