two for tuesday: basketball and bikes take II

well, we are now on the other side of the nba finals. the heat has another ring under its belt. took me a few days to finally be able to write this post. ugh! :)

i'm very proud of the effort that san antonio spurs put forth (fun fact: they will be playing the timberwolves in mexico city this december...road trip anyone?), but they were just one or two free throws too short.

so my advice to pop during the offseason: get your guys on bikes already!! next year i want to be able to google them and find tons of pictures of them on bikes.



heh, i just can't help myself...can ya blame me?

anyway, rainy here in our (weather) offseason. time to bust out the rain gear that remained virtually unused this past winter. also there might be a bart strike. which should be...interesting if it starts today.

F is for...

a Fell street Full of possibilities. the Future is wide open.




rain is now back in the bay area. time to get a bike with Fenders, check on those brakes, and get those reflective rain poncho/skirt/pants/cape/jacket/boots out of the closet, dusted off and ready for the bikey runway.

have a great weekend everyone. give someone you love a hug today.

two for tuesday: computers by messenger

took this a couple of days ago while there was some blue sky hanging around in the sky. there is none to be found now.

stay dry! also, don't get blown over. that wind is very fierce. but makes for a better workout than no wind. silver lining!

also, i believe that is a bullitt bike, but i'm not positive. anyone know?

friday fun times: rainy days ahead

april's showers brings may's flowers. gotta love spring :)

we desperately need rain in the bay area as our winter has been relatively rain-free. heavy rains are expected this weekend. time to cover up and ride or cover up and ride muni.

i'm more prepared to ride in rain, however gross rain pants look. sigh. they really do help with keeping dry, just like a raincoat helps out with keeping dry from the knees up.

tights are also an awesome option because they dry quickly.

so my longer ride this weekend is canceled. need to get some miles in before next weekend's metric century with my alumni group. might have to suck it up and pay for a day in a gym. :)

have a fantastic weekend y'all!

do you have rainy day pics to add to our flickr group? post today!

red monday

looks like the winter is FINALLY hitting SF this week just before it's technically not winter anymore. time to get those errands in, and time to sit around in a parklet before the rain sends us inside, or at least keeps cute bikes from public parklets.

hope you bay area bikey peeps got that ride in this weekend! enjoy the day y'all! happy monday.

bike hacks for the rain

SF is not quite the pacific northwest when it comes to rain, but we do get our fair share. the SF rainy season is on the tiptopverge of starting, and as such, has apparently kept some riders unprepared, or some who have long adjusted to the rain and have accommodated their bikes.

unprepared, yet creative!

this homie knows what time it is in SF:

i love that umbrella placement!

as i've discussed before on the blog, this year my rainy season preparation has started with swapping out my steel rims for some aluminium ones. they are a noticeable improvement.

what do you do in order to prepare for the rain? what do you do if you are caught unprepared?

Caught!

When we left the house on Sunday, there was only a 10 chance of rain. This didn't seem too bad to me, and looking out the window from my apartment I saw nothing rainish. So we got the kids out of the house (this takes a lot more effort now that 2 of them are teenagers), and decided to ride out to get some lunch.

Of course, as soon as we started eating, it started raining. The only person who was even a little ready was James, as he had a rain jacket. The rest of us were less then optimally prepared- we were all wearing cotton sweatshirts and other super absorbent, minimally insulating clothing. I usually carry a rain kit this time of year- my ugly-yet-highly-effective rain poncho and a fold up umbrella and a seat cover. Of these, I had my seat cover and an umbrella. The bike got the seat cover and the youngest monster got the umbrella.

Ah well. The sacrifices we make for our children. It wasn't until we had gone several miles and I was soaked that James remembered he had put my ugly-yet-highly-effective rain poncho in the Whale's trunk! Grrrrr.

Obviously, I managed to survive the ordeal.

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

Happy Easter!

It is pouring buckets here in San Francisco.
Found this awesome illustration by England-based Zoë Austin and invited to our flickr group.
Have a great Sunday everybody!

Pierrot Bunny by Zoë Austin

Rain, steel and pizza.

A number of weekends ago, a few of us had planned to get together for the afternoon with coffee, bikes and good company. The weather was a tad moody and most didn't make it. We missed Adrienne and her crew, but the two steel pizza coffee enthusiasts, went on to do some roaming around the city.
Eric is a good friend of the SF bloggy, bike, and coffee crew and he knows he is much love by all of us. With his affinity for vintage bikes, I decided to take him to North Beach's only bike shop, Citizen Chain. Sasha and him talked frames for a bit and I was off looking around for cute things, they are the spot to check out for little trinkets and beautiful accesories. ding ding.

This will really flaunt your stuff in the trunk...

Oh mickey donde estás?

Then we biked in a little bit of rain, and decided it was time for pizza. Why not, as if San Francisco lacks any gourmet pizza spots, we stopped at Piccino's in the dogpatch.

pizza stop

After we roamed around some more. At that point I was quite convinced that my knee would start to feel funny, and it did not, which was a huge confidence boost. This would be the first time I rode the road bike, a steel frame Italian beauty since early November. It was more of a test to see where my cranky knee stood. Good, pretty good, for the most part. My conditioning, yea not as good, but riding with Eric is always a mellow-no pressure experience so everything was chill.
We stopped by one of my favorite in/outdoor retail spaces around, Flora Grubb. This place is a must for all things plants, house trinkets and if I say is a must, then there must be coffee correct?!… I've blogged/posted pictures about this place many times, but I can never quite get tired of it, you know!?

Hola flower bike.

ttzzzzzzz

Everybody luvs this wall.

Here are our two Italian beauties. Smooth operators they are.

After riding around some more, of course it was time for coffee stop no.4. Yes. Four as in Four Barrel. Eric was happy to finally be in the place Adrienne and I spend many mornings and afternoons with our peeps. I learned some cool geek facts about the copper used for certain pieces and we ended the afternoon with some delicious cup of coffee.

Caffeination station.

So here it goes, a raise a cup of coffee for what became a tiny confident shove to no longer baby the leg and keep going, slowly but surely. One day I will slowly conquer you again giant hills, one day.

- - -

Check out his blog at: Classic lightweight bikes & rides.

I also cross-posted today, a collection of his awesome wool sweater collections at Bikes and The City.

.xo♥m.

Warning: I Am Going To Whine

San Francisco is wet. And windy. And cold. And our coastline is collapsing. And the potholes are now little lakes. And the lightening breaks over my home in the middle of the night rattling the windows and keeping me awake. And the hail is sharp and cut Cameron's hand while he was walking home from school.... I miss my bike. There will be those out there who say "but Adrienne, it is only water!" and I will reply "Have fun!". Fact is, I am not much of a rain rider, and there are a lot of contributing factors, the least of which is getting wet. When the rain is coupled with 50 MPH winds and hail and lightening and traffic that can't see me through their fogged up windshields I hang it up until at least one or two of those factors are no longer in play.

There have been a few hours here and there when the storms have taken a break and I have been able to get out to run some errands, but for the most part it has been a bike free week. Now, I have cycling withdrawal and need a cup of coffee that was made by some hipster in a Mission café.

OK. Whining over. I leave you with this hardy soul, who took advantage of the (relative) dry hour yesterday to witness the onslaught on our beautiful coast.

When it's raining buckets, make bike buckets.

Ok. we riding or what

We rode in the rain after winterfest. good times.
Anyways, has been an on-off wet weekend here in SF, thought I'd share -cheers! :D

SET (link): How to make bike buckets »

9375 by Joey Emanuel

A Wee Bit Damp

: )

Declan Says "Let It Rain!"

If you watch the news, you know San Francisco (and most of the rest of California) is being hit by the remnants of a typhoon. By 1 pm today, San Francisco has received a little over 2 inches of rain!!! With winds up to 60 MPH and my neighbor building an arc, what do I do? Go for a ride with Declan!


There was enough of a break in the wind to make riding down to the next neighborhood for coffee doable. Declan got new rain gear just for riding and we wanted to test it out. I thought he would be miserable back there in the rain. I was wrong! He loved it!

It was a short ride, a mile one way, but he thought it was great. He pretended to be on a boat floating down stream. Of course, the stream in the gutter next to us helped the fantasy along ; ) His REI rain jacket and pants kept him completely dry and his fleece unders kept him warm (he will not wear wool, so fleece it is!)


At least I know he won't whine the whole way home from school tomorrow. One can hope!