gugie 

Or do like me, get an old bike fromthe 70's and change to lower gearing and fatter tires.

Kabuki12

I guess the rules have changed. I didn't realize that , given the addition of Nova Eroica , there was a need to change the rules. Oh well, I still think the original intention is that we ride bikes from 1987 or earlier. If someone wants to ride a new bike that looks old , I guess it is allowed. I still like seeing bikes from the seventies and eighties myself but that's just me. What someone else rides has no effect on my ride , it just is a cool idea to have all or most of the bikes authentic from "the day". Joe joesvintageroadbikes.wordpress

WaveyGravey

So when you say suggestions, I take it my 1997 Specialized Allez Sport would not be suitable?

Classtime 

You really want another bike anyway.....so.....you are correct. That Allez, while a nice bike, is not an Eroica bike.

Fixit

1. Fred W., fixit, Orange County, CA. 714-930-6834

2. Santa Lucia as a nervous first timer.

3. Still deciding but narrowing to 86 Bianchi Limited-Metallic Violet or 72 Nishiki Professional – Green (still working on it)

3A. For now, 52/42 – 14-24 but still building. Climber? – hate to walk but am keeping the option open, hehe..

4. Arrival TBD being my first time and trying to see if others I know want to join.

5. I’m pretty sure I could handle being a buyer at the swap but am clueless as to other stuff.

Manny66 

Booked a room in San Simeon for the weekend. L' Eroica looks all planned, Now all I gotta do is ride more Hills.

joesch

1. Joe Sch, joesch, Yorba Linda, CA. joesch at woodtennis dot com

2. Santa Lucia

3A. 83 Colnago Super

3B. 52/42 – 12-22 may swap. Climber? – no and train most of year in DFW

4. Arrival TBD but hopefully day early depending on travel

5. Plan for the Saturday dinner, will be making the swap and concours scenes

Kabuki12

Unless you have legs the size of telephone poles, you may want to rethink the 42 x 24 ratio!

Classtime 

We have 6 months to get our legs in shape and I can't wait to see @joesch on his Colnago with the 22 in back. Let's not discourage C&V race gearing that looks so cool. Big gears are not just for the Concourse.

joesch

Yes and I actually stated "3B. 52/42 – 12-22 may swap." key word being "may". Did not think the coastal route was that Brutal but Im not a climber and would surely swap if there are 1mile+ grades nearing 10% on coastal?

gugie 

Cambria to the Piedras Blancas lighthouse and back is just easy rolling hills. You could do it with a corncob. Any of the other rides include some very steep gravel climbs.

joesch

Correct, I will probably need a 32 and some gravel hills to train on

Manny66 

I recently picked up a "derailleuer Extender" bracket that should allow a 32 (maybe a 36)to be used on my Super Record rear derailleur. I could pretty much climb anything with my 42X29 but I saw a few Eroica Youtube videos with some excessivly steep grades, so,, better be safe than sorry .

mech986 

IIRC, On the 75 mile Santa Lucia route (74 miles, 5700 ft of climb), the first climb is about 3 miles out from the start, a short 0.5 mile 4-10% grade on PCH. From there, its relatively flat with a couple of 4% hills to Cayucos. After Cayucos, the climb on Old Creek road to Santa Rita Road starts about mile 20 with a 2 mile stretch up to 8%, a fast downhill, and the long climb starts at Santa Rita Road23-27 miles with 3-5%. At mile 27, you get a consistent 5-9% grade to mile 29, the Santa Rita Summit. That's about the first 1/3 of the ride.

The interior ride Mile 29-50.4 (21 miles) starts with the downhill from Santa Rita at mile 29 to mile 36 or so, then off and on rolling hills from 3-7% from here to Halter Ranch at 50.4 miles. There's about 700 ft. of elevation change on this section from lowest to Halter Ranch. This actually is fairly challenging to keep up an average speed as the rolling hills keep coming and coming. That's the middle third.

After Halter, there's a short 6% climb, then down hill on Klau Mine road for a couple of very scenic miles, then you turn left onto Cypress Mountain drive at 54.2 miles. Here's where the real grunt work begins.
Cypress immediately starts with 0.3 mile long 10-14.3% climb of 163 ft elevation, then gradual climbing at 4-6% to mile 57.6. Then for the next 2.1 miles its 7-13.3% winding up Cypress Mountain to the summit with at total of 1149 ft. of climb. Then it a ~14 mile long descent with the first 7 miles consisting of 2000 ft. of technical descent with grades from 4-14.2% DOWNHILL so aside from your climbing gears, you REALLY HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOUR BRAKES ARE FULLY FUNCTIONING!!! The last 7 miles is a fairly fast slight downhill run with a couple of small hills. That't the final and hardest 1/3 because your legs are already beat before starting it.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28627986

The Coastal (La Via della Scalatore) is 81 miles and 6400 ft of climb, and adds Kiler Canyon Rd. climb which starts at mile 45.5, goes 5 miles at up to 14.7% grade and add another 700 ft. of climb. Then you ride to Halter for a rest, and you then get to climb Cypress.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28660709

And for you heroes out there, here is the 108 mile Heroic route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28628078

Thalia949

I'm wondering if any BF forum members who has participated in Eroica Gaiole and Erocia CA can provide a comparison of both events. I've participated in Gaiole and one of the many things that I enjoy is the festival atmosphere and events surrounding the actual ride. For me, it makes staying in Gaiole for the long weekend worth while.

I'm trying to determine whether Eroica CA has the same type of feel around the event and whether staying a long weekend makes sense, or whether this is an arrive late Saturday, ride Sunday and pack the bike in the car and go post ride.

Thanks

gugie 

I haven't been to both, but from pictures and talking to other people, obviously Eroica CA is much smaller than Gaiole, everything's scaled down. The dinner in 2018 was an ok affair, too many people to really enjoy others, IMO. The dinner this year was a disaster, from what I heard, but did not attend. I did some counter-programming at the place a bunch of us rented, we had maybe 20 people coming and going Saturday night.

Thalia949

Thanks for the feedback. I assumed that it would not be of the same scale but it sounds similar, although smaller.

The ride and roads will be different, that is to be expected.

Your photos look great, thanks for sharing.

jrozzelle

That's me digging into Mark's guac bowl.

Last year I pedaled down from San Francisco the week prior with my 70 year old uncle. I'm planning to ride down again. Anyone who would like to join me is welcome.

My uncle and I started in San Mateo, over the hill to Ano Nuevo the first day, down Highway 1 to Monterey the second (Asilomar Conf. Center), Ripplewood Cabins in Big Sur the third night, last night at the Ragged Point Inn. These were mostly inexpensive accomodations, no camping.

I will ride my 1983 Trek 720 down and also ride it Sunday, the Coastal Route. I will pedal to Paso Robles Monday and catch Amtrack back to Oakland, unless I find someone to drive my Subaru down for me like last year.

-james rozzelle
jerozzelle@gmail.com
San Francisco, CA

drewman

1. First name, Last name, CR or BF name, email address (optional), phone number (optional), City, State. If you already gave me your email or phone previously, state “sent prev” And I’ll pull from last year’s info.
Drew, Joey and David Pello, so it will be me and two of my sons; (what is CR) drewman, Murrieta, CA

2. Route (35 Piedras Blancas (PB), 75 Santa Lucia (SL), 82 La Villa Dello Scalatore (LVDS), 110 Heroic (H)
still in discussion, the Coastal or LVDS is likely

3. Primary Riding Bike - year, Make, Model. Color (optional). Additional Bikes for Display (DIS) or Concours (CC).
we will all be riding Medici's, details to follow as I am still acquiring and building them up; There will be others... Team Medici

3A. New info request this year - F/R gearing (Ex. 52/42/26 - 14-32 5 speed), Tires and sizes (ex. - Compass Bon Jon Pass EL 700Cx35), How good a climber are you - (Exc, Good, Fair, Poor, Flats only!)
still working on this... pretty good at climbing but need to get miles in prior to the ride

4. Planned dates of arrival and departure and Where you be staying? If you need help with or wish to share accommodations, please state what you are looking for - room, house, camping, and which local town (Cambria, Cayucos, San Simeon, Paso/Templeton or SLO.). We can use this thread or start another thread to assist with matching up folks and needs.
Friday arrival, Monday departure, El Colibri Hotel

5. Any additional activities - Volunteering, Swap vendor, Display, concours, judging, pre-race rides, Friday BBQ or Saturday Eroica Cena dinner, etc.
def consider pre-race rides, open to anything else

Classtime 

Awesome @drewman. There have been a few Medici available-mostly orange 58ish--between Santa Barbara and San Diego lately. I am excited to see yours.

Slightspeed

1. First name, Last name, CR or BF name, email address (optional), phone number (optional), City, State. If you already gave me your email or phone previously, state “sent prev” And I’ll pull from last year’s info.

Steve Light, Slightspeed on BF, slight6729@aol.com email, rather not give phone numbers. I live just northwest of Los Angeles, CA

2. Route (35 Piedras Blancas (PB), 75 Santa Lucia (SL), 82 La Villa Dello Scalatore (LVDS), 110 Heroic (H) ).

Hoping to do Santa Lucia 75, may wimp out to 35 mile Piedras Blancas like last year.

3. Primary Riding Bike - year, Make, Model. Color (optional). Additional Bikes for Display (DIS) or Concours (CC).

For Santa Lucia, '73 Raleigh Super Course, dark green, may display '64 Legnano Roma Olympiade, blue and white, at concours. I rode it last year on the PB 35 mile with 42/28 best gear.

3A. New info request this year - F/R gearing (Ex. 52/42/26 - 14-32 5 speed), Tires and sizes (ex. - Compass Bon Jon Pass EL 700Cx35), How good a climber are you - (Exc, Good, Fair, Poor, Flats only!)

Raleigh gearing: 52/40/32 triple (considering 26t granny) 34/14 Megarange 6 speed rear, Pasela 28 tires. On normal rides with real pedals, I'm a decent climber, but always forget to bring my climbing legs to Eroica. I've walked bits of Eroica every year except last year's PB 35.

4. Planned dates of arrival and departure and Where you be staying? If you need help with or wish to share accommodations, please state what you are looking for - room, house, camping, and which local town (Cambria, Cayucos, San Simeon, Paso/Templeton or SLO.). We can use this thread or start another thread to assist with matching up folks and needs.

We are staying at Sea Otter Inn on Moonstone Beach in Cambria, arriving Friday, leaving Monday morning.

5. Any additional activities - Volunteering, Swap vendor, Display, concours, judging, pre-race rides, Friday BBQ or Saturday Eroica Cena dinner, etc.

I plan to $hop the $wap Meet, and may exhibit the Legnano at the concours, no other plans.

Bart, thanks for the detailed course descriptions. Not sure I'm man enough for the Santa Lucia. This past Thursday, I took the Raleigh over Sulphur Mtn into Ojai from Ventura, 3200' climbing, 45 miles, including 14 miles on dirt fire road. The bike did fine, with modern SPDs. I know the antique toe clips will increase the level of difficulty a ton. Here's some pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/k6z1j1j794KnYhiz7

drewman

Here is the first one I just purchased for my youngest son David, who is 26 this year. He will "officially" be getting this bike for Christmas. It was purchased on ebay with the following description (you may recognize it):
Medici #54 02951
Brilliant Excellent Beautiful
And that's just the paint (ok the whole thing is pretty great). Chrome in really excellent condition.
The only change from new was to add a Campy Triple chainring w/175 cranks and front Mech.

Kabuki12

Eroica California update : I am still planning the short rout Piedras Blancas. I will be camping in our motor home and staying at the San Simeon campground , I will arrive late Thursday. I always bring more than one bike but have changed plans on which bike . I will be riding my newest acquisition, a 1982 Medici Pro Strada. Those that have been following my recent thread on “what’s it worth” know about the bike but here’s the photos.

cfernandez 

My wife and I did Eroica 2019, but only did the short coastal route to the lighthouse so she can get an idea what the event would be like. We enjoyed the weekend because we met some awesome and great people. I helped adjust and set up a couples very nice matching Bianchi Eroica modern bikes that they just purchased new. They did not know a lot about bikes but were so appreciative they took us out to dinner and were their personal guests for the weekend. We bought several things from the swap meet that I have been looking for a while and for great prices. We got to meet and talk to the photographer for Huell Houser as he was there taking photos and to do the ride. Very nice talking to him. However, there were some bad to go with the good.

Early on we tried contacting the organizers for information on the free camping sites they listed on the Eroica CA website, but we never got an answer back from them after repeated attempts. We ended up staying at a hotel in Cayucos. During the actual ride, when we arrived at the lighthouse they ran out of food, so many of us got nothing to eat for that ride as there were no other sag stops. We were very disappointed as we were looking forward to the food as the registration is pretty high and part of the justification of doing this ride was the wonderful food they would be serving.

Hopefully, by signing in here and letting others know that we are coming, that maybe we can get setup camping nearby Cambria with other riders nearby or options of a hotel with other riders.

1. First name, Last name, CR or BF name, email address (optional), phone number (optional), City, State. If you already gave me your email or phone previously, state “sent prev” And I’ll pull from last year’s info.

Cy Fernandez & Suzanne Gindin, Monrovia, CA (PM me for email or phone number)

2. Route (35 Piedras Blancas (PB), 75 Santa Lucia (SL), 82 La Villa Dello Scalatore (LVDS), 110 Heroic (H) ).
Probably Santa Lucia, if I can get in better shape LVDS.
I may do the Nova Eroica as well

3. Primary Riding Bike - year, Make, Model. Color (optional). Additional Bikes for Display (DIS) or Concours (CC).
Cy - 1985 Schwinn Peloton red - this may change
1991 Bridgestone RB-1 red - for the Nova Eroica ride

Suzanne - 1972 Falcon "Eddy Merckx" Super Competition 102 - Orange of course

3A. New info request this year - F/R gearing (Ex. 52/42/26 - 14-32 5 speed), Tires and sizes (ex. - Compass Bon Jon Pass EL 700Cx35), How good a climber are you - (Exc, Good, Fair, Poor, Flats only!)

'85 Peloton - 52/42/30 - 13/26 6spd getting new tires, don't know which yet - fair climber
'72 Falcon - 52/42/32 - 12/22 6spd - will probably give her better gearing like a 13/26, need to get her new tires as well- 27 1/4" - fair climber
'91 RB-1 - 50/34 - 12/27 9spd - will get gravel tires probably 700x28 30's if they fit

4. Planned dates of arrival and departure and Where you be staying? If you need help with or wish to share accommodations, please state what you are looking for - room, house, camping, and which local town (Cambria, Cayucos, San Simeon, Paso/Templeton or SLO.). We can use this thread or start another thread to assist with matching up folks and needs.

Probably get there on Friday and leave on Sunday night. Don't know where we will be staying yet. We want to be close by and will probably camp, but a nice room or staying with others in a house would be fun too.

5. Any additional activities - Volunteering, Swap vendor, Display, concours, judging, pre-race rides, Friday BBQ or Saturday Eroica Cena dinner, etc.
pre-race ride would be nice
do more shopping at the swap meet
possibly BBQ dinner
Saturday Eroica Cena Dinner

mhespenheide 

1. First name, Last name, CR or BF name, email address (optional), phone number (optional), City, State. If you already gave me your email or phone previously, state “sent prev” And I’ll pull from last year’s info.
Mark Hespenheide, mhespenheide, Los Olivos, CA

2. Route (35 Piedras Blancas (PB), 75 Santa Lucia (SL), 82 La Villa Dello Scalatore (LVDS), 110 Heroic (H) ).
LVDS if I can get in shape (as of now, mid-November, I have a newborn son, so who knows...), else SL

3. Primary Riding Bike - year, Make, Model. Color (optional). Additional Bikes for Display (DIS) or Concours (CC).
1987 Bianchi Campione d'Italia (modified by gugie). Celeste.

3A. New info request this year - F/R gearing (Ex. 52/42/26 - 14-32 5 speed), Tires and sizes (ex. - Compass Bon Jon Pass EL 700Cx35), How good a climber are you - (Exc, Good, Fair, Poor, Flats only!)
48/34 - 12/34 9 speed. Challenge "Strada Bianca" tires on TB14 rims (700c by ~33mm actual), Good

4. Planned dates of arrival and departure and Where you be staying? If you need help with or wish to share accommodations, please state what you are looking for - room, house, camping, and which local town (Cambria, Cayucos, San Simeon, Paso/Templeton or SLO.). We can use this thread or start another thread to assist with matching up folks and needs.
Don't know yet; depends on my young child will be doing at that point. If I go up "early", it'll be on Saturday afternoon and probably camping at San Simeon. I live close enough that this is semi-local to me and not a "destination" event ride.

5. Any additional activities - Volunteering, Swap vendor, Display, concours, judging, pre-race rides, Friday BBQ or Saturday Eroica Cena dinner, etc.
Also unknown yet, for the same reason.


I met a few of y'all at Gugie's dinner last year. I'll be out again on the fantastic Bianchi that he modified for me.