Posts tagged “santabarbara”  

LA Times columnist Steve Lopez writes about a bike path battle of wills in Santa Monica

I used to ride my bike on that path when I lived in Santa Monica in the late '90s, and the hazards were no less frustrating back then. You'd see a clot forming ahead and have to slow down or change lanes, which sometimes meant getting brushed by rollerbladers or cyclists who thought they were in the Tour de France.

I have a bell on my urban bikes and rain bike for the purpose of using it on the bike path. The worst are roller bladers whose stride takes up two body lengths. Starbuck's moms with their suburban sized strollers who walk three abreast are also dangerous to the cyclist.

I'm courteous with the bell unless I see white earbud cords and then it's rapid-fire blinging. A few years ago, a skateboarder doing a board flip, flipped his board right into Pam's wheel and took her down. Beware of skateboarders.

In this video, I thought that Santa Barbara had the world's best bike paths.

I didn't see pedestrians on those paths.

How are the bike paths in your town? Do you even ride on them?

At the Biggest Little Bike Shop in the World, they’ve got an Oil Addiction Treatment Center and it’s staffed by Jim Hopperstad who’s been around forever, since the days of leather chamois, wearing cycling shoes without socks, and when bikes were only made with steel …

As the story goes, back in 1969, his brother smoked a big, fat spliff and came up with the name Bikesmiths — there are lots of Bikesmiths now, but this one is the original. Jim’s featured in Road Bike Action this month and for every possible bike topic, he’s got an opinion. For example, he observed my Rolls saddle was dated and that lead to a discussion concerning hairnet helmets with an additional digression into the quality of Deda components v. Ritchey. Then onto Michelin’s new Pro 3, how Seattle is an anthill, and how riding fixies without brakes can lead to broken wrists.

At Bike Hugger we’ve become connoisseurs of bike paths and think that Santa Barbara has the best ones in the world. Huggacast Thirty Eight features two sections of the Pacific Coast Route.

What bike paths do you think are world class?

Ibex sent us arm and knee warmers and a jersey to try out. I took the New Zealand Merino wool clothes with me to Santa Barbara. It was thankfully warm in SBA and I didn’t wear the warmers for very long, but did note during the ride that they were well-constructed and offer a unique blend of wool, nylon, and Lyrca. They’re also made in the USA.

Temperature regulation is always tough in wet, cold climates (and Seattle has been the wettest and coldest this year!) and I think Ibex would meet the demand for training rides, commutes, and recreational rides. The material is probably too thick for hard riding, but I’ll need to long-term test that factor on a colder, pouring, suffering ride to make sure.

This shop window photo summarizes the bike scene in downtown Santa Barbara well: lots of cruisers, girls on cruisers, tourists, and more cruisers. With wide bike lanes, lots of signs, easy-to-follow routes and great weather, cycling flourishes in Santa Barbara. More photos on Picasa and Flickr.

Rolling out of Solvang, back towards Santa Barbara, through a nice valley.

I saw several bike homes in downtown Santa Barbara and managed to photograph this one. Note the rust, the pillows, bedding, and goods in the back.

We rode the Santa Barbara to Solvang loop today

• 4:27 ride time
• 86 miles
• 20 mph average

On the roads of the Tour of California — read more in our Travel blog.

Just in time for the trip to Santa Barbara, Road Bike Action arrives! Bonus while reading it on the plane, there’s a cool sites link to us. Very nice and great to see a road-specific mag back. It’s a good issue with an article on the Portland scene and women’s racing.

As seen at the Santa Barbara Airport