Santa Paula, California Railbike Experience

This story started two years ago, when we heard about a railbike for the first time, probably on social media. In casual conversation lately (it's December), when people have asked "Do you have anything fun planned for the holidays?", it hasn't been easy describing what a "railbike" even is. As my description evolved, what was succinct and seemed to get the idea across was "basically like a pedal boat you would see on a lake but adapted to old train tracks."

Given this medium, here, have a look for yourself:

So, we originally booked this experience in 2023, as a half-price deal. One of us ended up sick right before the experience, though, so we had to cancel, and we were emailed a gift card code. We didn't see any deals last year, so we started wondering if we would ever end up using that code. This year, though, we spotted a Black Friday deal - half off for a two-person railbike ($125 instead of $250) - just like when we booked two years ago, so we jumped on that offer.

Santa Paula is roughly an hour drive northwest from Los Angeles. The base of operations for this experience is an old train station, built in 1887. Upon checking in and signing a waiver, you take your pick from among the railbikes. I'll go ahead and mention this: more than a full day later, my wife and I both have an uncomfortable red spot in the middle of our backs, where our spines made contact with the hard, plastic seats during the whole ride. Some of the railbikes had seats with more of like a mesh backing, and I wonder if those would have been more comfortable, or just uncomfortable in a different way.

Once we had our helmets on and were buckled in, we were given a quick tutorial. Like an e-bike, these have a battery assist. You can stop pedaling and use just the throttle from time to time, but you do need to put in some occasional "leg work" during the trip to keep the battery charged. On their own, the railbikes weight about 260 lbs. Add two riders, and it would be rough pedaling up some of the moderate inclines without the e-assist.

This experience consisted of ten or so railbikes, plus an employee riding solo at the front and another one at the back of the caravan. At the front, the guide remotely operates the train barrier gates at each intersection and even has a battery-powered train horn to use while crossing.

The ride goes east, out of Santa Paula proper, and through the nearby farms and citrus groves. Unfortunately, on this particular day, the wind was incredibly gusty and even prompted a "loud noise warning" on my watch.

After pedaling for maybe 45 minutes, we came to a stop and took a break. Meanwhile, the two workers put a turntable device on the tracks, turned each railbike around one by one, then we started heading back toward Santa Paula.

At this point, the winds had calmed. It turns out we had been pedaling against the wind, making this segment "a breeze". Hah. The sun beat down on us much of the way, but with this being winter in SoCal, we never really broke a sweat.

Right along the train tracks, one more stop was built in: Prancer's Farm, which sells produce, honey, jams, etc., and we got to pet a cow and sheep.

After our approximately two hour trek, we were back where we started, at the old train station. It wasn't an amazing adventure, but it was fun and different. And it was sure nice to get out of the big city for a while and pedal our way through nature.Have any questions? Keep scrolling down, and the comments section will load.

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"Santa Paula, California Railbike Experience (2025)"

Written by: Justin Kilmer

Edited by: Janine Kilmer

All images and media on this site are © by Justin Kilmer, unless otherwise noted.

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This page was written entirely by a human. It was last updated in Dec. 2025.