lowlife1975

my gal is planning to move to sacramento soon and we are both avid cyclists, that love climbing especially. she's looking for a house perhaps in carmichael/ fair oaks/ folsom because we want to be a little closer to the foothils east of folsom lake for decent climbing rides. looks like there are extensive roads that point upwards out there and northeast of auburn. it would be nice to start some rides straight from the house as opposed to driving from downtown sacramento to do so.

what do you guys think is the best burb/ city to live in the area, especially considering road quality and access to reach the el dorado forest and thereabouts? the american river trail looks nice but i imagine that would get boring fast! how are the roads in general/ and do you guys feel its a pretty safe place to ride with respect to motorists? any local clubs that we should look into? we don't race but we're both pretty decently fast, so finding a local club that fits would be nice. well she used to race and do half and full IMs so she's pretty quick. also do you guys consider the area around el dorado forest to be year around riding, or does it get too cold or snowed out in the winter time? and what about the mtn biking scene? equally good trails and such.

i checked out strava looking for some routes and climbs and there seems to be a bit so that is promising but would love to hear first hand from the locals. thanks!

JoelS

Folsom is a great area for cycling. You're close to some good little hills for weekday workouts and it's not far from the longer ones. There are a lot of great rides in the area here.

The American River Trail is nice if you want a flat ride or to get a break from traffic, but it does get crowded on weekends. I ride parts of it on a regular basis.

Lots of great roads and, for the most part, the drivers are considerate. There are always a few though. I expect you run into that everywhere.

I am a member of this club, lots of riders and a ton of rides get posted. https://www.hammerinwheels.com/

VaultGuru

Fair Oaks or Folsom are good choices for access to the hills. If you have kids, Fair Oaks is the best school district. Joel's group, the Hammerin Wheels, has a lots of rides in both Placer and El Dorado Counties, and Joel knows most of them.
You can get as much climbing around here as you could ever hope for. Lots of back country, quiet roads too.

dleccord

i've ran into people and cyclists quite a few times on weekend rides on the american river trails and it's not fun

VaultGuru

I agree with diecord. The ARBT is dangerous on the weekends. Use it only as transportation.
Here are some cycling routes that you might like in the Placer and El Dorado County areas. It will give you an idea what it is like to ride here.
Enjoy
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/176003
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1090650
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/718136
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1709238
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1097150
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/178547
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/890861
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/125958

lowlife1975

thanks for all the responses and sample routes. i see some pretty nice looking rides with plenty of elevation to keep me happy. and it looks like there's plenty of evening rides through various clubs for the 1-2 hr post work hammerfest. i should be up there in a couple months, hopefully it won't be too cold by then to get up in higher elevations.

JoelS

Make sure to let us know when you get here!

3alarmer 

If you are willing to live as far out as Folsom, my own opinion
is that I'd be better off over near Ione, somewhere.....less development,
same position on the edge of the foothills, more chances at something
with a little less burb and a little more rural.

There's actually a reasonable amount of bicycle love in midtown right now.
I do a shift at the bike kitchen, and there are plenty of people tooling
around on them.....at least in good weather.

When LeMond lived and trained here, he lived in Rancho Murietta, which
is on the Jackson highway, directly east out of Sacramento. Also right on
the edge of the hills. Gated community that was, at that time, a little
on the pricey side, but I'm guessing not so much any more.

There are also plenty of hilly rides in the other direction (west) up out
of Davis and into the Coast range. Look at the roads going up to and
around Lake Berryessa on google maps terrain view, and you'll see what
I'm talking about.

Those of us who live in town like to think of the 30 or 40 miles you have
to ride to get to the hills as a good warm up. YMMV

lowlife1975

yah i was reading the recent post about mix canyon and it looked super interesting and super tough. ione seems a little bit too far out there for me. i've been to the wineries around plymouth and thought how great the riding would be in that area, but its a little too far from the nearest costco. i'll be the first to admit that i need the convenience of the burbs.

funny about the comment of riding 30 miles to the nearest hills... my girl really liked east sac but i was like 'you're looking at doing a round trip century anytime you want to hit the hills from home.' we've been told that the draw back to fair oaks and folsom is getting caught on the wrong side of traffic to sacramento at times, but i thought it was worth the trade off for starting rides from home. plus she's got three dogs so a bigger yard is an absolute must.

my girl moves into town the first week of november and will probably try to catch some group rides ASAP, so i'm sure some of you may run into her. she'll be the one on the colnago cx-1 or tommassini. hopefully i'll make it up there shortly thereafter. here's a pic of the both of us a top the galibier last year.

[IMG] P9230340 by evifenocvt, on Flickr[/IMG]

JoelS

The problem with Mix isn't the climb. It's the trip back down! The only way I'm going to climb that one is if someone volunteers to meet me at the top with a helicopter to fly me and my bike back. The descent of that scares me.

3alarmer 

I live in East Sac. If you send her by the Bike Kitchen on a Saturday, I promise
to keep the younger, more attractive guys from hitting on her. Unless she has
father issues, I'm way too old for her. I will hit on her anyway.

If you're really thinking about a commute from Folsom to Sac downtown as a regular
thing five days a week by auto, rethink it. You can ride the trail in on weekdays
though, and if you can do the distance and have some kind of shower/locker at the
work end, it's doable. I commuted all over here by bike when I worked, but it was
local fire, so shower and locker were readily available.

The group ride thing might not be as available as you might wish at this time of the year.

lowlife1975

ah, so mix is one of those gnarly torn up canyon roads... so may be okay on the cross bike with 32mm tires

bike kitchen sounds like a great place. every neighborhood needs a bike collective to teach routine maintenance and promote cycling. i'll definitely be popping by if i ever need to press a headset or chase some threads! and you can hit on my girl all you want as long as you keeps your hands to yourself. hehe. she'll be working in different cities in and around sacramento, so i don't think traffic will be too big of a day to day issue. and she'll have to drive to reno often too so being closer in folsom helps.

so do the big weekend group rides thin out in the winter? i figured all the weekday evening ones would, especially after the time change... but not the weekend ones.

3alarmer 

I'm retired, so I ride mostly alone. No one can match speed with me, (I've been dropped by people walking uphill) ...........Anybody ?

Edit: almost forgot DAVIS WIKI..........Online Bike Maps from Sacramento 511

JoelS

Weekend rides, well, it depends on the ride and the weather. Many of the racers are either in CX mode or base miles. I lead a regular Sunday ride. Here's the route for this Sunday, from Folsom Bike. I'll ride up there in the morning, picking up an extra 32mi round trip. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1833013

There are so many clubs in the area, that it's not so hard to find a ride.

caloso

The big Sacto ride is the Saturday River Ride. Leaves from the alley behind City Bike Works in Midtown. The B group leaves at 9:45, the A group at 10. I haven't been on the ride since September (my kids are in soccer so my Saturday's are shot until Thanksgiving), but typically October is still pretty big.

If she's going to have to go to Reno fairly often, she might consider Auburn. Much better to be on I-80.

freighttraininguphill

Not me. I live in midtown, and I hated that boring, flat ride to and from the hills! It used to take an 80-mile round trip ride just to ride partway up Salmon Falls Road from my place years ago. To ride to Auburn and back was a century ride. No thanks! I love climbing, and when I climb I want to do all hills, not a bunch of boring flat ground. I ride enough of that around here on a daily basis.

That was my thread. It was a great climb! I would do it again in a heartbeat. Gates Canyon is supposed to be almost or just as hard, and it's just a couple miles down the road from Mix Canyon.

Just take your time on the initial steep section. Stop and check your rims for heat buildup. I had to let my rims cool for a bit one time, then I was good to go for the rest of the descent. I'm not a daredevil either. Then again, I don't have carbon rims .

Oh it will be available. I'm a member of The Hammerin' Wheels and WAV Riders (a women's cycling club). They have year-round rides.

It's not as torn up as the Corkscrew Wall, which is a steep 5-mile climb near Foresthill that I've ridden a couple times. That road is full of potholes, but I had no problem dodging them and descending fast enough to get an unintentional QOM on Strava.

I descended Mix with my 25c tires. No issues.

The Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen is great! They helped me replace a torn-up crown race on the rigid fork of my Rockhopper last year. Great people!

I joined Hammerin' Wheels in February of this year. It seemed like there were plenty of riders on the few rides I went on, even in the winter.