west coast trip route, suggestions and advice

[methodicreign]

I am planning my summer bike trip from Vancouver BC down to San Francisco then over to Las Vegas. I have a rough outling of the trip planed so far; we start by taking the Port Angeles ferry from Victoria BC to Washington state. ride throught the olympia national forrest and out to the coast. We stop the first night in Seaside Oregon. Day 2 takes us from Seaside to Cresent City CA. day 3 gets us into San Francisco. we spend 48 hours in San Francisco then off through Yosemitie Ntional Park to Bishop CA for the night. Then my personal most anticipated part of the trip, a ride through Death Valley to Vegas.

Just a brief outline of my trip, should be around 60 hours of riding over ten days and my butt is already sore lol. I'm looking for some suggestions or warnings from the locals. what parts of San Francisco should we avoid, what kind of hiden gems are not on the internet. Any advice or suggestions will be very welcome. Also looking for reputable bike shops in the San Fran area, and Vegas areas to get the bikes checked out and chains adjusted etc. in case we run into any issues, I dont foresee that but you never know.
Thanks

 

[voodoolord]

Sounds like fun. Ive driven alot of the oregon coast as I live down here. A couple of things I need to say is your time line may be a little tight on your coastal ride through Oregon and Wash. I rode from southern Oregon to the San Juan islands all around and back last year. A straight shot from southern Oregon to Seattle with a few breaks to stretch and fuel is about 8 hours moving pretty fast on I-5.

Your going to be on pretty winding highway down the coast and I would think your average speed it going to be about 50 mph. You might make it ok down to Oregon but the trip from Oregon to Cali is the longest. There are alot of really beautiful places on the coast including the redwoods so unless you plan on blasting through it I would suggest making the Oregon leg a 2 day ride. The other thing to consider time wise is the ridiculous amount of deer, skunks, raccoons, possibly elk, bear and Bigfoot on that highway after dark. Your risking it riding at night. Check out Bandon Oregon for a stay over, its very beautiful, a nice starting point to get to Cali and there's good food and drinks there.

Once you get to Cali there's a town called Petrolia that starts the Lost Coast route. Very beautiful elevation changes and sweeping ocean views with the worlds largest blue gum Eucalyptus about half way through the route. There's no signs marking them but you cant miss them on the left of the road out in the middle of nowhere. From there your a few hours from San Francisco across the Golden Gate. If you dont absolutely have to see San Francisco I would avoid it and cut through Napa valley instead. Excellent restaurants and Cali wine country as well as a beautiful ride. You will avoid the ridiculous traffic, tolls and hassle of going through San Fran. Theres not much to see there anyway unless your going to stay for a few days. Trust me on that.

After Yosemite its open highway and pretty straight forward to Vegas. Enjoy your trip and let me know if I can help any further.

 

[methodicreign]

appreciate the timeline advice, I was simply going off what google maps told me for estimated route times and rounded up a bit. I'm not trying to blast through Oregon too much cause the views and scenery are what we're there for. our times and route are not set in stone of course and I am only pre booking our bigger waypoint hotels so we retain some flexibility in the schedule. I will look into Brandon Oregon and is the most coast road the one that takes us to fort Bragg? it seems to deviate from the 101 by the boarder to CA.
thanks again for the response very informative and the local insights are exactly what I was looking for

 

[voodoolord]

the Lost coast starts in Ferndale on 211 down off of Fortuna and goes through Petrolia. I kind of had it backwards. Fort Bragg is a long way south. On second thought the last time I was down there there were problems with the road past petrolia and we had a long stretch of dirt road. I would definitely ride to the top of the bluffs on mattole road and check out the view but you might want to back track after that back to 101. Incidentally I think Petrolia has the most earthquakes out of any US town.

 

[red1100cc]

the kite museum in longbeach is pretty cool!

other than that, im curious myself.

 

[880jedi]

Do you want to actually find a hotel in the city of San Francisco to park your bike, or somewhere close to allow easy access (via public transportation) to the sights?

 

[Lamb busa]

Lamb would like to recommend Parriot Motors for bike maintenance. Map of Parriott Motors, Saint Helena on CA Citysearch Although it is a Honda shop in the Napa area, they had little problem adapting. Ask for Jeff, He saved Lambs butt a couple years ago while riding across that part of the country for the Busa Stampede. "Life and mechanics are about good people and Jeff is one".

 

[Lamb busa]

Now the trip south down the 101 in California with stops in the Ave. of the Giants. A must-ride road! Stop in Legget,Ca. for the drive through tree . You can stop by Sonomas' Sears point Raceway just south of Napa.

The 36 that runs East and west from Fortuna to Red Bluff is spectacular.

 

[motochris]

Now the trip south down the 101 in California with stops in the Ave. of the Giants. A must-ride road! Stop in Legget,Ca. for the drive through tree . You can stop by Sonomas' Sears point Raceway just south of Napa.

The 36 that runs East and west from Fortuna to Red Bluff is spectacular.

^This^

 

[Lamb busa]

When travelling through Death Valley you must plan a stop at the end of Dantes View Road. Its a few miles south of Furnace Creek inn on the 190. Dont miss this spot! It is the best view in the park!!!WOW!

A few miles south of Furnace creek inn on Badwater road is a spot call artists loop! If you like cliffs with colored rocks you can barely believe are real, then you will like this spot