Orange County Group Rides this Weekend? Como Street Ride Still On?
 

My son and I will be in Costa Mesa for a few days, looking for college apartments. I plan to bring my road bike and would like to join a group ride Sunday morning. Ideally, 2-4 hours, with climbing. Any suggestions? I've done a bit of searching, but not much current info. found.

Did find a few sites re. a Como Street Sunday am ride. Anyone know if it is still held?

Linky:

http://www.socalvelo.com/sub/routes/como.htm


Thanks.

yes.

Yes. Can you hold 25 in a pace line and climb at 18 mph? Are you willing to blow through red lights? If not, you'll get dropped from Como. It is also about a 90 minute ride if you stay with the main group. It's mostly full of the racers and fast guys that do coffee crew and food park.

For a solo ride, just use the Santa Ana River Trail (aka 'SART' on this forum). Its between Cosat Mesa and Huntington Beach. It goes from the beach up into inland orange county to the Riverside County. There's soem construction near the beach, so I'd suggest you go into Huntington Beach and head for the east end of Atlanta Ave. where it dead ends into the river - there's a few street parking spaces there across from the medical office bldg that are usually open. From there jsut ride towards the river levee and up onto it (you'll see the gate opening and asphalt path). Once on the levee you go left to proceed inland, right to the beach (about 1.5 miles if its not still blocked). Inland you can go up to Angel statium in Anaheim and come back for a good 24 miles of flat riding with some underpasses under the streets - boring, but something that you won't get lost on since its out-and-back. There was some criminal activity through Santa Ana about 1.5 years ago (from the soccer field north for about 2 miles), but none since then, but still keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Its pretty quiet in the morning, but gets busy about mid-morning due to all the beach-bound bike traffic.

If Como is your flavor then these rides won't be interesting for you but check out:

bikeirvine.org
ocrebels.com
ocw.org

Each has various levels of rides for Sundays and non-members are welcome...rides slips are listed for each day so you can check out distance and elevation... it's very difficult to find a 2 - 4 hr ride in OC that does not have hills unless you just ride along the beach from Newport North...

On Sunday, July 21, instead of following a predetermined route, the Orange County Rebels (http://ocrebels.com) will be mapping out their own individual routes from Windrow Park in Irvine to Einstein’s Bagels at 27695 Santa Margarita Pkwy, Mission Viejo. There's a description on the home page of the website.

That means you won't be able to check out a route in advance. However, if you show up at the park a little before 8:00 AM, I'm sure you'll be able to find a group that is your level, and you'll be invited to ride with them.

Thanks for the tips, All. I did join the OC Rebels on their Make-up-your-own-Route ride to Einstein Bagels. I feel smarter and more rebellious for it. Nice meeting you, Jesse, Rick, and others.

ill have to give the SART a try, next time.

Hi Patrick, Hope you had a good time but honestly, it was a much wimpier than usual Rebel ride on Sunday. I was pretty burned out from the ride several of us did on Saturday http://connect.garmin.com/activity/345618459 plus I was on my fixed gear, plus it really wasn't very many miles.

Okay, a good recovery ride for me, but not much for you, unfortunately. Watch this forum for more exciting and challenging rides that are more the norm for weekend rides in SoCal. I'm not a big fan of SART, just because there's not much climbing, but it is good for fast flat-land riding with no auto traffic.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=330398 Photo of Patrick as we pulled into the coffee stop (Einsteins Begals on Santa Margarita).

Rick / OCRR

[QUOTE=Rick@OCRR;15875381]Hi Patrick, Hope you had a good time but honestly, it was a much wimpier than usual Rebel ride on Sunday. I was pretty burned out from the ride several of us did on Saturday http://connect.garmin.com/activity/345618459 plus I was on my fixed gear, plus it really wasn't very many miles.

Okay, a good recovery ride for me, but not much for you, unfortunately. Watch this forum for more exciting and challenging rides that are more the norm for weekend rides in SoCal. I'm not a big fan of SART, just because there's not much climbing, but it is good for fast flat-land riding with no auto traffic.[QUOTE]

Thanks for the message, Rick. Actually, I wound up having a pretty nice ride due to some wrong turns on my way back to CM. 4 hours, total, some 70 miles. Y'all have some of the smoothest roads I've ever ridden...