tcs

Wow, that's 7400 to 8400 feet of elevation gain! (Reference: the climb to the top of Mount Evans,△6590 feet over 27 miles, is the greatest elevation gain road ride in the continental US).

chief9245

There's roads in California off the PCH that just wind through the mountains for miles and miles. Going through the Santa Ynez to get back to the coast was no joke. Some grades through the Cascades were a good 10% for over 10 miles.


Winding through these all day, mostly dirt, hit grades of 16%, for the average it was 10%. Californias' hills are no joke.

djb

yup, you did respond elsewhere. I did replay, mostly saying that the mileage you got out of a chain, probably about 5000kms, 3000 miles, is actually pretty good. I suspect a big part of that is because you take care of your drivetrain, and you didnt ride in the rain a lot. I know a couple who did the Divide Ride, and they completely wore out their 11 spd chains in the first 1000kms, just from the conditions , grit etc and doing long long days where for sure their chains were pretty gritty and stuff for a long time.

re the PCH, I did this back in '94 and yup, it was way harder in my memory than the summer before when I rode a lot of the Pyrenees mountains, between France and Spain. The kicker with the PCH was the steep downs/steep ups all the time. And then the occasional long long climbs that I wasnt expecting...but cool place, yup.

re 1x , your setup worked great, I hadn't realized the cassette is a 10-42, that really helps with having a reasonable top gear. Up here in Canada, these cassettes are pretty darn pricey though, $225 + tax, about $260 total, so at least its important for folks to be aware of the increased costs of the more special cassettes. Probably not a big factor in the big picture, but could be a factor for some folks and perhaps moreso if traveling in places where it would be harder to get parts, but thats a whole other topic too with lots and lots of variables also.

djb

I have a super clear memory from 30 years ago somewhere on one of those inland sections going down the PCH, on a big honker downhill with a slight tailwind and hitting 80kph or 50mph and it was totally calm and not concerning at all, good pavement, no traffic, no sidewinds, good line of sight.
No clue where it was, just remember going inland a lot and up and up, and then down and down.
I used to race motorcycles a bit and am comfortable at speed on two wheels, but I certainly wasn't expecting to hit a high speed like that on a "coastal ride", just as I wasnt expecting the arse kicking from all the climbing.

chief9245

It was worth every painful mile; the views were indescribable and the people I met were amazing. Plus, camping along the PCH is a breeze and probably the most affordable with the hiker/biker sites. I want to go back and do it all again, it was the most dangerous, painful, exhilarating road I've ever been on.

Tourist in MSN

Hmmm, I have been wondering where to go this coming year. I did Astoria, OR to San Francisco, CA in 2014. Maybe I should do a repeat?

chief9245

The most incredible, beautiful road in America, in my opinion. Start at Cannon beach in Oregon and go all the way to Chula Vista. It's a good 30 days and over 100,000 feet of climbing. A truly epic ride.

I mean come on, this is from a 5 dollar hiker/biker campsite. 5 bucks for a multi-million dollar view.

rekmeyata

I use to live in that area, rode my bike all over that region. There was a race I did several times, going taking 154 from Santa Barbara to just past Los Olivos down the 101 to I think it was Refugio Rd, somewhere around there we had to get off 101 because bikes weren't allowed past a certain point, so we got off and took Calle Real back to Santa Barbara. This was back in the late 70's a lot has changed since then around those areas. There were a lot of those roads up in those mountains I rode and trained on. Lovely area, but it was too expensive to stay there.