When my alarm went off at 5:30 this morning I thought "this is stupid, no way am I cycling all the way to LAX at this ungodly hour." But after another half hour or so I reconsidered. Door-to-In'n'Out time was 1 hour 40 minutes. Not bad at all for a rush-hour trip from south Pasadena to LAX. Biking around the Arrivals loop (which I've only driven before, dozens of times) felt surreal and fun. Paid $50 for an Admirals Club day pass in order to take a shower - didn't really seem necessary, but since you can't always smell your own B.O. I figured it's best to play it safe. Bike is locked to a railing in the T4 garage; hopefully it'll still be there Monday.
Thanks again for the route
bzcat, it worked out really well! A couple notes - the Ballona Creek trail at Overland is now CLOSED. There's a "bike detour" sign indicating a right turn on Ocean, but no follow-up signs to show you how to get back on the trail. Hate it when they do that.
I ended up cutting over to Jefferson and taking that to Lincoln instead; it was a little scary at the 405 interchange, but otherwise not too bad. Would've preferred the creek though.
Venice between downtown and San Vicente was a little dicey in spots (no bike lane, narrow with a few patches of really bad pavement). Might try Pico or Olympic for that part on the way back. West of San Vicente (where the bike lane started) it was great. Worst part was having to stop at EVERY BLOODY TRAFFIC LIGHT on Broadway through downtown. I think they must time them to frustrate bicyclists.
Since I didn't make use of the Gold Line anyway, maybe routing through Silverlake and coming down on Vermont would be a bit quicker.