Bicycling

Bike to Work Day Is Really Annoying for Those Who Always Bike to Work

If you typically bike to work, then Bike to Work Day is probably when you avoid your usual cycle-friendly commuting route because it is now clogged with clumsy inexperienced cyclists. Or, you're one of those clumsy inexperienced cyclists who has just mustered up the courage to drag that neglected ... More >>

Head Count: How Little We Know About the Mysterious Bikers in Our Midst!

S.F.'s New Bike Counter Could Help Resolve Transportation Fracas

Take a look at the available evidence and the conclusion is inescapable: San Francisco either is or is not a city of cyclists. Really, it depends on who you ask. Consult the number-crunchers behind the 2011 Census figures, the SFMTA bike count, or the seasonally-adjusted number cited by the Mayor's ... More >>

Q&A: Green Lane Project Explains How Bikes Are Actually Good for Business

No matter the grade of the street, getting a separated bike lane installed anywhere in San Francisco is always an uphill battle -- literally. On Polk, local businesses have stalled an MTA proposal that hinted at the possibility of a cycle track, decrying the plan's removal of parking as an attack ... More >>

Crash Course: Here's How to Drive With City Cyclists Without Killing Them

Last week, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill that would require drivers in California to officially recognize that cyclists exist. Reading from Assembly Bill 840: This bill would require the [driver's license] examination to also include a test of the applicant's knowledg ... More >>

How to Fix a Dangerous Intersection So Cyclists Don't Get Killed

Good news for all cyclists who would really like to not get hit by a car this year. The notoriously menacing intersection at Octavia Boulevard and Market Street will finally get an automated traffic camera so catch those speeding drivers. After years of lobbying, legislative wrangling, and legal d ... More >>

Here's Why You Should Pedal Through the Last Critical Mass of 2012

Tonight will be the last Critical Mass of 2012 -- and my first ever. Maybe it's not so surprising that I've never joined the amorphous, self-propelled fray. Because though I am a biker -- in that biking is my preferred method of getting around -- I do lack a certain militancy when it comes to my ve ... More >>

What Makes a City Cycle Friendly?

I have a friend who is a very serious cyclist. His name is Alejandro. Next week, Alejandro will take part in the Festive 500, a biking challenge put on every year by the high-end cycling outfitter Rapha in which spandex-clad masochists world-wide compete to see who can clock the most kilometers on ... More >>

Who Can Help San Francisco's Cycling Conditions? The Dutch

​According to HG Wells, "After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go." As Arthur Conan Doyle saw it: "When the spirits are low, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth ... More >>

Bike Messengers Are Victims of Civil Court Closures

The final showdown for bike messengers?​As of October 3, 25 civil courtrooms will be closed indefinitely, and all the clerks will have their office hours cut by an hour a day. Two hundred court employees will be getting pink slips.But the compassionate hipster inside of us wants to know: What does ... More >>

San Francycle: Your Bike to the Future

​Oh, sure, you may think that the fantasies of municipal infrastructure bureaucrats are boring. But allow us to shatter your misconceptions with just five words: Two-Stage Turn Queue Boxes. National Association of City Transportation Officials is a sort of national clearinghouse for transportat ... More >>

San Francycle: Riding to Work Doesn't Make You an Athlete

​If you're like us, you spend an hour or so on your bike every day, from home to work and then back, then maybe to the supermarket, and occasionally over to a friend's house or up to Corona Heights to watch the sunset. Wouldn't it be neat to keep track of your rides so you know how far you've gone ... More >>

San Francycle: Get Your Fixie Fix

​Fixies! Dangerous and insane, right? Well, yes, but only if you don't know how to ride them. In the right hands (and legs), a fixed-gear bike is graceful and glorious.Fixed-gear enthusiasts are a proud bunch. We'll never forget the first time we walked into Mission Bikes and chatted with Jefferso ... More >>

Open Bike

S.F. Asks Kids to Bike to School: Is This a Good Idea?

Look out for bad drivers!​Later this week watch for those youngsters -- some 3,000 little ones -- to saddle banana seats and pedal their Huffys to the schoolyard as part of the third annual Bike To School Day.Think: Critical Mass with handle streamers and less aggro hipsters.Wait a minute -- is th ... More >>

San Francycle: Ed Lee and Bikes from the Bay to the Beach

​ What does an Ed Lee mayorship mean for bicycles? Well, for one thing, you may see more bike moustaches around town. But what will Mayor Lee do to make biking safer, comfier, and more popular? The Bike Coalition didn't waste any time asking him just that. No sooner was he sworn in than they ... More >>

San Francycle: Supercharge Your Body with Anatomy 101 for Bicyclists

​Ever get a weird pain in your back after riding your bike? Or feel really really hungry? Or feel your heart pounding as you mount McAllister towards Diviz? There's a lot of stuff going on underneath your skin -- a whole hodgepodge of muscles, tracts, and veins. You couldn't ride a bike witho ... More >>

San Francycle: Can Treat Street Become Mission Bay's Bike Superhighway?

​ First, it was a stinky marsh. Then it was a railroad. Now, Treat Street faces a new lease on life with a vision to transform it from a dilapidated, weirdly diagonal alleyway into a sparkling green bike corridor. It would be a pretty amazing accomplishment: a smooth path that curves up from ... More >>

San Francycle: Tour de Fat and a Sewer Ride

​Welcome to San Francycle, a new SF Weekly series that celebrates the craziest and bestest way to get around town. Ride a bike in San Francisco? Are you crazy? The breaking point came sometime early this year. Remember when Muni was talking about cutting service? Again? I was shelling out fi ... More >>

Italian DJ Benny Benassi Plans to Tour California on a Fixie Bike

​Awesome alert: In a feat of either badassery or hubris, Italian DJ, Grammy-winner, and all-around-suave-dude Benny Benassi plans to ride a fixie -- yes, a single-speed, fixed-gear bicycle -- down the coast of California on his upcoming tour.The bike tour kicks off after Benassi's set at Ruby Skye ... More >>

Path to Civility

Cyclists jumping lights and drivers blocking bike lanes need to get cited.

Wiggle Me This: Google Cycling Directions Snub Famous San Francisco Bike Route

​We bike commuters here at SF Weekly have eagerly awaited the launch of Google's bicycle-directions feature on its maps site. As of today, the wait is over. Along with suggested routes by car and public transit, Googlers in 150 cities can now query the best way to get from Point A to Point B under ... More >>

Last Night: Joyride Art Show at Market Street Gallery and Ever Gold Gallery

The Bicycle Film Festival in San Francisco Multiple locations: See here. Joyride Art Show: Market Street Gallery - 1554 Market Street Ever gold Gallery - 441 O'Farrell Better than: Critical Mass Also see: The Film Festival Trailer It's the stuff of nightmares: A clear fall afternoon in Man ... More >>

Urban Outfitters Fixie: $400. Achieving Hipster Chic: Priceless.

Meet 'Aristotle'They sucked the hip out of ironic T-shirts, singer sewing machines, and hamburger phones. Now Urban Outfitters has a new trend-killer in stock: The fixed-gear bicycle. Fixed-gears are the gazelles of the bicycle world: simple, elegant, and more than a tad dangerous for the inexperien ... More >>

Bicyclists Pack City Hall -- No Spandex in Sight

Anna McCarthyValet?Bike parking was scarce at a City Hall hearing this morning as bike advocates arrived downtown in droves donning helmets and fluorescent pink identification stickers reading, "Double the number of bike lanes." Although helmets, U-locks, and other bicycling accessories abounded, ma ... More >>

The Deliverers

Can't We All Just Roll Along?

There is a way bike riders and car drivers can more safely coexist, and help the environment.

Lexington Club Violence Stories Show Anti-Hipster Bias

Ride 'Em In

Ask a Track Bike!

Ask a Track Bike

Ask a Track Bike!

Ask a Track Bike!

Best Sports Equipment

Sports Basement

Bent Outta Shape

San Francisco bike messengers hit some nasty economic potholes as they struggle to unionize

Sports/Outdoors/Races

Sports & Recreation Readers' Poll

Best Bicycle Shops

Best Bike Path

Old Railroad Grade on Mount Tamalpais

Breaking the Cycle

Marin County has a program to protect bicyclists. In S.F., we keep killing them.

Postscript

A Cracker Moron Explains How Drivers Feel About Bikes

Pedaling the Vegan Message

Cycling chef hopes to win over a few stomachs, and hearts

Road to Redemption

Bad luck and a head injury couldn't kill him. Poverty just made him stronger. Now, freewheeling Bay Area bicycling legend Mike Neel is staging another comeback by coaching professional women's racing.

Letters

Art on Two Wheels

There are reasons for building and owning extremely expensive, not especially speedy one-of-a-kind bicycles. The appreciation of craftsmanship. The satisfaction of owning something absolutely unique. The comfort of a perfect fit. The joy of true obsession

Night Crawler

Recycling America

As the millennium approaches, the country is engulfed in a bicycling craze that's reminiscent of our last fin de siecle. A Bay Area street kid named George Mount helped start it all. Savior on Wheels

Letters

Spokes of Destiny 12

The true and tragic tale of SF Weekly's Bike Messenger Dream Team

Mercury Falling

For 11 years, Markus Cook was synonymous with Bay Area bike messengers. But he didn't live to see his dream come true -- the Cycle Messenger World Championships held here in San Francisco.