Monday Mtn Ride video
 

Just a cool mellow cruise with a couple of SoCal BF'ers up Glendora Mtn Rd/Glendora Ridge Rd to Mt Baldy Village. 43 miles, 5000 ft of climbing, pretty much all of it on the first half, 20 mile climb with lots of switchbacks and a nice descent.



"JustMe" in yellow and "Hillbasher" in blue. Stills from the video.

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I'm in the orange, pics from Hillbasher's camera
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Awesome report sir!

There's hardly any traffic! Is that the official climb up Mt. Baldy?

I wanted to go up Mt. Baldy since I read the climb is harder than Palomar but I did not have time last trip...

Hmm, different routes but IMO, this would be the most popular. 20 mile climb with 5000 ft but some add the skilifts, another 6 (?) miles with supersteep switchbacks. I won't do it, too many mishaps among friends on the downhill turns and I fly down hills at my weight. That would be the section to make this ride tough.

Some ride up Baldy Rd itself, steep but shorter than GMR
http://www.socalvelo.com/images/Profiles/mt.baldy.gif

The village is right at the point where it says Glendora ridge road but comes from another direction. From that point onis the section some crazy climbers will add to the 20 mile climb of GMR.:D

But like I said, I won't do that section. I have hard time driving down that road due to the crazy turns, like old Hot Wheel track curves. I did 22% climb up Forest Falls and the "straight" descent was bad enough for me. :p

This is the ride we did but stopped clmbing at the 4500 ft level (the village). The rest must be to the lifts. I've never done Palomar so I can't compare but some say Palomar is harder, I dunno!:D..Baldy Rd is 3 miles from home so why travel 2 hours to do Palomar?:p

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OK, thanks for the tips on switchbacks. I'll definitely have to check out this route next time I'm out there!

edit: I hate you! If I lived 3 miles from a mountain like Baldy, I'd be there every day after/before work!

Hahaha! I ride it alot when I'm prepping for a big ride. Baldy Rd to the village or the tunnels twice a week and GMR everyweekend for about 3 months. I ride with my wife on the weekends. She will do GMR once in a while, 16 mile point max but if I made her climb all the time, she'd divorce me!:roflmao2:...I can't let that happen, she likes buying bike stuff!:p

Wife on GMR

Behind me
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Wife descnding behind BF'er Grrlyrida. Grrly was training for "Ride Around the Bear".;)
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on descents like that do you ride the brakes? feather them? how do they hold up? or do you just let 'er rip and hold on for dear life?

what speeds do you achieve descending?

I myself rarely use the brakes but I know this road well. Someriders don't negotiate the turns as well so they may brake where as I rarely do. Speeds on my own are about 30-42 on this road, slower when I try to stay behind other riders for video footage. One of the guys was not real familiar with this descent so he might have been on the brakes some. Some other riders claim 50 on the short straight section.

The lower 8 mile section is where a majority of swithcbacks are, and faster as it's steeper. I might "slightly" feather my brakes before taking 2 of the tight turns, other than that, let her rip!:D

This is my video while descending alone, 4 miles of the 8 mile section with a handlebar mount for the video recorder. I had to slow a few times for the car. Most drivers will pull over an let you by, this one wouldn't, she was hitting some high speeds for that road trying to stay ahead.:eek:

I am a heavy rider so weight does help. But also tecnique, balance and hitting the apex of the turn helps. I know plenty of bigger riders that can't keep up on the switchback descent. On the straights yes but they lose it in the turns. I did have one guy (forum member Jason) 140 lbs chase me down (220 lbs at the time) , catch me and drop me on the descent like a bad habit!:eek:...He's a transplanted racer from Colorado. I've never seen a guy that light descend like that!:eek:


25 seconds into the video, you can see the puff of smoke from her tail pipe when she gunned it!:D

cool, that was fun. you had some serious leans going there. I also noticed some chunky road debris that I wouldn't want to hit during a high speed descending turn!

Hahaha! I do my best to avoid the debris. Mostly cause in a lean, it cuts the sidewalls!:mad: