sultanofsuede

Hello all -
I'm going to be in the Santa Clarita area in mid-Feb '24 and was hoping to find some tips on how to get some miles in during the visit. I have a laundry list of questions so hopefully you can weigh in on all/some as you able.

- I'm planning to rent a bike, would love to get something nice/fast for a couple days. Best location for that?
- Looking for suggestions on some nice routes and thinking about a few ideas:
- Safe road ride that might get some good climbs. I'm a flatlander but love to climb out on the open road.
- I'm open to bike paths (google search tells me there are a lot of paths in the Santa Clarita area), but would hope to get out of town for some distance and not deal with walkers/runners.
- I'd say I'd be up for anywhere between 30 - 70 miles, depending on the difficulty of climbing (I know my wife won't love it if I'm gone for 7 hours)
- Any must-do stops for a coffee or a beer out on any of these routes, would be great!
- I don't think it will be too easy for me to transport a bike to get to the start of rides, so I'll likely need to take off from where ever I rent from and then ride to the house we are staying.
- That being said, if I need to take the wheels off the bike to get to an amazing start/stop that isn't too far from Santa Clarita, I'm all ears. I don't want to miss and 'epic' California ride if I'm close enough to make it work.
- Any cool local organized road rides going on Feb, 9 10, 11?

If you've read this far, I appreciate it. Thanks for any info you might have!

diphthong

haven't ridden out in the santa clarita area as much as i'd like since i live in san diego. interesting mix of mountains and foothills. first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the area is wind. it can get breezy out there at any point in the year so a windbreaker is a must. temps early february could range from the low 40's at sunrise to mid 80's in the afternoon. chances are, tho, that temps will be between 41-67 degrees. gloves and (removable) layers territory. recommend rocking two water bottles and a clif bar or some such just in case. not a lot of support once out of town and into the canyons.

this is a loop ride from dtown santa clarita that gets out of town quickly via placerita canyon rd then a right onto sand canyon rd with a decent climb up to bear divide. the scenery picks up in the last mile of the climb.

https://www.strava.com/activities/578480314


once atop bear divide, there is a paved road (and small parking area) to your right. this road leads up to the camp 9 fire station complex (great water fountain at the top!) and the views are pretty sweet.
the recommended climb up to camp 9 fire station from bear divide. mile 11.7-15.5 for the uphill. watch your speed on the descent with a few blind curves and the road quality ain't the best (unless repaved recently)

https://www.strava.com/activities/26...13#66066831979


the most interesting ride in the area takes in the old ridge route. definitely challenging and a good, 25-mile stretch where (on weekdays) you will likely come across no one else.since you'd be doing this on a weekend, there will undoubtedly be a few people but still pretty desolate. no support until back to castaic lake except for a little
liquor/grocery store approx a mile east of the pine canyon rd/lake hughes rd intersection.

https://www.strava.com/activities/564440229#13678673778
https://www.latimes.com/business/auto...502-story.html
https://ridgeroute.org


there are some other interesting canyon roads leading from santa clarita such as san francisquito canyon rd, bouquet canyon rd but haven't ridden (only driven) them so can't speak to their experience. perhaps a local can pick up the baton and run with it. have a great visit and let us know what you rode.

sultanofsuede

That's awesome input. Thanks!
I'll cruise though a bunch of that info over the holidays when I have some downtime.
I actually just found this link as well ( https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/g.../santaclarita/ ), and I'm going to see if any of their suggestions match up with the info you gave.

I kind of forgot that my son would probably enjoy mountain biking (he likes mtb, I like road), so I was nosing around there too.

urbanknight

Santa Clarita has plenty of great places to ride. The network of river trails is great and has minimal traffic. There are also excellent routes to the north and east with some climbing involved.

The only place that rents bikes that I know of is Serious Cycling, but they also have rides starting at the shop so I guess you could do those rides without worrying about transporting the rental (although you'd have to figure out how to get to the shop).
https://www.seriouscycling.com/buyer...tals-pg176.htm

For routes, search ridewithgps.com for routes starting within a few miles of Santa Clarita and a bunch will pop up. The SFVBC club has plenty of routes out that way too, but they start in the San Fernando Valley. Some of my favorite routes out that way go by Bouquet Reservoir, Castaic Lake, Little Tujunga, and Big Tujunga. Those are climbing routes, though.

big john

You could call Bicycle Johns and ask if they rent bikes or know of anyone who does. There is a road club which has rides starting at that store. They are friendly
Bicycle John's Santa Clarita | Bike Shop | Los Angeles County (bicyclejohnsscv.com)

There are great bike paths out there and lots of good road rides but there are also roads to avoid. Message me if you want when you get close.

sultanofsuede

Hey everyone - following up to thank you again for the advice. The trip was great and we were able to squeeze a ride in. More importantly, I was able to get familiar with some of the areas that your referenced in responses, so my next trip will be better planned.

Unfortunately, our ride didn't turn out to be all that great. We rented mountain bikes from the Trek shop in Santa Clarita and were really happy with that experience. The costs, service, and quality of bikes were all pretty great. We decided to ride towards the Trek mtb course but found out it was closed when we got there (the guys at the shop had no idea). Rode back to the shop and decided to maybe give it a shot another day (which just didn't happen).

The weather was certainly a factor. We actually had great weather days, but it seemed the trails had been washed out in some areas. I do think some trails were open, but just too far of a ride from the bike shop. If I had gotten my way, we would be been on road bikes and had a perfect day to ride. But, just tried to make the kid happy (no good deed goes unpunished).

Thanks again - I'll save this thread for my next trip!

diphthong

glad you made it. reminded me as to how much i need to hit the area as it's been too long. it's a real (roadie) mushpot of challenging foothills, wind-blasted flats, semi-highish desert and decent mountains.