erbfarm

I'm going to use BikeFlights to ship my bike from Portland to the REI in SF for $52 (pick up at my house). REI will reassemble and have bike waiting for me for $65 or let me assemble myself at their store. I'm going to ship my bike back to Portland from Revolution bikes in ARacata at the end of the trip . they'll let me pack it up at their shop and FEDEX is across the street from them. We're goint to stick with the plan of riding north from SF up to Arcata. Wish us well wind-wise! My touring partner rode cross country through Kansas and said Wyoming had the worst wind and no one warned her about that!

indyfabz

How did you get that high a price? Was it insurance and/or home pick up? As noted in one of my earlier posts, I got a base rate of $23 from Portland REI to SF REI, but that was before potential surcharges for pickup location and extra insurance.

BTW...I would purchase the return shipping through bikeflights as well, especially since FedEx will be right across the street. If you purchase directly through FedEx you are almost certainly going to pay more.

fietsbob

I would have taken Amtrak, now that the Green Tortoise bus I used in the 70's & 80's no longer runs.

erbfarm

i just used the calculator on the bikeflights website and that's the quote I got for a 56" box with the $5 pickup fee. would be nice if it was cheaper since the bikeflights location is about 2 miles from my house! We're still struggling with should we go N to s or S to N and need to make a decision fast! The winds this time of year could go either way and will probablyl flip flop on our route.

bransom

Bikeflights — well, FedEx now — has my bike right now. St. Louis to Carlsbad, CA for $41 + insurance. Not bad.

Doug64

Having ridden the Pacific Coast Route north to south, and a major portion of it from south to north; I would definitely opt for traveling in a southerly direction. I also lived on the Oregon Coast for 4 years, and just based on my memory, which is not always a good idea, I still think N to S is a good bet.

However, that rain is coming sideways from the southwest— Astoria. It blew my wife over twice as we approached the bridge on the south end of town, so we decided it was a good time to called it quits for the day.

erbfarm

wow, that's a great price, can't figure out why the charge is so high then from Portland to SF

erbfarm

that rain looks fierce. We decided this morning to go N to S!

Tourist in MSN

I think that was a good decision.

I wrote my observations and comments from May and June 2014 at this post:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/95...l#post16933424

indyfabz

Wonder if they track your history and use a differential pricing model for new customers. The first time I used them I paid more for PHL to MSO than I was quoted the other day. That may explain why when I priced Portland to San Fran I was quoted $23. (Would have $28 for pick up.).

On line pricing can be extremely complicated. Last October I was looking at renting a car one-way for a trip. I checked several times with one company for the same type of vehicle on the same date. The rates were just too high. Then maybe 4 days before I wanted to take the trip I checked again. When I did, the web site didn't give me prices for a range of vehicle types like it usually did. What popped up on the screen was a rate for the vehicle type I had been checking on previously. Not only that, the rate had dropped by more than 50%. I couldn't believe my eyes. While I am a tech luddite, it was pretty clear that the web site recognized me. Maybe the programming logic determined that I was still interested in the rental but was not going to accept the high rates initially offered and that, with the time for the trip quickly approaching, getting business at a greatly reduced rate was better than no business at all.

erbfarm

ok, our next hiccup in this trip is getting from SF to Arcata. Turns out greyhound only has one bus going up there at 3:15, getting in at 10 pm. If we take that bus on Apr 22, it means we can't start our tour until Apr 23 after 9 AM when we pick our bikes up from REvolution cycle in Arcata. And that means we have to get to SF by late afternoon on Apr 29 in time to get our bikes to REI and fly out early on Apr 30 back home. That sounds like some really cramped timing to me. Are there other options from SF to Arcata that would get us up there on Apr 22 in late afternoon versus 10 pm at night? Amtrak's service seems to involve a lot of extra travel and it's only a 5 hour drive. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Salamandrine 

That's the better part of 7 days. That should be doable at a comfortable pace, but of course it depends on how heavily loaded you are, your fitness, etc....

i don't have any suggestions on transportation to Arcata.

erbfarm

i went to bikeflights.com and put the dimensions of my bike box in, got a rate quote of $22 each way from CA to Portland, much more budget friendly! that's without the pickup fee of $5 or any extra insurance, but still, a good price!

Tourist in MSN

I went thru my GPS data from my trip, tried to figure out the campground names from my GPS tracks. I think I got it all correct. Thus, for my 2014 trip, I stayed in Eureka on Jun 10 (Motel 6), then proceeded to:

- Burlington Campground on Jun 11

- Standish-Hickey Rec Area CG Jun 12

- Mac Kerricher SP CG Jun 13

- Manchester SP CG Jun 14, moved to the adjacent KOA on Jun 15 to take a day off and do laundry, etc. (Manchester really sucked compared to the KOA, no showers and you were basically in the middle of a windy field.)

- Stillwater Cove Ranch CG Jun 16

- Bodega Dunes CG Jun 17

- Sausalito HI Hostel (Marin Headlands) Jun 18.

But if we wanted to go into San Fransisco on Jun 18 instead of Marin Headlands we could have easily made it. At this point we were burning time, we are retired and scheduled several days of sightseeing in San Fransisco area. We later stayed at the Fishermans Wharf HI hostel.

If my reading of the map is correct, REI is a bit over a mile from a few hostels in San Fransisco if you are looking for a place to crash near the REI store. They can fill, if you plan on that make a reservation ahead of time.