bike trip from San Luis Obispo to Bakersfield, CA

[opi65]

Hello road bikers in South West USA!
I am a German road biker and found an interesting article about the "forgotten" or "lost" highway 58. Does anyone have experience or like to join me in a bike ride from San Luis Obispo to Bakersfield in California, USA? I´m interested to make the ride in one day - should be about 200 km. Hoping to get some comments from anywhere I remain with best regards...

 

[swampy1970]

Not too familiar with 58 to the west of Bakersfield but 58 to the east going towards Barstow is fun - but probably not on a bike because lots of people use it as a connecting road from I-5 to I-40 and consequently are still driving at 80mph. The hills through Tehachapi are quite nice.

Nearby Pismo Beach, just south of SLO is quite nice if you fancy chilling out before your ride.

 

[opi65]

Thanks a lot for your good comments. Maybe I´ll take some time to cycle a little around SLO before doing the trip to Bakersfield. My idea is to travel by train from San Diego to San Francisco carrying my bike and to return by bike on HW 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Amtrak has 2 trains (San Joaquin and Surfliner), one from San Diego to SLO and another from Bakersfield to Oakland. So I generated the plan to cycle from SLO to Bakersfield on HW 58. What you wrote sounds really good and I´m thinking about spending 1 day in and around SLO. Best regards.

 

[Bdavis72]

Hello,
A group of us (about 12/15 riders) from Bakersfield did this ride back on April 30th to celebrate a friends 50th birthday. She wanted to do a 100 mile ride on her 50th with her friends.

Action Sports, a local bike shop in Bakersfield also does a group ride periodically from Bakersfield westbound along that route.

It's a great trip. I'd love to try it from the beach back to Bakersfield.

Be prepared for the heat, there isn't many opportunities to get water along much of the road unless you have a support vehicle.
.

 

[opi65]

Thanks a lot for your comments. Yes, I heard about the water problem but I think a backpack with about 2 l and two of the bigger water bottles will carry about a gallon. How long you´ve been on the road from the last civilization to the first on the other end? And how long was the entire trip? Are there many hills and climbings? It would be graet if you could give me ome hints on that. Thanks in advance and best regards.

 

[Froze]

I use to live in Bakersfield too, and Action Sports is a fantastic bike shop and the guys there can really be a big help with preparing you for that ride. 58 is a dangerous road to ride alone, you would be better off in a group ride along that route, but it's the only route to SLO without a long round about way. Kerry Ryan use to be the owner there when I lived there and I think he still is, is a very nice man and will gladly speak with you if he's in.

I rode from Bakersfield to Santa Barbara and I took 3 24oz Polar bottles on the bike, a 16oz in a handlebar bag, PLUS a 70oz Camelbak and still needed to get liquids and food at Ventucopa and again at Meiners Oak or Mira Monte (their almost the same town). The problem with your ride too is that your coming from SLO meaning your leaving in the cool of the coastal morning and arriving in Bakersfield in the heat of the evening desert, and depending on what time of the year you leave you could be riding in 90F degree plus heat for much of the ride. I left Bakersfield at 5:30am so I could get across the desert floor and into the mountains before it got too hot then arrived around 4:30pm in Santa Barbara but it was cool there which kind of refreshes you to finish the ride.

Make sure you take at least a dozen patches and your glue is new...you don't want surprises with a dried glue tube, and a tire boot patch kit. Get a set of really good puncture resistant tires because once you come down into the desert goatheads will be hunting for your tires and lightweight racing tires won't stop them!! Carry at least one spare tube and carry a spare tire just in case you destroy a tire it's rare but it does happen and you don't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere without a tire. And don't forget a mini tool. When I did my trip I carried a frame pump PLUS a mini pump just in case one pump broke.

I would also run with a bright flashing red tail light like the Blackburn Mars 4 or whatever you have on 58 just to make sure folks can see you. Take a light rain jacket just in case and store in a handle bar bag. If you have a front light I would take one just in case you run into a problem and you end up riding when it's getting dark.

Here's some images of goatheads, the thorns are in multiple positions and no matter how they lie at least one thorn is pointing up, they also turn brown when their old and are still just as bad. These things once penetrated my foot to the bone! That hurt! http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=goatheads&view=detail&id=86DFD31770AEA6205435F3A56CC4F84A30F4932D&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR