panchothepug

I'm planning a 6-day trip with 4 days of riding covering 150-200 miles route between San Francisco and Santa Barbara, during the 3rd or the 4th week of March 2019. I'll be using Adventure Cycling maps. The whole distance from San Francisco to Santa Barbara is 383.5 miles. My first choice is Monterrey to San Luis Obispo at about 150 miles, but I'm open to other starting/finishing points if I find companion(s).

I'm an experienced rider with Red Cross First Aid training and will be doing credit card touring.

Another idea I'm considering is to fly into San Luis Obispo and doing different day rides.

davester

Have you checked Meetup? There are some touring groups on there where you might be able to find some touring companions.

panchothepug

There are hundreds of meetup groups that do Bicycle touring but I couldn't find one of "Companions Wanted". Any suggestions?

raybo

This is a very popular route, though March is a bit early for most people. You might find that you can find people already riding to ride with. This is not uncommon.

Why not just do this ride on your own?

skidder

First off, where exactly are you riding from-to? You mention San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and mileages of 150 and 385 miles in the same breath; get more specific and someone here could give you better info. Also, where and by what means are you arriving at in California, and where/when are you intending to depart from to go back to NY?. Do a little research, post some good information, and you'll get some good helpful answers from the folks on this forum.

Second, is there any reason you don't want to do this popular route by yourself? March isn't the best time of year to ride the California coast, but there should be other riders and cars on Hwy 1, and its patrolled by the Calif Highway Patrol (CHP), too.

And if you're really paranoid, I'm almost 100% positive you won't find Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Texas hitchhikers with chainsaws on that stretch of road.

davester

Maybe this one: https://www.meetup.com/norcal-biketouring/

SHBR

If it was less than 200 miles, I'd be so tempted to try and get it done in one day, probably would end up in failure though.

If my wife rode with, it would take 4 days, there would be lots of breaks with many opportunities for pictures, videos and snacks.

SHBR

Damn, this looks interesting.

diphthong

this is what i'd be considering. you can tap segments of both the coastal and inland routes from monterey south to approx 25 miles north of santa barbara, that's a lot of ground and variety.
superunderrated part of california. great riding with less traffic. miles of smiles.

Rides - SLOBC

scroll down until you find something that fits your style. lots of rides with or w/o others. oh...looks like you've already located that site.

this semi-recent and semi-relevant (area south of san luis obispo) thread may or may not be helpful...

www.bikeforums.net/southern-california/1160420-cycling-around-santa-maria.html

Lemond1985

The Tour of California goes through there regularly:

panchothepug

fietsbob

Given the popularity of that and the whole Pacific Coast as a bike touring route , you will meet people also riding..

We get a Case lot of paper maps for the Oregon section of that route, printed by the state DOT and give out hundreds , every summer..






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fietsbob

https://www.adventurecycling.org/adv...anions-wanted/

spinnaker

i.e. Be prepared to get wet.

IMHO, there is no reason to go beyond SLO. In fact the ride down into Santa Barbara is sort of unpleasant. Not to mention awfully steep. If you do it be sure to have good brakes.

spinnaker

There are a couple but expensive. I stayed at Deetjens. Very comfortable but expensive. And unless you want to ride back down the hill for dinner, you are a captive audience for dinner then breakfast the next day. I think it is the Big Sur Inn in town. Gives you more options for meals but you have that nice climb right out of the box, in the morning.

Further down the road is Ragged Point but that might be too close for you the day after Big Sur. But I highly recommend that hotel too. Again captive audience for meals but they are very good.

There are lots of great options for food along the way. Probably the best eats on any tour I have ever done. Be sure to check out Arguello Market for a turkey sandwich before leaving San Fransisco.

The hostel down by the waterfront in San Fransico is very good. Likewise the one in Montara beautiful views from the room. Be sure to book early.

spinnaker

Oh I see. You only want to do a 200 mile chunk? I would start in Monterrey then ride to SLO. That is the sweet spot IMHO and right at 200 miles Though Montarra is awfully nice as mentioned but it gets pretty boring past that. Santa Cruz to Monterrey gets pretty boring too till you hit Moss Landing which is kind of nice. An it has La Haute Enchilada!





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SHBR

Very tempting, the only thing that puts me off are the typical aggressive west coast drivers.

In China we have lots of predictably stupid drivers, however they are also less hostile compared to drivers in the states.

California and Texas were by far the worst places I have ever driven.

Cyclist0108

There are motels/lodges in Big Sur, Lucia and points south. Having said that, the camping in that area is superb.

We are having a very wet, cold winter here. We got about 5 inches of rain yesterday and today, and it snowed last week at my house (at 1700ft), just outside of Santa Cruz.

I first did that ride in February, and it was great weather, but this February it would have been a complete disaster.

Tourist in MSN

Good odds of getting wet one day, or maybe a couple.
https://weatherspark.com/m/145254/3/...-United-States

I stayed at the HI Hostel at Fishermans Wharf in San Fransisco. Good price for lodging within the city. They fill up, so you should make a reservation. At that time there was a Safeway grocery store a short distance away, but there were not a lot of restaurants nearby. I do not know if you can ship a bike there in advance if you were using BikeFlights, you would have to call and ask. They had a locked room near the front door where they stored our bikes while we were there. But it is a hostel, not a higher end motel, so no airport shuttle van.
https://www.hihostels.com/destinations/0059/hostels

fietsbob

Yea, a couple years ago, Heavy, wet , winter Storms washed out bridges and caused landslides it took a year, + , to repair & clear ..


And its another winter like that one..





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spinnaker

Fisherman's Wharf is just a short walk down to the water. There are tons of restaurants there. Plus the cable car is not too far away which gets you up near South Beach for some good Italian..

spinnaker

Over hyped. I had no issues. Even on the so called deadly Devil's Slide. And now Devil's slide is a bike path!

Tourist in MSN

I suspect that our definition of close restaurants is different. You are correct that there were lots of restaurants at Fishermans Wharf, but my recollection was that it was at least a 15 minute walk to the restaurants from the hostel. The Safeway grocery store was much closer.

Which reminds me that I had a good photo. Riding our bikes on Fishermans Wharf at 4:30am on the way to the shuttle bus stop, the shuttle to the Amtrak station. Thus no crowds at 4:30 am, and not much light either, the camera exposure was 1/10 of a second.

fietsbob

Montara is another nice Hostel , down the coast.. Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel | Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel

spinnaker

https://www.bikeforums.net/20795345-post15.html



With the OPs 200 mile limit, Montara might be out of the question. Much better to ride south of Monterrey if you need to choose IMHO.