California Dreaming: An Undiscovered Cycling Playground

As we rounded the top of the climb on See Canyon Road and inhaled the spectacular views of the hills and valleys surrounding San Luis Obispo, it became clear that we had no idea how good we had it when we lived down here.

Six years ago, we cut our teeth on cycle touring in the San Luis Obispo area. A short bus/train ride out of Long Beach and we were on open country roads, chatting with the cows, picnicking under the oak trees. We knew it was lovely, but we didn’t have anything to compare it to. Now, after all of our travels, we have been honestly surprised by the incredible cycling that’s tucked away in the Central California hills. The riding here isn’t just good, it’s a cyclist playground – and you should get here before the tourism folks realize that they’re sitting on a gold mine.

Our intention in rambling through Central California was three-fold: to see the sun again (it’s been miserably grey in Oregon), to see how the riding stacks up to our memories (it’s better), and to swap notes about what it takes for a ‘great place for cycling’ to become a cycling destination (and what that means for small communities nation-wide). The Central California area (Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Solvang, and surrounding communities) is quietly home to some of the most challenging and rewarding cycling, but the only people who really know it are the locals and the teams who train here. So, we’re going to let the cat out of the bag…

When you land in Paso Robles with a bicycle, your choices are wide and varied. Do you ramble along the rolling hills to the east, winding past the wineries on Linne Road, or do you tackle the steeper climbs to the west, conquering the steep grades on Peachy Canyon Road. For us, the answer was yes and yes. And we were rewarded with swooping curves, oak- and vineyard-lined hillsides, wine tasting, and very few cars.

Down in San Luis Obispo, we were tipped off to two very different routes to nearby Avila Beach, which we pieced together into a loop. We followed the mild-mannered Bob Jones off-road path to the beach, stopping along the waterfront for lunch and wine tasting at Peloton Cellars. We returned via See Canyon/Prefumo Canyon Roads, which included a 1-mile-long stretch of gravel, roaming cows, that pleasant sound of nothing-but-your-wheels-whirring-beneath-you, and a surprisingly steep climb that resulted in quite possibly the most rewarding summit ever.

From SLO, we wound through grassy hills and quiet canyons into Morro Bay and Pismo Beach. We navigated our way onto as many small roads as we could find, rambling around the hills behind Solvang and Buellton (where we passed dozens of training cyclists); and we returned to several of the routes we rode years ago, piecing together a sort of ‘greatest hits’ tour. (Maps of SLO-Morro Bay, Morro Bay-Ventura.)

What we discovered is an area ripe for bicycle tourism. Just a few miles east of the well-known Pacific Coast route, we found the kind of riding that made us fall in love with cycling in the first place. For folks in LA and the Bay Area who are looking for a great cycling vacation, Central California is easy to reach via Amtrak (San Luis Obispo is a baggage stop for folks traveling south with a boxed bike, and folks traveling north can take advantage of the new bicycle cars on the Surfliner). For folks who are currently buried under snow and grey clouds, winter is a perfect time to cycle around Central California, because the temps are mild and the prices are low. And the cherry on top is the fact that the burgeoning wine industry has brought good food, lots of tasting rooms, and an increase in hotels.

It’s only been a few days since we dropped out of the region and we’re already dreaming about going back…

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

Paso Robles: The Central Coast’s Bicycling Secret?

The central coast of California is a well-recognized wine destination, with a number of vineyards and fine dining options sprouting up in Paso Robles and surrounding areas. But this post isn’t about wine, this post is about the area’s OTHER great untapped regional asset – amazing roads for bicycling.

Although Paso Robles has played host to the Great Western Bicycle Rally for decades and some curious bicycle tourists diverge from the main coastal route into Paso, it still seems like a relatively undiscovered cycling destination. An internet search of bicycling in the region brings up relatively little in the way of bicycle travel posts. People are riding bicycles in spades in the area, but aren’t talking about it online.

We recently met Steve and Carol Fleury who run BestBikeZone, one of Paso Roble’s bicycle shops. They gave us a lot of insight into the ways that Paso Robles is becoming bicycle friendly, but also the ways it can still improve. At the shop level, Steve is finding many active Boomers who are looking for a recreational activity that is a little easier on their body than running. Many of his customers have leisure time and income and like to taste wine as well as ride bicycles through the amazing country roads. Steve was also the catalyst in encouraging the city to apply for a bicycle-friendly designation for Paso Robles. Carol has been instrumental in reaching out to the women in the area and getting them on bikes. She helps lead a social ride every Sunday out of Dark Nectar in Templeton that attracts cyclists of varying ability. She recently got several of the women at “The 9’s” salon on bicycles, which she counts as a personal victory. When she’s not helping lead group rides, she also rides one-on-one with several women in the area who are just beginning and want to gain more experience before joining group rides.

When we put out our feelers for bicycle-friendly businesses in Paso Robles, we connected with TravelPaso, the local destination marketing organization. TravelPaso started a thread on their Facebook page that was instantly inundated with suggestions of businesses that are bicycling friendly. But what we quickly learned is that being bicycle friendly in Paso/Templeton is very different from the usual conversations about being bicycle friendly in larger cities.

Two businesses that instantly stood out were Cass and Sculpterra wineries. Because they have several employees and customers that enjoy bicycling, they designated the stretch of road between the two wineries as the “Linne Bicycle Trail” and put up signs at the wineries. We stopped at Cass and spoke to Lindsey, the tasting room manager, about what it meant for Cass to be bicycle friendly. Cass offers free water to cyclists, which is especially important during the hot summers, as well as allows day riders to enjoy their outdoor patio. They have also offered up the property as a rest stop during event rides and even had a bicycling costume contest during harvest season (the winner won her weight in wine!). She said that there was no pressure on cyclists to buy wine during a ride because she knew that many would return and bring their friends and family with them. For Cass and Sculpterra (and other businesses in the region), being bicycle friendly was expressed in a very low key and pragmatic way. It was less about using bicycles as a marketing tool and more about acknowledging that their employees, customers and many people in the community enjoyed riding bicycles, and then simply welcoming them. For them, being bicycle friendly was about being a good neighbor and community member and basic customer service.

This sort of pragmatic approach was also seen at Dark Nectar in Templeton. As the official meeting place for the Sunday group ride, Dark Nectar opens early to accommodate the cyclists. Because the ride attracts upwards of 40 people on good weather days, and because there are no bike racks in Templeton, a customer who was an engineer came up with the idea to install hooks on the awning for cyclists to hang their bikes. Across the street, the natural foods store in Templeton is also planning to install similar hooks to attract cyclists.

While in Paso, we also visited with Robert Nadeau of Nadeau Family Vintners, a relatively small winery located at the top of Peachy Canyon, one of the classic road rides in the area. Peachy Canyon is located on the west side of the 101 and is a fantastic road that climbs in a serpentine pattern beneath beautiful oak trees. Robert is an avid cyclist himself who understands how special the area is for riding. Robert has seen the pattern that many road cyclists tend to be foodies and enjoy wine. They stay in local accommodations (La Quinta in Paso Robles is noted for hosting large cycling groups), eat at the local restaurants and, of course, enjoy the local wineries. As we left his winery, we noted that the loop sensors that open the gate are tuned to detect bicycles as well as cars.

Paso Robles does not quickly come to mind as a bicycle friendly destination, but there are many things underway. A frontage road that connects Templeton to Paso Robles has beautifully marked red bike lanes that make it easier for cyclists to get into town.

The city has also submitted an application to the League of American Bicyclists to be recognized as a bicycle friendly community. Slowly, through events like the Great Western Bike Rally and the Tour of California, the area is being recognized – not just for its wine but for its great riding. There is still a long way to go. There are few resources about cycling in the area, other than local knowledge, and there is little mention in the destination marketing materials about welcoming cyclists. Hopefully, with the leadership of Steve and Carol from BestBikeZone and other respected community members that ride bikes, people will not only visit Paso Robles for the wine, they will spend multiple days exploring its marvelous roads on two wheels.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

5 Ways Bicycle Travel and Touring Are Changing

Bicycle touring and travel is making a comeback. Previously reaching a peak in the late 70s and early 80s, before giving way to bicycle racing, Millennials who have discovered cycling in an urban setting are starting to venture further and further out. But this iteration of bicycle touring is looking different than the last.

#1 Shorter Trips

Bicycle touring was once only seen as the hobby of the wild-eyed and crazy extreme sports adventurer. A “real tour” had to be an epic undertaking across continents, through deserts, and slashing your way through a snake-infested swamp. While there are plenty of pedalers pushing boundaries, there has also been a growth in the popularity of short-form touring. S24Os and Bike Overnights are becoming more common cycling parlance. This is good for several reasons: It makes bike travel more accessible and broadens the touring market. It also allows people to enjoy the fun and sense of adventure of bicycle travel NOW without having to save up for years for that one grand trip.

#2 Multi-modal Adventures

Along with the sea change of what is considered a “real” tour is the idea that you have to pedal every mile, no matter how terribly excruciatingly awful it is, because it’s cheating otherwise. The concept of a “rideshed”, the distance you can cover with your bicycle and transit (trains, regional buses, light rail) is starting to get traction. This makes perfect sense for people who live in large metro areas surrounded with Suburban Donuts of Death. You could ride out of a downtown, risk your life in the suburbs, and then enjoy quiet riding, or you could just cut to the good stuff using transit. We’ve long been proponents of combining Amtrak with bicycle travel because of their reasonable bicycle carry-on rates and the simple fact that the train moves at a more harmonious human speed. There is nothing like looking out the window for hours on a long train ride to wake up your inner traveler.

#3 Family Friendly

In conjunction with shorter trips and the ability to use transit or other means to get out of dodgy riding areas, there also seems to be a growing interest in family bicycle camping. Family camping, once strictly the domain of minivans and Coleman tents, is also becoming more popular because of cargo bikes. Xtracycles, Yubas, Bakfeits and even trailers are making bike travel more accessible to families. In Portland, we recently participated in a family bike camping trip put on by Kidical Mass, which had a total of 22 bikes and 16 kids of varying age! The beauty of a bike-powered family vacation is you don’t have to travel very far or fast to make it feel like an adventure.

#4 Tourism Industry Recognition

With more people touring more often, tourist destinations and businesses are starting to take note. It’s simple math really. A traveling cyclist will eat more and will require more accommodations more often because of their limited travel distance. If your county is 200 miles wide, it will take a cyclist 3-4 days to navigate through it. As a tourist destination, you have a captive audience and it takes very little to attract and entice cyclists to stay. Oregon’s various tourism groups and DMOs are leading the way on this front. We’ve had the opportunity to work with them on their Scenic Bikeways and are amazed at how enthusiastic many small towns are at the idea of cyclists pedaling through.

#5 Off Road and Gravel Touring

On the other end of the bicycle travel continuum is the new trend of off-road/gravel road/mixed-terrain bikepacking. Combining ultralight backpacking principles with frame bags and mountain bikes or fat bikes, touring cyclists are exploring new unpaved territory. In some ways, I think this is a response to the amount of traffic we experience day to day. A lot of the great road touring routes in the 70s aren’t so great anymore, so the current generation is looking elsewhere – namely, off road. This is also augmented by the fact that camping and bicycle technology have never been better! Gear is ultralight, bikes have lower gearing and a wide range of tires and suspension to tackle virtually any kind of terrain.

Bike travel and touring are making a comeback in a big way. 6 or 7 years ago when we got interested in bike touring, it was a virtual wasteland. We’d walk into bike shops and ask about touring and the people behind the counter would just scratch their heads. Times are changing. Surly’s LHT has brought touring to the masses. The veritable explosion of young custom bicycle pannier/frame bag/rando bag makers is making bicycle touring hip and fun again. It’s never been better to travel by bike!

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying one of our ebooks: Panniers and Peanut Butter or The Unauthorized Brompton Touring Guide, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

California Bound!

Now that the holidays are winding down, we’re looking forward to our first bike trip of the new year and are headed down to California! While not extraordinarily exotic, it does promise some desperately needed sun. Our plan is to take Amtrak Coast Starlight down from Portland to Paso Robles, spend a night or two there, then work our way to San Luis Obispo and explore the town. From SLO, we’ll ride down south as far as Ventura (maybe a side trip into Ojai), then hop Amtrak into Los Angeles to visit family and friends. Then using the Amtrak Surfliner, go down to San Diego where we’ll begin the desert portion of our trip, riding through Julian to Anza Borrego, Salton Sea then turn North towards Palm Springs.

That’s the rough plan anyway. Things always change.

Aside from putting some real loaded miles on our Vayas, one goal is to travel with a lens focused on bicycle tourism to see what works and what doesn’t. So we need your help. If you’ve got any tips on communities, advocacy groups or businesses (restaurants, lodging,etc.,) that are bike friendly and actively reaching out to cyclists let us know. We’d love to interview them and put a few more arrows in the quiver for when we go to DC to speak at the National Bike Summit!

One goal for 2013 is to advocate for bicycle travel in some big ways. We feel that we’ve done a pretty good job at getting individuals excited about hopping on their bikes and exploring. The next step, is to get communities and cities excited about bicycle tourism and travel. We occupy an interesting space, a nexus between adventure and advocacy and we plan to go gangbusters on the advocacy in the coming year.

We need your help with suggestions of people to talk to and some places to stay along the way. Or, if you’d like for us to speak at your community while we travel, let us know! Or if you just want to meet up and grab a beer. You can email us or send us a message via our contact page.

This trip, like our previous trips, is paid for out of our own pockets with funds from our ebook, shirt, headbadge sales and articles and photos we sell along the way. It sounds a lot more glamorous than the reality of the situation, believe me, but we feel strongly about the future of bike travel and are trying our best to help spread the word. So if you can help in any way with a nights stay, let us know.

California, here we come!

Our Year in Review

Looking back at 2012, it feels immensely odd to think that, one short year ago, we were celebrating the holidays at the other end of the world. When we flew to New Zealand, we were so sure it would be the gateway drug to a year or more of international rambling that we traveled on a one-way ticket. Instead, our Kiwi adventure pointed us back to the US, and a new trajectory that has turned us from active bicycle travelers to advocates for bicycle travel.

Far from being a sad twist of fate, for us, this change means a chance to build something bigger – to take all of our vast experiences of the last three years and put them to use in a way that increases opportunities for others to travel by bike.

We welcomed 2012 in a small backpackers in Turangi, drinking beers with three other international travelers. It was raining outside and we almost missed the stroke of midnight because there was no Dick Clark-esque TV special with a countdown. The international incident hadn’t happened yet and we were still in the honeymoon period of understanding this foreign place. Two months later, we would ride the Otago Central Rail Trail, and find ourselves in the middle of a complex theory that had sprung to reality. Several months more, we would dig deep into the memories and emotions of our New Zealand tour, and synthesize it all into a very-hard-to-write article for Bicycle Times.

We still grapple with everything that happened while we were in New Zealand, and what it all meant. But we still smile when we think about all the incredible people we met, and we still laugh when we think about all the pickled beets on all the hamburgers we ate, and we know that we learned something immensely powerful about the economics of cycling that has opened so many opportunities for us.

In May, we did something we never saw coming: we signed a lease on an apartment in Portland, Oregon. After nearly three years of living as nomads, we knew it was time to take a break from continual travel, put down some roots, and give ourselves the space to focus on bigger projects. We chose Portland for many reasons; chief among them is the simple fact that Oregon is leading the US in recognizing the power of cycling, particularly in terms of rural economic development, and we dearly want a seat at that table. Being in Portland has enabled us to work with Travel Oregon and Cycle Oregon, creating video content that captures the stories behind the Scenic Bikeways and the iconic Cycle Oregon ride. The more we sit in on bike tourism meetings and meet with proponents in small towns, the more deeply we understand how Bicycles Can Save Small-Town America.

This year also saw us take on larger speaking gigs, blending real-world findings with storytelling, to inspire a variety of people and communities to embrace cycling and bike travel. From the Oregon Active Transportation Summit to a targeted meeting of Haywood County officials in North Carolina, we’re helping people think about bike travel in an entirely new way. Believe it or not, both of us hated public speaking until we started traveling; now, we get geekily excited at the prospect of standing up in front of more and more audiences and building more and more support for bike travel.

So what about the actual travel part? Do we miss being on the road? Yes and no. The road is exhilarating and full of incredible new and spontaneous adventures. It’s also deeply introspective and free of the hustle-bustle-multitasking of “regular” life. We miss it enough that, in a few weeks, we’re hopping an Amtrak train to bike tour around some of our favorite parts of California. But after all of the time we’ve spent on the road, we also know that we want more than just the simplicity of the road. We’ve built up an incredible karmic debt over the past three years, and it’s time to start paying it down, all the while channeling energy into building a movement behind bike travel. We may not be vagabonding around at present, but we still live and breath bike travel – and we can only hope that 2013 turns out to be as awesome as it looks.