Pasadena Biking Resources
Want to get started riding a bike in Pasadena? Here’s what you need to know.
Social rides
If you want some help building biking confidence, you can join a social group ride or take a class. These organizations sometimes offer group rides that are wecloming for any skill level. Contact each group or check their social media pages to learn about up-coming events
Pasadena CSC (that’s us!)
Check our events page for social rides. All of our rides are welcoming for all skill levels, and our Beginner Bagel Rides include a small amount of instruction, as well. Sign-up for our newsletter at the bottom of this page to stay informed.
Active SGV
ActiveSGV often hosts social group rides. These are always beginner friendly and welcoming.
Around the Cycle
This bike shop offers regular group rides, including an easy ride on Thursday evenings to the South Pasadena farmer’s market and a Sunday morning ride specifically for women and female-identified people.
Pasadena Cyclery
This bike shop sometimes organizes social rides. Contact the store to see if they have any rides coming up.
Biking Calendars
Civilized Bibs provides a biking calendar with lots of great suggestions.
Trash Pandas maintains the LA Cycling Calendar that shows group rides pretty much every day.
Lessons
Adult Learn to Ride class
If you don’t know how to balance on a bike, you should start with a learn to ride class. There are regular classes hosted by the Bike Center in Santa Monica.
Online lessons
The League of American Bicyclists has lots of bicycle education material online, including a free Smart Cycling online course.
Find an instructor
The League of American Bicyclists lists local resources for biking. Scroll down on the page to “League Cycling Instructors”, and you’ll see a directory of local instructors. You can send any of them an email and ask about private lessons.
Where can I ride that’s safe from cars?
Find a bike trail
PasCSC volunteers have put together an excellent list of bike paths. All of these paths are paved and pretty flat, so they are great choices for anyone.
Start in a park or college campus
If you are still trying to get your balance, try starting in a park or college campus. Caltech, PCC, Victory Park, or McDonald Park all have some open space where you can practice pedaling.
Open Streets Events
Open streets events are special events where car-free streets allow people on bikes and walking to use the road. Check out activestreets.org and ciclavia.org to find an up-coming event.
Route planning for low-stress streets
For people new to riding in the city, careful route planning can be the key to a comfortable experience. Pasadena has lots of neighborhood streets that are low traffic and low stress. Using mapping tools to carefully plan your route can be a big help in the process.
Pasadena is slowly developing a network of safe bike routes. The Union Street bike lane, Cordova Street bike lane, and the in-progress North/South Greenways are all important routes that many of us use every day. The Pasadena City bike map shows the location of the Roseways, are which relatively low-traffic streets that are recommended for biking.
Biking Maps
Pasadena City bike map
Unofficial map from the Bike Network campaign
Love to Ride Feedback Map (search for Pasadena)
Finding a bike
E-bike rebates
'There are a number of e-bike rebate programs available. If you live in Pasadena, Pasadena Water and Power has rebates of $500 for e-bikes. GoSGV offers rebates for cargo bikes and family bikes.
E-bike monthly rentals
You can rent an e-bike or cargo bike by the month from gosgv.com. These are provided at very low cost by the non-profit ActiveSGV.
Local Bike shops
Pasadena has a number of great locally owned bike shops. We hope you will support our local businesses. We’ve had good experiences at a number of these shops. The staff can be a great resource for finding what you need or answering any bike-related questions.
Helpful Apps
Komoot
Komoot is good for trip planning and finding nice places to ride.
Transit
Transit is great for planning trips that combine a bike ride with public transit (bus or train). It also has a “bike only” mode that provides route suggestions on lower traffic streets with turn-by-turn directions.
Love to Ride
Love to Ride will automatically track your bike trips, and encourage you to ride more often. It includes a map that shows streets that are preferred by people biking. You can help other riders by rating the streets you ride on. You can even join our group.
Google Maps
Google maps is great for trip planning, and can provide turn-by-turn directions. The street view can help you find low-stress streets or check out tricky intersections. It also has an icon for traffic signals, so you can tell which intersections have a stop light to help you cross.
Athletic Biking Clubs
Foothill Cycle Club
Foothill Cycle Club is a non-profit recreational and social organization for road cycling enthusiasts. They offer several weekly rides tailored for all level of riders.
PAA Cycling Club
The Pasadena Athletic Association (PAA) is a nonprofit cycling club with more than 400 members based in the San Gabriel/San Fernando Valley area centered around Pasadena.
Gear
There are a few pieces of equipment that you should consider including as part of your setup. These include:
Helmet
Front and rear lights
Bike lock
Gloves and eye protection
Orange vest, flag, or other high visibility clothing
Spare tube and tools for changing a flat tire
