NomarsGirl

Greetings from the Northeast forums. Heading out to San Diego soon for a wedding and will have a free day on the Friday. My husband and I are looking to rent some bikes and do some rides around the area.

Any suggestions on best place to rent decent quality bikes? They don't need to be fancy, but should be well-maintained. Had a problem with that with bikes we rented recently. How about places to ride? Preferably not TOO hilly. We are east coasters and are used to rolling hills, but not long climbs. And judging from our recent trip in France, he is absolutely terrified of steep descents especially on unfamiliar roads.

Looking to take in some scenery. Maybe a nice coffee shop along the way. We'll be staying downtown so I'm not sure if it will be feasible to set out directly from our hotel or if the roads will be too busy.

Leinster

This just came up on the road forum.

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...alifornia.html

For the purposes of the trip you're doing, I definitely recommend my suggestion on there of going out Harbor Drive towards Pt Loma and beyond to Ocean, Mission and Pacific Beaches and up to La Jolla. Some up-and-down, without getting crazy.

diphthong

since you're staying downtown, i'll recommend this shop for rentals. it's no more than a ten min walk from every major hotel dtown:

San Diego Bike Rentals and Sales ? The Bike Revolution

be sure to grab the bike path that starts at the se end of the convention center (near petco park) in front of the hyatt batfront hotel. it heads west past the yachts
and boats, around seaport village, along the embarcadero-carnitas snack shack is a tasty lunch stop near the broadway pier-and continues west around the curve of the bay, past the airport
on a multi-use path (mup). near the airport, you can access harbor island (which really isn't an island but still a nice cycle), the liberty station complex (grog and grub options galore!)
or continue into point loma along the waterfront to point loma seafoods and/or eppig brewing tasting room which are pretty much neighbors. a there and back is a flat 10 miler.

coffee would be better served in the little italy area. main two streets to know (and totally cyclable) are india st and kettner st. southern/northern boundaries are beech st and laurel st.
more food and bevvie options than you can shake a stick at.

if you want a little climb, you can ride up (recommended) 5th st. to laurel st. at make a right. about a 200 foot elevation gain. enter balboa park by riding across the el prado bridge and
head towards the large fountain at the east end of the wide pathway. a quick spin thru balboa park is essential. it's our central park. drop back into dtown via 6th st or 4th st.

dtown sd is generally pretty rideable unless it's rush hour. broadway st carries much of the bus traffic so the pavement isn't the best on broadway. plenty of one way streets and trolley tracks/train tracks crossings so stay alert. you should be able to pick up the waterfront bike path from wherever you're staying dtown w/o any problems.

if you're feeling it and the flats aren't totally your thing, hit cabrillo national monument (via caņon rd.) which is approx a 20 miles total ride w/500 ft of climbing. you can double the elevation by descending (fun!) to the tidepools
and doing the .7 mile climb (6.5/7% grade) back up. the shortish climb up to the historic lighthouse has great views. $6 entry fee for cyclists currently. the undulating 3 mile road to/from the monument with
the fort rosecrans national cemetery on both sides of the road along with city/county views on one side and ocean views on the other is a quintessential ride in san diego county.

Nachoman

If you decide to head toward the light house at the tip of Point Loma, I would also throw in a loop around Harbor Island and a loop around Shelter Island.
Then after you hit the light house, I would also consider another loop around Fiesta Island, just to make it a three island tour. (That's a Gilligan's Island reference, in case you're too young).

NomarsGirl

Thanks! Looks like lots of good possibilities.

NomarsGirl

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I greatly underestimated my husband's aversion to riding on roads. We ended up taking the bikes on the ferry to Coronado Island and riding out and back to the ferry for a round trip of about 24 miles. I'm sure some of the routes you suggested would have been more interesting, but we forgot to bring our phone holders and had no way to carry anything with us except in my jersey pockets so navigation was a challenge. No chance of getting lost on the route we took and we did have to get back for some pre-wedding festivities that evening. (My sister's wedding, not mine).

The bikes were nice. I had a decent road bike with Shimano 105 groupset. DH had a hybrid similar to his FX3. They were well maintained.

diphthong

nice!