A strange twist of events has led me to move to Los Angeles, and I’m looking for some advice on any bike and/or tri-friendly places to live. I’ve only been here about 10 days, and I haven’t found an apartment yet, but riding on the roads here seems nearly suicidal. Is the entire area this way? Are there certain cities or neighborhoods where biking is safer or more welcome than others? I’d love to hear about some great rides outside of the city, but I’m also interested in places to live where it might be easy to hop on my bike for a quick ride without having to drive there first.
Any feedback at all would be great. I’m completely new here, and I’m looking for any advice that I can get!
Not an expert on road riding in LA, but any serious shop could help you. You would be surprised to know that there are lot of organized training rides through the greater metro area–most on weekends. I know that in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl (park) there are weekly, very intense looped traing rides (basically a weekly free crit) where riders do lotsa loops at very high speeds.
If you like to ride off road and need to ride during rush hour (I often had to when I lived there), try to find a place to live within shooting distances of open space (get some maps, as there is a LOT to choose from–Griffith park, Ventura area, some of the north coastal areas near Malibu, just north of Monrovia, northeast of Burbank, many areas in Orange Co., etc., . But be prepared to use the granny gear. Much of the riding near the valley (San Fernando) and north of it is fun, quiet, and isolated, but it is vertical.
Check out www.socalcycling.com for local training rides and cycling clubs to join. When daylight savings hits, there is a great ride Tues/Thurs nights at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. You can also check out the the LA Tri club, www.latriclub.com. Go to there calendar section to find some of there ‘public’ workouts. At least you can meet some tri people in the area. For swimming you can check out www.swim.net\scaq. Lots of pools to workout at in the LA area.
Where in LA are you? “LA” is a very large metroplex - the advice we can give you depends on which part of LA you’re in. If you’re actually in the city limits, yeah, I would think you’re going to be pretty limited as far as riding from your doorstep. The two previous posts are good starts, and when all else fails, head to the mountains. Valyermo is out there some where.
Thanks for the helpful responses. I’m actually more of a mountain biker than a tri guy, so I’m looking forward to the mountain biking here in the area. But that, just like everything else here, it seems, requires getting in the car and driving for a while–pretty much regardless of where I live. And at the moment, I’m living in a hotel in Santa Monica, having just arrived in town several days ago. I’ll check out some of the options you guys suggested, and I’ll go from there. Thanks again.
Since you’re in Santa Monica right now, I have three westside suggestions:
Group rides: LA Tri Club (triathletes) and La Grange (roadies) both have (or at least had, as of a year ago) morning group rides leaving from the Starbucks at 26th and San Vicente (on the border of Brentwood and Santa Monica) at 6:30. They switch off a flat ride down to Marina Del Rey with hills, either loops around Riviera CC or climbs up the canyon (usually up Mandeville or Westridge). The LATri group is pretty slow; a decent mountain biker could keep up. La Grange is fast (not by roadie standards but blazing by triathlete standards); if you can keep up with La Grange on an mountain bike you are a bmf.
PCH: Go out to the ocean and head north. If you don’t have a car this is the only show in town for long rides. Traffic can be bad but it gets better after Malibu and its better the earlier you leave.
Mountain biking: Lots of good fire trails in the Santa Monica mountains. There is a popular traihead at the top of Westridge (take Bundy up to Sunset, West on Sunset, North up Mandeville Cyn, left on Westridge, then all the way up the hill). You can get to the same trails by going up past Mt St. Mary’s College (take Bundy north past Sunset and keep going until you turn right on Mt.St. Mary’s and then left on Grace Ln.). There’s probably a lot of good singletrack but the only place I know of for that is going up Westridge but turning left on Bayliss before the top. Where Bayliss dead ends there is a smaller trailhead that goes up through a canyon to the ridge and hooks up with the fire trail.
If you have a car, check out Angeles Crest. It is probably easiest to start from la canada/flintridge. Dan has a century loop mapped out on this site that includes Angeles Crest although he starts from the Wrightwood side.
As for where to live, if I were you I would get out of LA and move to OC or Ventura county which is what I finally did after 10 years. If you have to stay in LA, my vote would be for the westside, both for training and quality of life though there are certainly other good places (parts of the west valley, south bay, pasadena/la canada etc).
You don’t absolutely need a car. I lived for a while in Burbank (airport vicinity) and could get to fantastic dirt roads and trails with about 15-20 min of road riding from my front door. Look carefully at good biking areas and find housing nearby. It is there.
If you want to be able to ride from the house, the San Gabriel valley is a great area to live. Pasadena, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, Azusa, etc all are right up against the mountains and the training is great. Tons of climbing, group rides and swim venues. There are also 2 bike paths that start in the area and go 30 - 35 miles right through the middle of LA and end at the beach. These paths go under all major roads and highways and there is only one spot on each where you have to cross a road. You can ride right through LA w/o experiencing any traffic at all. There are also many, many different rides into the mountains. Road and MTB.
It really depends on where you will be working and how far/long you’re willing to commute.
Depending on where your work is, the Calabasass/Agoura area is a cycling paradise. Good pavement, epic climbs in the Santa Monica Mountains, the PCH, long rollers in avocado groves and faily polite motorists await.
Jawlew and I live about a mile from each other. I’ve been in Monrovia since 2000 and the training is excellent: Two bike paths within 5 miles of my house. One is 34 miles to the beach. The other goes to Long Beach but has a big chunk under construction. If I make a left on one of those bike paths I can be on a mountain road with no cars in about 3 miles for as much climbing as I can stomach. I’m talking 75-100 miles. Tree lined streets with little traffic. Tues/Thurs rides at the Rose Bowl, Wed roadie ride, Montrose Ride (huge, fast) on Saturday. Network of mtn bike trails about 2 miles from my house. Swimming and trail running at the Bowl and behind JPL.
Even better, I’m starting a tri club to service athletes in Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley: http://www.cruciblefitness.com/teamcrucible/index.htm. Workouts almost every day of the week, uniforms to be ordered soon, local and national sponsors, monthly social events, free clinics, etc.
Rich or Jaylew (or anyone, really): Could you tell me more about these paths that run 34 miles or so to the beach? Where do they start, where do they end up, do they have a name, etc.? I’m thinking that for the time being, until I find a permanent home, I might be able to catch one here on the west side (Santa Monica) and ride it towards Pasadena et. al. I moved here from Minneapolis, and I haven’t put many miles on the bike over the past few (snowy) months. I need to do some base mileage, and these sound like a great way to shake off the winter.
If you click on a section of the map, it will give you a description of the route. The San Gabriel starts in Duarte and ends at Seal Beach, 37.5 miles away(one street crossing).
The Rio Hondo/Lario starts in Arcadia and ends in Long Beach at the Catalina ferry station(~32 miles). Unfortunately, they are doing construction on a 2 mile segment of it right now. Again, one street crossing.
The Santa Ana starts in Huntington Beach and goes for around 20 miles. A great IM race sim is to ride from Duarte down the San Gabriel to Seal Beach, down PCH for 5 miles or so, then up the Santa Ana. Turn around at 56 and flip it.
I have never ridden it but I believe the bike path you’re talking about runs along the public right of way paralleling one of LA’s concrete rivers. I think it may be the San Gabriel though I’m not sure. I know that some LA tri club guys do the ride you’re talking about occasionally. You could probably post a message there and find out about routes and/or organized rides. Riding out the river trail and then hitting Angeles Crest would be a huge, tough day but a lot of fun and you would see a lot of different parts of LA.
Riding out the river trail and then hitting Angeles Crest would be a huge, tough day but a lot of fun and you would see a lot of different parts of LA. <<
Great idea! And thanks to jaylew for the map as well. It’ll be great to finally get back on my bike, and I sincerely appreciate all of the helpful info.
I’m headed to LA as well August 9th. I’ll be at the ADT Center and would like to find a place to stay fairly close, but I hear Carson is not so friendly. Also I need to hit some meetings in Lake Forest and wondered about having a central location to both hit the track and get some work in? Any suggestions on where to (or not to) stay?
A central locale might be downtown Long Beach…Hyatt, Westin, Hilton, etc… It’s about 40 mins down to Felt and only about 20 mins up to the ADT Center. Another option, but further from HQ, would be the Redondo or Hermosa Beach areas. If you need more specifcs, let me know.
