Berkeley is great, but be prepared to climb (not an issue if you are doing Alto Velo rides of course). A lot. I live on Grizzly Peak and probably 80% of my rides were rolling out the front door. In 4,750 miles last year I climbed over 400,000 feet. I have to put the bike in the car and drive to Marin to get anything approaching sort of flat. But the really cool thing is being able to go 20, 30 even 40 mile rides with 1 or 2 stoplights and maybe a couple of stop signs. I think the 55 mile McEwen loop has only two lights where you aren't making a right turn and might have to stop. I love that.