The normal path from Lompoc to Santa Barbara is down highway #1 to 101. The last time I took that route the road construction on 101 left only about a 2-foot bike lane. It was a tight fit for everyone, especially bikes.
So, this time we decided to take a different route; by taking the Lompoc bus to Solvang. From there we rode our bikes over Refugio pass and then down to 101. The advantage of this is we intersected 101 beyond the famous Bridge of Death. The disadvantage is, the last 3 miles to the top of Refugio is all dirt and very steep. Since the other 32 miles are paved, I decided to take my normal road bike instead of a mountain bike. I knew the slick tires of the road bike would have trouble with the dirt, but it turned out to be more trouble than I expected.
Part of the problem was me. If I could have just continued riding I could have rode most of the 3 miles of dirt. The problem was when I stopped to rest, the tires would slip when I tried to start again on a steep grade. I ended up pushing the bike about 50% of the time for those 3 miles. However, that was about what I expected. On ce at the top; I made a video of the decent. There were two videos; each about 16 minutes. I increased the speed to 2X to shorten the time but It is still 2 long video, and it is all road and trees. Skip over if bored.
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