Northern California - San Jose conference bike ride suggestions

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dragonian
03-10-10, 10:03 PM
I'll be traveling to San Jose end of April for a conference.. Does anyone have any moderate ride suggestions? Maybe rides that are worth it for a half a day or two...

I also need bike rental suggestions... I don't think it's worth it to pack/ship my bike based upon the short time that'll have to ride..

Unfortunately at this point I'll not have ridden any thing appreciable since Sept/Oct, so I'm sure I'm fat and slow... but i look longing at the upstate NY to warm up.. and hopefully work some real rides into my work schedule...

The plan is that I have to be at the conference Monday-Thursday, so either weekend might be cool... but need to plan my travel arrangements soon.. so if anyone has suggestions, they'd be appreciated...

If there are any group rides in the area let me know...

Thanks
--dragon

johnny99
03-12-10, 10:56 AM
Not much good riding in downtown San Jose. There are some nice loops around the reservoirs south of town or in hills to the west. Mt. Hamilton to the east is one of the most popular hill climbs in San Jose (4500 foot climb, but very gradual).
loopybunny
03-12-10, 06:16 PM
Follower on Twitter frequently travels to SJ on business and rides to the west around the La Honda area. Not sure I'd call it "moderate" though. I'm carsick just thinking about it.

Anyhow, I suggest the 50 mile route used for the Livestrong Challenge. http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/san-jose/474124676549156395

The 65 mile route would include Metcalf which is supposedly a real challenge.

johnny99
03-12-10, 06:29 PM
"Moderate" is relative. Lots of recreational cyclists ride from Stanford Univ. over the hill to La Honda and back. Old La Honda Road, Page Mill Road, and Tunitas Creek Road are popular routes. Starting from San Jose would be quite a bit of extra distance, though.
niknak
03-14-10, 10:35 PM
You can rent really nice road bikes from the Silicon Valley Cycling Center (http://svcyclingcenter.com/) in the neighboring city of Campbell. There's not a ton of good rides from San Jose proper. There's a whole lot more just a ways north if you use Palo Alto as your starting point.
prathmann
03-14-10, 11:07 PM
The Mt. Hamilton ride to Lick Observatory at the summit would give you some great views of the area and a nice destination. Although there's lots of climbing (it's the highest mountain you can ride up in this area), the grade never gets very steep. The road was designed to allow horse-drawn carts to carry the heavy telescope pieces to the summit, so they went to great lengths to avoid steep sections.

Here's the route and some pictures from one of our club rides to the summit:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=384585

[If you click on the jagged line in the lower right part of the map you can switch to 'statistics mode' to see the elevation profile and data.]