Why blog? Planning this trip was not as easy as it could have been. I'm thankful for the resources we found and paying it forward. If you want to bike from the Bay Area to LA, hopefully this will be one less thing stopping you.
Plan route
Bit of history: When we first thought of riding from SF to LA a couple of years ago, one of the most exciting parts was to go along the PCH and enjoy coastal views. In March 2024, the road closed in Big Sur after the Regent's Slide. Continued landslide activity and cracking stalled repairs. In January 2025, the Palisades Fire closed off another section in LA. The latter reopened in June 2025, but there is no end in sight for the Big Sur part. There have been reports of cyclists sneaking over the closed section, but also reports of some needing to be saved after a failed attempt. So as much fun as it sounds to grab a tent and bikepack along the coast, we had to figure out another way.
Challenges:
- Much of the route info out there is slightly outdated. They point to the PCH route which is more established and is sprinkled with hike-or-bike camp options along the way.
- California's infrastructure is designed mostly for cars, not really for bikes, and even less so for bike touring.
- Towns in central CA are relatively sparse and spread out. That limits options for necessities.
Basic requirements:
- Unassisted.
- Access to potable water at least once a day. Ok with boiling water if needed.
- Access to food at least once a day. Ok with packing up to 2 meals for the road.
- Access to a hotel. Ok with couch surfing if needed. For safety, we didn't want to set up a tent in unauthorized areas. Since there weren't enough camping spots to justify bringing a tent for the whole trip, we decided to omit it entirely to save weight.
- No long stretches on dangerous roads. Sadly, there's always some danger to bike touring on paved roads and through urban streets, at least in the US. But we say no to egregiously dangerous roads.
- Physically doable and mostly enjoyable. This would change depending on fitness level and amount of gear. For us, it meant balancing up to ~ 80 mi per day and +3000 ft of elevation. We didn't end up having to push these limits too much and did, in retrospect, mostly enjoy it.
General approach: We used Google Maps to roughly plan out towns to stay at. The approach was to distribute the riding without needing rest days and also to leave time and energy to explore interesting places or activities. For example, since we were riding through July 4th, we wanted to time it so that we could see fireworks at a beach, but not be in a vacation town where it would be difficult to book a hotel the night before.
Packing list
Roughly 20-30 lb per person between two people (myself and J).
- Clothes: bibs, top, socks x2, pjs, jacket, gloves, sunnies, microfiber towel
- Tools: multitool (allen keys, chain break, spoke wrench), swiss army knife, leatherman with adjustable spanner, tube patch kit, gloves, chain pliers
- Consumables: tubes x2, tire, derailleur hanger, master links x4
- Other gear: bike lights, phone charger and spare batteries, plastic bags for trash / waterproofing, bungee cords, lacrosse ball
- Toiletries: first aid kit, toilet paper, moleskins, ointment (cerave / aquaphor both work well and are easy to find), sunscreen
- Food: water (we carried 3 - 4 L per person which was overkill at times but a good call on hot days away from civilization), your slowly-perishable and high calorie-to-weight ratio foods of choice (e.g. jerky, tuna, dried oats, peanut butter, energy bars), backpacking stove + fuel, utensils
Prepare
Train. Nevermind, we will ride on baseline fitness. Which is: run occasionally. Or in the case of my foot still recovering from a fracture, swim a couple times per week. We have been doing quite a bit of speed work; namely we are usually sat typing, at times, over 100 wpm.