It's the heart of winter—put a good spin on your weekend with one of these Bay Area bike rides.
1) Saddle up, road riders—here's a 30-mile loop ride on the San Mateo Coast that has it all: You'll wind along the coast, go past a lighthouse, roll along quiet backroads, and make a pit-stop in a charming three-stop-sign town.
2) Grab your cruiser bike, 10-speed, or anything with wheels, and go on a mellow creek-side roll in rural Marin County. The Cross Marin Trail in Samuel P. Taylor State Park even offers glimpses of salmon swimming upstream during the rainy season, if you're lucky.
3) Mountain bikers who don't mind a little mud will love the 30 miles of marked trail in Santa Cruz's Wilder Ranch State Park. Check out the swooping singletrack on the Wilder Ranch Loop and Englesman Loop trails (heavy rain closes trails; check ahead).
4) Experience NASCAR on a bicycle. Every weekend San Jose's Hellyer Park Velodrome hosts a training session for track bicycling. Start your engines!
5) One of the best ways to enjoy those crisp, sapphire-blue winter days? From the seat of your bicycle along the 4-mile (one-way) ridgetop Nimitz Way Trail in Oakland's Tilden Regional Park.