iamtim

Ok, so, I'm a mid-40s guy who lives in La Habra. I've been riding consistently - albeit a bit fair-weatheredly - since 2005. (I work in Irvine so it's hard for me to get weekday rides during the months where it's cold and gets dark early; I have lights and warmer weather gear, but I think it's dangerous to ride at night alone even if well-lit. I'm not opposed to riding at night, just riding solo at night.) I'm not a racer; I ride for fitness and enjoyment, and tend to average 13-16 MPH.

I normally ride through La Habra/Hacienda Heights, down through La Mirada, or out through Brea. Ultimately I'd like to ride twice during the week and once on the weekends, but during this time of year it winds up being once on the weekends... twice if I can wrangle it.

So anyway, I'm looking for people in my area at my level with whom I can ride. If you're interested, or know any groups which might be a good fit, please let me know.

nesdog

It's a bit of a drive to our area but if you are looking for a change, we have a shop ride every Saturday at 8. Multiple groups and routes, from racer (so not me) to average to beginners. Our middle group generally does 35-50 miles. As we are located right at the SM Mountains, we generally have some climbs. Nice bunch...I've been riding with some of them for years.

Serious Cycling on Thousand Oaks Blvd. Website or Facebook page has some info.

Elvo

I ride with the Jax shop on Culver. We have a night ride that rolls out around 7:45 every Wednesday night. It's a no drop ride but we do tend to keep it around 16 mph (or faster if we have a fast group).

There's also the ARoadBike4U shop ride that starts at 6 pm every Wednesday as well. I think it starts back up in the spring when there's more light.

TJClay

Check out some of the groups on meetup.com. I ride with one called Roberts Cycling Adventures. Good mix of intermediate riders and they happen to be riding in your neighborhood this Sunday. There's also plenty of clubs in Orange County, BCI, OCW, etc. I belong to OCW (Orange County Wheelmen), probably where I'll be tomorrow.

iamtim

I just signed up for that Robert's Cycling Adventures and may catch a bit of tomorrow's ride! Thanks for the tip.

Thousand Oaks and Tustin are a bit far for me, for regular rides. Thanks for those tips as well, though.

Rick@OCRR

Since you work in Irvine, we have OCRR rides out of Windrow Park in Irvine starting at 6:00PM on Tues. evenings. About 25 - 30 miles with a fast group off the front and a groupetto off the back.

Anyone is welcome and route sheets are provided.

Rick / OCRR

Big B

Im up in Hacienda Heights and ride Turnbull, La Habra Heights all the time. If you ever wanna ride early on a Sat. morning let me know.

TrojanHorse

Me too, I live near Colima/ Mar Vista in Whittier and my motivation has been suffering this year so any mini-group rides would be welcome.

Rick@OCRR

Me too, I live near Colima/Leffingwell in Whittier and my motivation has been fine but I'm always up for a little suffering in the Whittier Hills, Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Puente Hills areas!

Rick / OCRR

iamtim

Rick, I may just check out that Wednesday night ride. It sounds like fun.

Big B, TrojanHorse, Rick... you guys are all right up the street from me, I'm by La Habra and Beach behind the Cosco there. The gearing on my "new" bike is a bit harder than I'm used to so my hill-climbing isn't as speedy as it used to be (that said, I've always been more of a slow-and-steady climber), so if you're cool with waiting up for me on the bigger climbs we should all get together for a few West/East road runs or something.

...

Although I haven't yet tried my "new" bike on "Cactus hill" (the first climb on East road headed, well, east from Hacienda - there's a big cactus plant on the right near the top). That climb has always given me problems, heh.

TrojanHorse

I'm all about waiting. I'm not a particularly fast climber either, Rick can attest to that.

I always figured harder gearing made you faster up hills, assuming that you don't have to get off and cross train your way up.

jimxyz

I have to look into the Tuesday evening ride as well - I too work in Irvine, near A Road Bike 4 You - and their Wednesday evening ride is a good one. Although they do head down some pretty busy streets that are dark and full of cars.

Rick@OCRR

We do a Whittier Hills ride fairly often, just good hill training though no really long climbs (like you find on Hwy 39 or Hwy 2). Here it is on Strava so you can see the map and the profile:

https://www.strava.com/activities/98181194

I'll try to remember to post it here a week or so before the next time we do it. We start from the parking lot on Birch across from TGI Fridays (opposite side of Birch from Brea Mall). The first climb is Brea Canyon, which is very gentle climb and a good warm-up.

Rick / OCRR