Dave’s Bike Adventures

This week I was lucky enough to go to the JavaOne conference in San Francisco.  I’d been to the bay area a few times before but never had the opportunity to ride.  I was stoked to find out that Pacific Bikes was just two blocks away from my hotel – they hooked me up with a Giant TCR Carbon road machine and some great ideas on routes.  Originally I wanted to rent a mountain bike and hit some trails on Mt. Tam (you know, that place where Gary Fisher and others started the whole MTB thing).  But apparently all the good singletrack on Mt. Tam is closed to MTB now so I opted for a road ride instead.

When the sessions ended for the day I high tailed it back to the hotel and suited up.  My goal was to ride from the hotel (downtown SFO), across the Golden Gate, through Sausalito, climb to the top of Mt. Tam, and then come back.  It’s about a 55 mile route with a whopper 2500’ climb up to Mt. Tam – so I wasn’t sure how long it would take.  Assuming I’d be back after dark I strapped on the lights, loaded up with food and headed out.

I headed from downtown to the Embarcadero and rode along the waterfront.  Great route – nice views and bike lanes …

… then the bike lanes turned into dedicated bike paths!

Apparently June in SFO is one of the coldest times of the year.  The heat from land combined with the cold water that surrounds the SFO peninsula makes many summer days cool and foggy.  But this day I totally lucked out – blue skies and perfect temps in the low 70’s (a nice break from 85 and muggy in my native NC).

As I approached the Golden Gate I realized they have one whole side (the sidewalks beside the roadway) actually dedicated to cyclists … wow!

There was a steady stream of people riding over the bridge … lots of people bike commuting and folks just riding.

So by this point I’m totally stoked … SFO has done an  amazing job of making the city bike friendly!  Bike lanes, bike paths, you can take your bike on the subway or the buses … oh, and then there are all the great views … pretty sweet.

After a short ride along the waterfront in Sausalito I turned onto Shoreline Hwy to start the climb up toward Mt. Tam.  On Shoreline Hwy. about 1/2 mile up the road there’s a Seven Eleven – that’s your last stop for water/food before the climb.  The grade actually wasn’t that bad – I had a standard 39/53 double crankset with a 25 on the rear and was able to keep the cadence up just fine in most places.

As you get higher there are some great views – at this point you can look South towards the city and see both the bay side and the Pacific Ocean.

And even more great views from the top.

Here’s another one from the top.  Sausalito is mid-left, San Francisco is upper-left.

Now time for some payback … the ride down was super fun!  Lots of fun switchbacks.  I was glad I brought the lights as it got dark just about the time I was heading back across the Golden Gate

On the way back I decided to go “up and over” the hills of San Francisco rather than along the water on the Embarcadero.  “How tough can it be” I thought … well as it turns out I ended up going up and over “Russian Hill” and some of the steepest streets in the city!  A few were 18+% grade.

Overall a great ride …. great views, very bike friendly, and a fun route.  Ended up being about 54 miles roundtrip from downtown up to Mt. Tam and back – here’s the profile.

I had so much fun on that ride that I headed back out at 6 AM for a 90 minute ride before work.  The Marin Headlands are a great quick loop from downtown.  You basically just cross the Golden Gate and head West on the first road.  It winds up the coastline on the Pacific side just North of the bridge … great views of the ocean and back to the city.