Bicycling the Pacific Coast: A Complete Route Guide, Canada to Mexico, 4th Edition

We just completed a coastal ride from San Francisco to Mexico. I bought this book prior to the trip hoping it would shed some light on what to expect, tips, training, etc. I was initially disappointed. But..as we started our trip we found the maps were very valuable (the rest of the book..so/so). The altitude scales were okay, but good enough to set some level of expectations. They didn't always reflect the map in the right scale, but it worked well enough. We initially thought we could ride route 1 the whole way, but found we couldn't in many of the bigger cities, which is where the book came in handy. The maps showed which side streets to take. You can also follow bike signs or bike lanes along the way, but they're not always around when needed. We usually ripped the page out of the book and only carried the small map vs a bunch of maps. You will be surprised how many different maps you would need to carry. Use the book and maps as a general guide, but don't be afraid to wing it. In a few areas like Santa Cruz, South LA, La Jolla and South San Diego (near the boarder) we couldn't find the streets on the map. We got lost, but usually found our way via other streets using general navigation. Other tips the book doesn't give...wear bright colors, in SF and LA you will be on busy streets with cars zipping by. I hear going in April or Sept are best to avoid tourists and still have really good weather. We used Yahoo Yellow Pages to print out high level city maps with all the hotels listed with contact info and pre-plotted on the map. This was very handy when trying to find a motel in the evening. I also recommend buying the toughest tires you can find (i.e. Specialized Armadillos). Normal road tires are too soft and get too many holes. Between the two of us we had 6 flats and a tire slash in the first day leaving SF..very discouraging. We bought heavy duty tires at a bike shop in Santa Cruz and never got another one the whole trip! We avg. about 78 miles per day with an avg. speed of 15.5 miles per hour, allowing us to get from SF to Mexico in 8 days. Make sure you know how your bike fits you and your body reacts to long days, esp multiple days. I started to ice my knee and quads every night, which made me feel much better the next day. All in all...it was a lot of fun!

I've used this guide twice to ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles (different editions through the years) and found it to be accurate and helpful...definately written by people who understand cycling. The route takes you off the highway at busy cities where bikes must exit the main road, and provides good descriptions and a safe route to get through town and back to the main road at the other end. for example, you exit Pacific Coast Hwy through Santa Cruz and Monterey and Santa Barbara. We usually go through and type out a "quick sheet" to carry on the bike, eliminating the descriptions and side trips that we don't need to reference while riding, but the descriptions can be great to help you avoid getting lost. I recommend highly.

This book proved to be our bible during a 6 week ride from Vancouver to San Diego (we just crossed the Mexican border and back again). A lot of other cyclists we met also had the book on them. We didn't camp - we stayed in motels so a motel guide would have been useful (but they were easy enough to find). The elevation diagrams were REALLY useful and allowed us to plan better. Occasionally the book would suggest that places had tourist facilities (i.e. places to stay) when, in fact, they didn't (e.g. Stewarts Point CA) but overall it was a massive help.

This guide is a must have for anyone wanting to ride the Pacific Coast. I just used it to for a solo ride from San Francisco to the Mexican border. The guide provides turn by turn instructions to navigate through unfamiliar territory and can even provide some surprises in areas that you may know pretty well. It was very helpful in daily planning for stops for food, water, etc. and for some unplanned needs like bike shops for repairs. The elevation guide was also very helpful in gauging when to take a break or when a big climb is over. The guide provides recommended daily rides which I altered as necessary to stop and visit friends. Obtaining a good tourist guide from AAA would provide a nice supplement to the book for other sight seeing opportunities if you have the time. This leg of my journey was 600 miles and I am looking forward to using the guide next summer on a 1200 mile ride from Vancouver, BC to San Francisco.

From someone who had never toured on a bike before, this book was my "bible". Having now toured many times in many different places, this book is the most complete, most accurate and most detailed I have ever seen. While riding down the coast, I photocopied the second half of the book to give to a German man who was floundering with his cycling association maps. He loved the review of the day's elevation climbs the most of all. On my second trip down the California coastline, I gave the book away to another couple. It's just that good, a must have book for the Pacific Coast.