Valencia Street Saturday

Valencia St. is one of the main bicycle corridors in San Francisco. It is a street that just about anyone who rides a bike on the East side of town will ride on if they want to get north or south. Even though I ride on it almost daily, I seldom see the same people on it everyday- there are just too many to recognize them all (somehow, I manage to recognize a whole lotta them anyway : )

Here is a sampling of the riders that passed my way in a five minute period on Saturday.

Everyday there are more. Once the weather dries up for the season, I bet there will be a whole lot more! I look forward to that time.

Black & White Saturday

walk.


talk.


happy saturday, everyone! ^_^

TGIF! Change of direction.

Take a different route, meet new bike lanes and quiet streets, and take your time. Have a great Friday everybody!

garage parking

when i first rolled up to work today, i thought:

1. issssh, my favorite parking spot is taken!

2. this is kinda cool that there is very little parking.

3. there will be happy and productive workers in downtown SF today.

4. (this thought occured much later while looking out of the high rise window...) it's so beautiful today, there will be a lot of distracted workers today.

:)

Crash

Why should you let your kids ride a bike? There are a million reasons- exercise, self reliance, confidence building.... but I think I can give you the single best reason to get your kids out on a bike

You can wear them out!

Ben & His Bike Shop

After leaving the house with S.A.M. for the first ride after being put back together, I discovered my front brakes were... useless. It wasn't so bad, but I had to be extra vigilant until I got it fixed (I couldn't figure out the immediate problem which is the one drawback to being married to Hubby the Bike Man- I let him take care of it : ).

I thought I was going to stop at Box Dog Bikes as they are the ones that always have the kind of parts my old re-cycles need, but that was not really on my way. That was when I remembered that Ben, the guy who has become well known for opening up shop on the side of the road in the Panhandle, had opened up his own place on Treat St. That was exactly on my route, so that was where I headed.

Ben's shop is tiny and cute. I am sure that Ben would not describe his bike nook as cute, but it is. He has bikes hanging from the ceiling like salamis.

He has room for his single bike rack, and a rug, and a boom box and his tools.

When I looked to the back of the shop, I saw a familiar bicycle on the floor- KT's Motobecane. I thought it was funny that I recognized the pieces of my friend's bike without knowing the bike was there in the first place.

Ten minutes and $5 later, my brakes were doing their appointed job and I was on my way. I love little shops like Ben's. Nothing fancy, just the tools required to do the job and a guy with a nice smile and a bike stand. I was off for the rest of my errands in the brief sunshine we got that day in no time.

Thanks, Ben!

scenes from the bikey lane: monday march madness edition.

hey y'all. can you believe it's march already?! wow, 2010 is speeding by like a certain famous bikey dude riding his cargo bike down the wiggle the other day. vroom vroom.

ok then, let's get to it:

1. light grey skies, dark gray asphalt outlined with yellow stripes next to dewy and fresh smelling green grass. nice change of scenery.

2. sausage fest throughout said above route.

3. 3 women, 1 male at page and octavia.

4. 5 women, 0 males at 7th and market.

5. 6 women, 2 men at 5th and market.

6. red mixte seen inside bank: 1

7. baskets seen: 4. two were on the same bike.

8. mixtes spotted: 2. upright handlebars on those bikes: 2.

9. cords worn: 1 pair. (brand unknown. not pink)

see anything fun or different on your commute this morning?