Calamigos Ranch, Malibu CA

[alanmcorcoran]

This was my longest ride to date: 150 miles round trip. A good portion of it was crossing Los Angeles County over 35 mile an hour, heavily traffic lighted "surface streets." Passing through some not so nice neighborhoods to boot. But the last 25 miles or so from Santa Monica to the Calamigos Ranch was very nice.

[pbss:3axnysmn]http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/alanmcorcoran/Malibu/?action=view&current=cd0c445a.pbw[/pbss:3axnysmn]

Calamigos Ranch is a 130 acre conference center in the hills above Malibu. They do group picnics, weddings, corporate retreats and other events. I was invited to a wedding out there and thought it would be a good trip to test out my ability to get to Malibu in case I ever wanted to do a trip up the coast.

Took me almost three hours to get there. Lots of lights, stop and go. Really added to my city traffic experience and confidence. Had a few problems with occasionally missing a gear, but overall, no "issues." Did the return trip all after nightfall, my longest night time ride by far. The trip back was 45 minutes shorter owing to less traffic and better light timing. Found the raised white paint "Signal Ahead" warnings on PCH to be super slick with the night time ocean (dew? fog? spray?) The bike slipped sideways everytime I went over one - a little unnerving at 55 mph. Builds character I guess.

Learned that the best time to cross LA on surface streets would be the dead of night. If I go to Santa Barbara or points North, that's when I am heading out. Felt very comfortable in the saddle after a five hours plus riding in one day. Starting to feel like I know what I am doing!

[Moedad]

Excellent! Two good rides in one weekend. Riding across LA through some fairly rough neighborhoods on surface streets on a Sunday is no small feat whatsoever. Well done!

[alanmcorcoran]

Thanks Moe. Sorry we couldn't hook up, but you probably wouldn't have liked 2/3rd's of this one. I was going to check out the 105 on the way back, but since I was doing better with the lights, I stuck with Manchester/Firestone. Crossing LA without freeways is brutal.

[mirandaH]

thats awesome!!! i cant wait til i can do that...
and funny hahahaha about crossing the street only in the dead of night. i am so scared to death of cars!

[BusyWeb]

Hello, Alan.
I hope that we would met at, yesterday.
I was mainly at the PCH to take some photos and just few hours at there.
Which road did you take to get Calamigos?


I found a good web site that shows almost every biker's dream roads to venture.
Web Site: Lateral G
http://www.lateralg.org/
At the top of the main home page, there is a Roads menu.
Many good informations on it.

I have plan to ride most of roads one by one whenever I have time.
It might take at least year or two to finish out just for the LA area.

And another web site, seems this web site is for the somewhat advanced bikers.
Web Site: Pashnit
http://www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm

California GZ250 members! :2tup:

[alanmcorcoran]

Busy,

Thought I had replied to this but perhaps I forgot to click the button. The road I took was Kanaan Dume (I think.) It was about 5 miles straight up from PCH, at a point about 19 miles past the Santa Monica PCH cutover.

I'll have a look at your sites. Thanks.

-Alan.

[BusyWeb]

Hi, there.
If then, you might passed two tunnels??
The road Kanan(right spell??) is the one of the plainest (not fun to ride) among the Malibu Canyon Roads I felt.
When you have another chance to be in Malibu area, try some other roads.
I'm sure you will like it.
I only got about 3-4 roads among about 20 Malibu roads from this web page.
http://www.lateralg.org/roads/orange/malibu.htm

Mulholland Highway is the longest one to enjoy, and nice views, that I had.

[alanmcorcoran]

I went through one tunnel (there was another on the other side if that's what you mean...) I found the road to be just fine. Maybe not the most spectacular views on the way up, but quiet, and very sparsely travelled - and well paved. Was dark on the way down, so really didn't see much outside the pavement.

I've been down Mulholland many times in a car and on a bicycle. Lots of nice places to launch yourself into oblivion!

Guess I like quiet and lonely over exciting and deadly.

I'll let you know if I'm out that way anytime soon.