Hamburgers changed the world here, or at least the way Americans eat. The first McDonald's restaurant opened in San Bernardino in 1940, a drive-in run by two brothers, and the idea of fast, standardised, cheap food that began on this corner went on to spread around the globe. The original site is gone, but a small museum on Route 66 tells the story, and it is a curious pilgrimage for any rider following the old highway. The city itself is large, a place of more than two hundred thousand people stretched across a plain at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains.
The mountains are the real attraction. They rise abruptly to more than three thousand metres, and in winter their peaks are dusted with snow while palm trees wave in the valley below. The Cajon Pass, the gap through which Route 66 and the railway arrive from the desert, is just to the north, and the road drops from the high Mojave to the Los Angeles basin in a few miles. The long descent by old Route 66 is a pleasure, with gentle bends and wide views, though traffic on the interstate beside it can be heavy.
The Santa Ana winds are the local peril. Hot, dry gusts blowing down from the desert in autumn can make riding unpleasant and fire risk severe, and the hills around the city have burned many times. On a clear day after a storm the air is crystalline, and you can see the snow on Mount Baldy and the long line of the foothills. Smog can be thick in summer, particularly in the afternoon.
San Bernardino is a major road junction with fuel stations on every corner, and you can find food, mechanics and motels without difficulty. The old Route 66 follows Foothill Boulevard through a long chain of towns toward Pasadena and Santa Monica, with palm-lined avenues, mid-century motels and neon signs, many of them restored. Traffic is dense, and lane splitting is legal in California under certain conditions, though riders should take care in the stop-and-go flow.
The Mojave section behind you was the hard part, a long, lonely run of heat and wind, and the city's lights are a relief. A cold drink and a plate of tacos from a roadside stand are the proper reward.