A San Francisco Bike Weekend
I am still buzzing from a really fun bike-filled weekend here in San Francisco. It all started on Thursday with a trip to Fairfax for the Appetite Seminar. I was told that this year was the 50th anniversary of the Thanksgiving day ride that goes from town up Pine Mountain and back down. This year we opted to take the Tamarancho flow trail down which was a real treat and honestly so, so fun on my rigid singlespeed PBJ. That bike is such a capable mountain bike with just the right amount of flex. I love it so much.
Anyway, there are a couple of really neat things about the Appetite Seminar. One of them is the crew that shows up. So many bike industry heads I have gotten to know through the years are there. All three years I have done the ride, I've ended up with Curtis Inglis (my friend, mentor and principal of Retrotec Bicycles), as well as Scot Nicol, who started Ibis and is still as stoked as ever on bikes. Part of me still can’t believe I get to know these guys but ya know, nice people are nice and we all like to ride bikes, so I suppose that makes sense. Also with the Appetite Seminar I have done the ride every year since moving to California and having a little tradition with a recurring cast of characters is feeling really fun and nice.
On Friday there was a really cool cyclocross race in Golden Gate Park. It was put on by Swell Bikes and OBF. They do a fun series of true bandit cross races in the park, and they always bring a fun crowd. I was looking forward to racing but feeling kind of tired after singlespeeding the Appetite Seminar, so I decided to spectate instead. I love cross because it really does give a community aspect to a bike event that is hard to come by otherwise. I bopped around to different groups of bike friends and heckled others who were burning their lungs out in the race. Just a bonus that it was such a beautiful evening.
On Saturday morning I met up with some friends to ride up Mount Tam. We had a big crew and rolled out across the Golden Gate Bridge, along the bay-side bike path and up to the little town of Mill Valley, where we grabbed sandwiches before hitting the car-free dirt road climb up Tam. I was doing this ride almost every weekend over the summer so it was fun to revisit. It really is the perfect length for a good hard weekend ride. By the time you are over it, you are at the top and treated to a nice view to go with your sandwich. We split off in different ways. I opted for a pavement road descent to twisty singletrack before going back over the bridge and heading home to foggy SF.
Anyway, what a fun weekend. I love the different ways that bikes can weave into life. They are something for a community to gather around and also a way to explore where you live. Bikes fit into San Francisco in a really extraordinary way. They allow a whole different existence here. Off to nature, back to the city, what a wonderful balance. I hope you got to ride your bike somewhere cool this weekend, hopefully with some friends, unless some alone time was what you needed. If not, make sure you try it soon – it is pretty great!
-Adam
