This is the one DROC ride that is not about a canyon. Los Angeles is the destination: the 6th Street Viaduct, Bike Shed in the Arts District, and a string of landmarks that photograph better with a Ducati in front of them than anything a mountain road will give you. It is a half day of city riding, heavy on stops and light on corners.

DROC rides north to Bike Shed most months for Italian bike day.

The 6th Street Viaduct

The Ribbon of Light opened in July 2022, replacing the 1932 viaduct that was demolished in 2016. Michael Maltzan designed it, it cost $588 million, and its paired arches carry 6th Street from Boyle Heights across the Los Angeles River, the rail yards and the 101 into the Arts District. It is the most photographed piece of road infrastructure in the city, and every rider who sees it wants the same picture.

The park under the east end, the Sixth Street PARC, was nearly finished at the start of 2026 and is expected to open during the year. That changes what is available underneath, so check the current state before planning a group photo down there.

Light matters more here than on any other ride we do. Late afternoon gives you the arches lit warm; an hour later you get the downtown skyline behind them. Midday gives you neither.

Bike Shed and Italian bike day

Bike Shed Moto Co sits on Industrial Street in the Arts District, ten minutes from the viaduct. It is a warehouse the size of a small factory holding a restaurant, a bar, a café, a members’ club, a tattoo parlour, a barber and a shop, and on a Saturday morning the forecourt is the best free bike show in Southern California.

Bike Shed runs an Italian bike morning on the first Saturday of most months, and DROC rides to it more than to anywhere else on the calendar: roughly thirty times in one form or another. Two routes get used, and neither of them is the freeway. Either over Angeles Crest Highway and down into the city, or through the Malibu canyons and east along the coast. Pick the road, then arrive for lunch.

Bike Shed is also where DROC watches MotoGP when the race is worth a ride, and where the six Ducati Official Clubs of Southern California meet when they get together, because it is roughly equidistant from all of them.

Iconic Los Angeles stops

Los Angeles hands you more recognisable backdrops inside twenty-eight miles than the rest of Southern California manages in a day. These are the ones worth building a ride around.

• Venice Beach. The Venice sign and the Touch of Venice mural. Static shots, easy parking, and room to gather a big group before heading east.
• Beverly Hills. Riding shots along Rodeo Drive and the palm-lined residential streets off it, then the Beverly Hills Hotel sign. Twenty minutes from Venice.
• The Hollywood sign. Not the sign itself, the streets that frame it. The palm avenues in Windsor Square and above Beachwood put the sign in the background of a rolling shot.
• Laveta Terrace, Echo Park. A short uphill street lined with palms and open sky at the top. One of the most recognisable frames in the city and one of the smallest, so it takes a handful of bikes at a time, not a whole group.
• The 6th Street Viaduct. The one everybody comes for, ridden back and forth. Nothing static on the deck, so the picture happens on the move.
• Lower Grand. The service level under Bunker Hill, downtown’s own tunnel system: bare concrete, columns and ramps, and no daylight. It is the shot that looks nothing like California.
• The Kobe Bryant murals. There are dozens across the city and one of the easiest sits a few minutes from Bike Shed, on a side street with a usable sidewalk. The full map is at kobemural.com.
• Walt Disney Concert Hall. Gehry’s steel curves, ten minutes from the viaduct, and best in low sun when the panels catch the light.
• The 2nd Street Tunnel. White tile, hard reflections and the tunnel every car commercial has already used. Short, bright and unmistakable.
• The ROW DTLA parking structure. Open ramps and rooftop views over the skyline, close enough to Bike Shed to add on the same morning.
• Griffith Observatory. The postcard. Also the hardest one to do as a group: the road up is slow on a weekend and there is nowhere to put ten bikes together once you arrive. Go early or go midweek.

Several of these are residential streets where people live and are tired of being a backdrop. Arrive quietly, park legally, keep the group small, and leave before anyone has to ask you to.

How DROC rides it

• It is a city ride. Twenty-eight miles took an hour and a half of actual riding and three hours with stops. The riding is not the point; the stops are.
• Traffic lights split groups. More regroups than a canyon ride needs, and a sweep who knows the route rather than one who is following the bike in front.
• Heat and stop-start. Air-cooled bikes and heavy leathers are miserable in DTLA in August. Go early or go late.
• Do not leave anything on the bike. Tank bags, helmets, cameras. Every stop on this route is a public one.
• Plan for the light, not the clock. The good frames are late afternoon into dusk, which means the ride home is in the dark. Say so at the safety briefing.
• The run up from Orange County is freeway. Nobody enjoys it. It is the price of the afternoon, or you go the long way over Angeles Crest and make a day of it. You can ride a motorcycle for free on express lanes of Interstate 110 without a transponder (note: if you have a custom license plate, that does not work: you’ll get a letter for toll evasion and you can reply back it’s a motorcycle to see it waived)

Every time we have ridden it

Rides where Los Angeles itself was the destination, not a canyon with lunch at the end of it. The monthly Italian bike day runs are listed on the Malibu and Angeles Crest pages, under the roads they were actually ridden on.

• MotoGP Watch Party at Bike Shed, Catalonia 2026, May 2026
• MotoGP of Australia Watch Party at Bike Shed, October 2025
• SoCal Ducati Official Clubs get together, June 2024
• Nightcap at DTLA Auto Storage, June 2024
• Ride to Ready 4 Red Los Angeles, January 2023
• Ready 4 Red, Ducati 2022 Tour, Los Angeles, March 2022

Route plans

One route, and it is the good one. Ride leaders pick from these rather than inventing a route every time. Nothing stops you riding it on your own, and on your own you can stop where a group cannot.

Route	Length	Hours	Map
Venice, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Echo Park, 6th Street Viaduct	Half day, 28 miles	3	Route

Ride it with us

City rides need more discipline than canyon rides, not less: a safety briefing before we roll, staggered formation, a lead and a sweep, and a regroup at every light that splits us. The ground rules and the hand-signal guide are on the rides page.

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