Touring - San Francisco to San Diego - Experiences?

I'll be attempting this ride in about three weeks, and have set aside 13 days for the journey. I will be sticking to Highway 1 for the most part.

Has anyone here attempted this ride before? If so, any advice you'd offer? I'm curious about the more "challenging" parts of the route - are the hills south of Big Sur as bad as I've been led to believe? What are the highlights/lowlights of this stretch of California?

I did most of this ride in late September 2001. Monterrey to Carpentria...Due to lack of vacation time, took the train back to San Diego, while rest of my group rode the whole distance.
Naw, the hills are not so bad...We packed about 35 pounds. The two bad days were getting into Big Sur State park and the rest of the way to San Simeon. Each day we had about 7,000 feet of climbing..Will you be carrying a heavy load. Camping?
Each state park has "Bike and camp facilities.' Facilities are limited throughout Big Sur. Not even a lot of hotels...
I suggest you purchase a .Adventure Cycling' bike map of this region by Adventure Cycling..They point out all the facilities.
At the south end, you have to make it all the way to San Simeon. There is a federal park at the south end of Big Sur. But it has not facilities.Water/showers.
With a load you will get tired..Seems each day through Big Sur, you have to do like 65 miles to make it to camping facilities. Hotels are even limited.
I did not think it so bad...If you are cycle fit...The scenery is beautiful...But watch out for the road shoulders..They abut a 1,000 foot fall. Not for those quesy about height. Which I suffer from just a little bit...
After Big Sur. Facilities are common. Parks frequent. Again Cycle Adventure maps will outline routes and list facilities.
You do not have to stick to the coast south of Big Sur..There are inland options...We choose September because that is when Big Sur is somewhat less drippy from the morning fog.
Choose a week day and non tourist season to go through Big Sur..Roads flooded with tourists much of the year.September not so bad...July- cars will disrespect you on those narrow curvy, steep twisty hills through Big Sur...No shoulder to speak of. Just steep ledges. Again, no matter what time of year. Travel here during a week day, when traffic is less.

AC Maps are great and so is the book Bicycling the Pacific Coast by Kirkendall & Spring. Be ready for some climbs. If you go by the BPC book, it will take about eleven days for the trip. I've done it out of shape and it wrecked my heels so, practice your hills!

I just did LAX to Pacific Beach (just north of San Diego) (1 1/2 days), then Santa Barbara to Monterey (4 days). I second the motion on Kirkendahl & Spring book, the info on where food and hiker/biker sites are is great, and the hill profiles... well, sometimes it's nice to know what's coming up, but sometimes it's nice not to ;). I also used AAA maps.

In San Luis Obispo, the book bypasses you around the city, and there's a mistake in the map - the Los Ossos Road it mentions is actually Los Ossos VALLEY Road. I ended up riding highway 1, which was noisy but safe, with a huge shoulder.

You should have nice tailwinds from San Simeon to Santa Barbara. The winds tend to pick up in the late morning, and increase gradually all day, so if you don't like them, start early. Especially would recommend this for the Big Sur area, where the wind comes at you from various directions due to being funneled by the cliffs.

Your experience of the hills will depend... what do you normally ride? you don't say where you are from. The hills are definitely long and continuous, but there are not very many seriously steep places. I never felt like I had to stand up. My lowest gear is 26x34. BY the way, if you bought the Trek 520 (like I did) I would recommend swapping out your gearing for something lower (like I did). In front I have 52 (stock, stupid)-39-26, and it shifts fine, even though my bikeshopguy was hesitant.

Highlight: Big Sur - yeah there are hills. The scenery is worth it.

Lowlight: slums and truck traffic near Long Beach. The route is confusing through LA, I was lucky to encounter a local rider who helped me navigate. (Thanks Phil!)

My accrued (northbound) climbing was 3260 feet for Morro Bay Strand Campground to Kirk Creek Campground (gorgeous campground!!! no showers, but the views made up for it) and 4820 feet for Kirk Creek to downtown Monterey. I guess it's gotta be about the same southbound.

The main campground at Morro is closed for remodelling, but the strand 2 miles or so north of there is OK. THere's no hiker/biker site there and no hot showers, but they don't care how many people/tents per site, so I teamed up with three other touring cyclists there to split a site ($13/night per site).

Feel free to post here or PM me if you want to pick my brain for more recent info.

cheers,
anna

I'd love some advice here.......I'm going the opposite direction (SD => SF) in Sept. This will be my first long distance tour, and I'll be on a Bianchi Eros (triple). I'm planning to put some 28c tires on, but other than that + panniers (obviously), the bike is stock. From those that have experience with this route, with consideration to the bike, would it be best fully loaded vs. credit card vs. a mixture? I'm planning to purchase the Adventure Touring map closer to departure. Anyways, I guess my question is: Would this be wise considering the bike? Thanks everyone.......

do a mix, the ride up the coast is brutal anytime of the year. I've only done southbound.