What is the riding like in Southern California, San Diego area and North along the ocean? How far North before it gets too cold in late February?

 

It's about the same temp until you get into Santa Barbara County. When you hit Central CA it gets a bit chillier.

 

Along the coast it stays pretty nice year round. It doesn't get cold until you turn inland. Like the previous poster said up past central Ca it starts cooling a bit. I have lived here all my life and you can't beat the weather. it's everything else that is screwed up.

 

Riding in the country part of SD county (what there is left of it) is beautiful. Pacific Coast Hwy (PCH) is "too scenic," & often requires many stops - especially south of Camp Pendleton when the flowers are in bloom.

The freeways are quite intimidating if you've never done it before. And, "white lining" on a bagger is . . . interesting. BTW, California does allow motorcyclists to split lanes ["white line"] between the #1 (fast) & #2 (half-fast) lane, but not between #2 & #3, etc. [And, no, the HOV [car pool] lane is not "the #1 lane"] And, if the motorcyclist hits something (like a cager's mirror), "it's the biker's fault. Next question."

On the freeways, it's often impossible to leave adequate braking distance between you & the car in front because some impatient cager wants to use that space to cut through traffic and save .1 sec of travel time in 10 miles.

North of the San Gabriels [the line of mountains from Ventura running east-west & separating LA from the Central Valley & the High Desert {Palmdale, Death Valley, etc}] the Central Valley (aka San Joaquin Valley - think I-5) it can get cool, especially above the valley floor.

The High Desert [Think: North of San Bernardino] stays comfortably warm during the day, so long as the wind is not blowing, but I've found the temperature drops like a rock beginning late afternoon.

You can go from a 70 or 80 degree day in the Inland Empire [Riverside/San Bernardino] to snow on the ground, freeze your buns off as you climb to Lake Arrowhead.

Is that TMI?

 

Right now in Mojave north of Palmdale I ride to work at 20-30 deg in the morning and ride home at 60 deg....

In the summer it's 60 deg ride into work and 1500 deg ride home....

 

Riding in San Diego area or anywhere in southern California is a year round thing. If you're moving from a colder climate like myself coming from Virginia...it's a rider's paradise.

As one poster said, you can lane split. but let me correct that statement, you can split any lane. The unwritten rule is to split the #1 and #2.

 

24/7 riding weather. Except for this week. Brutal rains hitting the southland.

 

Great, thanks for all of the good response. Flying from Michigan to Phoenix for our annual week long motorcycle adventure. We will be traveling from the Phoenix area to visit relatives at Camp Pendleton. Looking for a good scenic route from Phoenix to the Oceanside area and back to Phoenix. Thinking about going thru Yuma and maybe a wide circle Northerly for the return.

 

If you ride on base, you'll need long sleeve shirt, and full fingered leather gloves, DOT helmet (although I don't think they check that) and glasses. Camp Pendleton has an ok road to ride. Basilone Rd is pretty nice.

Coming from Phoenix, you could take the 8 west, take 111 north up around the Salton Sea, grab 78 west or 76 west towards the coast.

 

+1 on this. You can't ask for any better weather and like he said, we are currently getting pounded by some serious storms (not normal). 24/7 all year 'round