[[tHe] Saint]

So I am most likely moving to San Francisco in a little over a month.... maybe a little longer.

What is there for downhilling down there? I'm coming from Northeastern WA.... so I know nothing of whats down there.

 

[sanjuro]

Pacifica locally.

Joaquin Miller Park if you have to shuttle.

Northstar and Downieville when the snow melts.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

cool.... I will be lookin those places up

any big jump parks or anything?

 

[esper]

Let me know when you are here, I have a regular group that goes out weekly, would love another.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

i will let you know, I will be there this next monday so my fiance' can meet her new boss, and then we will be looking to buy a house that week, and should be moved down first week in january.


me a few years ago.... I don't have any real recent pics.... I ride a 2008 Ironhorse Sunday Expert now.

 

[esper]

well you'll fit right in. look forward to it.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

have you guys planned any whistler trips or anything? or willing to?

 

[sanjuro]

Depending on where you end up, these guys are way cool and super riders: www.sfdirtlab.com.

 

[jefedelosjefes]

There is not a whole lot of real downhill riding locally in the bay. The best places from what i've seen are Pacifica, Santa Cruz, and Mount Tam (highly illegal though). For jumps, check out Carlmont, Shells, Calabasas, Boyscout trail in Pacifica, and Aptos Post Office. If you are willing to drive a little bit, Auburn, N*, and Local trails in Tahoe are awesome. If you are willing to drive a bit more, san luis obispo, santa barbara, and mammoth mountain have pretty much the best downhilling in the state.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

well I won't be working, and I'm not sure when I will be going back to school, so I probably won't mind some of the long drives

 

[[tHe] Saint]

any riding on Diablo mountain? We are looking at a house close to it.

 

[sanjuro]

Nothing legal on Diablo...

 

[Prettym1k3]

Hey Saint...

Hit me up when you get out here. If we still have dry weather, Pacifica is the place to be.

Otherwise, the drive to Santa Cruz is plenty worth it. Great rides to the top, GREAT trail riding, with some good and fast downhills... Only 2 or 3 really good DH trails... the rest is just fast and flowy trail riding with the occasional jump/drop. But it's good man. I have a blast out there both on my trail bike and my freeride bike.

Hit me up when you get out to the Bay Area... we'll go ride.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

damn... diablo looked good on google earth too....

I will let you know when I get down and have some free time to go ride after we get settled in... I think we are getting a house in the Brentwood/Antioch area, possibly Discovery Bay area, theres some nice brand new houses that were foreclosed on before they were finished, and the bank finished them, and they are good prices, so we will probably get one of them.

 

[sanjuro]

Brentwood? I hope your wife is not working any farther West than Walnut Creek. That is one hard commute to drive West.

 

[Prettym1k3]

Agreed. And to top it off, you're at least 2 hours from Santa Cruz, 2 hours from Pacifica, and all those places.

Cheap place to live, but far from just about everywhere.

 

[wood booger]

Bring the Thunder!!

http://www.thunderbringers.com/Thundervideos.html

It is much steeper and rockier in person (at least up top).

 

[[tHe] Saint]

Brentwood? I hope your wife is not working any farther West than Walnut Creek. That is one hard commute to drive West.

hmmmm...... well that sucks..... Her lab is actually in South San Francisco. She doesn't mind driving an Hour to work, especially if the house suits us. And I need garage space, and we can't find anything closer with garage space thats under 500K...... if you guys know of anything let me know. We are also lookin for Condo's in the city so we can move her cousin down so she can go to school down there.

I don't mind driving to ride, I'm not gonna be working, and I probably won't be going to school till fall.


Damn it........ we didn't really want to have to spend $1m for a house...... but we may have to... excuse us haha.... we are from Washington and $1m there is a 500k home here..... I'm not finding much thats closer to the city with a 3+ car garage, or even a detached garage... and we want something newer...

 

[[tHe] Saint]

what about San Ramon to South San Francisco?

 

[sanjuro]

what about San Ramon to South San Francisco?

Your wife must like driving. 580 sucks, 880 sucks, 101 near the San Mateo bridge sucks.

You should look at www.511.org right around 9am and 5pm West Coast Time.

BTW, I live 7 miles away from South San Francisco. You and your wife can sleep on my couch.

 

[sanjuro]

BTW, you could move to Santa Clara or Sunnyvale, and then your wife can take the Caltrain.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

how bad are they for a 6am commute?


oooo..... we found a nice place in EL SOBRANTE, so we are gonna look at that while we are down there... its got an acre lot, so I can build a shop and its on a hill so I can build some jumps in the backyard!

 

[sanjuro]

how bad are they for a 6am commute?

oooo..... we found a nice place in EL SOBRANTE, so we are gonna look at that while we are down there... its got an acre lot, so I can build a shop and its on a hill so I can build some jumps in the backyard!

El Sobrante can be ok, although you are right next to the murder capital of the California, Richmond.

6am to 3pm is adequate compared to the 9am-5pm parking lot, but you are talking about the worse traffic corridor in the entire Bay Area. Put it this way: HOV lanes is 3 in the car along I-80. East Bay drivers pick up strangers to fill their vehicles before going into the Peninsula.

From your postings, it sounds like you are looking for a fair amount of garage and yard space, but a decent commute for the wife, and affordable.

You are going to have to pick just two.

The Bay Area has the worst urban sprawl I lived in (and I grew up in NYC). There are 3 major cities within 40 miles of each other, separated by overcrowded roads that navigate around and over oceans and hills.

I would probably move to Daly City and deal with the urban lifestyle than subject my wife to 1-2 hour commutes. But my cousin's wife travels from Fairfield to SF every day, driving 25 miles then taking BART the next 25.

 

[esper]

If your going to work in south SF then Santa Clara county is a good place, the commute can be bad depending on the time of day, but its not as bad as commuting from the east bay. You have plenty of nice homes and some newer ones throughout. (especially south San Jose, but thats a ways away)

As far as trips to Whistler, i dont go much but im up for planning any trips, i work for Expedia so i can get discounts on hotels to. We will all have to arrange a big trip.

 

[sanjuro]

I was staring traffic, and I found this: http://traffic.511.org/his_traffic_text.asp

This will tell you what to expect for commutes depending on the time. Good estimator.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

well we have been talking, we didn't want to finance a home... but by the looks of it to keep her commute down and have something we want we are probably gonna spend between $800k to $1m.... we can put down $500k on it and then once our house up here sells we can pay it off.... We are just gonna call some realtors and have them start finding places and just meet up when we get down there... hopefully we can find something close and what we want... its kind of gotten to be a pain looking ourselves and not being able to see them ourselves... so hopefully the realtors will find some good ones that we can look at. We just kind of have to do it soon because it takes a little while to close on house and she starts work on the 19th of january....

 

[sanjuro]

Sorry to be a party pooper. At least you have some cash. I am sure you will find something, and I think for an urban area, there is some decent riding around here.

Good Luck.

 

[Jump Chump]

Hi Saint,

One of the best ways to make your life better is to keep the commute down to 30 mins or less. My wife and I work in S SF and live in Pacifica. 15 minute commute. Prior to that we lived in East Bay (Oakland) and commute was 2-3 hours per day. If you have that kind of money to buy a house, you shouldn't have a problem finding something suitable in S SF, Daly City, or anywhere else in San Mateo. You'll be close to the good trails and jumps, too. Yeah, you won't get a mini-mansion, but there's some nice homes in the area. Our house wasn't quite that much $, but I still have a nice man cave to keep all my gear.

damon

 

[Scrub]

Don't forget about Sandhill Ranch out here in Brentwood.

www.sandhillracing.com

 

[esper]

My neighboor and riding buddy is a Realtor, so if your interested i can get him to contact you or you him.

 

[dump]

I absolutely advise against living in the brentwood/antioch area if your wife is working in South San Francisco. As others have said, the commute is murder, even at 6am in the morning. You're probably talking 3 hours/day commute time on the low end of things.

I'd recommend looking around a bit. Consider houses that aren't brand new mini mansions and you'll definitely improve the quality of life by reducing the commute time & being able to pick more fun/lively/safer areas.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

well we are looking at houses in half moon bay and pacifica now, and just putting 500k down and financing the rest, once we sell the house up here we could have one of the houses down there paid off in probably 3-4 years. so we will probably go that route....

 

[jimw]

just putting 500k down and financing the rest, once we sell the house up here we could have one of the houses down there paid off in probably 3-4 years

You realize that that kind of talk is likely to get you bitch-slapped these days right?

Anyway, Pacifica has access to some of better DH riding around here, you're close to the city, and you're not too far from SC.

 

[[tHe] Saint]

You realize that that kind of talk is likely to get you bitch-slapped these days right?

hahaha.... well what i could have said is we could just buy the house.... but we don't feel like taking a 1/4 of our savings out....

not sure if we are heading down there now.... she got a letter pretty much saying "nevermind...... we don't have the funding" lthumbsdown:lthumbsdown:lthumbsdown:

so she is looking for other jobs in the area.... so its on hold for a bit....

 

[esper]

what kind of work does she do or is she looking for?

 

[[tHe] Saint]

she's a Geneticist... she has her Ph D. so something to do with Genetic Research. She was working for GenenTech, but they closed their lab up here, and thats where she was suppose to work down there till she got the letter about not enough funding. But she is also looking at other openings in the company. Or just any job openings down there that she can do within her Ph D.

 

[East Bay Rich]

any riding on Diablo mountain? We are looking at a house close to it.

I know there's legal singletrack on Mt D (BTCEB did trail work on a trail last spring, right near that ranch 1/2 way up). Devil's Elbow is also a good one, but you gotta climb out, though. The riding on Mt Diablo is XC to all-mountain.

any big jump parks or anything?

ABA/NBL BMX tracks: Livermore, San Ramon, Palo Alto PAL, Napa, with Martinez & Gilroy in the works (next year or two, I think).

Bike Parks: Pleasanton, Calabasas, Fresno, with Lafayette in the works (next year or so).

-Rich