Around here at least it seems to get used both for "bikes not allowed" and "this is a busy road so we're avoiding sending bikes here".

Where I know the roads, I'll occasionally be on short stretches of pink because while discouraged it often is a more direct way. For example, below is a Google Street View of a short section of road in Buda, TX that was marked pink. It is two lanes, no shoulder. However, bikes are allowed and I needed to travel 1/4 mile to the light at edge of the picture. I was on it the weekend before last because it was straightforward and direct. As the population grows in this area more roads that I've been familiar with traveling get marked as pink.


In areas where one is not familiar there might be no specific reason to ride the pink roads so that is fine. However, it can also be an opportunity to check out a bit more with street view or a heat map.

Maybe it's a spoiler, but you can see the route and road conditions with Google Maps and Street View. Hwy 101 for three miles south of Benbow Dr is the only route, and it's a winding two-lane road with a 1.5 foot shoulder. I still remember it forty years after the only time I did the PCBR in 1985. Bikes are also allowed on the pink section, so it might mean it's not the recommended route when the frontage road is available.

When I did Pacific Coast a decade ago, I felt safer on the busy road (below) than on the road in the second photo below because at least the busy road had a good shoulder. The not very busy road was winding and hilly, so traffic behind you might have their vision limited to less than 100 meters, and when you are in and out of shade while the driver behind you is also in and out of bright sun, that does not make for good vision either.



If the driver behind you is at 60 miles per hour, that is 88 feet per second so you do not have very many seconds to be seen.



Some of the brush that was encroaching on the road was thorn bushes, you did not want to get your tires or skin too close.

FYI:
A portion of the Pacific Coast Highway finally reopens to the public after fires
May 25, 20258:10 AM ET
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/25/nx-s1...ic-after-fires

Re: locks. You can also carry a really light padlock, in addition to the beefier one, and lock it through the front brake rotor. Surprise!

I never heard of that option. Good idea. I might even be able to use a luggage lock, I have several from the pre-TSA days that are not getting any use.

Thanks for posting.

I personally am not keen on any sort of lock that requires a key, in the unlikely situation of losing it.
Sure, you can take a spare key, but I guess for what I use a bike lock on tour for, my coil lock is light and really will only stop an opportunistic theft, so I favour a no key approach for simplicity.

The surprise will be for me because I will forget it and start rolling!

There are teeny combination padlocks, too.

Just an FYI: The section of PCH through Malibu and Pacific Palisades is lined with K-Rail and there is practically ZERO shoulder where a bicycle could travel with some degree of safety. The K-Rail is remaining up below the cliffs to keep any rocks or dirt that may have been loosened by the fire and slide downhill from impacting PCH, and the beachside K-Rail to help prevent hi-tide waves from hitting the road since some seawalls for beachfront houses were destroyed. I'd avoid the area.

See next post

[QUOTE=stevepusser;23533755]Unfortunately, that section of PCH has the last hike and bike campgrounds north of LA, and any alternate route involves a climb over the Conejo Grade into the San Fernando Valley, along US 101.

Which sections of PCH are so bad and narrow? They don't look so bad on Google Maps satellite view, though those images were taken post-firestorm, so some of the bike lanes are blocked with burned vehicles. The one time I did that in 2014, I don't recall it being so terrible, just with loads of speeding cars. I will of course defer to any first hand reports. The street view image from last March looks like there was more room for bikes and slower traffic, what with one lane being closed:Here's the alternate route up into the SFV:

Roughly its the section of PCH from the south end of Malibu towards the south down to the city border of Santa Monica. I'm going off the local news reports as Cal-Trans opened that section for cars last week but with reduced speed limits due to how narrow it is. I'm keeping an eye on it as I was hoping to do a short tour from San Luis Obispo down to the Orange County area in the fall (October/November timeframe). Cal-Trans does put out some brief road reports but they are just that ("brief") and kind of limited. Here's today's (June 2) report for the area, its the top entry as I post this:

Division of Traffic Operations - Road Information - California Highway Information

Hopefully it's the southbound car lanes that are narrow, with bike lanes preserved on the far side of the K-rails, as seen in Street View shots from 2023. But that alternate route is shoulderless, steep, and winding. I can't find any signs that bikes are allowed on 101's shoulders up that climb, because that surface street alternate route exists. Some of the exits on 101 are double lanes, which would make crossing them very hazardous.

I tried ******, but it's having server issues for comments right now: