Today I practiced going up and down paved and nonpaved hills at Vasona Park in Los Gatos. The hills are not long but they offer steep and semi steep challenges. I had a lot of fun and I’m happy with my progress. I am hoping that you who are familiar with the southbay can share favorite places to ride. Paved, hilly rides and not too technical trails would be ideal. Something like Hwy 9, but with less traffic. Dirt trails above Lexington reservoir are probably too steep, though they are great for mountain biking. Any ideas?
Dang when I saw your thread I thought “Southbay” referred to my area! We also call the beach cities area of Los Angeles county “South bay”. This includes Torrance, Redondo, hermosa, manhattan beach, palos verdes, and a who bunch of other areas.
Go here:
http://lists.bluetreesoft.com/mailman/listinfo/muni
And sign up for Corbin Dunn’s MUni list. Not just trails, but people to ride with! Some of them live right in Los Gatos!
I signed up there but all I get is a list of email names. I can’t find any type of forum or any place to ask questions. I don’t want to email random addresses.
That’s what you’re doing here. Send an email to the list. The best way to learn about local trails is to go on a ride there with someone who knows them. I’m not aware of web sites for Bay area mountain bike trails, but there must be several. Here’s one made by Brett Bymaster (who now lives in San Jose but can’t unicycle any more due to injuries). It’s 10 years old but mostly the trails are still there:
As John said, you’re effectively emailing everyone in the world who subscribes to the Rec.Sport.Unicycling newsgroup when you post here.
We get emails to the muni mailing list from new riders all the time, and we’re always open to sharing tips and local trails.
If nothing else, just drop a message to the list and say “Hi” to the group. We’d love to see you at our next ride!
I’m wondering how good you have to be to attend a group ride? Are there new riders as well as experienced riders? Are there different routes for various levels? I would like to do a group ride. I think it would speed up the learning process but I worry that my newbiness would annoy good riders. I have a 24 inch so not very fast. I told my husband I had to start considering a 29 inch unicycle. He wanted to cry (ha ha).
Hey; there are several of us that live in Los Gatos. (Me, Louise, Nathan, Grace, Beau). Feel free to post to the mailing list saying that you are interested in riding with others, and figure out a time that works well for you.
There are lots of experienced riders on the list, but there are also new riders too. Lately we’ve been doing more “road rides” due to training for the Africa tour coming up in a few months.
Louise and I are going to ride around the Lexington reservoir after work today about 5:30 pm; we are going to do a fairly fast pace (geared 24 unicycles), but you are welcome to stop by and meet us and say hi.
If you want to borrow a 36’er, and are short, we could also loan you Louise’s (she’s 5’2").
Are you looking for road riding, mountain unicycling, trials unicycling, or something else?
–corbin
There was a student at the school where I work (Fisher Middle School) that would do a lot of unicycling with his family. I know they did a lot of traveling just to unicycle. I didn’t know the family and didn’t have the opportunity to torture, I mean, teach their son. I always thought that was cool and is one of the reasons that I recently became interested.
At this time I am mostly doing road with some nontechnical off road. I am just finishing my 3rd week as a unicyclist wanna-be. It would be great to meet you. Where will you begin today’s ride? Is it in the parking lot near Jones Trail? I look forward to the day I can ride up that thing. That is a struggle on my mountain bike, though it isn’t very long. Riding a 36’er sounds like certain death.
When you say fast pace, what is the approximate speed limit that you go?
Hi (I’m unsure of your name),
We are (probably) going to just ride around the reservoir - starting at the bear creek exit, and probably parking somewhere close by there, or possibly starting in downtown los gatos. I haven’t heard from Louise yet, so I’m not sure what she was thinking of.
It isn’t the parking lot by the Jones trail – I have ridden the Jones trail quite a bit, and it is a nice trail. It took me quite a while before I could ride up to the top of the trail (the very tippy top) with no stops and no dismounts on my 24" mountain uni; it is definitely tough with all the little bumps and rocks.
We’ll be riding the geared 24’s tonight, cruising between 10-15mph. If you are curious about speeds, I kept a riding log on my blog for a while last year:
http://www.corbinstreehouse.com/blog/index.php/category/unicycling/logbook/
I also map rides out with my iPhone and GPS:
http://www.mapmyfitness.com/user_training?u=612086524552
Although, most of them for this month weren’t getting saved for some stupid reason.
If you want to meet up with us, you can call me. email me for my number. cd at blue tree soft DOT com.
corbin
Oh, and the student was (more than likely) Beau Hoover; his dad is Nathan Hoover, who also is on the forums.
corbin