UmneyDurak

Hey

I will be in Santa Maria for a week. It's between SLO and Solvang. Any routes recommendations around it? Can drive a bit, but also looking for starts from there.

Thanks!

diphthong

there's more recommendations here than you can shake a stick at:

Rides - SLOBC

just keep scrolling down past weekly rides (maybe one works?) and annual events to "favorite local routes."
there are plenty to choose from, depending or your available cycling time, proximity and desire.

there's also this for grub...

https://la.eater.com/maps/best-centr...cue-california

if you're looking for grog...figueroa mountain brewery is solid. there are tasting rooms both north and south of santa maria.

https://www.figmtnbrew.com/taprooms

if you're looking for wine, private message me. there are more than a few but less than a multitude of great wineries to hit.

UmneyDurak

Awesome, thanks! PM on the way

diphthong

pm'd you back-i think. i can never pull up my "sent" responses to verify. so horrible at technology.

UmneyDurak

Yep, Thanks!

UmneyDurak

Highway 166 is that rideable on a road bike? As in is there a shoulder, and I won't get murdered by inpatient drivers?

diphthong

unsure...i rode a portion of the 166 approx a decade ago from tepusquet rd. east approx 10 miles and back and remember the pavement and shoulder being pretty decent.
i don't remember being frightened on that stretch but i've found my tolerance for traffic and questionable "certain death" roads is higher than many other cyclists.
have neither ridden nor driven the 166 stretch between santa maria/101 and tepusquet rd. once the 166 eastbound drops into the valley (driven this part) enroute to new cuyama,
the road straightens up and generally has good sightlines. not much support tho and the road narrows in the valley. a decent amount of big rig traffic both eastbound and westbound on the 166.
on this trip, there's no need to ride past tepusquet rd. from santa maria. tepusquet rd. is a fun and decently challenging ascent from the 166 and a long, gradual descent eastbound.
fairly canopied and could be chilly in the morning. personally, i'd take the 176 (foxen canyon rd) from santa maria to ride/investigate the wine country since it has less "big" traffic and
you could always do a tepusquet climb/descent/climb/descent back to foxen canyon rd for extra miles/elevation.

not a ton of support out there east of the 101 till you get to solvang so i'd food up beforehand, take at least one large water bottle and have plenty of co2 cartridges, tubes, multitool, etc. the pavement
alternates between really good and ugly. you'd probably be more comfy/confident rocking 28's (or 25's) if you got 'em but i've only ridden 23's in the area and gotten away with it. it's rolling vineyards/ranch
country and it's generally pretty quiet during the weekdays.

UmneyDurak

Thanks. Did the reverse loop from Northern part of Santa Maria. I think going up Tepusquet and down 166 was the right call. I used RideWithGPS for the first time, and it worked out mostly OK. Prompting all the turns except like 2. Will use it to put together ~4 hour ride for Thursday. Hmm. Wonder if there are any group rides...

diphthong

jimincalif

If you ride up to Avila Beach, you can turn north on See Canyon Rd off of San Luis Bay Road. Nice climb under a canopy of trees. Incline kicks up to 11-12% near the top for a bit. Just before it intersects Prefumo Canyon the pavement ends, so you can make it an up and back, or continue on the dirt for about 1.2 miles where pavement returns. A couple short climbs and you will be at the top with an overlook and a view of Morro Bay/Rock to the Northwest, then a great descent down to Los Osos Valley Rd. near the Madonna Inn. I did this ride from Arroyo Grande in September. FYI I was on my gravel bike with 38mm tires. The dirt bit would probably be doable on 28mm. Here is my Strava of it:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1863541376

You can also ride up to Lopez Lake to the NE of AG.

UmneyDurak

Cool thanks for suggestions.

TrojanHorse

I just rode from SLO back to LA a few weeks ago - there's really nothing truly horrible up there for cycling (except for hwy 154!!!!)

Check out the routes for a couple of the century rides up there - Solvang century, lighthouse century, wildflower century - that might give you some good ideas. Santa Rosa Rd between Lompoc and Buellton was particularly awesome a month ago.

gorillimo

I've ridden it on my Colnago with sew ups. It's pretty in pretty decent shape.........

bikeme

Really awesome info, all! I can't wait to get up there again. I usually bring my mtb as there's such good riding around SM Valley, SLO, and MB/Montano de Oro but will bring the road bike next time.

diphthong

me neither. good rain year so far so expecting lots of flowers/greenery which helps any ride. would like to hit anything from hwy 33 near ojai to gibraltar in santa barbara to
carrizo plain natl monument to fig mtn to santa ynez valley to slo to pozo to paso to cambia/cayucos. so many places to ramble up there.

diphthong

got up there beginning of this week (actually staying in santa maria) but events conspired to limit the riding to two shortish rides-37 miles total.
did a 14 mile ride from casmalia south along lompoc-casmalia rd and then back. pavement quality was surprising good. the other ride found me
heading up bull canyon (pretty boring-decent pavement) to hwy 166 and taking the 166 west back (great pavement) into town then north to nipomo
and angling over to division road (st?) for a nice, unexpected and full little descent into ag land. what few roads i either rode or drove west of santa maria
were generally pretty dirt clogged and/or beat up (unsurprisingly) from all the farming ops and the inevitable fallout.

did more recon than riding. hwy 166 from santa maria to tespusquet rd in great shape and starts with 3 foot wide shoulders on both sides of the hwy for
a few miles but then the shoulders narrow to 2 feet for a scant mile or two, then peeter out entirely. still a lot of big rig traffic on the 166 but at least the
sightlines are pretty good. tepusquet rd in great shape the entire length and a ton of flowers on the north side. a really nice challenge ascent/descent and
a fun road. hwy 1 from guadalupe north to the southern edge of arroyo grande (by tanner jack's restaurant) in good shape as well. hwy 1 south of guadalupe to
orcutt not in good shape tho. pretty beat up. tried to do some recon of point sal via brown rd. but the road was closed by chain link fence about 3 miles south
of the brown rd/hwy 1 intersection. the chain link fence was designed to keep both cars and cyclists out. there was a construction crew working on the road but it
looked more like emergency/patchwork repairs vs wholescale repaving. talked to a local cyclist i ran into near casmalia and he said that (brown) road to point sal is in horrible
shape (and he couldn't imagine what this year's rains had done to it) and has been rumored to be redone properly for years. sounded like it was super low on
the priority list. the open part of it was decently rideable. next time i'm out there, i'll try to investigate again because it seems potentially epic and scenic.

farther south, harris grade in good shape on the north side but there are a few small spots to watch descending the north side. the south side to/from lompoc
was really good and didn't detect any trouble spots.
the long but beautiful stretch of hwy 1 from lompoc south to the 101 has some gorgeous pavement currently and those broad shoulders. there was a construction crew at
hwy 1/santa rosa rd intersection but couldn't specifically tell what they were up to.

wanted to grab a burger at jalama beach along the way but ran out of time. would really like to hit this area of hwy 1, jalama beach rd, santa rosa rd and harris grade in the
next month while it's still all green.

calamarichris

Thank you for this thread!
Am taking my bike on the train to Paso Robles next week and riding back down and this thread is golden.
Will start a separate thread, but THANK YOU for the great info!