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Rating: 
Summary: There are better books out there...
Review: I do not recommend this book. It's one of the older ones out there, you can tell by the looks of the photos, most are riding rigid fork mountain bikes.
Being an older book, some of the trails listed are no longer opened to mountain biking. One for example is one of the Palos Verde rides. I drove 20 mins to make this ride only to find out that bikes have been prohibited here for several years. The map and trail diagrams are too small and crowded.
Don and Sharon have a road bike that is much better than this mountain bike trail book. The book's writing style does have charm, but the maps are what's important and these maps could be better. The only redeeming value to this book is the altitude graph. This did save me on some rides. Don and Sharon... if you are reading this, please update your book with current trails and maybe some new photos. Your Los Angeles road bike trails book was good, but not this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Best of the Lot ..... May 26, 2002
Review: I sniff a competitor out there, Sledge Foot. Two Stars?? Mountain Biking L.A. County (Southern Section) covers the Santa Monica Mountains with 38 trips blanketing their entire expanse from Franklin Canyon in the east to Sycamore Canyon at the western extremes. The book also provides tours of Montclef Ridge/Simi Hills (seven trips), Santa Susana Mountains (four trips), Verdugo Mountains/San Rafael Hills (six trips), Puente Hills (two trips) and a potpourri of rides scattered around San Dimas, Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island (seven trips, since Trips #61 and #62 have given way to a housing development and golf course since the book was written). Longer trips are segmented into rides and there are 98 rides in the cycling guide. There are some short-length family trips in the protection of parks, many longer exploratory and workout trips on various road surfaces and an array of "gut-buster," sometimes-technical trips that will have you telling adventure stories for years. With the exceptions noted above, most rides have been revisited since publication and are current.
No other mountain biking book comes close to this number of rides in the Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley area and yet most exceed this publication's price. This highly popular 241-page tour book includes key point-to-point route descriptions, detailed trip maps and elevation contours, numerous photos, master trip locator map, a detailed index and "best rides by category."
The authors and accompanying riders used 18-speed bikes with mountain-bike tires and a mix of dual and front-only suspensions and hard-mounted (no suspension) designs. Our preference was for, at least, the front-only suspension system for the more challenging rides, although some of our younger, more-pocketbook-challenged compadres made do with hard-mounted forks.
If you find a better mountain bike book that covers this expance ....... buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Lot ..... May 26, 2002
Review: I sniff a competitor out there, Sledge Foot. Two Stars?? Mountain Biking L.A. County (Southern Section) covers the Santa Monica Mountains with 38 trips blanketing their entire expanse from Franklin Canyon in the east to Sycamore Canyon at the western extremes. The book also provides tours of Montclef Ridge/Simi Hills (seven trips), Santa Susana Mountains (four trips), Verdugo Mountains/San Rafael Hills (six trips), Puente Hills (two trips) and a potpourri of rides scattered around San Dimas, Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island (seven trips, since Trips #61 and #62 have given way to a housing development and golf course since the book was written). Longer trips are segmented into rides and there are 98 rides in the cycling guide. There are some short-length family trips in the protection of parks, many longer exploratory and workout trips on various road surfaces and an array of "gut-buster," sometimes-technical trips that will have you telling adventure stories for years. With the exceptions noted above, most rides have been revisited since publication and are current.
No other mountain biking book comes close to this number of rides in the Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley area and yet most exceed this publication's price. This highly popular 241-page tour book includes key point-to-point route descriptions, detailed trip maps and elevation contours, numerous photos, master trip locator map, a detailed index and "best rides by category."
The authors and accompanying riders used 18-speed bikes with mountain-bike tires and a mix of dual and front-only suspensions and hard-mounted (no suspension) designs. Our preference was for, at least, the front-only suspension system for the more challenging rides, although some of our younger, more-pocketbook-challenged compadres made do with hard-mounted forks.
If you find a better mountain bike book that covers this expance ....... buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good information, could be better though
Review: This book had pretty good information about trails in L.A. County, but it could have been written a little better. It seems most of the info is on trails in the Santa Monica mountains and of the trails are located relatively close to "civilization", that is, they're not situated way out in the boonies. That can be an advantage or a drawback depending on your tastes. But overall it's a fair book, as good as any other local guide.
Rating:
Summary: Primo coverage
Review: This book is a winner! I have taken most of the Santa Monica Mountains and Verdugo Mountains rides (and a smattering of others) and find the book to be very accurate on the trail descriptions. One thing not found in many other local area mountain-bike books are the elevation (altitude/distance)
contours, which have helped me in ride selection. They are also useful in gauging where I am on the tour, particularly tours where there are few signs or road markers. The number of areas covered in this single book are remarkable. I can't wait to check out the Santa Susana Mountains and Simi Hills and am considering a trip to Santa Catalina to check out those rides. I also enjoy the large number of photos which give me a feel for the territory and key landmarks. I have heard minor one complaint from other people. One person in particular, mentioned that the maps are almost too detailed and can be difficult to read. But they also told me that they had come up with an easy solution; using a color highlighting marker to outline the main trail to be followed. If the map is used for more than one trip, they simply use a different color marker for the alternate trip. One could even use tracing paper and make a copy.
Not having problems with maps myself; I thought they were great! In my opinion, one can never have to much detail. Not having enough is a problem. Who wants to buy several books/booklets with overlapping coverage and not nearly the amount of information?
Overall, this book is primo; especially compared to others.
I also like how the authors ask for feedback from riders/readers in an effort to keep the book up to date in later printings.
I have recommended this book to a lot of people.
Rating:
Summary: Kind of rinky-dink...
Review: This is kind of a dorky, rinky-dink book. There's better ones out there. Seems out of date, and out of touch with things.
Rating:
Summary: Kind of rinky-dink...
Review: This is kind of a dorky, rinky-dink book. There's better ones out there. Seems out of date, and out of touch with things.
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