Bikes & Beer San Diego

Three of us did the 2015 Bikes and Beers event in San Diego. A really fun event, with profits going to a good cause, I’d recommend it, but there is definitely room for improvement (see last section of my review).
The event started at «Quartyard» downtown, took us through Balboa Park, Mission Hills, Old Town, along the bay and river paths, through OB and Sunset Cliffs, up and over the steep Hill St. into Point Loma, and then back along the Harbor, ending back at the Quartyard.
When we returned our ticket granted us two free pints of delicious local craft beer and a commemorative pint glass. There was a DJ spinning tunes, and plenty of great food trucks.
The pros of this event:
— the route took us through areas that had very diverse scenery
— two snack /​water stops along the route
— a very large variety of local craft beers to choose from, both on tap and in cans.
— a complimentary bike valet was present
— four or five food trucks, with a good selection
— a very big turnout of bikers, with everything from road bikes, to mountain bikes, to fixies made it a fun ride.
— profits go to Bike SD, a non-​profit that strives to turn San Diego into a world class bicycling city
— route selection allowed people to understand what a difference good dedicated bike lanes make for safety and comfort versus roads w/​o bike lanes and/​or ones that are poorly maintained.
— the weather was perfect; I couldn’t imagine better weather for a bike ride
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:
– bike route needed better signage/​markings; the organizer’s use of small signs not only caused confusion but was dangerous because some bikers saw them while others didn’t…this caused confusion resulting in some near collisions. Organizers of next year’s ride should read this article on route marking:
. When I have been on other rides, they were marked with an «inverted marking chalk» to clearly mark the upcoming turns (Krylon and Rustoleum are two brands that sell these sprayable chalks, and one should be able to get a case discount)
– don’t take people up Broadway on the return; there has to be a more bike friendly route than that, even if slightly more indirect.
– registration line at Quartyard took a looong time. Some suggestions: a) put waiver form online and suggest that people print it and sign it in advance. b) have more volunteers present to check people in c) not sure if feasible, but if electronic checkin via QR codes (rather than looking everyone up by name) isn’t prohibitively costly, I would imagine that would be a big time saver
– the bike valet was not advertised in advance, and to the contrary the event email we received specifically told us that we should be carrying a bike-​lock (had I known there was a bike valet, I wouldn’t have hauled my 2.5 lb U-​Lock with me the whole ride). Why tell us we need a bike lock instead of the fact that there will be a valet?
– water attendants need to be prepared; at one of the two water stops, I couldn’t refill my water because the attendant didn’t have a knife to make a hole in the 2.5 gallon jugs he brought, so the water came out at a trickle for a long line of bikers (see this post as to why one needs to poke a hole:
).
– don’t allow people to take up critical space at the Quartyard with their bikes at the after-​party. Rather than using [the unannounced] bike valet, some people parked their bikes up against the tree planters, making the bars/​shelfs on those planters inaccessible to other people to use for their drinks and food.

Awesome event had a blast with a ton of fellow cyclists from all over. Different clubs, groups and cycling buddies came out. All different levels of skills. I liked all the different logo’s I saw. The weather gods provided summer weather even though it’s spring and that new container park in East Village provided a perfect venue packed with good folks, good food and good beer. Well done organizers! Let’s do this again! Thanks for the beer glass! Cheers!

22 Miles of cycling with beer lovers through San Diego’s best central scenery! Don’t worry, the drinks are saved for the celebratory finish after the ride. Located at the newly remodeled East Village space Quartyard, hundreds of people are gathering for this awesome event!