Santa Barbara's Old Spanish Days Fiesta is an annual community-wide 5-day festival that begins on the Wednesday before the first Friday in August.
Each year a swarm of 1000+ bicycles take off from the base of Stearns Wharf on the Santa Barbara waterfront Sunday to close out the Old Spanish Days celebration with the annual Fiesta Cruiser Ride. Participants ride up State Street and continue on to Goleta Beach, 10 miles to the west. Because the Cruiser Ride has been an unofficial Fiesta tradition since it began in the late 1970s, State Street does not close for the event and normal traffic rules apply. Though the designated launch time of the Fiesta Cruiser Ride is noon, it often starts a few minutes early when the area reaches capacity from the incoming flood of bikes.
The Fiesta Cruiser Ride was started by bicycle enthusiests Charlie Muraoka, Casey Kellogg, Rich Sandoval, Rich Studley, Skeeter Lyerla, Rod Hunter, "Wild"Bill Carson, Kit Carson, Jessie Gomez, George Begin, and "Chip," at a home on Santa Barbara's Westside in 1979.
Ground zero was Muraoka's room in the basement which had, and still has, the word "DEN"on the exterior door which at one time was used for Cub Scout meetings. Around that time the Schwinn beach cruiser enjoyed a resurgence in popularity.
On Sunday, August 5th, 1979, during the last day of Fiesta, the aformentioned group gathered at the DEN, headed to Stearns Wharf, and then rode up State Street. They continued to upper State Street, then along Hollister Avenue, then left on Puente drive to the bike path, on on to Goleta Beach. Finally the rode trails past UCSB lagoon and ended at Devereux Point. Though only the hardiest make it to the end, that is still the official route of this very unofficial event.
