Pedal passion hits Laguna Seca with a range of bike-related things to do.

Welcome to bike nirvana. This year the accessible, exciting, social, festive, competitive, engaging, amazing and almost overwhelming Sea Otter Classic celebrates a full quarter century as the mighty Mecca of bicycle festivals. And it does it with its most robust lineup of vendors, professional events, amateur adventures and stunt demos in its history. Here appears a peek at some of the many highlights.

Get It in Gear

More than 75,000 people stream to Laguna Seca for SOC, and it’s not just to watch. Popular participant events include long looping Grand Fondo rides, Specialized Kid Zone, a SRAM Skills Zone, Magicshine Night Ride and Focus Mountain Bike Tours. One of the highlights: After pros take on the SRAM Pump Park Friday, its ramps, jumps and obstacles open to the public for play.

Expo Unlimited

From Abbey Bike Tools to Zoic apparel, the sheer depth and diversity of the gear appearing here makes the expo a festival in itself, and worth several hours of exploration. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 different participants include Trek and Togs, Rip van Wafels and RockShox, Fox and Fuji, Fatback Bikes and Feedback Sports – think exotic helmets, energy gels, breathable socks, tires, sleek sunglasses, teched out sport drinks, air pumps, fancy spandex, inventive racks, trick rides and unicycles, all lubricated by special edition Sea Otter Classic Sierra Nevada beer. Many vendors do festival-exclusive deals on merchanise; even more ply festival-goers with free samples. It makes for a must-do part of the weekend.

THE SEA OTTER CLASSIC Thursday-Sunday, April 14-17. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Highway 68, Monterey. $15/day. 373-2331,www.seaotterclassic.com.

A wacky bike race marks a highlight of Sea Otter 2016.

Fly across the country. Throw on a jacket and tie. Twirl your mustache. Run to your bike. Unfold it. Race five laps around the Laguna Seca track.

Um, what?

That’s precisely what The Brompton World Championships, aka the championship of folding bikes, does to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Sea Otter Classic this year. The atypical rules require suit jackets and neckties and absolutely no athletic gear showing. There will be prizes for best dressed and a trip to London as well for the fastest male and female.

My brother, aptly nicknamed Samsonite by friends, once tried to ride his folding bike from Palo Alto over the Santa Cruz mountains in the pouring rain, towing his suitcase. That ended with blown out wheels and humiliation. This same brother typically races in extreme events like running up to 32 kilometers per day in a 10-day trail race in Nepal and a five-day jaunt across Costa Rica with marathon distances each day. He also biked around 400 miles through Africa, and last month skied across Denmark.

He also owns a Brompton. So there’s no way he’s missing this race.

He loves his folding bike because it fits in an airplane overhead compartment and is now outfitted with a much better luggage set up so he can unfold in any place and ride off to see the sights.

I’m still unclear if I need to pick him up from San Jose airport.

THE BROMPTON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 5pm Friday, April 15, at the Sea Otter bridge.

eBikes make their Sea Otter Classic debut, on the trails.

Electric powered bikes are so the rage right now. Many use them in place of a car for commuting, grocery runs and flat-out fun. Suddenly steep hills aren’t so intimidating. The SOC incorporates eBikes in 2016 with the brand new Haibike eMTB Race. The race course involves challenging mixed terrain with a ton of hills, and should demand 60 minutes of riding on Friday.

Haibike eMTB Race happens 4pm Friday near the double slalom track. The Bosch booth in the expo center hosts test rides for road, MTB, fat tire, and cargo eBikes.

A look at some of the top draws for spectators.

Pro Short Track • It’s the same riders from both the men’s and women’s field on the same bikes as the cross-country races, but more fan-accessible and faster-paced due to the shorter race time and compact track.

Dual Slalom Pro Finals • This event packs the hillside overlooking the lake bed with screaming, beer-drinking, flag-waving fans who soak up the intense downhill side-by-side action as riders zoom across berms, over jumps and through hairpin turns.

Downhill • Riders bring peak fitness and precision handling and braking to a great mix of jumps, turns, pedaling sections and hi-rev speed traps.

Road Circuit Races • Watching cyclists drop down the four-story Corkscrew is just the start of the intrigue with this time-honored staple of the festival.

Cyclocross • The off-camber segments, “kitty litter” sections, high-speed barriers and surprise obstacles make for a riveting fan experience.

Sea Otter Pump Park Invitational • Two riders race head-to-head on mirror “pump tracks” loaded with rails, ramps and hills.