Why you should cycle around San Francisco and the surrounding area at least once

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A story about cycling San Francisco, wine Napa, croissant towns, longs to Stanford and Palo Alto, and the pros and cons of California cycling.

Expenses

Perhaps it's worth starting with a bad start: I did not expect that transporting a bicycle in the United States would be so expensive, and I would hardly do it again. An alternative to transporting your bike was Spinlister, which can be summarized as Airbnb for bicycles, surfboards, and snowboards.

After listening to friends' stories about how cool the service works, I decided to rent a road bike. Then, thinking that to the rent of 30-50 dollars a day I must add the logistics costs around the city before and after, I decided to lug my "samovar" with me. I had a lot of experience transporting a bicycle to European countries and (already for three years in a row), and I never paid more than 30 euros for a flight (often it's free at all).

Holy naivete! The flight Kiev - Paris - San Francisco cost me 85 euros, and San Francisco - Amsterdam - Kiev - 250 dollars! “Thank you” to KLM for being involved in the robbery and believe that transporting a 6kg bike in a special suitcase should cost that much. This is the only nuisance in the whole story.

Why you should ride a bike in California at least once

When I ride on the highway in Kiev and its environs, I experience really unreal stress from what is happening around. It is worth saying that I always follow all the rules, signal my actions for restructuring and turning, and hang myself with signaling and light reflectors, like a Christmas tree. I heard from friends from Moscow that, in principle, skating around the region is undesirable, and they cut circles in Luzhniki. Our drivers are a clear example of human anti-evolution. They are always in a hurry somewhere, cut off and want to show you your place. And it, in their opinion, is not far from the ditch on the side of the road. This is unfortunate, and in this situation, cycling will never be popular. People simply do not want to repeat the first unsuccessful experience again, and they often immediately sell their new bike.

On the road in California, the cyclist is the second most important character after the pedestrian. On the road, for several days of long skiing, I did not have a single incident worth mentioning. Drivers behave as if they are not there at all. Observing a cyclist in front of you and how motorists carefully reinsure themselves, letting him pass and going around a few meters away, you understand that you are also safe. It relaxes and allows you to enjoy the ride.

It is worth noting that I am not talking about some bike paths there. They are basically not suitable for road bikers. The thing is that tourists on bicycles move along them and people with dogs often walk. This is not very compatible with a cyclist's speed of 30-40 km / h.:) That's why we have to be on the road almost all the time. The only exception, perhaps, is the highways, which are closed to any traffic, except for automobile traffic.

Where to go from San Francisco

The city itself is comfortable for cycling in terms of traffic behavior, but it annoys you with start-stops at traffic lights, so you need to quickly get out of the city. San Francisco is also completely unsuitable for beginners due to the steep hills. If I hadn't worked out the slides specially for several years, I would not have been able to climb them. That's absolutely.

For out-of-town itineraries, I would recommend Strava Local, which has dedicated running and cycling selections in major cities around the world. Here are some nice neighborhoods.

Here you select the route you are interested in and add it to your Strava account in the itinerary section. Then just put it at the start and follow the wind and sun.:)

Top destinations on my list:

• The richest towns smelling of sea and croissants Sausalito and Tiberon.
• Smelling like freedom and marijuana Berkeley.
• Parks, in which there is a dense smell of eucalyptus and moss. They are very hilly and picturesque: on the descent, the temperature drops by about 10 ° C, and below you are like in an ancient forest, and you climb a mountain - on a sunny beach.
• Napa - the capital of winemaking in California and, probably, in all the United States. Here you will be delighted with neat vineyards and fragrant lavender.
• Exhausting distance and heat Silicon Valley - Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

What's good and what's bad

Good

Bicycle services are especially cool here. All the towns described are inhabited by fairly wealthy people, and they, too, are fond of a healthy lifestyle and bicycles. Therefore, in every even the smallest town there are bike shops with cool bike masters. For example, in Kiev with a population of about 4 million people there is no workshop of the same level as in Sausalito with a population of 7 thousand people. And she is not alone there! Replacing two broken wheels takes 3 minutes and $ 20 with tires. Watching the work of the masters is as interesting as watching those. boxes in Formula 1. In front of each such store there is a good pump for free inflation of wheels.

The heat and dryness of the air forces you to constantly drink water. It took me two bottles for every 30 km. It turns out that I drank 6-7 bottles per trip. You can draw water from any tap and drink it. Once I went to a cafe and asked to fill bottles with water, and the owner also treated me to espresso. While I was drinking coffee, he told me that I need caffeine if I want to take one slide, which he showed on the map.

If you decide to rush from San Francisco to Stanford or Napa, then bring some money with you. You can go back by Caltrain (a train that runs from San Francisco across the valley) or by bus (ask Google Maps how). All trains and buses are ready to carry your bike. The trains have special carriages in which your friend can be tied with harnesses and ride in a seat next to them, and buses have a special suspension in the front, on which you attach your bike, while you yourself ride in the cabin.

A little bad

With all the vanilla described above, there is also a bad thing here.

I don't know why, but I constantly punctured the wheels. In Kiev, I can change two or three cameras during the summer, but here … It was such that both wheels were punctured within 1 km. Why this happened, I still do not understand. I just constantly took spare wheels (two or three - no less).

If you decide to go far, then keep in mind that it will be very difficult for you without Google Maps and its navigation for bicycles. You will not be able to ride on highways, and you will run into them almost every time on long journeys. On my own I could not figure out how to bypass these colossus. So you buy a prepaid card on your phone for $ 30, turn off data transfer for everything except Google Maps and Strava, and you don't know any problems.

I was also very strained by the passion of Americans for inscriptions, signs and everything that explains my rights on the road. In order not to talk for a long time, I will just show you a photo describing the cycling mode on the Golden Gate Bridge.:)

Well, and one more for completeness …

Total

I hope that you would like to try a ride in sunny California and you will plan this trip for the near future. As for me, I plan to take a ride this year in locations and.:) See what cycling California looks like and you can't ignore this place!