Southern California - To the riders of California - Venice Beach to San Fran

To all of you who ride anywhere from Venice Beach to San Fran - you are very lucky!!! :)

I just got back from vacation travelling the coast California coast via PCH (convertible mustang, great trip).
One thing that really caused me grief though was seeing so many riders riding so many great roads.
Although the hills deinfelty scare me - I thought I had it bad here with the Niagara escarpment - I couldnt imagine riding the PCH :).

Some memorable locations/happenings
1) Wife and I rented a tandem (sucker must have weighted 100 pounds) and cycled the paths along Venice Beach to Santa Monica. Its an obviously marked bike trail, yet of course there were plenty of joggers/tourists walking it. Once cyclist came up behing some tourists and gave them hell for walking in the bike lane. My wife was astounded that someone would be so rude and yell at people walking - I defended the cyclist and tried to justify :)
2) Saw plenty of cyclists around Santa Barbara - really liked this town for both its food/shopping and great routes.
3) Stoped and talked to a couple around Big Sur riding the PCH. They were touring - deked out with gear and riding cross bikes. Asked how there trip was, they loved it (although she seemed surprised when I asked what there avg daily speed was, though he said they usually ride about 60-80 miles a day, then joked that with the wind like it was today (probably a 20 mph tailwind) they would top 100). This is a ride I want to do!
4) When we hit San Fran we drove up to Muir Woods (Mount Tamalpais???). I was blown away at the number of people doing these (to me) pretty massive climbs - the grades looked extremely high. Impressive!

So there you have it - just wanted to jump on here and let you all know what you already know im sure! :)

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Some memorable locations/happenings
1) Wife and I rented a tandem (sucker must have weighted 100 pounds) and cycled the paths along Venice Beach to Santa Monica. Its an obviously marked bike trail, yet of course there were plenty of joggers/tourists walking it. Once cyclist came up behing some tourists and gave them hell for walking in the bike lane. My wife was astounded that someone would be so rude and yell at people walking - I defended the cyclist and tried to justify :)they should be yelled at since there is a separate path for walking/skating/etc. the path is really poorly designed as well. is is far too twisty in many spots for serious riding throw in some sand, a bunch of rollerbladers and other clueless folk crossing the path and you will wish your were riding in traffic on the 405 freeway.

2) Saw plenty of cyclists around Santa Barbara - really liked this town for both its food/shopping and great routes.

:thumb:

Someday you'll have to ride PCH from Monterey to SLO. What a ride, this is the best time of the year for weather. Glad you enjoyed it.

1) Wife and I rented a tandem (sucker must have weighted 100 pounds) and cycled the paths along Venice Beach to Santa Monica. Its an obviously marked bike trail, yet of course there were plenty of joggers/tourists walking it. Once cyclist came up behing some tourists and gave them hell for walking in the bike lane. My wife was astounded that someone would be so rude and yell at people walking - I defended the cyclist and tried to justify :)


I used to commute on this section and saw many conflicts between cyclists and walkers. As Will said, this stretch is not really designed for cyclists anyway.

Even though there is a walkway for pedestrians, they migrate to the bike path because of its quaintness and relief from the crowds on the walkway. The walkway is full of street acts/shops. A lot of these pedestrians are tourists and should be welcomed. It doesn't lead to a positive experience for the tourist because some cyclist is going to be delayed a couple of minutes going through that section.

If the conflicts keep up, the next step will force bicyclists to walk their bikes through that area. It is exactly what happened in Redondo Beach and it is a royal pain to dismount and walk. I would much rather stay on the bike and go through slowly considering it really is a shared lane.

The section between Temescal and Santa Monica used to be bicycles only. "Bicycles Only" was painted all over the bike path. After enough conflicts, they just scraped off the "Bicycles Only" signage.

I am glad you enjoyed your trip. For you and your wife, I am sorry a cyclist was careless enough to make an incident over something that is not a big deal. His behavior represents a very small percentage of SoCal riders but they tend to be the memorial ones.