Self-Guided Bike Tours
Discover a growing collection of self-guided tours that offers an opportunity to explore Los Angeles through a new perspective.
Download and print a route guide. Then cue up the audio guide and follow along stop-by-stop. Ride with GPS route link also available.
No bike? No problem! Most of this ride can be walked and you can follow all of it on Google Maps using Street View.
Photo by Aimee Gilchrist
Daily Life in Early LA
Welcome to “Daily Life in Early Los Angeles,” a self-guided bike tour through nineteenth-century Mexican LA created in partnership with Picturing Mexican America. We’re not gonna lie: 19th century Mexican LA was neither idyllic, egalitarian, or anti-racist, but it’s important to understand that it WAS here and that the version of California history that you might have learned in grade school - the version that kids are STILL learning in Los Angeles public schools - is part of a deliberate and concentrated attempt to erase that history and replace it with what scholars have described as either a “Fantasy Spanish Heritage” or a “Fantasy Anglo Past.” Whatever you call it, it devalues people of color, depicts them as marginal outsiders, and justifies discrimination and racial violence. We hope this ride untangles some of those threads.
Total Distance: 14 miles
Total Elevation Gain: 330 ft.
Ride Level: All Levels
To download the Ride with GPS and get turn by turn directions, click on map below:
Be sure to find ‘Picturing Mexican America’ on Spotify and cue up the “LA Lindo y Querido” playlist designed specifically for these self-guided tours. It’s full of music from contemporary, LA-based, Chicano and Latino artists and perfect for relaxing and enjoying the ride when you need a break from all our talking. If you bike while listening, remember to stay alert and be mindful that it’s CA state law for cyclists to use only one earbud while riding.
Photo by Aimee Gilchrist
Philanthropic Life of Arcadia Bandini Stearns de Baker
The second collaboration from Picturing Mexican America and the Los Angeles Explorers Club highlighting the charitable life of Arcadia Bandini Stearns de Baker and the groundwork that became the city of Santa Monica. Many of you, we’re sure, have strolled along the beach in Santa Monica or hopped on the freeway near the Veteran’s Administration complex, but you may not know the area’s rich and interesting past, much of it involving, or thanks to, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker. You might think of Santa Monica as the Berkeley of Los Angeles, but it had racial covenants, segregated beaches and its fair share of discrimination. It’s just fascinating that this mostly white city with a kind of racist history was made possible through a Mexican woman’s philanthropy.
Total Distance: 14.5 miles (16.3 miles with stop at S.M. Brew Works)
Total Elevation Gain: 748 ft
Ride Level: All Levels
To download the Ride with GPS and get turn by turn directions, click on map below:
Teen Wolf and Other Hollywood Love Stories
Collaboration with The Cub House Bike Shop in South Pasadena touring popular 1980’s filming locations like PeeWee’s Big Adventure, Pretty in Pink, Halloween, Back to the Future and cult favorite, Teen Wolf.
Coming Soon