obrentharris 

It appears we have our choice: We can either complain about the ride or we can complain about the complainers. Alas, now we have nothing to complain about.
Rich? Hell yes! I own 12 bicycles.
Spoiled? Also yes. Cino spoiled me.
Brent

iab

By all accounts, the "organized" ride known as Eroica CA sucks. Riding around the greater Auburn area is quite lovely, so using that excuse does not hold any weight whatsoever.

And here's your list.
CBA
CR West
Cino
Forgot, Rosebowl

repechage

Brian Baylis San Diego Vintage ride- has a number of title variations.
there is a Nor Cal periodic vintage ride as chronicled in the Classic and Vintage forum here.
I am conservative with acronyms - CBA stands for?

iab

See post 10.

And in reality, only Cino. The rest are unsupported.

repechage

Classic Bikes Auburn

obviously showing my West Coast Bias-
WCB

Sedgemop 

Nice to know about the Auburn show. As a car kid, I thought Auburns were some of the most beautiful ever. Be great to get a ride going over there. Ridden some in Indiana, but not that far East.

BTinNYC 

😜

cinelliguy 

Hi to all,

There is a thread on the Auburn show. https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...rn-2024-a.html

And there is a post there by "iab" that shares some informal ride routes that seem to be pretty good. "Plenty of unofficial rides. Nothing stopping you and a good coffee joint at the end of your ride,"
Here's a little loop I did - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40481257
Coffee shop - https://www.9thstreetbrew.com/
"And since I know the roads a bit better, I intend to ride this route, has a rest stop in Kendallville."
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45228527

- Guy

Oldairhead 

Agreed! As a retired event director I can unequivocally say that most people do not understand how much effort it takes to put on a supported cycling event properly. It's so much more than just finding a nice route and inviting people to ride. There are permits, insurance, toilets, volunteers, support vehicles, promotional expenses and local government entities impose their own additional requirements. You've got to have money up front for expenses that you may or may not get back! Many events bring on a charity and operate under their umbrella to avoid taxes and excessive local fees that are imposed on "for profit" events. California is the worst for these issues and that has driven many events away. Yes there are still some successful events in CA but they are the exception to the trend. Being an event director is a crappy job, one that does not compensate adequately for the required effort. Those who have had the responsibility will know!

Darth Lefty 

The biggest thing I ever organized was a Halloween charity party for a hundred people where we wanted to have a band and sell beers. We got about seventy including the band who didn't pay to come in or pay for their beers. We made about $12. That showed me I am NOT cut out for it. Cheers to anyone who does and extra cheers to anyone who does it well.

Manny66 

Im an Avid Vintage Cyclist/Collector , It's my passion and has been for many decades now. We have Very few Vintage Events and I try my hardest to support anything and everything Vintage cycling related , and I appreciate the hard work that goes into organizing Vintage Events . What I do not appreciate is people that have Not attended or have Zero interest in attending, Riding, or supporting a Vintage Event ,come on the Internet and Thoroughly Trash ,Besmirch and Sabotage an Event/Ride for whatever reason they might have. The constant Eroica whining and crying has been going on for over 3 years already, get over it. Its like a sewing circle around here, Whats the point of it ???

If you are disgruntled /little feelings hurt/or feel slighted concerning the Ride and are not going to attend L'Eroica its OK, dont go . But whats the point of coming Online and Constantly Crapping on a Ride that You have no interest in attending and turning away potential riders. . A few of us that attended the latest L'Eroica discussed the fact that all the constant Online Negativity turned away a lot of people ,Im certain it did. But when its gone its gone, Why ruin L'Eroica California for everyone else .. The other options, Japan or Italy ??

We spoke with The L'Eroica promoters and they reassured Us it was going to happen, and that there were changes going to be made. The Nova attendance was successful, The Vintage ride was Not . But I'll wait and see before I start pounding nails in the coffin .

Manny66 

I concur 100% .

And thanks for the heads up on the Belgian Waffle Ride April event ,San Marcos is a great area . Ive been eyeing it for a few years now . It looks doable .

Classtime 

100% by your account. And not much vintage on the Rosebowl Ride — Maybe you mean the Velo Retro Ride. I remember living in Bloomington Indiana, in January, talking with friends out here, and I was jealous too. 😉

Classtime 

C&V crash the BWR👍👍

davester

Why do you say that. Have you ever ridden it? The Eroica CA ride has been great every time I have ridden it and I think most people agree. There is the issue of the two post-Covid rides having very spotty on route support, but the ride was still great.

I already named two of those (Cino and CR West) and noted that CBA does not appear to be a ride. What is Rosebowl? Are you referring to the very small informal monthly ride? Hardly qualifies as something to travel to. Perhaps there are no other US vintage rides, though it seems that I've heard of some through the gravevine.

Kabuki12

I have enjoyed all Eroica Cal. Events I have attended . I have only missed one but was still signed up and I would’ve been there if I could’ve . I would go if there were suddenly an announcement of it happening. I am disappointed that it looks like it may not happen .

Sactown_Albert 

Bob and I are current Sacramentans so we have a well earned right to slag on our local airport, but in fairness, the airport has modernized in leaps and bounds over the last 10 years. There are a few direct flights from the East Coast directly into Sacramento International so there are options other than flying into the Bay Area airports. Jet Blue and United are two I can think of off of the top of my head. Just so people know, Davis (Where the CR event will be held) is basically a commuter town for Sacramento. About 11 miles from city hall to city hall.

If you are driving in and plan on spending the weekend, Sacramento is a good option for hotels. As I’ve mentioned in some other posts, our local vintage cycling club will be scheduling Friday and Sunday rides, in addition to the Saturday ride announced, to give attendees more riding options.

Sactown_Albert 

I think Auburn sounds like a great event. I am considering it but the travel is a challenge. I expect that a fair number of people far away from ÇA will have the same reaction to the CR event and that’s ok. I don’t want to hijack this post too much since it was a demise of CA Eroica post. For the record, I went in 2023 and had a great time and I enjoyed the challenging course. Made some good parts scores, too at the swap. I hope it comes back in some form, even if it is not connected with the “official” Eroica group in Italy.

bibliobob

Thanks for clarifying regarding Sacramento airport (SMF), Albert! As someone who has spent way too much time in airports, I can confidently proclaim that SMF is one of the best airports that I've traveled through. Super easy to navigate, small, efficient, and easy to get in and out of!

I definitely intended to offer OAK and SFO as additional options. SMF is far and away the best choice to fly into of the three, all things being equal.

It's shaping up to be a fun weekend...

djkashuba 

For folks staying in Sacramento or the Bay Area who would like to attend car-less you can use Amtrak trains to get to Davis. Hopefully there will be bike valet (maybe Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates SABA).

John E

Tell my more about the BWR. I might be able to get to that one and drag my boys into it, as well. Will has an early 1980s Centurion, and David has my old 1980 Peugeot PKN-10.

Thalia949

I'm curious is anyone has reached out to the organizers to clarify whether the event has been cancelled or not? A Classic Eroica CA on 9/15 was printed in the L'Eroica newspaper that was distributed at the Gaiole event last September, as well as a Nova. However, the website only initially listed the Nova, before it disappeared.

That being said, despite the support of the C&V tribe, Cambria is a bad location for an event like this. It is more than 2 hours from any airport of size, a 3 hour drive from any population center, heavily trafficked roads, and generally expensive lodging. All of this makes it difficult to attract participants. So I can see how the organizers may feel that the event would never scale up to a reasonable number of partcipants and cancel it.

If it is indeed cancelled, the local events and gathering like Cino, Auburn and the Davis event become much more important and I will plan my year accordingly.


From Gaiole 23 newspaper

Darth Lefty 

In Sac you would need to get a bus downtown from the airport. That's about half the journey with the train being the other half. Or you could stick with buses.

You can also do this by bike! The Google-suggested route from the airport to downtown is mostly residential. Then there is a bike trail along I-80. Is there a route across the rice paddies? The river is lacking in bridges. I don't know, but someone here will.



There is a notional airport-downtown light rail line but the last status report in 2022 said "we need money to plan how much it will cost" so don't put it on your calendar yet

Darth Lefty 

As a franchise you would think they have a model how to run it with a checklist of what should be provided and how often along the route. Or is it all just obsessed with inspecting the brake levers for pull direction?

merziac

Several people have reached out, so far radio silence, guess we'll see.

I found Cambria to be just fine for this, lodging was not expensive that I found, can't imagine traffic being any worse than most other similar Cal. locations.

I drove from Portland OR the last two years and had a great time at both of them.

We were told by the lead guy late Sunday after it was all over that it would be on again and while I assume it really wasn't up to him, he must have had good reason to say so.