lebron james rode to work, wins game.

i'm sure you all heard that lebron james rode his bike to work yesterday. he rode his way to a miami heat win over the bulls. coincidence? probably not. those who know bball better than i do (go spurs go!) say he had a good game. probably from warming up before by riding to work.



was this all a staged photo op? maybe. from my 10 second research with google and james, i found he does a charity bike ride each year. rad! also, if a marathon snarls traffic, and one is already into biking, why the hell not ride in to work? everyone wins.

this pic might get some people into riding, "if a ginormously famous bball player can ride to work then....maybe i can?" and as you know, we are all about changing lives by riding bikes over here :) of course, you don't need to customize yr bike to say "king james" on it or anything. also, why not be original and say "king lebron"? i hear there's a pretty popular book already with the former name.

Blocked, Again!

San Francisco has miles of bicycle lanes. We fought long and hard for them, in and out of court. Nice to see them being used by those who need them most.









They would be so much nicer if they were not blocked. All the time. Perhaps I will start a catalogue of what I have come to think of as "San Francisco Airport's Most Amazing, Extended Cell Phone Parking Lot and Delivery Zone".

poetry

saw this lovely pairing the other night. i love the juxtaposition of these two objects. joined together in love of stickers via a lock.

in other news, someone stole my free SFMTA lock provided to me by the SFBC as part of their light up the night campaign. i was caught offguard one night when my basket xmas lights were not enough, and they pulled me over to provide a free light.

my rationale for leaving it on my handlebars is that it was free to me, so if someone wants it that bad, they can take it. and that finally happened, about 2 months later. oh well. at least i have more lights where that came from!

Bits and Pieces

Just a few things I saw riding around this weekend.

From behind, La Ballena looks like any other bicycle.

While we were parked I noticed that the bicycles very much resemble their riders- long, skinny and carrying all the groceries or more than a little wide in the rear with a propensity to wear orange.

SFPD monitoring a large right to life march. It was a pretty calm event, especially as the night before had been quite a bit more hectic with an Occupy SF protest. It isn't SF if there isn't someone protesting something every 24 hours. It is our secret industry after tourism.

This, however, was the winner of the day. I love my City!!!

What did you see this weekend?

black and white saturday

yay, weekend! :)

share the road y'all

some wise words out of texas. my uncle is an avid road cyclist. this is on his truck. i saw more than a few of these on all sorts of vehicles when i was there.



have a great day y'all! speaking of, maybe this fellow texan will get back to mountain biking instead of embarrassing himself on tv.

Further Adventures Of Declan

It has been a bit since we had an update in the bicycle adventures of Declan. San Francisco is evolving daily when it comes to getting around by bicycle. We have a long way to go, but the streets have become so much better, especially in the areas of town with the highest concentration of bicycle riders, that I am comfortable taking Declan just about anywhere his two legs can get him to.

What do you think of that bicycle James put together for him? It is a light weight steel BMX frame with a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed coaster hub. We had to look for 2 months to find the right frame within 200 miles of us (it had to be steel so we could bend the rear forks to accommodate the S-A hub) but it finally appeared. One day I will put together a little piece on just how very cool this machine is.

Now that Declan is older (almost 7!) and has a bicycle that helps him keep up (he is so much faster than I am up hill!!!) we are able to have him ride his own bicycle when we run errands around town. If you were to see him riding you would be amazed. He chats away to us the whole time while watching for doors, keeping an eye out for glass and doing the left-right-left look at intersections. He rides way better than half of the adults I see riding around.

We have to borrow the Xtracycle from Cameron when we do this. That way, if the traffic is bad or Declan just poops out we can tow his bicycle and him home. It also works to make sure we have taco truck seating mid-ride.

James usually takes the rear because Declan is so used to riding next to me (I need a photographer to ride with us so I have pictures of it). I no longer have to give him many verbal directions . Today, I took the rear and let the boys have some fun. Declan likes to chat while he rides. I love it, I figured James might enjoy it, too. They talked about the difference between catapults and trebuchets, how to build a more destructive arctic ice breaker and their plans for the next homemade air powered rocket launcher.

a different day but I had to put this picture in somewhere

He is really growing up! It just amazes me (silly as he is the youngest and I have lived through this stage many times before!). My City is growing up, too. It takes a lot of trust and a deep breath from time to time, but the fact is my little boy rode his bicycle through 4 neighborhoods (a total of about 7 miles altogether) almost entirely in bicycle lanes. He was just another rider. OK, he was way cuter than any of the other riders and people kept pointing at him and smiling, but you get the point. Now we just need to get more kids out there!!

this happened.

rode with my nephew yesterday and saw this. it made our day! plus, we got free ice cream.
i feel like i need to share this with you guys!
happy sunday! :) :) :)

bike never die

i was listening to alt latino from npr earlier this morning. i woke up to too much sunshine at around 6:45am and decided to listen to some music.

i discovered, lê almeida, a band from brazil doing some lo-fi sounds that sound reminiscent of the indie labels kill rock stars and 1990s era matador records.

music and bikes. what a great way to start off the morning. enjoy.

One Season In My City

It is January in San Francisco. Usually a miserable time with much rain and freezing wind and very little sunlight.

Not this year. Zero rain. Zero wind. Zero fog. A whole lotta sunshine. In fact, more sunshine than we usually get all summer! It is freaking me out a little bit. I think I have to get used to it though.

Me in January of 2011.

January 2009

And this year, I am wearing SEERSUCKER! In the winter!! And it was too warm! This is just not right. The trees in front of my home have not been able to turn and drop their leaves. There were mosquitoes in my bedroom 3 nights in a row.

OK. Everyone. Drive a whole lot less and ride a whole lot more 'cause I want my winter back!

Then & Now

We like to think we are creating something new here in the bicycle world.

But to to be honest, my Mom in 1954 looks an awful lot like my Mom in 2012.

Maybe we need to stop thinking about this so much and just get back to what we used to do.

pedal savvy fashion show

the SF bike expo happened a couple of months ago. i was busy parking bikes so people could be bike nerds without worry. as such, i missed this fashion show. the show is produced by CYLRAB friends over at pedal savvy. also a lot of the models hamming it up in the video are part of the regular bike posse that we love so much.

so here's to SF, and as KT said over at velo vogue, "this is how SF does it."

2011 Pedal Savvy Fashion Show from SF Bike Expo on Vimeo.

much love to all of you. now get out and ride this weekend if the weather allows! i know i will be, well, because i live in norcal.

granny gets around

Happy new year readers!

i'm still on extended work/vacation here in texas y'all. but i saw this on the spacebooks interweb today and just had to put it here on the blog. she rocks! looks so practical, yet fun. :)

and, AGAIN, many thanks to all of the people who have donated to WBR! we are helping to influence lives for the better here on the interwebs and making bikes accessible for those out in the real world. i cannot think of a better way to start the new year.

see y'all on the flip side! i will be back soon with regular updates. unofficial new years resolution is to attend less gawshdamn meetings and get back to writing (& riding) more!