GTFO:001 Santa Barbara Day Tripper

GTFO:001 Santa Barbara Day Tripper

Words by Danny Heeley

After a very early 6am start from South Pasadena (in order to beat the traffic to Santa Barbara) who would have known that it would be BYOB (Bring Your Own Breakfast) to eat at our new favorite coffee/art gallery, called Breakfast Café and Culture Club. Can you believe they had the audacity to name it Breakfast and not actually serve any breakfast, the people of Yelp can't either. Sean had some restraint, but I wasn’t going to say no to a vegan donut hole to go with our coffee and home brought crispy rice cereal. A major part of our Breakfast visit was the infamous Clements brothers, who like us had raced bikes in a previous life and were now doing way cooler stuff. I’d lived in Santa Barbara before, and after going through the usual dumb bike racer “who are those strong dudes I don’t like them” standoff, the Clements and I had become great friends through a shared ride to a race and awkward conversations about liking the same music. Tosh is one of the creators of the space, aka one half of the Breakfast and Taylor, the other half, steams milk like no one’s business. The space at Breakfast is really awesome, filled with artist’s work featured all over the walls, cool surfboards, and some of the best logo’d soft goods around. Maybe we need to do some Team Dream stuff there hmmmmm…

Team Dream Brought Our Own Breakfast To Breakfast In Santa Barbara
BYOB (Bring Your Own Breakfast)
Corgi Butts Drive Me Nuts At Breakfast
Corgi butts drive me nutts
All City
Danny is pretty in (Mr.)Pink!
Breakfast Espresso Bikes Boards Breakfast...Bro
Inside Breakfast
Inside Breakfast Santa Barbara Breakfast Shirt
The most important meal and now also t-shirt of the day

After admiring Breakfast, and our home made breakfast, we were set to meet Aaron Stinner and ride Gibraltar and the Ridge…one of the coolest roads in California in my opinion! What made it even better was that it Sean's first time up the climb. Having spent some time living in Santa Barbara, I knew the climb but hadn’t ridden it since it was repaved. It was awesome, even if I was the last guy up! With wilderness and mountains off to one side and the sparkling Pacific on the other, the top of Gibraltar is really a sight to behold. Descending across the ridge makes the climb so worth it though, like you should really go do it. After coffee at Breakfast of course!

Danny and Stinner in Santa Barbara Gibralter
Danny and Aaron on the base of Gibraltar
Stinner Ride on Gibralter Gibralter

Naturally we ended the ride where we started. Although this time we got, not home made burritos and brought them to Breakfast. The next move was visiting Stinner Frameworks in Goleta to drop off Sean’s frame and say what’s up to my favorite California bike builders. I’d never been by the shop before, so of course there was plenty of time for secret nerding out on frames and Jones wheel sets. Watching the whole process was a learning experience for me, its always wild to see different lengths of tubing turn into pieces of cycling art. Look at that precise drilling technique, beautiful!

Stinner Dipdic Tom at Stinner Frameworks
Hey Tom!
Metal Noodles Stinner Spec Paint Stinner Frameworks Head Tube Stinner Made In Santa Barbara

By now it was late afternoon and we scored the highlight of the day trip, an invite to dinner with Tosh and Taylor cooked by their dad Pete, aka Pepper Spray Pete (that’s another story). Pete is a chef who not only rides, but has worked at some renowned restaurants. He regaled us with crazy stories all while we stuffed our faces with the most insane vegan meal I had ever eaten. The meal itself needs it’s own article. We left that evening full of great food, legs tired, and found a new favorite spot to hang in Santa Barbara.

Breakfast Coffee In Santa Barbara
Breakfast Culture Club in Santa Barbara 
Clement Bros
Taylor & Tosh

Note- If you find yourself in Santa Barbara with a bicycle then we highly suggest you try the Breakfast Gibraltar Loop!

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