Should I bring my road or mountain bike to San Diego?

July 26, 2007 9:07 AM

Going to San Diego in late August-Should I bring my road bike or my mountain bike?

I live in Salt Lake City, where there is plenty of great road and mountain riding. I'll be in San Diego 23-Aug through 27-Aug.

I welcome 23-24 mph pacelines, canyon climbs, rough descents(but not DH proper), basically anything on two wheels.

Ideas for rides, either road or mountain welcome. I'd even be willing to go on a local group ride I can find one ( <=22mph avg).

Bringing both bikes is likely out of the question. I haven't put much thought into renting a bike out there as my bikes are basically extensions of my body, and are also professionally fit.

posted by neilkod to sports, hobbies, & recreation (3 comments total)

There's plenty of opportunities for both. I only have experience with mountain biking, so that's where most of my recommendations will come from, but there are road riders all up and down the local coastline--favorite routes for them seem to be Highway 101 from UCSD to Oceanside, and the Silver Strand south of Coronado.

For mountain biking, Mission Trails Regional Park has a whole bunch of trails across a variety of terrain, but it's mostly dirt road stuff through scrub brush. The premier trail in town is down Noble Canyon, which is all single-track, starting at the crest of the Laguna mountains overlooking the desert to the east, and then winding downhill 8 miles or so through a canyon to the little town of Pine Valley. I've only done it downhill and shuttled back up, but there is a small paved road that runs a roughly parallel route to the trail that you can ride back up if you want. There are a number of other trails in the Laguna Recreation area that are bikeable (Big Laguna Trail is a good one), but a number of trails in the area are not bike-friendly. You won't be welcome on trails in the state parks or on the Pacific Crest Trail.
posted by LionIndex at 9:35 AM on July 26, 2007

Noble Canyon trail description, as well as a bunch of stuff on other trails in town.
posted by LionIndex at 9:45 AM on July 26, 2007

I can't say which you should do, as my riding in San Diego has all been on the road (also as a visitor). I can say that the road riding is incredible. This page has a lot of great routes. Our favorites from our last trip were Desert - Mountain - Dessert and Soledad Mountain. Also check out Mt. Palomar.
posted by mingshan at 7:03 AM on July 27, 2007