Routes

Long Beach Bike Path

The Long Beach Bike Path runs along the beach for three miles from Horny Corner (Bay Shore & Ocean) to Shoreline Drive (by Alamitos). It can be accessed from E. Ocean Blvd at Junipero, Termino (Belmont Pier), and several streets in Belmont shore. At its western end you can continue riding along the jetty around the marina, with a view of the Queen Mary, and on through Shoreline Village. At its eastern end the Peninsula has a one-mile out-and-back. The path is crowded with bikes, runners, skates, and dogs, so this is not the place to go fast.

San Gabriel River Trail

The San Gabriel River Trail starts next to Ballast Point on the Seal Beach side of the bridge and continues uninterrupted for about 25 miles until Rio Hondo, then continues towards Santa Fe Dam. About four miles up from the river there is a bridge, go left across the bridge to stay on the San Gabriel, keep going straight for Coyote Creek. A few road crossings past the bridge at Wardlow is El Dorado Park, which is a good loop for doing intervals. Besides the start in Seal Beach it can be accessed from 2nd, PCH, Willow, Wardlow, Carson, and a few others. There's an entrance from 7th street but it's tricky. Note: there is almost always a headwind when riding south.

Los Angeles River Trail

The LA River trail starts at the Golden Shore trailer park near the Catalina Ferry and continues uninterrupted for a long way until the town of Vernon, before downtown LA. At some point it branches into the Rio Hondo trail, going towards Rio Hondo Park which is its closest approach with the San Gabriel. Note: there is almost always a headwind when riding south.

Signal Hill

Signal Hill is the main place to climb in Long Beach (it is actually its own city), and has the best views. The main approach is up Temple from PCH, which turns onto Skyline Drive and terminates the top of the city. This is just under a mile of uphill and is barely a class 4 on strava. A more challenging climb is taking Junipero up to Stanley. Other small but steep climbs are Hill St, and Skyline up from Cherry.

The Bridge and the Queen Mary

There are some short (~1-2 mile) out-and-back paths from Shoreline Village and Downtown Long Beach. There is a bike path over the bridge to the Queen Mary that goes past it between the port and a fishing area. A big bike path on the bridge to San Pedro just opened, but it doesn't go anywhere. This is the second biggest climb after Signal Hill.

Suggested Trips

If you want to do a short 10-20 mile ride, ride along the Beach from one end to the other, adding the Peninsula, the Jetty, the Queen Mary, and the Bridge for extra distance.

If you want to do a 25-35 mile ride, you can take Temple up Signal Hill, go down to Cherry then take Willow over to the LA River, take it down to the end, then do the aforementioned Beach and bonus miles. Tack on part of the San Gabriel as well. You can also go up the San Gabriel to El Dorado Park or further. A common ride is to take PCH down to the Huntington Beach Pier or the Santa Ana River, but this website mainly covers Long Beach.

For longer rides, one option is to ride up the LA River or San Gabriel as far as you like, then cross over to the other river and take it down to the ocean. The full loop up to Rio Hondo is about 50 miles (keeping in mind what I said about headwinds). You can ride to Palos Verdes along Anaheim and do a loop in either direction along Palos Verdes Drive, featuring a class-3 climb. If you are not used to it, biking there will seem sketchy. You can also ride up the San Gabriel to Whittier and ride up Turnbull Canyon, or down along PCH to Newport Coast.