Southern California - Moving from Miami, Fl to South California.

My girlfriend and I will be moving to South California during the summer. She got a job opportunity in downtown LA.

In Miami I strategically moved to an area near all our major rides. Hammer rides, recover rides, century rides, mountain bike trails all within a 10 mile radius. I never need to use my car here.

I'd like to do something similar when I move to California, but I don't want to be too far from downtown LA. I don't want my girlfriend sitting in your famous traffic just so I can ride bike.

I'm serious about cycling. Right now I'm on a team and train 5-7 days a week. I'm a 23 year old college drop out. I'm a certified Natural Running coach and work at a local running store. Now you have some insight on what I do and how i get my income.

Hopefully this is enough information to get some suggestions on where I should be looking to move to.

Thanks in advance!
If you want to send me a private message please feel free to do so.

If your girlfriend's new job is literally downtown and she won't need to be driving from client to client, I highly suggest looking into Pasadena. It's a relaxing 30 minute ride to downtown on the light rail. When I lived in Pasadena, I used the light rail any time I needed to go downtown (jury duty, museums, performances, visits to my work's headquarters, etc.). I still do, actually, but I only moved to the San Fernando Valley to be close to the family and free babysitting. It's otherwise a 15-30 minute ride through dull city to get to anywhere worth riding.

For you, it's at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains with plenty of beautiful, low traffic routes to ride. It's also where the Montrose Ride takes place every Saturday, covering 30-45 miles at a pace of about 25-30 mph.

Even with a car, it's not too bad of a commute, but she will spend about 30-60 minutes in poky traffic each way. If that's too much, look into places in and around Los Feliz.

I second Pasadena, for all the reasons urbanknight listed. There's also a couple of good bike shops there and fairly good bike lanes. The biggest downside to the SGV is the hassle getting over to the beach and westside of town if you ever want/need to be there. But it's great for downtown and recreation in the San Gabriels. You can ride the San Gabriel River Trail, too...:)

What Alice said, plus in Pasadena you'll be close to great climbs like Hwy 39, Angeles Crest (Hwy 2), Glendora Mountain Road / Glendora Ridge Road, etc.

Rick / OCRR

Pasadena is definitely the cycling hub of the downtown side of the city. They have the Rose Bowl Ride, the Montrose Ride, access to some great climbs, and a couple of decent bike stores.

Adjoining neighborhoods are South Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Altadena. If you can't move there, come on over to Echo Park/Silverlake/Los Feliz because we have better nightlife.