Originally Posted by
mcr23
Wow some great recommendations here, I’ll check out the east bay. My college room mate actually lives in Oakland so might work out better staying there anyway.
Any advice on good places/lbs to rent a road bike from?
Blazing Saddles in San Francisco:
https://www.blazingsaddles.com/san-f...end-road-bikes
Summit Bicycles in Burlingame:
https://www.summitbicycles.com/page.cfm?pageid=395
There's probably somewhere in the East Bay too, but the above came up quickly on Google.
I have to agree with prototoast that the riding on the Peninsula down to SC is fantastic, but again, remote and hard to access without a car.
You can stay in SF, Oakland, or Berkeley with your rented (multi-day) bike and get to ridiculous riding on BART (beware commute hours) so easily. You can get on roads with extremely light traffic on weekends or weekdays from most East Bay stations. I specifically recommend riding from Rockridge, Pleasant Hill, Castro Valley, and Dublin/Pleasanton stations. You'll find no traffic in the Oakland Hills on Tunnel Rd., Pinehurst, Wildcat Canyon, Redwood Rd. Further afield but easily reachable, I highly recommend Briones area (Alhambra Valley, 3 Bears), Morgan Territory (epic and remote), and Palomares. Diablo is absolutely do-not-miss (I prefer climbing via North Gate, descending South). Except for leaving the BART stations and immediate surrounds (and Diablo on a sunny Saturday), traffic is an non-issue.
On of my faves: pick one of several of routes out of Oakland, ride to Martinez and take Amtrak back (or man up and ride back!).