Honey

I can imagine no better place to ride a bike than right here in the gloriously hill stamped city of San Francisco. For the beginning rider, there is always a decent way to get around the largest hills, though sometimes this may equate to going way around the largest hills. As city cycling becomes more comfortable, the beginning rider can easily create custom routes that provide just enough of a challenge to maintain interest.

My favorite time to ride is early in the morning. The entire city belongs to me when there is no struggle with/against traffic, no yelling at another rude motorist, only the sound of my breath and the freewheel humming to my rhythm. The city lights in the distance remind me of just how lucky I am to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

As bicycling has gotten easier since my surgery, I’ve tried to vary my commute routes as much as I can. This has helped me to remain focused. The best part of the ride is the big downhill right after a real tough, long grade. I have found some really amazing route ideas from the Bikely site. This site is awesome. From Bikely’s home page:

Put very simply, Bikely helps cyclists share knowledge of good bicycle routes. It can be quite tricky traversing a car dominated city by bicycle, particularly when you need to travel an unknown route to a new destination. But the chances are, someone has cycled that way before you. Bikely makes it easy for him or her to show you the best way.

Thanks to many great folks that have ridden the streets of San Francisco before me, there are excellent bike routes with bike lanes, bike paths, and my favorite bicycle pavement stamp (soon I’ll have a picture). The people at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition have done a lot of amazing work.