Southern California - San Diego North County, I'm coming to see you, advice?

I just decided I want to go to ride for a few days. I spoke on the phone with a guy named Mario at Ranch Cycles and he told me I should stay somewhere near there and that there were a lot of group rides available to me. I'm not sure which days I will go yet, and that it completely open within the window of 7.28 and 8.4.

I am a competent, but somewhat out of shape rider. On a 30 mile ride, my average speed here in Phoenix is about 17-18mph including stop lights and such. My moving speeds on level ground hover just above 20mph. I am pretty inexperienced in climbing only because it is very flat here in Phoenix. We have one mountain with a road up it, which is a 1155ft gain in just over 6 miles so nothing extreme. Right now, about 40 miles is my top range, though that has been the past couple of weeks and in 100+ degree weather, so maybe 50 isn't out of the question in lower elevation and cooler temps near San Diego.

Can anyone recommend rides that I won't be dropped on? I would rather ride with guys that are just out to have a good time rather than serious training rides. Where should I stay? I want to be around $50 a night so I can stay for a few days.

thanks!!

Where should I stay? I want to be around $50 a night so I can stay for a few days.thanks!!

Since it is the off-season, you might get lucky and find a place in Blythe or Quartsite. ;)

Since it is the off-season, you might get lucky and find a place in Blythe or Quartsite. ;)

there are a few options I found. :P

$50 a day? I'm getting itchy just thinking about it.

$50 a day? I'm getting itchy just thinking about it.

mehhhhhhh whatever.

I work in a ridiculously high end resort that tops $700/night in season. I'm jaded by the entire hotel thing. I just want a bed to sleep in. I'd rather spend my money on fun stuff when I'm there.

Interesting I can get critiques on how much my lodging budget is, and people can be quick to try to make fun of that, but can't provide any actual help to me.

Figures.

mehhhhhhh whatever.

Interesting I can get critiques on how much my lodging budget is, and people can be quick to try to make fun of that, but can't provide any actual help to me.

Figures.

North County Locals found guilty of providing useful information to 'Zonies are subject to extradition from the county. :lol:

On this page there is another thread about someone coming to San Diego and some routes are posted in there. As far as group rides, I usually ride solo or with a couple of friends and avoid the big pack groups. I do know that there are organized group rides out of Nytro Bike Shop on Saturday mornings and there is a guy out of the Bicycle Warehouse in Encinitas that organizes a Thursday evening ride. I can't tell you much about these rides other than if you take off with the wrong group from Nytro you will be smoked pretty quickly.

I would recommend the San Diego Bicycle Club D-3 ride. This is a developmental ride that leaves every Saturday morning at 8:30 from UC Cyclery in La Jolla. It is a no-drop ride, and the people on it are very friendly. Length is around 36 miles, with a little of 1200 feet of climbing. There's a section where they do a double rotating pace line, but there's plenty of instruction and nothing to be worried about. The route is very picturesque.

I think there's a Motel 6 in Carlsbad that truckers stay at that's around $59 a night.

Also the Howard Johnson's on the 5 and Leucadia Blvd is a real fleabagarino, but I still don't know if they're within your budget.

I would recommend the San Diego Bicycle Club D-3 ride. This is a developmental ride that leaves every Saturday morning at 8:30 from UC Cyclery in La Jolla. It is a no-drop ride, and the people on it are very friendly. Length is around 36 miles, with a little of 1200 feet of climbing. There's a section where they do a double rotating pace line, but there's plenty of instruction and nothing to be worried about. The route is very picturesque.

I think there's a Motel 6 in Carlsbad that truckers stay at that's around $59 a night.

That actually all sounds doable. I forgot to say my pace that I quoted in the original post is solo. With a group, I can ride with guys that do 22-23 and have no issues. Still not fast, but definitely not bottom of the barrel slow.

That actually all sounds doable. I forgot to say my pace that I quoted in the original post is solo. With a group, I can ride with guys that do 22-23 and have no issues. Still not fast, but definitely not bottom of the barrel slow.

If you've done a rotating pace line before, and want a slightly longer and faster ride, you can go for the D-1 ride. That is a drop ride, and around 45 miles total. It's slightly faster than the D-3 ride. Also leaves at 8:30 am.

There are other group rides in North County, but they tend to be faster and the riders are much more used to climbing. Unless you can hammer up the hills, you're likely to be dropped before you know what happened to you.

SDBC B ride is pretty mellow pace, although SDBC isn't know for being the most safe of rides

Here is some potentially useful info:

http://www.sdbc.org/core/template.php?page=ride.satride
http://www.efgh.com/bike/rides.htm

SDBC B ride is pretty mellow pace, although SDBC isn't know for being the most safe of rides

That's the A ride (anarchy ride) that's known for that. The B ride is the club training ride and is mentored by SDBC rider Jim Ring and other club riders. The front group will push the pace after the regroup after "Stud Loop".

You should probably stay away from the b ride. Do the D rides. Don't do the encinitas(swamis) ride, you will be dropped very quickly if you are not in good form and can't climb.

Hello,

I am new to this forum and somewhat new to San Diego bicycle riding and want to make some suggestions based on my San Diego bike experience since November 2010.

I sailed my 40' boat from Puget Sound to San Diego in September 2010 after one too many wet&cold Puget Sound summer time rides (I have lived in B'ham/Seattle/Tacoma since 1965 and have been a serious rider the entire time). I got my mountain and road bikes down to the boat in mid-November and felt like I had died and gone to bicycle heaven! I have been living on my boat in San Diego since late January and ride almost every day (3 days/week hard mountain biking & 3 days/week of 40+ mile road rides).

Most of my riding is south of Encinitas but I have done some stuff north of there.

You can find $39 - $59 hotel rooms in Hotel Circle (I-8 between the 163 and I-5) and in the Midway area (just east of Ocean Beach and south of I-8) - at least that is what all the signs I see there say. It is a 20 minute drive from Hotel Circle to Encinitias / Rancho Bernardo / Poway / Chula Vista / Otay Lakes (i.e. pretty convenient to all kinds of riding)

I don't do group rides anymore - I prefer to ride by myself or with one or two close friends. I had no trouble finding dozens (maybe hundreds) of great rides. I used several online websites (e.g. MapMyRide shows 969 rides in San Diego county) and talked to several bike shops (Performance in Midway was very helpful with routes). There is also a very good paperback book of road rides (Cycling San Diegon by Nelso Copp & Jerry Schad $11 at Amazon) - I found it it be accurate and useful with good elevation guides.

I'd suggest riding by yourself and exploring beautiful San Diego county at your own pace on rides that interest you.

A coupe of observations about San Diego by a very experienced but non-San Diego rider

1) It is impossible to ride more than 20 miles without climbing several 300'+ hills
2) It gets pretty steep pretty fast east of I-15
3) San Diego car drivers are very considerate of bicyclists - I've ridden in many places and San Diego seems best
4) It gets REALLY hot east of I-15
5) Riding North-South along the coast (west of I-5) stays nice and cool with a consistent afternoon sea breeze
6) The scenery east of I-15 is astounding - I love desert hills and valleys and love to ride east from Escondido / Santee / Poway / Rancho Bernardo
7) There is a lot of interesting riding SE of San Diego (Otay/Jamul)
8) ANY road with the name "valley" (e.g. Highland Valley) in it is certain to climb/descend hundreds of feet every mile as it goes over ridge after ridge

I plan to spend most of next winter riding in San Diego before I head south to Mexico (2001 - 2004 on my boat in the Sea of Cortez and used my mountain bike to explore hundreds of miles of desert trails)

Tacoma sailor is living the dream. Thanks for the advice. Kind of off topic but have you mountain biked hear San Carlos/Guaymas? Amazing trails there.

Well I came back from my trip and had a fairly epic time. Thanks for all of the useful responses in this thread.

Day 1: Left Ranch Cycles and rode about 35mi, amazed by how many bike lanes there were, amazed by the bike path along side the 56 as we don't have anything like that here. Also amazed at how much climbing I was doing. Seemed that everything was uphill, toward the ocean, away from the ocean, paralell to the ocean, didn't matter, uphill! Climbed 2,000 feet this day.

Day 2: Went on the SDBC ride, despite all the warnings from people that I shouldn't go. Everyone said go Swamis but I was intimidated, turns out I should have anyway. Now I knew by this point why everyone calls it the Stupid Dangerous Bicycle Club. We got on I-5 for a brief time, a guy went down because he couldn't unclip, they rode in the left lane long before it was time to get in the turning lane, and generally made me afraid to ride in the peloton. When I arrived, they told me I had to do the D-3 ride since it was my first time, I said fine ok whatever at least I'll be riding a bike. By the middle of the ride, the leader annoyingly told me I should have gone on B or D-1 because I was too fast for this group. We stoped to regroup several times with 15-30 minutes stopped at each point. Very annoying. We did a couple of short hill climbs in Rancho Santa Fe and I attacked up them and got scolded, then when I rode Torrey Pines hill at my speed, they all glared at me as I finished about 2 minutes ahead of the group. Would not do this ride again.

Day 3: met the Ranch Cycles guys for their Sunday recovery ride. 22 miles and a pretty easy ride even with my tired legs and there was only one good climb. Was my favorite ride of the bunch because the people were really nice and it was a no drama ride. Still amazed at how much uphill riding there was. Rancho Diegeto, Camino Del Sur, and Carmel Valley all had a lot of rollers that were a little on the long side to be considered rollers.

You guys in North County and the coast have some incredible riding, and cars seem really used to bicycles. That was close to being a perfect three days of riding.

Maybe warmshowers if you're on it. Or couchsurfing. But don't contact me on warmshowers cuz I'm only on it to leech

Edit oh you're done mm