TGT1

From the water tank at the end of E Skyline to The TV station at Punta Del Este is decent dirt road. It starts out from the tank a bit loose, but gets much better after a few hundred yards. Even up from Powder Canyon is pretty good road.

The issue may be getting traction with road slicks on some of the steep sections. Completely doable with CX tires.
From Punta Del Este to Hacienda there are some short rocky sections and the ruts get much worse. That section was built to construct the new power line, so it get's hardly any traffic. The road to the the Repeater station and down to Powder canyon gets maintained.

Powder Canyon Trail from Fullerton road to Schabarum park and Colima is completely doable on road tires. Just watch out for one stream crossing with about 20' of loose crushed rock.

YMMV one good rainstorm changes everything.

diphthong

nice ride. how clear were the roads with the winds/rain? not too much mud/debris/branches?

stuff shredman

Mullholland climb was totally clean. Latigo had a few spots where some good sized rocks had fallen, but the chunks were gone by the time I descended. And, Encinal climb from Mulholland split to Decker had a bit of stuff on the shoulder forcing you to ride mid-lane in spots. That was the only part I felt a little uncomfortable, but all in all roads were really clean!

diphthong

thanks for the intel! contemplating the early wake-up for a sammos ride tomorrow.

social suicide

diphthong

always nice. a little windy out there today?

nesdog

Short 13 mile loop around Agoura/Westlake this morning. Was freeeeezing! Temps mostly in the 40's for the bulk of the ride. Rain coming in the next few days will mean trainer miles, I guess.
Plus the canyons we ride in the Santa Monicas will be a mess afterwards so will be avoiding them until late next week.

diphthong

47-miler in the puente hills. wanted to do the sammos but too windy out there today. puente hills coolish but not cold and low winds today.
sw side ascent of turnbull canyon, some colima, hacienda and harbor/fullerton action (harbor not recommended in the area with fast/aggro traffic)
along with west dr, east skyline dr and two dirty miles of the schabarum/skyline trail for giggles (on the conti gp5000 '23's). great clear views today
of pv/catalina and the baldy/higher region of the san gabes. roads pretty good pavement (an 8/8.5 overall) and a noticeable lack of
dirt/mud/branches from the winds/rain yday,

https://www.strava.com/activities/4687066695

diphthong

i was wondering why belle river sounded familiar today...ugh. had to roll thru this thread to remind myself. road is a dead ringer for silver arrow rd on the palos verdes peninsula.
was having (bad) flashbacks. think belle river is a little longer but the grade, curve of the street and houses age/construction/spacing seems identical.

colima was okay today but harbor/fullerton (busy fast part) was a lot worse today than the last two times i've ridden it.

CAT7RDR

There are two bypasses to use to avoid the flat and heavy traffic of Colima and Fullerton Rd that offer a little more climbing and enjoyment.

First, if you have a gravel, cross, MTB or wide tires with urban or soft dirt treads, ride through Schabarum Park entering off of Colima Rd one block east of Azusa. You will be dropped off onto Old Fullerton Rd in La Habra Heights.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35088491

Second, if you continue on Colima Rd and make a right on Albatross and a second right onto Salerosa Dr go over the hill and make a left onto Sunrise, then descend down onto Fullerton Rd and make a right to take you back to Old Fullerton Rd by making another right after the Pathfinder/Fullerton Rd T-intersection. I will also use the sidewalk in this section on weekdays if traffic is heavy/fast on Fullerton Rd because of wide truck traffic not giving 3 feet of space and being squeezed.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35088507

2seven0

Ah probably my favorite J Geils song. Since you're driving in may I suggest parking at the Brea Sports Park on the N side of Birch St. just W of Valencia. From there take Birch W to St. College N. You can continue up Brea Cyn Rd or continue E (now Central) to Puente up to Whittier Blvd. then to wherever you're headed in the hills. If you feel like riding Carbon Cyn Road it's the next street N of Birch- Lambert Rd. becomes CCR at Valencia.
West

CAT7RDR

Rare Weds ride for me before the storm. Stayed in the local Whittier-Puente Hills.
Short but no too sweet. 27 miles and 3500 ft climbed.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35090775

Eric F 

Last night: My garage
Tomorrow night: My garage

I hope to get out on the road for 40-50 miles on Saturday, and my typical 40 mile "coffee ride" group on Sunday, but my daughter's travel softball team is getting active again. Softball schedule trumps my riding plans every time.

Eric F 

Rose Bowl - Hansen Dam - Rose Bowl (36.5 miles). Next time, I would probably opt for adding the climb up La Tuna Canyon (from Glenoaks) on the way back. In the interest of time, we opted for a flatter return route on Foothill Blvd, dropping down into Montrose. A spectacularly beautiful day for a bike ride, even if it was a little cooler than I prefer.

TakingMyTime

20 mile round trip up the SGRT. Finally getting some miles in. I got 242 miles logged so far this month which I'm very thankful for.

Eric F 

On weekdays (with rare exception), I either ride my trainer or I don't ride. Such are the demands of being a family guy and a business owner. The Zwift app has made trainer sessions tolerable, and very productive.

diphthong

80-miler starting/finishing at elysian park by dodger stadium. low 40's at the start. rambled through echo park and silver lake areas before
slow climbing up to the griffith observatory. met up with bike forums contributor Tycho Brahe in hollywood and went down h-wood blvd before
climbing nichols canyon. left onto mully and took that across the 405, then dropped down into the valley and righted/lefted until we got to
topanga cyn rd/ca hwy 27. up that then right onto mully act ii. over to stunt and climbed that slowly. saddle peak rollers to tuna canyon and
descended that to pch. pch to chautauqua/entrada and that up to san vicente blvd. flogged that horse until making a right on santa monica
blvd (mostly) and sunset back to the start.

mully and saddle peak views of the snowcapped sierra madres, san gabes and san berdoos were spectacular. absolute ton of cyclists out today.

last mile of tuna canyon needs a repave. rest of that descent was perfect altho tendons in the hands/forearms would disrespectfully disagree.
mully from nichols canyon i-section > 405 pavement better than last time i rode it 3 years ago but the occasional divot/chunk missing.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4708169153/overview

Eric F 

I hung up my bike in '04, after my youngest daughter was born. I had been racing for about a dozen years, and was kind of burned out. Besides, continuing to ride at that level was not compatible with being the kind of dad I wanted to be. I got into playing music for a while, and had fun with some local bands, but put that on the back burner when my daughter started playing travel softball. In Dec '19, things started working out where I had more time available to do my own things, and I made the decision to get back on my bike. After being away from it for 15 years, it felt really good to get rolling again. I dropped 40 lbs in the first 6 months, and have been enjoying a return to being a reasonably-fit cyclist again. I'll never get my previous level of fitness, and that's okay. My goals are different this time - more fun, less suffering. My daughter - now 16yo - is still playing travel ball (and on a path towards playing in college), but I'm finding windows of time to get on my bike.

Tycho Brahe 

Technically, after the "easy" part of Nichols, we went on Woodrow Wilson (which runs parallel to Mulholland) and then merged into Mulholland. We skipped the Nichols wall and the bad part of Mulholland (just in select spots). There used to be a really bad patch of road in between Laurel Canyon and Franklin Canyon, but they paved it 2-3 years ago.

I feel silly now not biking more since I have no friends or family. I switch up on for my one weekend ride, but work keeps me local during the week, and as much as I love Griffith Park, can only do it 2-3 times a week.

diphthong

63 miles down to bonita, eastern chula vista, proctor valley rd (w/4 miles of dirt) into jamul, descending into rancho san diego,
up into la mesa and back to metro san diego. mixed along dirty proctor valley rd...was the most rutted i've ever seen it but i didn't have to
dismount/walk at any point (half the time i do somewhere once or twice or thrice) while riding '23's. big raindrops here and
there and deployed rain jacket but ended up not needing it fortunately.

TakingMyTime

Nothing to brag about, 18 miles up the SGRT and today I'm meeting with a couple of friends and we'll ride to the Queen Mary. That usually ends up being about 24 miles. It's all flat, just how I like it. Also, riding together with these 2 old friends is really enjoyable and something I look forward to. I'm shooting for a 300 mile month and if the weather stays nice is should be more than doable. Since I usually don't ride when it's cold, this will really add to my yearly total.

jsigone

EZ 10 mile lunch ride at lake hodges

milesglink

[QUOTE=ooga-booga;still waiting for spring here in socal...[/QUOTE]
Aren’t we all

CAT7RDR

After a bad crash, I'd say you are doing remarkably well and can take stock in that alone. No small accomplishment.

jsigone

MTB lunch ride at Daley ranch/Escondido, 2 up, 2 down, mostly single tracks. No warm up to the switch back climb from the parking lot