Ride from South Park to National City Marina:

I am planning to ride from South Park to the marina at 32nd Street in National City on Saturday. Any suggestions on the route? I've not done the "Bike the Bay" but suspect there may be a bike route / path? Thanks. CCT

I need to head to Solana Beach tomorrow and wanted to take my extracycle on the Coaster. Will I have a problem with the extended frame?

Whoa!

The Coaster doesn't have 'hooks'. That's AMTRAK.

The extracycle will probabily be just fine. It's no longer than a LWB Recumbent or Tandem and the Coaster is just roll on/off. I've seen these sort of bikes on the Coaster.

ignatiusesq:I am going to be starting a new commute from Golden Hill to Liberty Station in Point Loma. Does anyone have any good suggestions for that?!

That's a nice commute - I would probably do something like this (depending upon your exact start and end points, of course): Basically, Island and Harbor Dr. (path most of the way) would be your main "legs" -- try to avoid Google Maps' recommendation of Pacific Hwy/Barnett - it's a death trap.

Just make sure to take the Harbor Blvd. bike path (south side of the street) instead of taking Harbor Blvd. proper: It is - well - a death trap, of sorts, too: Too many high speed sweeping on and off ramps by the airport terminals, in both directions.

And welcome here, BTW!

Njord Noatun:Just make sure to take the Harbor Blvd. bike path (south side of the street) instead of taking Harbor Blvd. proper

Does the bike path have a speed limit?

No speed limit signs, but it is a shared path, not specifically a bike path. There are a fair amount of joggers on it every day for the entire length of it (including me usually three days a week). In the park area (West of the main airport entrance), there are often people with children and/or dogs. High speeds are a bad idea on the path.

The East->South bound part of Harbor drive isn't too bad through there for ramps. I would tend to take Harbor Drive when travelling East->South through there because I'm not crazy about riding slow. North->West might be a different matter.

I'm definitely not a hardcore cyclist of any kind, so the Harbor shared path worked great for me. Might have just been the time I was riding, but I haven't noticed too many cyclists or joggers for that matter, using the path. Besides- I would much prefer some joggers to crazy drivers!

clintb29, welcome!

This is just me (I'm not super hard-core), but you might want some gears for that commute, we have a lot of hills and canyons. Try mapping your route on the "Ride the City" tab at the top of the page; it's a little better than Google's bike directions, I think, since it's had a little more time to mature and it's a little more versatile. It would be out of your way by a fair margin, but parts of your commute could be on the Bayshore Bikeway, depending on how much you want to avoid car traffic. Others who are more familiar with the east side of town can probably give you better advice, though.

It's not that I have my heart set on that area, it's just that I found a place with a roommate that I think I'll get along with and the price is right. I know it's not right in the middle of things, but it's close and it's also close to mission trails and some other pretty nice areas to mountain bike from what I can tell.

Praxis,

Your comment spurs some honesty on my part. I have a high end geared road bike and mountain bike. The idea of a having a fixed/single speed bike is more because I would like to try out a different kind of riding on a lower end bike while not having having to put the other two out there on the commute where a lot of things could happen, not just theft. The truth is, I've gotten lucky with who I know, so I have gotten bikes I don't really deserve, and I'm protective of them. Bikes is bikes, if you're riding one, you're alright with me. The good news for you is that you probably rarely get pegged as a poser (guilty on all charges). Anyway, I will take the advice to ride a geared bike into consideration.

In plotting out my commute, it looks like I'm mostly going to be on 54th st, Euclid Ave and 4th Ave. Can anyone tell me if I'm asking for trouble riding on these roads?

Protorio, I'll get on that introduction as soon as a find a decent picture. Thanks everyone.

Moderator:*Message originally posted from clintb29*


I'm getting ready to move to San Diego from the east coast in mid may. I've found a good potential landing spot in Talmadge/College area. I will be working on Precision Park Lane, basically San Ysidro, about a 15 mile commute. Is there a decent route in this area that won't get me killed/maimed/otherwise injured?

A little about me: I've been mountain biking and road riding recreationally for about 10 years, racing occasionally, so I'm a good bike handler and used to being on the roads, but I'm new to the commuting game because I've always lived about a mile from my work. My weapon of choice will probably be a road frame with a single-speed flip flop hub when it comes to the commute (less gears=less stuff to get stolen). Any advice about commuting or anything else for someone new to the area would definitely be welcome. Thanks.

Regarding the advice request, perhaps the biggest difference between riding recreationally and commuting is that you typically have less route and timing flexibility when commuting (you're in a hurry to get to or from work, right?), and this difference has the consequence of forcing you to deal with traffic situations you might have chosen to avoid, perhaps without even noticing, when riding for recreation.

When I started commuting by bike seriously about 10 years ago I had issues with one left turn during fast/busy traffic. I asked for advice, and the only advice that helped, helped me with much more than I realized I needed help with, so I pass this advice on to you...

I highly recommend both of these books:

Effective Cycling by John Forester
Cyclecraft (North American edition) by John Franklin

If your goal is to get to the point where route finding is about finding the shortest route, because you're safe and comfortable riding on any road in any kind of traffic conditions, then these books are for you.

You can read the reviews on Amazon, but here's a recent comment about Cyclecraft a friend of mine recently posted on Facebook: "This book is so great I wish I could chain everyone in the world to chairs until they read it."

If you get only one, go with Cyclecraft.

Serge

I was considering riding from Old Town to the Bike Show tomorrow. What would be the best route?

Muchas gracias!

Chris Taylor:I am planning to ride to Ocean Beach tomorrow from South Park. Any suggestions on the best route there?

i think the best way i think is to take Presidio down to Old Town and then jump on the bike path. i don't have time to make a map right now unfortunately.

Velo Cult:

Chris Taylor:I am planning to ride to Ocean Beach tomorrow from South Park. Any suggestions on the best route there?

i think the best way i think is to take Presidio down to Old Town and then jump on the bike path. i don't have time to make a map right now unfortunately.

If you want company, we'll be heading to the beach via the OB bike path as well (in the morning). We usually head on University until 8th, then on Washington, around the hospital and then down Bachman to Hotel Circle where we then pick up the bike path to OB.

hi guys i'm fairly new to road biking, i bought a bike for myself for xmas and love it! I live in South Park and today was the first day i decided to commute to work (Kearny Villa Rd & Miramar Rd). Wow was that a exercise wake up call! I'm not in bad shape by any means but i got my ass kicked. Regardless there were a few things i had questions on, i tried to drive as many routes as i could all week to get familar but i'm wondering about some alternatives.

My route today was:

30th st
texas st into mission valley
right on camino del rio north
left on wade
went thru qualcomm up thru murphy canyon
went left on Aero (big mistake)
right on kearny villa and took that for the remaining stretch.

that left up aero destroyed me, i didn't make it all the way up lol! I pushed and pushed and pushed, i made some funny noises, grunted a bit but couldn't muscle myself up it. maybe it was too early this morning but my god that hill is a new goal for me. so i have 2 questions.

1.) is texas st and fairmont my ONLY options to get into mission valley? Texas st was scary. the on ramp for i8 really made me question my choice of commute. Fairmont seems even WORSE.

2.) is murphy canyon road an easier hill to climb to get to Clairemont mesa blvd (and get to kearny villa that way?)

i'm sticking to bike lane only roads for the time being until i feel confident enough to go beyond it. i'm also working on a giant jacket that is made out LED's that can act like my blinker but until that time comes, i'd like to remain in one piece.

lastly for my commute home should i do the same thing in reverse?

1.) is texas st and fairmont my ONLY options to get into mission valley? Texas st was scary. the on ramp for i8 really made me question my choice of commute. Fairmont seems even WORSE.

Yes, unless you want to ride all the way over to Bachman. Try taking the first right at the bottom of Texas St., Camino del Rio South. The first signal you come to make a left and cross over I-8. Turn right on Camino del Rio North and left again on Ward Rd. This saves you from the Texas St. cloverleaf over I-8, although I find that if I get up to speed there it's pretty easy to merge with traffic. I get up to about 40-45 mph on the 16% descent to keep traffic from squeezing me into the guardrail. If the light changes in front of me, I grab the brakes and make the right on Camino del Rio South. Otherwise I cross over the freeway and make the right on Camino del Rio North. Fairmount is definitely worse since the Montezuma Rd. intersection was reconfigured to make it a death trap for cyclists. Then you also have the bums sleeping across the path leading to the bicycle overpass to Mission Gorge Rd. Once there was the remains of a campfire right in the middle of the bridge.

2.) is murphy canyon road an easier hill to climb to get to Clairemont mesa blvd (and get to kearny villa that way?)

Yes, Murphy Canyon Rd. dips down after Aero Drive, passes under Balboa Ave., then climbs not too steeply up to Clairemont Mesa Blvd. I then turn right on Chesapeake Drive after a short climb. It's fairly level until it bears to the right and climbs up to Ruffin Rd. This route divides the elevation gain into a series of manageable stepwise climbs allowing for recovery between each one.

anthonyr:you guys are amazing, i'm definitely going to try the CDRS next week and murray canyon on the way home Should i go back up texas st to get back into north park?

There's no easy way back to North Park, so you might as well. It's a steep hill though, so low gears are a necessity unless you're a very strong climber. There are less steep ways up, but you pretty much have to go to the coast and nearly to downtown to get to them and then you have to back track. It's a lot of extra distance.

I imagine Bachman is too far west to be practical for you, but let me just chime it to say that it was amazing the day I found out about Bachman. It's really steep, but a quite pleasant ride in my opinion. Some parked cars, but the narrow steep road tends to slow down any traffic that shows up.

anthonyr:@James so basically when i get out of qualcomm/wade, backtrack on Camino Del Rio North towards texas st, go left on Mission City Pkwy then head east on Camino Del Rio South then take that up fairmont? That will avoid all interchange issues w/ montezuma, etc? Sweet! I'm happy to add some distance if it means it'll be safer.

Yes. Here is a map. Note that there are a couple of freeway exits, and one entrance, as you cross under the 15, but these are about the least busy freeway ramps I've seen in this city and are nothing compared to the ramps at Fairmont and the 5.

At Aldine you can turn right for short but steep climb up to Adams or you can continue on Fairmont to Meade or El Cajon. (If you don't like traffic you don't want to use El Cajon.)

Njord: Thanks so much for doing that. Very useful.

After riding around in Lemon Grove and getting increasingly sad at the fact that Lemon Grove had more bike lanes and bike signage and San Diego did (at least in places I ride in), I decide to make my commute as bike friendly as possible. In this exercise, I've found a route that is as flat as I can make it and goes through some quiet streets (often with no traffic) and incorporates two pedestrian bridges.

This is not my entire commute and it adds about a mile or so thanks to the meandering nature of it. But it is as close to perfect as I can make it. So I got the Monroe bridge, the Vermont Bridge, the bike lanes on Madison and on Maryland.

The other route is to get from South Park to City Heights. Part of the route is going through an alleyway from Thorn through Landis so the only thing to watch out for are parked cars suddenly moving. Again, very low traffic, relatively flat roads.

In both routes I've incorporated as many newly paved streets as possible.

EDIT: We've ridden a lot of it on the Down Townies, but I'm pleased to have finally committed this to memory.

None that are particularly pleasant. You can cut over to Genesee and double back, but getting over there is not necessarily a picnic and getting back to Kearny Mesa from Genesee is not that fun either. Hopefully ray333 will read this thread. He's done Kearny Villa quite a bit.

The bike lanes on Kearny Villa are also in pretty bad shape. There's a whole thread here:

http://sdbikecommuter.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=309

hey guys i can confirm that KVR is under construction this week, they seem to be ONLY repaving the bike lanes. Woo! Asphalt at that. I drive that road to work everyday, so far yesterday (Monday 6/14) the north direction of the path was about 50% paved, the south side was just getting torn up. Today, it looks like they finished the north direction.

The road can be a little scary to bike (only going south), but didn't KVR use to be the old 15? i think that's why it's set up kind of funny in regards to ramps, speed, etc.

Also, gmap-pedometer.com is a good website for mapping rides and routes. It has topos and elevation profiles and is pretty flexible.

-Andy

William:

seabass:I've actually only tried mapmyRUN.com, didn't know about their 'sister' site.

I'll add it to my bookmarks.

It does elevation profiles too.