Recumbent Riders
News and Ride Schedule
[Last Updated September 27th]
Ride Schedule:
SPECIAL NOTICE: I've updated our emailing list, removing everyone that I think no longer wants to receive these email ride notices. If you do want to be included in our list, but you don't receive a notice by Friday for this weekend's ride please ping me by email or phone, using the info below.
We've scheduled our first group ride of Autumn for this Saturday, October 1st, starting from Pitts Ranch Park in Camarillo, at the corner of Flynn Road and Calle Brisa about a mile and a half north of the westbound US-101 offramp (Exit 52). It's best to leave the eastbound freeway at Dawson Drive (Exit 53A). We plan to meet at 9AM, hoping to ride away at about 9:30. The basic route for this ride will start up the Calleguas Creek bikepath to Upland Road. From there the Pokey Patrol people will reverse course and head back down the creek, making a couple of extraneous loops before going to the food court at CSUCI for lunch (hopefully). Riders who want more of a challenge may choose to climb Upland into Mission Heights before going down to the farmlands. Some may even opt to ride down the Coast Highway as far as Sycamore Canyon. The basic PP route will about 18 miles, including a few climbs up from the creeek bed and a stretch of Class II bikelanes over the flat farmlands. Temps should max out in the mid-70s with light breezes.
As always – PLEASE! – if you have any suggestions for an upcoming ride date, share it. We're still especially eager to hear from anyone who's been aching to plan, coordinate and/or lead the gang on his, her or their favorite venue.
Although the risks of semi-serious COVID infection seem to have become somewhat minimized in our area now, it will be up to each person who visits this site to choose whether to join the group for this ride, with your own (hopefully appropriately updated) individual preferences for masking and social distancing, meet the group for lunch, drive by and wave 'Hi', or meticulously avoid the venues. If any of this confuses or doesn't work for you or if you need any more info please contact me by phone or email.
This is a brief listing of preliminary plans for upcoming rides:
- Saturday, October 1st: First Saturday VCRR Group Ride – Pitts Ranch Park, Camarillo
- Saturday, October 15th: Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride – SUGGESTIONS?
Recent History:
9/17/2022: This Saturday was a Coastal Cleanup Day for Ventura beaches, but I doubt that most workers were expecting to find an oversized chunk of litter like this. We were happy that the City of Ventura has discontinued charging a fee for vehicles at Marina Park, our favorite place to start a ride up the coast. After the usual socialization, with double digit attendance this time, and minimal indulgence in mocha and munchies, we rode off on Pierpont Boulevard, thru San BV Beach and past the pier, wending our way among hundreds of folks with pointed picks and pincers. We made our traditional pit stop at Surfer's Point, and then continued on up the Class I Omer Rains bikepath to the old beachfront highway. Our group splintered somewhere along there, as a couple of riders opted for breath rather than mileage. On the way back, two of our early turnaround groups hooked up for lunch, meandering thru the farmers' market and street fair to enjoy lunch on the sidewalk at the Busy Bee cafe. We didn't get a report on the more persistent pedalers, but I suspect they had a good ride, with reasonably mild temps and a light tailwind for their return.
9/3/2022: In open (but obviously pretty unpopular) defiance of our late Summer heat wave, our ride this Saturday used an inland route; at least we avoided the Labor Day weekend traffic congestion nearer the beach. We started from Crescent Park in Oxnard's Riverpark, riding away on a loop around the big gravel pits on the fairly new Class I bikepath. We left Riverpark on Ventura Road, crossed the river on the freeway bridge, and rode up the Johnson Barranca bikepath and eastward to Ventura Community Park, where we made the drastic, but unanimous decision to shorten the ride a bit and ride directly over to our lunch stop at Ventura Gateway. Our group size was doubled for lunch on the shady open court, with an unusually long chat session before the riders left via Ralston Street to zoom down Johnson Drive, recross the river and pedal back to the start area.
8/20/2022: This ride started from the small public parking lot in the Seabridge Marina, with an unusual route for that venue. After a fairly direct loop down to the Channel Islands Marina harbor entrance, we rode up the coast past Oxnard State Beach, then Harbor Boulevard to the Arundell Barranca bikepath. We met some other VCRRians for lunch at Main Street Restaurant in Ventura, before returning with a blast down Seaward Avenue. Coastal weather was cool with sun dispersing early morning overcast and a light afternoon ocean breeze, no problems, good socialization – just another nice Summer cruise.
July 2022: Since July had five Saturdays, the first of which is on a holiday weekend, we bumped our VCRR Group Ride schedule to the second and fourth Saturdays. Kay and I took turns with a respiratory infection early in the month and opted to skip both rides. On July 9th, a small group started from Crescent Park in Oxnard's Riverpark complex, and rode around the big gravel pits on the fairly new Class I bikepath before crossing the river on the freeway bridge, then riding up the Johnson Barranca bikepath. They rode along the CA-126 bikepaths, before having lunch and returning to Riverpark.
For the fourth Saturday ride, the group started at Ann and Alan's house, rode down to the beach and up the promenade before cruising back to have lunch at Main Street Restaurant.
6/18/2022: Our Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride this month was a sorta DYOT (do your own thing) ride, with each participant choosing his own starting spot, turnaround, lunch stop and pace on the stone simple well-known route along the beach between Ventura and Carpinteria. A bit atypically lately, this weekend's group numbered in double digits. Most of us started from Emma Wood Beach, meeting other riders from Ventura and Michael who rode his velomobile down from Carpinteria. Almost everyone met again for a pit stop at the Seacliff Fire Station and then cruised up to Rincon Beach Park. The Faster Folks climbed up to the top of the hill and zoomed back down Bates (Rincon Hill) Road, but the Pokey Patrol turned around and headed back to our lunch stop at Hobson Beach Grill. We still had fairly cool temps with a light tailwind for the return to Emma Wood. The photo gallery for this ride is a first for 2022, despite the high contrast and dark faces that are hard to avoid when shooting in bright sunlight. [What happened to June Gloom?] I accept no responsibility for the subjects' open mouths or closed eyes.
6/4/2022: The group's First Saturday ride in June started from Ann and Alan's home near Camino Real Park. After meeting and greeting, with the possibility that some folks indulged in pre-ride donuts [but you didn't hear that from me!], the mostly motorized trikeys set off down the Arundell Barranca trail to the Ventura Marina. The route turned up the coast to a fairly early turnaround, then pretty much retracing their route before making a slight detour to meet Kay and me for lunch at Main Street Restaurant. With full tummies, rested and properly rehydrated, the trikeys made their way eastward along Telegraph Road to return to the starting area. As expected this was a great late Spring day for an easy cruise along the Ventura County coast.Other News:
RIDE VIDEOS AND OTHER PIX: Rolly has posted videos from older VCRR Group Rides for public viewing on YouTube at this link. There is also a series of older video clips posted on YouTube, on 'TheVCRR' channel, at this URL. There is a VCRR photo archive on Flickr; to view it, start at this URL. Vincent has posted some of our ride pix to the Recumbent Trikes Group on Facebook (one of several). We are always eager and hoping for more, newer videos, and, of course, your feedback is eagerly solicited.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T FORGET!: COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS ARE EAGERLY[!] SOLICITED FOR OUR GROUP RIDES THIS SUMMER, AS WELL AS FEEDBACK FOR THIS WEBSITE, RIDE NOTICES, PHOTOS, RIDE VIDEOS, ROUTE SHEETS, MAPS, CUSTOM VCRR SAFETY FLAGS AND/OR VIDEO FLYOVERS. We are semi-desperately looking for suggestions for new, different or retro/classic VCRR Group Rides for this year, either in person, by phone or email. We are seriously considering, contingent upon feedback, discontinuing sending email notices before each upcoming ride, but for now at least, please let me know if you want to make any changes to our email list.
If you newbies or folks who haven't ridden with the group for a while need help or more information for getting to any of our rides, please email or phone me. Our home phone number – usually the best way to talk to us – is 805-981-0339. If we're not home you can also try my NEW CELL PHONE: 805-612-7662. Text messages will not work on our home phone, and are slightly discouraged for the cell phone. Don't even think about Facebook or Twitter! For convenience my email link is: