Route advice from SLO to Santa Barbara
 

Dropped daughter #1 off at Cal Poly Slo last weekend and had the bright idea to ride home from SLO next time I go up (which will be parents weekend in late October)

I was originally going to ride down the 101 through Gaviota but honestly, that route looks unappealing. I do like the shoulder but 80 mph traffic is not necessarily fun, and I didn't have a chance to evaluate the condition of the shoulder - it looks a bit rough and probably has the usual complement of busted bits.

New Route goes via Lake Cachuma. RWGPS put me on some interesting roads between SLO and Santa Ynez, not sure about those. It also diverted me onto some smaller roads instead of staying on 154, not sure if that's an improvement or not.

Anyway, I know a few of you have ridden through there - tips and tricks welcome.

I'll be dragging @tunavic with me and we'll probably stop night 1 at Santa Ynez and night 2 at Malibu, so riding to Santa Ynez will be later in the afternoon on a Sunday (are drunk wine tasters going to be an issue down there?) and the "hilly" part will be early on a Monday morning, so I would expect much less traffic than when I drove through there on a Sunday.

I have ridden on 101 between SLO and Santa Maria, and finally got off there... couldn't take it anymore. Wide shoulder but I remember it dirty... and the trucks.
From SLO stay on Hwy 1, it parallels 101 until Pismo Beach, then Hwy 1 goes off toward Lompoc .... until Gaviota, then looks like you have to ride on 101 until about Goleta... (or the train tracks). Then a bike path and Modoc St. thru Santa Barbara.
Can't tell you about south of Santa Barbara, I think it's a bike path.
I wouldn't ride on 154.... but that's just me.

Well, that's an option I didn't really even consider. It looks like 1 *is* the 101 until you get to Pismo unless I'm reading the map wrong, and it doesn't appear that there are any continuous streets that parallel the freeway. That still leaves the 101 between Gaviota and Goleta though... Hm.

The 101 from Gaviota to Goleta isn't too bad. The shoulder is wide and you're upwind of the tailpipes, and generally have a quartering tailwind. Been a few years since I've ridden it, but shoulders generally look junkier when viewed from an 80mph automobile.
I went to school at UCSB and used to ride that route once in a while. The 154 is too dangerous IMO between Santa Ynez and Cold Springs due to the narrow shoulder in places and 80mph traffic. It's a pity, because it's a fun descent after that, and Cold Springs is a neat place to stop for a beer just before that descent.

From SLO find Chorro and Cherro st., Higuera st., Ontario rd...... alternate Hwy 1 to Pismo. I am looking at an ACA bike map.
154 not that wide, and I've seen a couple of head-ons there while traveling in a car.

I've driven 154, it did not strike me as a good riding option, narrow, winding, more traffic than I would have expected. I've done Higuera/Ontario out of SLO, Shell Beach/Price into Pismo, then 1 where I've gone as far as down as Oceano. That's all fairly reasonable. No Irvine style shoulders and bike lanes, but eminently doable. there is also Broad St outta SLO down 227 thru Edna. It's reasonable most of the way though the shoulder gets pretty narrow approaching AG. Watch out for RVs. Have to work your way thru downtown AG, Grand, Halcyon to 1.

Contemplating doing this ride in the future I've considered going to Lompoc. Have an old high school friend there I might visit. In all my drives up there I've seen plenty of southbound cyclists on 101 from Gaviota to Goleta, did not seem to be a problem, hopefully the weather is clear for a view of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa Islands, I've sailed to all of them so I enjoy seeing them. Get to Goleta and follow the Cool Breeze route then along the coast, Oxnard, Pt Mugu, Malibu.

I am probably going up there this weekend (Sun/Mon), will be in the AG/Pismo area. Planning to bring the bike, not sure how much riding I will get in. Maybe just up to Lopez Lake and back.

Oh, I forgot. Who will be dragging whom?

Probably going to need one of these so Vic doesn't finish 2 days ahead of me...

Here's a route tweak featuring everybody's favorite town - Lompoc.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28627192

The negative (for me) is that means I have to stay in Lompoc Sunday night rather than somewhere further down the road. There's just nothing between Lompoc and Goleta.

Load up on a tri-tip dinner in Lompoc, then you just have a double metric to Malibu the next day. No worries.

I'll probably be doing a Santa Barbara-to-OC ride this Thanksgiving, then the SLO-to-OC ride next spring (SB-to-OC first to test out how I'll react on prescription meds). I've driven from SLO to SB, and the best I can recommend is SLO to Pismo (thru Ednha or Avila Beach), then follow Hwy 1 south through the farmlands to 135, take that south and go two miles past the Vandenberg turn-off to hArris grade road to get to Lompoc. From Lompoc you go south through the hills on the WEST side of Hwy 1 down to about Refugio Beach, then 101/1 into SAnta Barbara.

*I would not recommend going through Solvang and up the San Marcos Pass - really narrow road up to the pass, and cars fly by at 60mph
*Also don't use the 101 to get from Lompoc to Santa Barbara - similar situation with uber-fast cars, but there is plenty of shoulder to ride on.
*Bypassing Hwy 1 up to Vandenberg - LOTS of traffic, and the shoulder is pretty trashy. Drive it and you'll see why bike tourists prefer Harris Grade road (even though its narrower).

Update: Out of Lompoc its Hwy 1 to LAs Cruces (just inland from the beach). From there follow the 101 into Santa Barbara. I'd recommend going to the turn-off where the Ritz Carlton Hotel is, as that's where Hollister road starts (parallel to the 101 on the south side) and you can take that east into Santa Barbara.

the part from santa ynez valley to santa barbara is the diciest with traffic along the 101 or the 154. done both. here is my recommendation:

https://www.bikeforums.net/southern-...1-solvang.html

it's scenic and super low traffic. sure it dumps you onto the 101 but not the bad part and you're into goleta soon enuff with the mostly tailwind and wide shoulder.
dunno if you boyz will be rocking 23's, 25's or 28's. i did it on 23's but i'm an idiot like that. the climb up refugio from santa ynez is never steep. you may hafta dismount
once or twice but it's pretty easy to pick a line through all the way to the summit. the descent is where you hafta watch out. the fearsome rep of refugio is on the west/paved side.
road condition is ruff on the paved descent so don't let the bike get above 30 mph at any point.
there will be almost zero traffic along refugio rd between santa ynez valley and the 101. yes your forearms might ache from braking but it's a much better alternative than either the
101 or the 154 and it's a proper sense of adventure. if you need some liquid courage, i recommend santa ynez billiards and cafe in the hamlet of santa ynez, just past the start of the
refugio climb. both a decent tap list and tri-tip sando. the good news? the refugio climb is mostly shaded once you hit the 4+ miles of dirt. i know your compadre loves cerveza...
there is a semi-close outpost for figueroa mountain brewing in los olivos should you roll that way. don't even get me started on wineries you should/could visit...

you could also hit the 166 east from santa maria to the 33 and then head south towards ojai/ventura. not as much support and the 166 is mind-numbingly boring for like 30 miles
and the the 33 is a snoozefest for another 10 miles until it starts climbing past the ranger station. i don't really recommend this option since the 166 has very little shoulder for most of its length
and some truck traffic.

OK, thanks. It looks like the latest route I posted above incorporates your avoid San Marcos and 101 tips, but I'm not sure what you mean about Hwy 1 by vandenberg? It looks like RWGPS put us on Harris grade already, so I'll just assume I got that right by accident.

I think I'll skip the 166/33 option this time and maybe hook it up again at some future date. I also like the Refugio idea but we won't really be headed that way if we take the 1 route basically down through Lompoc to Gaviota. OK, check out this route modification... 1 down to lompoc and then Santa Rosa Rd to Buellton, 246 to Solvang at which point we head up, up, up Refugio. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28628177

The bonus here is we shift about 20 miles from Monday to Sunday and Solvang/Santa Ynez is not Lompoc. :D

Not terribly sure about the dirt part. I have 25s on the wheels I"m probably taking and they probably measure out wider than 25 but still.

Well, duh. :lol::lol:

win win. lots of cheap lodging in solvang (unless it's on fri/sat). did i mention the casino in santa ynez?! refugio westbound is totally doable on 25's since the dirt is nearly all hard-packed.
have i ever steered you wrong? that was a rhetorical question. don't answer.

riding the 154 uphill (or downhill) will have you seriously questioning your choice(s) in riding a bicycle. ever.

So the combined route tweaks have a couple nice side effects- very little time on the 101 is the main one. :D

Here's the route I took last Sept when I was passing thru. https://www.strava.com/activities/1196806683

Harris Grade was the only major climb and that one out of Lompoc to the 101/beach. Tail wind once I hit the coastline so I was crusing at 20 some with a loaded down bike. It was nice because I was racing sunset to Santa Barbara

So one of my variants had us on Corbett Canyon but that road looks Narrow and Unpleasant. I had a mental vision of pick up trucks blasting by at 80.

How was it? I've only seen it on google street view.

No camping! Credit card touring but yeah, day 1 has to end in either lompoc or solvang because there's just nowhere to stay after that (if you're not camping)

2 lane country road at noon time didn't have much traffic really, mos the big rigs and fast cars will stay on 227. It's not super skinny 2 lanes either so cars had room. Wide enough to paint bike lanes if they wanted to. Was def a good change up from the higher speed 227 I was on for better part of 90 minutes from Los Oso. That canyon spit out of the horse/wine country and found a donut shop in Arroyo. 2 maple bars, coffee and quick phone call to fam while I debated on going a few miles over to Pismo or not. I did not in case I needed the daylight later which I did. Oh and I was able to hold decent speed so no climbing on that canyon

Make sure you get fluids in Santa Maria proper, the south end is nothing but nice homes and schools and you will be in remote area again leading up to Harris Grade, no fluids til you decend off the top into Lompoc. I had three bottles with me in this section and still ran dry, the climb was hot

We're riding in late October, which should be a significant help in terms of staying hydrated. I'll still probably bring an extra bottle like you did... part of me thinks my osprey hydration pack would be a good addition, or maybe my dinky little camelbak.

How did you like your seat bag anyway? Do you know what the difference between the backcountry model and the expedition model is? Was it solidly attached? ( I read a couple reviews that make it sound insufficiently supported.)