US west coast, friendly for long distance roadbiking?

Trivia

Hi!

I'm thinking of visiting the pacific coast in the coming July for some road cycling. Im thinking either San Francisco to San Diego, or Seattle to San Francisco. Just shooting straight down the roads near the cost.

Is anyone familiar with the mentioned routes or the roads around there? Either trip more scenic? Road condition? Recommended detours? How about the winds in the summer, should one go north or south in July?

Any comments would be appreciated. Did some searching, even some ready-set routes, but i'm not sure how a local would see the choice of routes. So thanks in advance.

Oh, and is it worth seeing San Diego? Safe to be cycling?

PhilPub

No first-hand knowledge YET, but in the past week I've booked return flights to Vancouver in August. Will visit my Vancouver-based brother, then get the train to Portland via Seattle, then ride the Pacific Coast Hwy from the North Oregon coast to San Francisco (about 800 miles over a couple of weeks). Can't wait!

The internet is not short of info, as it appears to be a very popular bike route. Search for routes on https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/ for a start. Also, here's a useful thread on the Bike Forums site: http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1038917-pacific-coast-route-north-south.html.

Some bare basics:
- Virtually everyone goes North to South due to very dominant prevailing northerly winds.
- July's a good choice, as it can be pretty wet in Spring, especially further north. California can be hot, but it's generally more bearable on the coast than inland.
- w.r.t. route, you're mainly using Hwy 101 and Hwy 1, but recommended routes involve a few detours to be aware of. AFAIK the best resources are the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) maps, the Oregon Coast bike route, and the book "Bicycling the Pacific Coast". There's significant overlap of each route, with the odd variance in detours off the highway. I'm planning on taking all three and making it up as I go along, using the ACA for main source of navigation.
https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/pacific-coast/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bicycling-Pacific-Coast-Complete-Canada/dp/0898869544/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457197978&sr=1-1&keywords=cycling+the+pacific+coast
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/BIKEPED/docs/oregon_coast_bike_route_map.pdf
- You're never far away from civilisation so it looks like a stranger-friendly route. Lots of small towns and choices for lodging; most people use hiker-biker camp sites, $5 a night, but plenty of hostels, hotels, etc.

Anyway, looks like you might be there before me, so I look forward to some tips and advice!

Trivia

Sounds good. As I come from Europe, i'm thinking flying to SF and making a couple day trips in the vicinity, Napa valley etc. And then set off towards LA from there. It seems awfully difficult to find a good connection other than to Seattle (Portland etc.). By train it apparently takes 24 hrs to get up there.

I'm thinking of staying in hostels/bnb, will enjoy cycling with a bit less gear. And I did some research and actually ordered Bicycling the pacific coast last week. Also got an app for offline maps on the area. Haven't booked plane tickets though, the prices seem extortionate compared to the off holiday season prices, but can't negotiate on holiday timing.

Do you know how easy it is to get your bike aboard in domestic US flights? Maybe should call the airline and find out all about it..

canamdad

I toured SF to SD in 1980 and sometime after that Portland- SF but I'm sure there have been lots of changes since those days! I remember, however, that both trips were very enjoyable and I suspect that still is the case. I see that you have ACA links and I'm sure they will be useful. You might also find that the touring section of this forum (US based) of interest: http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/
Have a wonderful trip!

PhilPub

Trivia wrote:

Sounds good. As I come from Europe, i'm thinking flying to SF and making a couple day trips in the vicinity, Napa valley etc. And then set off towards LA from there. It seems awfully difficult to find a good connection other than to Seattle (Portland etc.). By train it apparently takes 24 hrs to get up there.

I'm thinking of staying in hostels/bnb, will enjoy cycling with a bit less gear. And I did some research and actually ordered Bicycling the pacific coast last week. Also got an app for offline maps on the area. Haven't booked plane tickets though, the prices seem extortionate compared to the off holiday season prices, but can't negotiate on holiday timing.

Do you know how easy it is to get your bike aboard in domestic US flights? Maybe should call the airline and find out all about it..

I've looked into domestic transport options because I need to get back to Vancouver from San Francisco. Domestic flights are cheap on the face of it but look like a real hassle and less economical due to high charges for bike carriage. I'm pretty sure we'll be doing the overnight train journey from SF back to Seattle, spend a night in Seattle then train back to Vancouver. The Coast Starlight route is supposed to be very scenic so I'm hoping it will just be part of the fun.

random man

Good luck with the trip, please keep us updated, the West Coast is on my bucket list, hopefully next year.

Trivia

So its happening! A flight to Seattle tomorrow. Lufthansa seems to have the best option for bike travellers. Supposedly you can just roll your bike to their counter and they'll give it back at your destination. One plane change on the way, hopefully will be alright.

We're taking a rental car from Sea-tac to Eugene airport. With two of us going, cost will be about the same as Amtrack but will take as an hour or so less. And sounds like a way less prone to miss haps than hitching a cab to train station, right?

From there on its from motel to motel. Sorry to let down the hardcore campers That'd be a bit different experience, but having not done that before, i think it's not the ideal trip to practise that. Keeping the day trips to 50-100 miles, averaging at 60-70 mpd, nothing crazy.

Flying back from L.A. on the 26th. If anyone would like to point to some exciting experiences in San Francisco or Los Angeles, it'd be great to hear them. I mean the likes of some winery tours on bikes, mountain biking (a good rental place with some experience on the routes and such), hot springs, museums. Im sure trip advisor etc. are full of tips and suggestions too, sometimes its just hard to find the gems in the lot.

I got the book, bicycling the pacific coast. It's got all sorts of good little detours n tips on the choises of route. I'll recommend it. Being printed in 2005 it'll likely be out of date to some extent.

I'll tell you how it turned out in the end.

sheffsimon

Trivia wrote:

So its happening! A flight to Seattle tomorrow. Lufthansa seems to have the best option for bike travellers. Supposedly you can just roll your bike to their counter and they'll give it back at your destination. One plane change on the way, hopefully will be alright.

We're taking a rental car from Sea-tac to Eugene airport. With two of us going, cost will be about the same as Amtrack but will take as an hour or so less. And sounds like a way less prone to miss haps than hitching a cab to train station, right?

From there on its from motel to motel. Sorry to let down the hardcore campers That'd be a bit different experience, but having not done that before, i think it's not the ideal trip to practise that. Keeping the day trips to 50-100 miles, averaging at 60-70 mpd, nothing crazy.

Flying back from L.A. on the 26th. If anyone would like to point to some exciting experiences in San Francisco or Los Angeles, it'd be great to hear them. I mean the likes of some winery tours on bikes, mountain biking (a good rental place with some experience on the routes and such), hot springs, museums. Im sure trip advisor etc. are full of tips and suggestions too, sometimes its just hard to find the gems in the lot.

I got the book, bicycling the pacific coast. It's got all sorts of good little detours n tips on the choises of route. I'll recommend it. Being printed in 2005 it'll likely be out of date to some extent.

I'll tell you how it turned out in the end.

:shock: Lufthansa won't be the ones handling your bike, the handling agents/baggage system will be processing it.....

Trivia

Took a good while to get to posting this. We did the trip. Some of the best rides and scenery i've ever seen.

The route is pretty self-explanatory if you just stick to the coast, but ill post the version i did, should anyone need any advice.

The post became a bit of a ramble, but make of it what you want.

Some random notes:
- from June 2nd to 26th.
- Stayed at motels. Even if it was June, there was accomodation available fairly well, we had reservations, but we wouldnt have needed it and wouldn't if i was going back. Accomodation isn't cheap though - average rate would sit at 60 to 85 euros /dollars a night, cookies for the advertised breakfast. Just for the sake of information along Danube bike road in europe the fares would be at around 40 to 60 euros with a nice breakfast, even in the big(ger) cities like Lintz, Vienna, bratislava, Budapest.
- Roadbikes. I built a rack for mine for two panniers of the red brand. (saw a good amount of the same kind on other travellers)
- We covered the distances here in about 4 to 7 hours of riding a day. Average speed would be about 14 to 17 mph.
- Ascends and decends. The ascends and descends on google maps seemed to be fairly accurate with Polar V800 watch. There's a fair bit more hill in oregon/northern cali on highway 1, so the day trips could and should be 50 % more in the south than what we did.
- People. Its great to travel on a bike. People will always talk to you in big and small towns and tell about their trips and experiences riding or just are curious about your choise of transportation. Especially up in the north, where they dont see that many bicyclists or tourists for that matter. Free tip: In smaller towns in north, watch our for teens in pick-up trucks as they're keen on showing how their rusty iron can smoke you.
- Enjoyed the first few days, not only cause the first few days are always the best cause its fresh, but our plan was nicely paced for us and the scenery would be different every day. Every day something new. You'll see what i meant.
- Chilly. The first half of the trip by the coast is not that warm. The wind is chilly, so it'd be nice to have a windprood jacket and even pants if and when you go out in the evenings. Apart from warming up in the morning, on the bike the chilly wind doesn't matter one bit cause youre going with it. I'd go for a goretex jacket and random leg warmers.
- Bikes on a plane. Lufhansa tell you to roll your bikes to the counter. Don't do that. Pack it in a cardboard box, with derailleurs at innermost positions (smallest gear). We did end up packing ours a little bit at the airport after being adviced so. Just the rear tire etc. Both our bikes were cuffed and nicked when we arrived. Nothing was broken thank god, but just the sight of them bringing the bikes out the plane just stacked atop one another made my heart jump. For the return trip, we got boxes from a bike shop for a few dollars tip. SheffSimon commented on it and was right...

Timetable
- 7/2 Seatac to Eugene in a rental car
- 7/3 Eugene to Reedsport via Lorane and Drain 88 miles - We were contemplating via Alma, but google maps only showed forest. Via drain was very beautiful, a bit of farming country and such. Quiet road in the weekend, looked like could have some logging trucks running around during the week.
- 7/4 to Bandon 54 miles
- 7/5 to Gold Beach 56 miles
- 7/6 to Crescent city 54 miles
- 7/7 to Eureka 85 miles (Nice ascends and descends amidst redwoods..and a lot of traffic with not so much of a shoulder. Eureka seems like a dump of a town, sorry.. Crescent city was very tidy and nice with a bunch of little things to see. Just cruise the harbor area.)
- 7/8 to Phillipsville 53 miles (stayed at air-bnb place. Nice accomodation and great hosts. Bought a couple small paintings from Stuart, an artist accross the street. Hung onto them to mail them from a post in Gualala!) The only day we had a bit of a drizzly rain in the morning.
- 7/9 to Fort Bragg 75 miles.
- 7/10 to Gualala 63 miles
- 7/11 to Santa Rosa via guernerville - stayed at air bnb that we'd reserved for the wrong day.. They saved our sorry bums n had as stay over on a couch haha! Never happens, right?
- 7/12 to Napa via petrified forest road. The rises on this road were some of the steepest, 16 % gradient at best i think. Really made you wish you had a third front gear. I had a compact crank, but it really wasnt enough. Stayed for a couple days in Napa. Theres a good paved road around the valley/wine growing area. 500 (not exaggrated) wineries to choose to visit. Don't drink and pedal though. In July its pretty hot, 30'C it seemed.
- 7/14 to San Francisco 60 whatever miles. Through Petaluma, opted not to take the ferry across the Bay, which might have been nice though. There was road work on the route google maps told us. They had scrapers running wild, the big boss pissed off the little boss by stopping it for a minute to usher as safely over the area. (no, we didnt see the signs, honestly). In SF, im not sure what tourists go there for, the harbor area is seen in no time at all. The weather though... the day we arrived the temp dropped from 30 C in San Rafael to 12 in SF! There was a magnificent wind blowing on the Golden gate and in the city, a fog where you could see about a 100 yards. The next day it was back into a nice summer day..go figure. Obvs no the best month to visit. Pack a hoodie and long pants for this town, if possible.
- 7/16 to half moon bay 50 miles. Nice looking area, farming country on the way there a lot of fresh produce for sale.
- 7/17 Santa cruz 53 miles. A nice town, a lot of tourists, nice beach, fairground of some sort right next to the beach. A lot of people.
-7/18 Monterey 49 miles. a nice town, a lot of fancy cars and wide main street. A place for rich folk i recon.
-7/19 San simeon 99 miles. A bit longer day, with around 2000 metres or 6700 feet of ascends and descends. The best day trip on the whole trip i think. A lot of variety in scenery. Sea elephants or whatever you call them, near San simeon.
-7/20 Pismo Beach 50 miles
-7/21 Lompoc 48 miles (oops, was supposed to plan for a 60 mile day, accidentally did 60 kms).
-7/22 Santa Barbara 54 miles. Visited a natural history museum, a charming sorta old place, smelled of old paper or something. The whole place was from 50s or whatever, could imagine teachers babbling to kids with a cigarette in hand for decades. It had nice exhibitions though, hand painted backgrounds for the birds and other stuff shown.
-7/23 Thousand oaks. ( a lot of outlet stores, you'll do some great finds here. The bike trip from here to LA isnt that spectacular anymore so might aswell take a car n go shopping.)
-7/24 Los Angeles. You should visit: Universal studios, Getty center. Universal was packed full of people, so not ideal timing. I wouldnt go with kids in July.