Show me your gravelbikes....inspire me.

[Clancy]

Originally Posted by Pi Guy

From a couple days ago...

Beautiful
Where?

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by RudAwkning

Was the Reno to Mendocino ride Murphy's ride? I know a few cats who've rolled that one.

We mostly did his route but not his ride. We wanted to stay in hotels, murphys ride is strictly camping. So we alter the route to stay in hotels. The major difference in the route was from Hwy 101 to Mendocino, we went Ukiah to mendocino via lower gap road and murphy route went latonville to mendocino.

[RudAwkning]

Sounds downright civilized! I'm a motel person myself. A dropbag and kit change is always welcome too. Have you checked out any of the SFR mixed terrain series?

Originally Posted by joosttx

We mostly did his route but not his ride. We wanted to stay in hotels, murphys ride is strictly camping. So we alter the route to stay in hotels. The major difference in the route was from Hwy 101 to Mendocino, we went Ukiah to mendocino via lower gap road and murphy route went latonville to mendocino.

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by RudAwkning

Sounds downright civilized! I'm a motel person myself. A dropbag and kit change is always welcome too. Have you checked out any of the SFR mixed terrain series?

Yes, I did a mixed popular three years ago. And a 200k a while back. I prefer to ride by routes. Regarding R2C, our rpute was great because it always ended with a big downhill less the SJV day.

[Mzilliox]

this talk of gravel riding is making me all hot and bothered

[RudAwkning]

Originally Posted by joosttx

Yes, I did a mixed popular three years ago. And a 200k a while back. I prefer to ride by routes. Regarding R2C, our rpute was great because it always ended with a big downhill less the SJV day.

Sweet. What's the dirt/pavement ratio of that route? Do you have it RWGPS'd?

[Bostic]

Can anyone in the Bay Area post some gravel routes along the peninsula? Say anything along/near HW 35 Skyline from San Jose up to San Francisco. I prefer to not drive to a start of a ride and still haven't found a really really good reason to set aside funds to build up a gravel bike. My current is to mount 700x28 Vittoria Randonneur tires on my Volagi Liscio which isn't all that fun.

[Erik_A]

If you like advice from off-road motorcyclists: http://advrider.com/index.php?thread...a-dirt.198572/

It's tough to find dirt roads in the wild in the Bay Area. Too many gated hippie hiking trails. :cry

The loop I like is in the southern Santa Cruz Mountains. From Pacifica:

* Head south on Hwy 101 or 280. Basically, just get to the Almaden Expressway exit on Hwy 85 in San Jose

* Make the first left at the exit and then an immediate right (onto Almaden). Keep going straight (~4 miles) until it ends on Harry Road.

* Turn right on Harry and make an immediate left onto McKean

* McKean becomes Uvas

* Enjoy the views and sweepers along Uvas

* When Uvas ends, turn right onto Watsonville Road

* On the right shortly is Chitactac-Adams Heritage County Park. This is a great little park to visit, btw. Restrooms and a nice little interpretive trail.

* Just past the park, turn right onto Redwood Retreat

* The road forks; turn left onto Mt Madonna

* FINALLY, the pavement ends! Enjoy 2 miles of dirt/tree roots/mud/fun through the redwoods.

* At the top of the hill, turn right onto Summit Road

* Keep going straight even past the signs saying the road ends.

* The road turns unpaved again for 10 glorious miles.

* You'll eventually hit an intersection at the top of the hill. Turn left (Loma Prieta Ave)

* Turn right onto Loma Prieta where you see a cluster of mailboxes on the right (I almost always miss this turn; GPS is your friend). More unpaved goodness.

* Loma Prieta eventually intersects with Summit Road near Hwy 17.

* If you miss the Loma Prieta turn, you'll stay straight on Mt Bache, which intersects with Highland Way, which becomes Summit Road. So no worries unless you really want that 1 more mile of dirt.

Anyway, it's about 90 miles round trip (15 miles of dirt).

Originally Posted by Bostic

Can anyone in the Bay Area post some gravel routes along the peninsula? Say anything along/near HW 35 Skyline from San Jose up to San Francisco. I prefer to not drive to a start of a ride and still haven't found a really really good reason to set aside funds to build up a gravel bike. My current is to mount 700x28 Vittoria Randonneur tires on my Volagi Liscio which isn't all that fun.

[Erik_A]

also: http://www.bikeforums.net/northern-c...-bay-area.html

Starting at the corner of Alpine & Portola in Portola Valley, climb Alpine Road to Skyline (first few miles are paved, then Alpine is dirt for a few miles).
Cross Skyline on Page Mill Road, then turn into Russian Ridge OSP. Follow main park trail over Borel Hill then back down to Skyline.
Continue north on Skyline to Windy Hill OSP. Spring Ridge Road in Windy Hill is open to bicycles. This drops you back down to Portola Road, about a mile north of Alpine Road.

There are lots of other easy dirt roads/trails near Page Mill & Skyline if you want a longer ride.

I regularly do the route ahpook posted, as well as a similar one: Canyon Trail, which starts in Upper Steven's Creek county park and continues through Montebello OSP to Page Mill. The Montebello Rd. route is more of a road ride and has a greater elevation gain, whereas the Canyon Trail route has all the climbing on fire road and singletrack and has ample opportunities for run ups when you're outgeared (and you will be outgeared).

Arastradero is pretty small, but if you're crafty you can make some decent loops. There's a 'cross practice group that meets in the parking lot at 6:00pm on Thursdays and will continue until daylight savings kicks in. It is a low-key 'race' format, with one warm-up lap and 3 to 4 'race' laps. Each lap takes around 8 minutes to complete and includes one prescribed run-up, some sand, loose dirt, gravel patches, singletrack descents, tricky hairpin turns, and a good bit more elevation gain than your typical 'cross race.

You can find information about San Francisco trails at SF Urban Riders and SF Mountain Biking. (Many of these are not legally accessible to bikes.)

If you cross the GG bridge, most of the legal fire roads and trails in the Headlands and Mt. Tam can be done on cyclocross/road bikes. For a library of detailed cue sheets of mixed terrain rides (some off-road, some pavement), look here.

The Marin Bike Coalition map also has also the legal fire roads/trails marked on it as well (it's much better than using GoogleMaps or Bikely.com.)

Originally Posted by Bostic

Can anyone in the Bay Area post some gravel routes along the peninsula? Say anything along/near HW 35 Skyline from San Jose up to San Francisco. I prefer to not drive to a start of a ride and still haven't found a really really good reason to set aside funds to build up a gravel bike. My current is to mount 700x28 Vittoria Randonneur tires on my Volagi Liscio which isn't all that fun.

[jdp211]

From yesterday

[jwess1234]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by RudAwkning

Sweet. What's the dirt/pavement ratio of that route? Do you have it RWGPS'd?

65-70% dirt- yes it is preserved on strava

[tuscanyswe]

I guess this is what i would take on a gravel ride with the current stable but perhaps its best feature is i won't really care if something happens to this bike. Well i would care but i won't cry..

Its been to long since i had one of these bikes that i could lock up over night if i had to and still sleep well .)
The bonus is its a pretty damn good riding bike as well. Refreshing i must say!
+ it cost me very little to put together even tho it has quite nice reliable parts. Still needs a larger cassette tho. But who has shimano cassettes laying around, not me!!

[a4racer]

Boone 9 Disc, Enve XC29er wheelset with WTB Nanos (40c). "Dazzle" bar tape to disorient wildlife on my rides, hahaha. Can't see it, but a nice little Cadence / Ritchey stem with the mantra "keep going" on top. One of my favourite bikes of all time...

[joosttx]