Berkeley/Oakland folks - flat ride suggestion

[sbornia]

As you know, it's pretty much impossible to do a flat ride around here without being in city traffic. The Bay Trail in Emeryville is good for what, 10 minutes before you have to turn around? So this past weekend I came up with a solution -- requires some driving, but worth it imo.

Go to Napa and park at the Silverado Trail @ Trancas Street. There's even a little parking area on the side of the road that can hold about 10 cars. Then ride north to Calistoga. ~27 miles with maybe 2 lights and a handful of cars. Some false flats going north, which suck during a headwind, but the ride back south is super fast. There's food and water at each end. Great scenery, too. I did two out-and-backs on Sunday. Nice change from riding out to the Lafayette area and dealing with a lot more lights and cars.

[sychan]

I've been thinking about (relatively) flat, low traffic routes in the area and there's a few segments that you can consider:

Mountain Blvd along hwy 13 in Montclair, down Park Blvd to Trestle Glen, to Grand Ave all the way down to Lake Merrit.

Along the Oakland Waterfront, 3rd St out to Nelson Mandela, Mandela to Hollis, take 45th Horton, and ride that to the Aquatic Park and crossover to the Bay Trail at the bike bridge.

You could ride the bay trail out to Richmond, turn back and then find a route to either the Del Norte or Downtown El Cerrito BART stations and take the greenway back, though it isn't really best if you want to keep up a good pace, since its shared use.

[Rubeboy]

I've been wondering about this too. While I really enjoy riding the Berkeley/Oakland hills and Mt Diablo, every once in a while it'd be nice to have a long flatish route to turn to. The most flat I get is the 15 miles in between Canyon and Walnut Creek, but much of that is on a MUT and it's really not flat - just flatter, or heading out Moraga way past Orinda towards the San Pablo Dam.
There's gotta be something out there.

[eddief]

There is a bike trail for most of the way until you get past the Richmond marina. Then there are lonely paved streets all the way through and past the town of Pt Richmond. After that if you hold onto your juevos (sp) you can get on the approach to the bridge for just a little ways (legally), take the last off ramp and then ride into Pt Molate for another couple of miles.

Only one hill when you have to go west around the back of the race track and that's about it. Miles of flat on the edge of the bay.

[sychan]

What routes do you use through Richmond? My experience with Richmond is that it looks like some of the sketchier sections of Oakland, which to me means sometimes finding lots of crap on the roads, and occasional pockets of people who are not "bicyclist friendly".
But that kind of stuff operates on a per neighborhood basis - I just don't know the neighborhoods.

[Waldo]

I'd avoid the Bay Trail and Richmond. Instead, stay above hwy 80 and pick your way through Berkeley-Albany-El Cerrito to El Sobrante. Or go up the hill to Tilden Park and go down Wildcat to San Pablo Dam Rd. and turn right. Ride San Pablo Dam road, which is flat with the exception of the climb of the dam (just outside El Sobrante). If you choose to take Wildcat to San Pablo Dam Road, you don't climb the dam. Ride all the way to Moraga. Turn left at the "T" intersection with Canyon Blvd., then right at next light (St. Mary's Rd. I believe) Go past St. Mary's College to Lafayette, then on to Walnut Creek, then go South to Danville. Continue South all the way to Sunol or hang a left in Danville and go to Livermore.

[eddief]

when you get past the marina you are on streets that go through semi industrial parts of the hood, not the parts of richmond where they use humans as everyday targets. and this area is going through a good renewal so i never feel anything but safe. you can also ride through the tunnel in pt richmond and add a bunch more miles and one sig climb.

[Waldo]

Go to Napa and park at the Silverado Trail @ Trancas Street. There's even a little parking area on the side of the road that can hold about 10 cars. Then ride north to Calistoga. ~27 miles with maybe 2 lights and a handful of cars. Some false flats going north, which suck during a headwind, but the ride back south is super fast.

I enjoyed the first time I rode Silverado Trail. Not so much any of the times I've ridden it since then. Cars going too fast on the way to wineries (bad) and from wineries (worse).

[sbornia]

I enjoyed the first time I rode Silverado Trail. Not so much any of the times I've ridden it since then. Cars going too fast on the way to wineries (bad) and from wineries (worse).

I hear ya. At least the shoulder is wide - much more so than in Orinda/Moraga. I honestly can only see myself going up there when I want to do 100+ miles without any real climbing. Otherwise, it's not worth the drive for me.

[Waldo]

About a month ago a bunch of us rode to Davis and took the train back to Berkeley. For the most part, it was a pretty ugly ride until we got to Benicia (except the new Carquinez Bridge which was magnificent) and then suburban ugly through Fairfield. But once we got past Fairfield, riding rural, mostly flat roads north of 80 to Winters, then on to Davis was a magical experience. Pleasants (sic) Valley Road and Putah Creek Road between Vacaville and Davis are the most beautiful flattish roads! About 90 miles.

[bcm119]

About a month ago a bunch of us rode to Davis and took the train back to Berkeley. For the most part, it was a pretty ugly ride until we got to Benicia (except the new Carquinez Bridge which was magnificent) and then suburban ugly through Fairfield. But once we got past Fairfield, riding rural, mostly flat roads north of 80 to Winters, then on to Davis was a magical experience. Pleasants (sic) Valley Road and Putah Creek Road between Vacaville and Davis are the most beautiful flattish roads! About 90 miles.
The area around Winters is beautiful.

Which way did you go to the Carquinez Bridge?

[Waldo]

The area around Winters is beautiful.

Which way did you go to the Carquinez Bridge?

We started out at 4th St. Peet's in Berkeley. Rode the flats to El Sobrante, took San Pablo Dam Rd, turned left on Castro Ranch. At the T intersection, turned left onto Pinole Valley Rd. instead of going toward the Bears. Then followed the route of north loop of Grizzly Peak Century to Crockett. Then on to the bridge.

See East Bay Master Map North here:
http://www.grizzlypeakcyclists.org/map/

If you click on the map you can make it bigger and it has distances between major intersections. Very cool.

[sbornia]

Another good resource for East and North Bay routes is the mapping program from Klimb.org: http://www.klimb.org/klimb.html

FWIW, running it on a Mac takes a few extra steps, but it's worth it.

[sychan]

when you get past the marina you are on streets that go through semi industrial parts of the hood, not the parts of richmond where they use humans as everyday targets. and this area is going through a good renewal so i never feel anything but safe. you can also ride through the tunnel in pt richmond and add a bunch more miles and one sig climb.

I put this route together to see what the elevation was, and to my East Bay Hills jaded-eye, it looks like pretty trivial (though the initial section up Broadway has always seemed harder than it should be):

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/oakland/58440603

I've ridden most of this route as individual segments, except for the part that leaves the Bay Trail in Richmond and loops back to the Del Norte BART station. Maybe I'll test it out the complete route soon.

The easiest way to ride a flat route is to BART over to Orinda and then head up into Walnut Creek, and then ride south as others have suggested. But to me that's no longer a flat ride in the Berkeley/Oakland area anymore.