I’m headed to Los Angeles in mid December. I would like to get some riding in; mtb, gravel, or road. Looking for the best area to stay and possibly the best shops to rent from. My gf is also a trail runner and is looking for good trails to run. If anyone has suggestions that lives or has vacationed there, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks,
I think Yosemite is about a 90min / 2hr drive from LA you could go there?
But i live in London, what do I know lol. For road rides though, maybe look at Justin / Cory Williams on strava and use some of their routes. Orrrrrrr head to the Rapha shop in Santa Monica and see if you can join a club ride or ask for route recommendations?
I have no idea, but I watched Hans Rey’s Transangelos and it looked like pretty decent mountain biking.
There is a bike/coffee shop in Calabasas called Pedaling Beans (I believe) which is the epicenter of cycling in the LA area. Road riding in LA is tough - which I know from experience, but their is good gravel and MTB stuff up in the hills if you know where to find it … I don’t
I think GCN did a vignette on LA riding…you might want to look it up.
Thanks @mrpbennett. I’ve been to Yosemite a couple of times and love it. However, it’s a little further than I want to travel and there is likely snow there, especially at higher elevation. I will take a look at the Williams’ Strava routes, that’s a good idea. I also know Phil Gaimon rides a lot around the Malibu/Thousand Oaks area. I’ll check out his Strava as well. I’ll be sure to check out the Rapha shop as well.
Thanks @batwood14, I’ll have to check out Pedaling Beans. I am more interested in mtbing or gravel riding for the reasons you mentioned. I’ll check out that GCN video, thanks again.
Close 
Pedaler’s Fork: https://www.pedalersfork.com/
@stevekunst feel free to DM me where you are staying and your desired route length and I’ll prepare some suggestions for you. LA has amazing cycling of all kinds and I’m happy to direct you.
It’s Pedaling Fork 
The closest you lodge to Santa Monica/Malibu area, the best riding you’ll have access to.
Climbs like Decker Rd, Latigo Cayon, Piuma Rd, Fernwood are amazing!
Downhill Tuna Rd is a roller coaster, all these are road rides, but gravel riding in those same mountains is also an option.
These routes from Rapha Club House are a good starting point: Los Angeles | Rapha - some of them take you to East LA but the drive is worth it and traffic hasn’t been that bad lately.
This list from Strava top Los Angeles rides is very useful too: Strava
It’s not me that’s going to LA, its @stevekunst!
Oops, fixing
I just got back from a weekend of riding in the Malibu area, super easy to get 8-10k of climbing in a ride. We stayed near Thousand Oaks and used a couple of the Phil’s Cookie Fondo routes as a rough guide (the routes are on the website) but you could stay down near the coast around Malibu/Santa Monica and start from there. There’s good trail access in the Malibu Creek state park and Topanga area for running. I also love the Mount Baldy area/ San Gabriel Mountain which is north LA (Pasadena area) but Baldy can be pretty cold at the top.
It’s Pedaler’s fork.
Yosemite is way further away than 2h. plus in all likelihood with snow in trails, witch are otherwise always closed to off pavement cycling. Still a great place to visit though
This helped a ton! Doing a mini-camp in Malibu in a couple weeks - great resource to see where folks are riding!
Some quick googling would show that the distance from LA to Yosemite is about the same as London to “North Pennines AONB”. Bare in mind, California is larger than the UK (farther from San Diego to Yreka than it is Brighton to John O Groats).