Why this ride
123 km one way from San Bernardino - plan on about 1 h 34 of riding. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Historic Route 66: San Bernardino to Santa Monica Pier
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 123 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 34
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Route 66
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is Route 66, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 26 km
- Named road
- Route 66
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. San Bernardino
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.
Read the complete San Bernardino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
San Bernardino is where the day begins. Next is Los Angeles.
2. Los Angeles
Route 66 does not end in a blaze of glory. After more than three thousand kilometres from Chicago, the old highway frays into the boulevards of Los Angeles, and its last stretch is a patchwork of Foothill Boulevard, Colorado Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, ending officially at the pier in Santa Monica, with the Pacific beyond. The point on the map here is the old centre, where the city began in 1781 as a Spanish pueblo, and a few blocks of adobe buildings and a Mexican market street, Olvera Street, are still standing, near the grand Spanish-style Union Station, which opened in 1939.
Read the complete Los Angeles write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Los Angeles comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is Santa Monica Pier.
3. Santa Monica Pier
The longest road in American mythology runs out of land here. Route 66 was commissioned in 1926 to link Chicago with Los Angeles, and as it went through eight states on its two-thousand-mile journey it picked up the nickname the Mother Road. The official end of the highway is a matter of fine print, with the route having been rerouted several times, but the pier at Santa Monica carries a sign calling it the End of the Trail, and that is where riders photograph their bikes, so that is where this ride finishes.
Read the complete Santa Monica Pier write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 123 km.
Leg by leg
San Bernardino to Los Angeles
San Bernardino → Los Angeles is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Los Angeles to Santa Monica Pier
Los Angeles → Santa Monica Pier is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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