Ever since this pandemic hit bicycle sales have been through the roof. You can't buy a Brompton right now for love nor money. If you look for them on ebay you see used models are selling for more than their new price. The 1UP bike rack site is back ordered on everything right now. I spoke to a cyclist in Seal Beach on my ride last weekend and she said she couldn't find a decent new bike so she had to buy a used one. All this is a good thing - we may find a bumper crop of new riders next year and anything that raises bicycle awareness is a good thing for us. However the bike paths are busier than I've ever seen them. Like difficult-to-pass busy.
Amber and I did a test ride of the Southern loop of next year's 600k, but starting from Yorba Linda park and, while we're comfortable with the route, we did find a couple of things we want to change and some missing cues. We found the bridge on the coastal path through San Clemente has been repaired but decided to make official route through San Clemente the signed bike route both ways. Riders will still be able to opt for PCH or the coastal path if they want.
The turn-around is a boring, empty, dirt lot. I had hoped it would be a bit more interesting. I might drop some water here and a sign for an info control. There isn't even anything distinctive enough to use as a photo control. The view is nice though, but most riders will be here in the dark.
We had headwind coming back up the coast from the turn-around so it was good to head inland at Dana Point because once we got away from the coast the headwind died down. The wind was getting stronger as the day progressed so we had a strong headwind as we rode from Irvine back to Newport Beach. Once we turned inland we had a powerful tailwind all the way to the end of the ride. That was pretty awesome. We finished in 10:12 which was fine because we could have easily taken 30 minutes off our time by not eating at the Brig in Dana Point.
On the way home I got stuck behind an odd driver. The traffic had slowed down for a while, then sped back up again. This driver was still driving at the slowed down speed, doing 50mph in the fast lane, even though he had 1/4 mile of open road in front of him. I've done the same thing myself, but not for so long. I bet a psychologist could explain it.
Amber and I will ride the third loop in a couple of weeks on a Sunday to see if there's an excessive amount of motorized traffic on the upper SART.
I just finished validating Kerin's May 1st 400k - called the Simi Valley Four Fingers. It has about 9000' of climbing which is about average for a 400k. I think it will be an enjoyable ride.
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