I have been toying with the idea of doing a 100m off road ride for a while. I am not thinking of some epic single track monster but rather a dirt road ride where cross bikes could be happy.
Any suggestions for Venues or interest in joining me ?
I was thinking Eldarado National forest could be a nice venue as it has hundreds of miles of forest roads and it is really scenic in the fall.
I don't know, 100 meters is a pretty short ride...
Sounds interesting. I don't have a cross bike, but I figure I can put some 35c tires on a vintage bike and make it work. Worst case, it will be a real workout on a full suspension mountain bike.
That sounds terrible. Good luck if you do it, though!
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I was just looking up gravel grinder/ dirt centuries in CA and couldn't find any. You'd probably have to link together a bunch of trails with mixed riding. Do you have a link to the trails in Eldarado National forest.
I am trying to figure out a suitable forest. Stanislaus may also be a possibility as it has hundreds of miles of jeep trails.Originally Posted by ibis_ti
Sounds like fun!
During the Antioch years, I was working toward Rivertown through Black Diamond Preserve - Fredericks gate, over "the Wall," down to the main road, up to microwave dishes and then down to Clayton - to peak of Diablo via Mitchell Canyon and back.
That's not 100 miles, but it's a start.
I did get partly up Mitchell Canyon a few times, then turned back home - 40+ miles that, with several decent climbs in there, six or seven.
From Pittsburg BART station, bikepath to Rivertown, a tour of the RR tracks, the ones next to the water - West to the Wetlands Preserve loop, East to old downtown Oakely - for warmup, then through the neighborhoods to the Fredericks gate, up into Black Diamond, run some of the trails, with out&back (down and up) to Clayton for lunch, some more trails (do all the peaks!) and back to BART, well, that's a lot of miles. Adding the bike path that parallels A street should do it.
In Chico, the run from Paradise up to Sawmill Peak, then around and about the ridgeline that surrounds Concow lake yields a lot of miles.
But those days are gone for Spiduhman - here in San Luis Obispo, run up the grade on the old road, then along and around the Cuesta Ridge + the backlands of Cal Poly would make a good ol' dirty cent, sure enough.
I do miss Black Diamond - the trails, snakes, cayotes, tarantulas, birds, bobcats, deer, lions, and crazy-ass cyclists.
If ever you all are down this way, give a shout.
"It beats the alternative." "Every day is a good day." - PoppaDaddy
Any updates on this? I think it might be possible to put something that links portions of the ridge trail and some of the state parks and open space preserves (Big Basin, Portola, etc). There are a lot of old logging roads and fire roads which would be perfect. I'm going to do some exploring tomorrow. I'm not sure it'll be 100% dirt but I'd settle for greater than 50%.
I've been jealous of the folks in the midwest enjoying these types of events. It's a little odd that we can't string together something similar here with all the trails, but suitable spans seem to be seperated by equal parts road, at least as far as I've been able to discover. Would love to find some new routes.
There are a few 100+ mile events that start in SF that combine roads with a large portion of fire roads/trails, and they're designed to be rideable on road bikes (with a minimum recommended tire width of 30mm).
In September 2012, the SF Randonneurs will put on the Marin Mountains 200k for the first time.
More informally, some of us who ride with the SF Randonneurs have been doing a ride called La Ruta Loca once a year, although I'm not sure if anyone ended up doing it in 2011. Route sheet for that here.
The La Ruta Loca route, which is 200k because the route's creator initially was hoping to make it a RUSA-sanctioned permanent, could be shortened/revised to make it more dirt-centric -- i.e., you could cut out stretches of pavement that are included in the route primarily to ensure that it's 125 miles long.
Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't look at that site for a while. I guess I have something to train for now!
Oh for a ride like this round here :-)
http://coloradodirtroads.blogspot.co...t-century.html
That's nice. I am pretty sure I could disintegrate my CX bike on that one. Maybe if I brought spare brake pads and swapped out at the stops.
--Ben
2011 Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno, 2009 Motobecane Fantom CX, 2011 Windsor Shetland (prototype)
Previously: 2000 Trek 4500 (2000-2003), 2003 Novara Randonee (2003-2006), 2003 Giant Rainier (2003-2008), 2005 Xootr Swift (2005-2007), 2007 Nashbar 1x9 (NB-SF2 frame)
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