Anyone done any mtbing there ? Whats it like ?
Been twice, even bought an MTB there but didnt do much more than explore the foothills to the rear of the town. loads of good bike shops, great food, Microbrewery and nice beach . all in all a great town for a few days break, must be some good riding there but never had enough time to organise myself.
Not been to Santa Barbara itself, but I am doing a road trip around California (MTB'ing) in September and one of the places we are visiting is Aliso-woods Canyon, which is just below LA (near Laguna Beach), not sure how fixed you are to Santa Barbara - but if you can do short drives I believe this is worth it (we will certainly be giving it ago!).
SB is pretty good. Lots of trails to shuttle, that are a little more DH / chunk specific. PLus some local XC trails around also. I know a local if you want to be shown around. I know some great trails a little South around Malibu.
I lived there for three years, only came back to the UK last summer. There are some great trails in the front country (the hills/mountains you see from the coast), only drawback is that there are only two trails that you can ride uphill, Romero Canyon being the better one near Montecito, La Jesuita (?) closer to downtown. If you drive by car over the first set of hills/mountains, you come after 30 or 45min drive to the back-country around Paradise road, there are some of the best trails I have ever ridden, Little Pine Moutain probably my favorite, 2.5hrs uphill followed by almost an hour of downhill. I am away from today on but ask if you have more specific questions, I'll try to check the forum. Sven
It was featured on that old mtb video titled "Real Sick" so there must be some good riding there
