Customer Reviews

Bicycling the Pacific Coast: A complete route guide, Canada to Mexico

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book from Amazon in 2002 and used it during a ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles in August 2003.

It's a very good guide. The directions for their main route were quite detailed and usually clear. I got lost a couple of times, but never badly and it may not have been the book's fault. Milage totals were usually pretty close, although there were a couple of segments that were off somewhat. The guide is much more useful if you photocopy the pages with directions. Then you can use them as daily route slips. The book can be kept in a pannier during the trip to be brought out in the evening to get an overview of the next day's route and stuff you might see along the way.

I also enjoy the overall feeling that it was written by dyed-in-the-wool cyclists for dyed-in-the-wool cyclists. This authenticity comes out sometimes in little asides, such as the authors' comment that a northbound tunnel near Gaviota (CA) is like riding through a high-suction vacuum hose. If you've ridden a bicycle through that tunnel, you'd know how dead-on that description is.

I didn't give the book 5 stars (although I would have given it 4.5 if there was an option) because it doesn't provide much for the bicycle tourist who prefers hotels and hostels to camping. An appendix with a listing of youth hostels and a selection of cyclist-friendly hotels on the route would make the guide more complete. It would be especially helpful if the authors did this for the more remote regions on the route. The authors also might want to add a little more commentary and detail to the alternate routes they sometimes suggest. For example, the authors suggest an inland route along US101 as an alternate to Highway 1 through Big Sur when the road is closed (which happens fairly often) or during the height of the tourist season. Well, if you're going to suggest a 100-mile detour, do more than just put a shaded line on a not-very-detailed map. (By the way, I don't completely agree with the authors' assertion that Hwy 1 through Big Sur is too trafficy to comfortably ride during the tourist season. Maybe it is on weekends, but I went through on a Monday and traffic was only moderate and not particularly hard to deal with.)

Overall, though, this book is well worth the money.

Perhaps people are so taken with the notion of a book written just for bicycling they're willing to overlook certain things. Unquestionably this is a good resource, but it also has lots of errors. Most of these would be forgivable in a first addition, but certainly not in a third; I'm speaking of outdates, mileage errors, incorrect assumptions, incomplete data, crazy routings, etc. It's clear that Kirkendall and Spring have lots of work to do if they want the next edition to be accurate.

Good cycling resource, it is very detailed in regards to distance and stateparks. It would be nice if it could be taken appart (coil ring) so that you can just take the section you need ie: Canada or California instead of having to take the whole book with you.
We will be riding in a few weeks so we shall see if things have changed since the printing of the book

This book proved to be our bible during a 6 week ride from Vancouver to San Diego (we just crossed the Mexican border and back again). A lot of other cyclists we met also had the book on them. We didn't camp - we stayed in motels so a motel guide would have been useful (but they were easy enough to find). The elevation diagrams were REALLY useful and allowed us to plan better. Occasionally the book would suggest that places had tourist facilities (i.e. places to stay) when, in fact, they didn't (e.g. Stewarts Point CA) but overall it was a massive help.

This guide is a must have for anyone wanting to ride the Pacific Coast. I just used it to for a solo ride from San Francisco to the Mexican border. The guide provides turn by turn instructions to navigate through unfamiliar territory and can even provide some surprises in areas that you may know pretty well. It was very helpful in daily planning for stops for food, water, etc. and for some unplanned needs like bike shops for repairs. The elevation guide was also very helpful in gauging when to take a break or when a big climb is over. The guide provides recommended daily rides which I altered as necessary to stop and visit friends. Obtaining a good tourist guide from AAA would provide a nice supplement to the book for other sight seeing opportunities if you have the time. This leg of my journey was 600 miles and I am looking forward to using the guide next summer on a 1200 mile ride from Vancouver, BC to San Francisco.

The guide pointed out some good points of interest and kept a pace for a moderate rider. It was written from the biker's point of view. Very insightful.

My friend and I used this book (previous edition) to cycle/camp from San Fransisco to Los Angeles. Although the milage/elevation was slightly off the book was indespensable. We meet a guy from Amsterdam who was riding from Seattle to Los Angeles (without a helmet?!?) who was very excited when he saw our book had campsites his maps didn't. 508 miles in 7 days without a hitch, a big thanks to the authors. I also used the book on a ride around the San Juan islands (north of Seattle) it was amazing, I believe these rides are not in the current edition hence the 4 out of 5 stars.

I used this book while riding my bicyle from Vancouver to SanFrancisco in 1996. It provides great background information and isperfect for the camping cyclist. The only reason I can give to NOT buy this book is that everyone you meet on the coast will already have one.

I too gave away my copy of this book to a German man on a tour last summer! I found it such a useful book, I'm ordering another copy.

From someone who had never toured on a bike before, this book was my "bible". Having now toured many times in many different places, this book is the most complete, most accurate and most detailed I have ever seen. While riding down the coast, I photocopied the second half of the book to give to a German man who was floundering with his cycling association maps. He loved the review of the day's elevation climbs the most of all. On my second trip down the California coastline, I gave the book away to another couple. It's just that good, a must have book for the Pacific Coast.