spectastic

I could be moving to either of these two places for work. I'm wondering if people know these areas for riding and other things.

CyclingFever

Eugene is great for running. Cycling? I'd wager it is pretty good but idk.

Hermes

I have worked in Santa Ana and lived in Irvine and I spend quite a bit of time in Newport Beach. I have done quite a bit of riding in the Orange County area and I train and race at Velo Sports Center in Carson. I know nothing about Eugene.

The weather in SoCal and Orange County is amazing and there is the beach. I like the look and feel of the Irvine / Newport Beach area. Cycling is what it is meaning one has to define what good cycling is. SoCal is congested with a lot of traffic. If traffic is a downer then OC is not going to measure up. If you accept the traffic and congestion and work around it, then cycling is great.

SoCal is very expensive including housing and cost of living. If that is not a problem, then it also becomes an upside since the area, IMO, is very upscale.

Hermes

You may get better responses from the road forum or regional forums versus the racing forum since you have not asked about racing. I can move the thread for you if you like.

spectastic

thanks. I'm interested in the racing scene too.

i haven't gotten the offer from the cali dudes, but I'm optimistic about it.

Doge

Ridden in both a lot. Did a tandem stage race for my Honeymoon in Eugene.

Eugene is very bike friendly and has got better bike roads. But it rains more.
Irvine has more competitive cyclists, better weather and more traffic and cars. There are some great routes, but fewer of them.
The group rides may be better in Irvine.

spectastic

what's your impression of eugene in general?

big john

It's a college town. The times I rode there it was nice. All of my riding in Oregon seemed fine, nobody threw stuff at us or buzzed us with their cars. Some people we spoke to didn't trust us when we told them we were from L.A.

Doge

Very different. It is a college town and although Irvine has UCI, the school easily gets swallowed up. Eugene is more laid back, breweries a little SFO like. Irvine is a serious business town with not so much entertainment, there is some, but it is designed on purpose to not have a down town where folks hang. There are many mini hang out spots. Of course, you are really in the OC, so you have Newport, Tustin, everything else kinda near.

I'd think a single 20-40 something would prefer the Eugene life while if the goal is to raise a family put the kids in soccer, and put away some cash, hard to beat the OC.

If you wanna race bikes Irvine. If you wanna ride bikes, Eugene.


You should visit both. Both have train stops :-) They are very different.

You will live better at 30% lower salary around Eugene. In SoCal houses would tend to be smaller, which is likely fine as you will be outside more. In Irvine you will need air conditioning several weeks a year. I'm 290 miles S and you don't, we don't have one. 75F outside, 72 inside. It will be 80 inside for a week or so in Aug. Irvine add 10-15 degrees F in the summer, but 90/95 can be a nice day and you are 20 min from the beach. Eugene you are a couple hours.

Eugene is somewhat humid. Being farther north, still somewhat cool but I think less comfortable than Irvine in the summer. Portland is pretty nice (pre riots) and a nice place to visit.

UmneyDurak

Spent two years in Irvine. Riding their sucks. You are either hitting HW1 with all the ******* drivers, or Santiago Canyon with all the ******* drivers, or various local streets with all the ******* drivers. Bunch of crit racing and weather is nice thought. Traffic sucks, and people have heads up their ass with lots of "keeping up with Jhonses". Not to mention entire place is run by Irvine company. They pretty much have monopoly on housing there.

spectastic

thanks. I didn't really get to see much of either towns during my visits. i basically only saw skinner butte, which seemed like a pretty sweet spot for hill repeats, and was told there was a nice beach 20 miles that way.

I would be moving from Austin btw.

Just looking at the rent prices, I think Eugene is definitely going to be better in terms of $$$

aside from that though, I'm also interested in the people. The guys in Oregon seemed more chill (perhaps too chill). In some cases that's nice. The job is probably going to be more laid back and I get to direct more attention towards other pursuits. OTOH, I feel like OC area might have a greater concentration of ambitious people with entrepreneurial mindsets, and that's something I find great value in. Would you say this is true?

sorry didn't mean to turn this into something not about riding/racing.

furiousferret

The OC is a really big tech area, and has a really solid ecomony in general, so yeah, you're right.

I think it all comes down to crowds; Irvine is is the beginning of what I like to call the Megalopolis of Los Angeles; its all just one massively connected city from Irvine north to Burbank and east to San Bernardino. Granted, there's a lot of opportunity because of that and a massive cycling community but everything else is massive. I remember once my wife and I went on a hike in a remote area in the mountains and there was a line... on the hiking trail. the crowds here real.

I'm sure Eugene is the opposite, but with the that you have other issues. I've only ever lived in big population areas (SF, San Diego, Riverside / LA) so that appeals to me but I have no idea what that entails and am a bit burnt out on living around millions of people.

Hermes

Austin is a very nice upscale area - and hot.

For me, the big issues are what is the job being offered, job opportunity and growth, general look and feel of the area, weather and to an extent politics. We do not discuss politics here so we will not but it is important and one cannot find a bigger miss match between two areas than OC and Eugene. Check that out.

If you are single and looking for a female partner, the women is SoCal are totally amazing. Just saying and maybe I a biased.

I prefer areas with a lot of action and I am willing to put up with congestion. And I have done extremely well in CA real estate.

topflightpro

I've not spent a lot of time in Southern California, but it is true that everyone there is beautiful. Even the bums I passed while wandering Venice Beach were good looking. It was really quite odd.

big john

Not everyone.

spectastic

alllriiiight

jskita

Orange County and Los Angeles are very, very different places, so don't get them confused. IMO Irvine is very boring. They do have bike lanes everywhere. There are a few ways via river beds to access more of OC, but as I said Irvine riding for me is somewhat dull. I am not into racing, I just like recreational riding and ride everywhere I can in Irvine.

I would have to agree with most of what UmneyDurak says. Despite all the seemingly well maintained roads and bike lanes you still have to deal with southern California's car crazy culture.

Irvine's cost of living is one of the countries highest as well. If your work is treating you well then you can afford to take advantage of a really clean and safe place to raise a family. For some reason the public school system there is highly desirable and attracts families from around world. As a long time resident, I believe the school districts claim to fame is primarily from parental involvement.

Don't get me wrong, I like living there but I find myself riding outside of Irvine for more interesting scenery.

Feel free to pm me if you need more info.

Enthalpic

From my limited time in San Diego I would say there is some truth to the Beach Boys song.

Doge

Hard to keep this from going some to be banned direction. Likely I'll start it. I DO NOT have hard figures, going with impressions.

Irvine being the heart of Orange County - we can go with OC.
As a % I believe you will find more in OC working for some variation of private industry. There is more competition (in everything) and more opportunity.
The "attitudes" in Irvine come from position while in Eugene, from philosophies. Big population from Mexico in OC, not so much in Eugene. OC will be more likely to have someone else clean your house, keep your yard (if you have one) and wash your car. You will likely eat out more often.
This does not make it more plastic or superficial, but it allows that. I don't think it so pretentious, while TV will tend to show that. In general, people work. Work is good. In Eugene other things are good too.

You do not have to live in Irvine to work in Irvine. I live in San Clemente (work at home 30 years now), 25 min away. There is a train to Irvine, but depends where work is how close. Tustin has some nicer riding and is close but east and hotter.

The cycling in San Clemente is pretty good. The choices are few, but riding S Camp Pendleton is quite nice. San Diego has nice rides too. Look at heat maps.

Got kids? I'd go Irvine. Eugene is still working out what it is. Blast of a place to visit, we (wife and I) decided not to live there. My work, job would have been the same.

cmh

Responding a bit late as I just saw this now. I've done a fair amount of riding in the Eugene area and it is great. Just a few minutes to get to hilly, low traffic roads outside of town with a big variety of roads (hilly, flat, paved, gravel) available. There is a lot of riding past vineyards and farms, and through fir forests in the coast range. It is nice most of the summer, and rains quite a bit October through May. Usually the rain is more drizzly than downpour, and temps in the upper 40s so as long as you are OK with that, it rarely forces you to train indoors.

The town of Eugene is heavily influenced by the University of Oregon and has a reputation for being very liberal. This is true, but it is also mixed with a rural, logging town feel in some area. I like it a lot.

The racing scene is Eugene and Oregon in general is good, but has been shrinking quite a lot over the last few years (like elsewhere, cross and fondo/gravel fields are still quite large). You can see the race schedule and looking at the results pages you can get a sense for field sizes at obra.org. Most races have maybe 10% more starters than listed in the results so it will give you a good idea. A lot of Oregon riders also race in Washington which has a little bit bigger and faster fields, but most races will be 3+ hours from Eugene.

I know nothing of Irvine.

Chris

mattm

A LOT MORE.

From someone who lived in Seattle, take my advice and avoid the PNW unless you want your Winter (October through about May there) to be full of 39F and light rain. It'll harden you, and you'll come out with some good stories, but it sucks at the time. Or you're just stuck inside.

In Socal you'll have about 10x more races, 100x more sun, and 1,000,000x more traffic.

spectastic

Well I didn't get the job in so cal like I was hoping for. But perhaps I will get some experience in PNW and relocate. we shall see. I don't like rain that much either.

spectastic

but I hail from the midwest my man. ain't no rain going to keep me down after 22 years of hardass winter. no sir

Doge

Sorry about the SoCal job thing. Midwest <> Eugene, not even close (I worked in Columbus 12 years, spent a few visiting Chicago, and daughter in Notre Dame ~5). Good news is the PNW rain you just ride in. Opinion is it is silly trying to wait for it to get dry, it is silly trying to stay dry. Just ride. If you ride in the midwest, PNW is easy.

Cypress

Eugene is neat. Fantastic road riding with low traffic and good roads. Hills aplenty in the Coast range and some monstrous climbs in the Cascades. If you like flat roads, there are plenty of them to the north. Racing is plentiful as well. The Twilight series has different types of weekly racing depending on the month. They run TT's, crits, cross, and a hillclimb. There used to be a late-season stage race held by the same folk, but I'm unsure if that's still around. A lot of people used it as a tune-up for cyclocross, which is MASSIVE in this area.

The town itself is a college town, but also run by Nike. There are as many hippies in beat-up Subaru's as there are foreign students in $100k+ cars.

As for the weather, I moved to Corvallis (40 mins north of Eugene) from Montana and thought the rain would be no big deal. In MT, I'd ride do road rides in 10*F weather and even did one MTB ride in -21*F. Man, I was wrong. The coldest I've ever been on a bike was during a gravel ride in the Coast range outside of Corvallis. It was 35*F and drizzling rain/sleet, and I was wearing Castelli's top of the range winter stuff, with a Shower's Pass jacket on top. I lost the ability to do simple math in my head and was slurring my speech when my wife picked me up. The second coldest I've ever been on a bike was during a rainy Coast Gravel Epic race a few years ago. According to my Garmin, it was 42*F (and raining) during the final climb...I was putting out ~300W on a 9% grade climb and shivering uncontrollably. There's something about the humidity here that just sticks to you and cuts through whatever you're wearing, chilling you to the bone. I struggle with the coldness here, even off of the bike. My wife (a native Oregonian) agrees that 10*F in Montana "feels" warmer than 35*F in Oregon.

As for California, every time I've ridden there I've had a "meh" experience. Nice roads but too many cars. It's possible that I've just never been on "the good stuff." I also refuse to live in CA due to the nanny state they maintain (in my opinion).