fa63

It looks like I will be in the San Francisco area (Walnut Creek, to be specific) from Feb. 25th to Mar. 1st for business, and I would like to get some riding in while I am there. With that said, any suggestions for a good bike shop(s) where I can rent a bike from? Also, could you guys give me some ideas of where to ride, and any groups rides in the area (keep in mind I am fat and from Florida)?

Thanks in advance.

UmneyDurak

Walnut Creek is not exactly SF area.

Anyway you can ride up to San Pablo Dam Road, ride around the reservoir, or hit up wild canyon rd to Berkeley for lunch. Flat it is not....

fa63

They looked close enough on Google Earth

Thanks for the suggestions; the ride around the San Pablo reservoir looks interesting. I don't mind the climbs; I will just do them slowly

Beaker

Walnut creek is Bay Area, just a matter of wording ;-)

From there take a ride down Danville Blvd to Danville - there are some great loops you can take from there and a whole bunch of group rides. What kind of ride are you looking for? (Pace/distance)

gpelpel

Pegasus in Danville rents road bikes; great shop with a lot of exotic and expensive bikes.

https://pegasusbicycleworks.blogspot....s-rentals.html

fa63

My typical rides are 30-50 miles with little elevation change. The hilliest ride I do once a week has about 1,000 feet of climbing over 40 miles (just a bunch of short, steepish hills for the most part). When riding solo, I will average around 16-17 mph on that ride. In a group, around 18-20 mph.

Thanks for that link; I will definitely check them out and see what they have available. I will be staying in Lafayette, and Danville looks like a short drive from there.

Beaker

You should try out the House of Pain Lite ride (HOP lite), that leaves Danville Peet's on Railroad Ave at 8:45 on Saturday mornings

https://www.mapmyride.com/s/routes/vi...ville/26237280

CalvinAtWS

Mt Diablo, just leave your front door, ride to the top, come down. Repeat as necessary.

Beaker

That would be a natural choice, but

put me off.


PS - assuming WS = wrench science, you didn't happen to wrench at the Pedaler before?

fa63

Again, I have no problems climbing; it just won't be at an earth shattering pace. I am former Cat 3 in a Cat 6 body these days, but I can usually just keep chugging along. I was in Colorado for a few days last fall and did several 40-50 mile rides with 6,000-8,000 feet of climbing without any issues. So I will very likely do that climb (as long as I can find a rental bike with decent gearing); although I doubt I will be doing repeats

The HOP Lite ride looks good, too. Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

UmneyDurak

They need to add international to the House of Pain Lite.

gpelpel

Then you could think about going up Diablo. It's a 45-48 miles round trip from Lafayette to the top of the mountain and back, with about 4200' of climbing. You can even make it easier (minus 6 miles and 1600') by turning back at the Junction a little more than half way up Diablo.

It's a beautiful ride with not much traffic.

CalvinAtWS

That's me! Who's this?

caloso

Yeah, I was going to say Mt. Diablo. Especially since they're going to include (half of) it in the ToC this year.

Beaker

Ha! It's Richard - you installed a nice 7800 group on my black Roubaix a couple of years back...I'll send you a PM with more.

Nice to heard from you again!

rydaddy

Based on where you are staying, Diablo!

cdicenso

No ****! GT Grad? I'm going up there myself this coming weekend to ride with a buddy from the cycling team. (If you didn't know, yes we have one) Currently trying to find a way to bring my bike on Delta, but that's not happening. Is there anyone out there who could loan me a bike? PLEASE? Or any suggestions on a cheap one to rent? Maybe I'll just start a thread.

Sorry to steal your attention; I'll give you some ride suggestions when I get back, but I think I like hills more than you do.