Seattle cross.

"The devil made me do it."
-cyclecross love, sent to us by reader Michael W.
thanks!!

Yowza!

This is not my finest photographic moment, but what can I say? I was so happy seeing this scene my photographic skills, what small number of them I have, went out the window.

Two kids, a basket, shopping and a Workcycle in San Francisco! I was so freakin' proud of this woman I think I came across a little stalker. Riding with kids in the urban environment can be challenging, not least because of the insulting and inane comments people will make right to your face about how dangerous it is out there and how "Eeeyyyyyeeee would never do that with myyyyy kids".

This beautiful woman gets 8 thumbs up from those of us here at the blog! Your kids are lucky to have you! (we give another 8 thumbs to Mai Le, the lovely lady in the blue dress!)

Meet the bike nerd

Last month we received an email from the "bike nerd" aka Seth Werkheiser. I think it's pretty adventurous and cool when people are able to pack and go. Just go. Go.

My name is Seth Werkheiser and I'm nomadic bike nerd without a zip code to call home, traveling from city to city with a laptop and toothbrush.
I left Brooklyn on July 31 and now I'm biking across Pennsylvania before heading South for the winter.



how to bike 30 miles with all your posessions

As told by Seth:

My story: I've been biking since I was like, 10 years old or something. I'm 34 now. Lived in NYC for almost six years. Lots of biking in the city. Then my hours got cut at work (I'm a freelance / contractor web-editor for AOL Music). Instead of trying to squeeze every penny and eat ramen noodles I decided to get rid of all my possessions and bike across the US with my laptop and clothes. I'm in NJ now. I'll be in PA this weekend for a few stops (Stroudsburg, Bethlehem, Philadelphia, Hershey, Everett, Pittsburgh) then onto Ohio and south from there.

Soooo I work M-F, 9-5pm. I log off, then ride and hang out with friends.

It's funny - when I got my hours cut I didn't now what to do! Like, I ALWAYS worked from 9am to 7 or 8pm. I was always checking email, even until midnight. I couldn't go out to dinner without looking at my iPhone every five minutes. Now? Now life starts at 5pm, and I've been biking more than ever! Losing weight and feeling good.

Check out my blog: thebikenerd.com

•• thanks bike nerd!! ••

School's In

If you go to public school in San Francisco, then today is the first day of school! My kids are public school all the way, and this morning, they each decided to start the year with a bicycle commute.

Declan decided quite a while ago that he wanted to emulate his older brother and ride to school (he is in Kindergarten this year). It is only two blocks away, but the lure of a morning ride and his very own bike lock was too much to deny.

It was really nice to see a lot more people walking to school than in years prior. There were still a number of people in cars, but the morning traffic tangle was nothing like I have seen it in the past.

The school has a bicycle rack, but it has still not been bolted into the ground (almost a year after receiving it!) so we used one of the polls outside the school. It works out fine and as I had to pass this spot a few times today, it was nice to see Declan's bicycle parked out there waiting for him.

This year, Úna starts Middle School as she is the 6th grade. New school, new friends, new commute. Her school is only a mile and a half from home, but it is on the other side of the hill. She decided to take the long way around through a rather busy business district instead of climb the hill so I went with her, following behind to see how she handled the streets.

She had to pass between City College of San Francisco (the largest community college and the second largest learning institute of any type in the United States) and Riordan High School which was a tangled mess of traffic and random jay walking pedestrians. It was so busy I couldn't take pictures of her riding through it like it was nothing (just like how people in India don't seem to notice the traffic and crowds there). She was fantastic and did everything right.

Once we got past the college mess, it was a short trip through a business district she is very familiar with. There was construction all over it, but after a short stint on the sidewalk, she got around it with no problem and made it to school on time with no stress (unlike the 5 blocks of tangled car traffic around the school building!!!! What kind of madness is this?).

I was uncomfortable with the amount of traffic on her chosen route. It will calm down in a couple of weeks, like it does every year, but until then I am going to make sure she goes over the hill instead. She had no problem negotiating the craziness this morning, but I would not feel comfortable letting her go on her own and the whole point is for her to do this by herself. Next time, we'll try the hill route which is much less busy and crazy.

Over all, a good day. All three of the kids got to where they were going under their own power. They all took the next steps in the process of growing up. I love it!

Heels and hills

Our city isn't flat.
Our city isn't 90° in August.
Our city has all kinds of bicycle riders.
San Francisco moms on wheels rock.

We made it!

Just in case you were wondering. Total of 7 of us (us 3 +4 guys) completed our very first Marin Century 100K.
That is all for now, we will probably do a little recap soon. Cheers with Marin brie cheese!

At the half-point check, in Petaluma, Calif. Woot woot.

Cross-posted.

Century ladies

While you are reading this, we are busy riding the rolling hills of beautiful Marin County in the 2010 Marin Century. +I'm probably actively looking for the next coffee stop.
♥See you all next week!!

What's up Marin, here come the city dwellers triplettes de San Pancho attack. Wheeeeeee

The writings on the wall.

Calitexican and meligrosa's road bikes getting some spanking fresh artsy wall love. Right.
For once we left our beloved basket red and bleu mixtes asides, and we decided to take our road bikes for a quick spin the other day. (that quick turned out to be, ummmm, 3-4 hours...) And face the mean hills in the face. Y qué?! here we go.
Of course I could not agree to do anything, for that fact, without a serious caffeination session before hand. More to come soon.

Both photos taken on Linden – Hayes Valley.

The Quest, The Joy and The Commitment

Story submitted to us, by Mark / OwlBoogie
♥Gracias + RIDE ON!!!!!
- - - - - - - - - - - -

About 3 years ago, I started looking for my Rosebud, my Eleanor, my
unicorn: The 1993 Bridgestone XO-1. The search at that point was
really more of an appreciation for other people's XO's. With little
budget I ended up buying a lower end 1994 XO-5 which I named Grapes. I
rode that bike for about a year and a half. About 2 months ago I set
aside a budget for the elusive XO-1. One showed up on Craigslist but
the seller said it was too small. Bummed, I searched on. An 1992 XO-2
showed up but was sold right before I called. A few days later, the
XO-1 seller contacts me and said he measured it wrong and that it is
indeed my size. I got excited!

Emailed him back… And emailed again… And again… Yet again… Nada.

*sigh* The search went on...

Then about 2 weeks later on a Monday morning, I check my bookmarked
“bridgestone” craigslist bike search and the magic words “BRIDGESTONE
XO-1 / 48cm (oakland west)” shows up. It’s priced above my budget, but
this opportunity doesn’t come very often. I immediately email and I
get a call from the seller about 2 hours later. A quick pitstop at
the bank and by lunchtime I was an XO-1 owner.

Upon receipt

Funny thing is, at the time I picked the bike up I didn’t realize that
it would change my life. It was more than just buying a bike. I made a
promise to myself that if I ever found an XO-1 that I would ride it on
an AIDS Life Cycle ride. So in 2012, my best friend and I will be
doing that. She is now looking for a suitable road bike. Time to start
training.

Also, I want to ride this thing all the time! So now I’m making a
commitment to ride into work at least twice a week. What deters me
from riding is - work is in Potrero Hill, I live in Twin Peaks and I
am not a good climber on my bike. This will be my exercise. Since
starting my new job, I haven't been working out as often. So why not
kill 2 birds with one bike? (no offense to birds, I'm an owl)

Here I go!

I have my dream bike and I'm gonna be cycling a lot more. If you see
me in the city on my little orange bike: ring a bell, say "Hi!" or
tell me to take the lane! Ha!

Thanks Change Your Life Ride a Bike for letting me write about my experience.

- Marc aka OwlBoogie

Grand View panda

Have a great weekend!

This is a peek to what our summer is, for those of you outside the yay arealands, the best time to visit us is in September, unless you are a fog-wind-and moody weather lover like us, then you have no troubles riding with your friends, roaming the city and stretching those legs a little bit up those pinches hills, in the middle of very thick fog.
This was taken during butterlap this past Wednesday. We wish you a great weekend of spring, wherever that may be, because it is certainly not here – and we love it.
♥xxo.m

Summer girls.

Top gear: London calling

My friend David tipped me on this clip from the awesome guys over at Top Gear (I do love knowing all things mechanics, and all things powerful – yet, not the overuse + lazy abuse of if. I really like this show, they are super corky, get to travel around the world and are entirely drama free. I like it almost as much as I like sportcenter. Yes. I said it.

James, Richard, Jeremy and Stig race across London in car, bike, tube and boat

Well, if you hav 8-9minutes to spare, I highly recommend checking this out. I couldn't link the embedded link, so here are some screenshots, and check out WHO WINS!!!

[BBC] Top Gear: London Calling »

Tuesday injection of fun: chopper.

found via: likecool

Gloating Cometh Before the Pride

Just a short post here- on Sunday, James (aka Hubby the Bike Man) completed the SF Randonneurs' Russian River 200k ride. He finished DFL and thus retains his place on the semi-official CYLRAB Back of the Bus team.

It turns out that all you need to do to ensure back of the bus status is to ride a completely untested bike twice as many miles as you have ever completed previously after doing NO training.

Of course, after doing this it helps to have a wife to come home to at the end of the ride who treats the over used knees of weekend warriors for a living. Although said wife does get to gloat over the sore knees while she works on them. Especially when said wife usually only sees this husband's rear end in the distance as she tries in vain to get up any hill with some sense of dignity and before the following Thursday.

Muddy waters.

Recently I have been diggin' the mud photos in our flickr pool. Here in SF we are between rain, super nice days, and windy days. Not a bad combo at all, I love it.
Here is a nice beginning of the week - dose of mud, because they are all RAD. Enjoy!

East Bay Hills Mixed Terrain Rally Cat by fixotic


Hendy The Mud Magnet by Johnclimber


FSCX - Mud Toshi Max by ++®ie++


catching my breath by Team Cthulhu


the commute by fishermansdaughter


railroad mud bed by Velofahrer

Bikes, SF y hen power

One of my personal favorite aspects of blogging is meeting other people you have established contact, communication and evolved into some type of online friendship through common interests, the bicycle, fashions, your city.

The Orbit room. One of my favorite spots to catch a drink and be able to talk in town, on a weekend.

¿Qué es eso? by Patrick Barber (is called bday welcoming, al estylo de meli eh eh ehhh)

I had the lovely pleasure of meeting Patrick (on flickr and creator of velócouture). Adrienne got to visit to where Patrick and fam. were staying, unfortunately (sad face) due to work I didn't get to meet the rest of the family, but soon - I'm sure. Ade's post is perhaps coming up soon.
We get the tired, often super jet-lagged and lovely people of the blogesphere. We have met Mikael from CPH, some people from the UK and a tremendous amount of local peeps all over the Bay Area.
Patrick's birthday was that Saturday and though he was pretty tired (I'm sure that lovely Anastasia is pure energy!) he was a great sport and had a few drinks muy San Francisco. Beers, Negroni and a round of some tequila añejo to celebrate. He is just the way I had imagined him, mellow, soft spoken and a thing for bikes and all things bay area.
It was also nice to catch him riding Ade's infamous yacht, the Bat.

-sup-

Here are some more photos - enjoy:

hen to the patrick to the snap. snap.

ade y james.
we all took pics of each other – flickernites unite!

Grupo de orbit room by Ade

Next time we are due for some coffee!
The bikey blogesphere keeps growing and yet getting smaller and tighter. It's awesome :D
♥Great to have you Patrick!!

I Read Your Blog!

This last year has brought a number of new people into my life. I am amazed at how interesting and involved all of them are. Every one of them has something intelligent to say. Every one of them is talented and accomplished. When I spend time with them I am reminded, pleasantly, that I need to step up my game so I can keep up. Each of them challenges me in a different way and I walk away from our time together full of ideas and inspiration.

While all of the women in this picture have many talents and interests, what they bring to the big picture of American cycling as an everyday activity of normal life is immeasurable. Each of them has found a way to shatter the myth of bicycle as sport toy and brings that knowledge to the world everyday.

Some of these new people got together to celebrate our lovely Cali's birthday. This is them-

From left to right-

Lisa Marie of Hambone Designs.

Calitexican- this chic can write.

Meligrosa- My first partner in bicycle blogging crime : )

Kristen- Just a day after Meli and I decided to start this little project of ours, Kristen asked me to join her over at Vélo Vogue.

Gwen- A recent addition over at VV. Gwen is also the fire behind the fashion shows for the SF Bike Expo and SFBC's Bike Away From Work parties.

Lilia- Her thoughts are provoking. Her sense of humor is silly. She looks better in pink than I do.

Me.

Ramona- another of the VV women and the brains behind the "Bike Wardrobe Remix".

I raise my glass to you all, my fellow SF bicycle bloggers. You have all made an impact and I am honored to know you all!

Happy Birthday Calitexican!!

by *Honeychild*

From the girls of Change Your Life. Ride a Bike! & your bikey friends. Hope you have a great time with us all, your loved ones and everyone around you. We wish you a super happy birthday!
♥ To a wonderful year !!!!!

by busbozo

by meligrosa

by busbozo

by ericm

TGIF!!

I hearts this picture.
This has become our parking spot for Chilango's on Church st. which is the spot to be for filling Mexico City bites. Ade, Melyssa and I try to go at least once every 2 weeks. We bring the girls and occasionally our good guy friends. This was a couple of Fridays ago.
Park and party –Rock on :D

calitexican and selby. ssssssup

Change Your Life. Ride A Unicycle!

This always makes me laugh. Especially this rider. Valencia street, pictured here, is in the middle of massive design changes. The end result will be great, but the construction phase is challenging. This is one of the busiest bicycle corridors in the City and with great, huge chunks of the bike lane dug up everyone has to be patient and really try extra hard to share the very limited space. So what do some people do to make it all work? Ride a unicycle!!!

This Just In!

Bikes and tacos!!! Throw in a beer and we have a deal! The Facebook invitation has 259 confirmed guests as of this posting. I say, be patient while waiting for your taco! Maybe try to pop some wheelies while you wait : ) Thanks to our Flickr group friend "Cold Iron" for the heads up!