SF bike racks

Third street:


Not bad for arty racks, you might be able to get 2 bikes on each.


Church and Market. Virtual Racks:

I locked to them my invisible bike and all was whole.

Words falling out of favor.

Riding a bit, baby wrangling a bit, insurance and contractor wrangling a bit, working a bunch. Too pooped for words. I assume short updates with pictures is better than no updates at all?

This view used to be on my "the long way in" morning commute, that slowly became the default way in.


This is on a fairly regular after work short loop (for the where do you ride pool), quemazon-pipeline-home



I am not sure I will ever get used to seeing this first thing in the morning:


Seen at the Los Alamos Rodeo Parade:

Not pro the subject matter, just the best picture taken, the rest here

Bay area wrap up

Some more bikey and other things from the Bay area, while you peruse, please ponder this, in one of the Starbucks on Union Square we saw on day 1:
Young well dressed woman of maybe 23 years, eating baby food applesauce from a jar, no evidence of motherhood or baby care.
Day two:
NYT reading man sipping grande latte, eating scone with a single can of whiskas tuna pate next to him, possibly ready for a post scone treat?
What the hell?

Anyhow:
My friday fixie works great on these useless old racks, Danville Safeway


Attempt on Diablo, turned back by 100+ degree temps, free peach though from fruitmonger who took pity on me.


I did find a wrench at 104 degrees F


Muir woods to dipsea loop run with coworker, big trees


Some park below sutro towers looking back over the city


Cool raleigh


The first Sturmey Coaster Brake I have spotted in the wild



Team Miyata city bike conversion in rockridge


Baby's first ride on the F Market


Speaking of baby, surf on over to dipping aida in the pacific for more family fun.

Bike fun San Francisco Style

Too tired to write words. So I will go for that three order of magnitude advantage conferred by pics, click on through for clarification. More soon.

A visit to Thomas Cara Ltd

When I was in San Francisco last week, I took a lunch to walk over to North Beach to visit Thomas Cara Ltd, purveyors of extremely fine italian espresso machines. My La Pavoni (steam driven productivity engine), was bought refurbished from this shop.
Outside the shop



Christopher Cara, son of the original owner, runs the shop now. He was very generous with his time and patiently explained how to change the seals in my machine. He also remembered talking to me on the phone 3 years ago and the circumstances in which I got my Pavoni, (ah! YOU are the famous cat sitter).

Custom mosaic on the threshold, thats 517 pacific near columbus


He also told me undoubtedly well worn tales of the history of the shop and the provenance of the two big machines in the center of the store.

Big machines, argentinian copper and the original chrome giant pavoni that was brought back from italy circa WW2


I already was drooling over some of the newer "professional" models.

New machines lined up for sale


Christopher buys old machines and refurbishes them for resale. The wall in back are almost all Pavonis in various states of repair...

Repairs, refurbished and salvaged machines


Anyhow, if you have a hankering for an expensive but very worth it espresso machine, the shop is a great place to visit. 517 Pacific near Columbus in San Francisco, semi regular hours wed-friday, call before you visit (415) 781-0383.


Not a cat, Sage(?) the sleepy coffee spotted dog

An epic Mixed terrain ride in Marin

Last week I met up with JimG, Cylcofiend, ride leader Carlos and a Greg and Jeff at the foot of the GG bridge in San Francisco for a long day of many terrained riding. It was good. It started with a road loop around Mill Valley and then headed up over Mt Tam on Railroad Grade. We came down the back side of Mt Tam and over into Muir Beach, out across the headlands, Miwok trail to tennessee Valley and then back to sausalito for some donuts and then back on across the bridge to SF. What a great ride. I put in 58 miles on the fixie friday. It were good! The cue sheet is here for the locals, we bailed out at the tennessee valley trail head to go get some eats as we were pooped and Greg had a broken saddle rail.

We were a photo happy bunch, my arm photo-ing JimE and Carlos who are both taking photos as we ride out across the bridge



Stunning views of the bay and the city from Mt Tam. Cyclofiend snaps happy on the right of the image



Me up there on top of mount tam, west point inn picnic area



Me and JimG on Miwok trail



Post ride noshings donuts and egg sammiches, Carlos, JimG, Greg, Me



It was a good ride. I had met JimG once or twice circa 2000 via the bob list and had emailed cyclofiend a bunch and knew of Carlos, but it was a nice extended visit with some Bobs I knew virtually for a while.

It was a fun bike diversity ride, I was on the friday fixie folder, Jimg on his Fuji cross bike, Carlos on his rigid Habenero mtb bike, Cyclofiend on his A Homer Hilsen, Jeff on his Soma(?) and Greg on a rigid Cannondale Mtb.

I have suffered mightily on many an epic singlespeed race on the trails in Marin, but I think this was probably one of the more fun days I have had. The friday held up well, I got up almost everything on it. Downhills on a fixie with 20" wheels offroad was a bit hairy, but I am still here! Great stuff.

All my pikkys from this ride are here and photos from Jimg, cyclofiend and Carlos.

Finally all my SF trip pics including some other rides around the city are mostly labled and all uploaded here

Back, ouch my back

Back from San Francisco, lots of adventures to report, but in the meantime, I must sleep. Somehow 60 miles of mixed terrain riding on a 20 inch wheeled fixie is easier on the back than sitting on a plane for 4 hours. Thank you southwest and your lumpy lumpy seats.



See photos from the trip slowly being added and labeled on flickr here.

Baby got the bends

Sunday afternoon, ~8000 feet



Monday afternoon, ~zero feet


Oh yeah!