Style Over Sense

I realize I'm not making any friends with this statement, but I continue to be baffled and amused by the popularity of fixed-gear bikes in this city. We have hills, people. We have hills so steep that the sidewalks are staircases.

Invariably, an SF fixie rider:

• is about 20 years old
• isn't wearing a helmet
• has several tats, piercings, etc.
• dresses so as to display them as prominently as possible
  

All of this feeds my impression that it's all just a fashion statement. Riding a fixie around this town is simply nuts. Sudden stops (kinda important in city riding) are nigh-impossible. The steep pitch of all the climbs and drops means these kids are going to be paying the orthopedic surgeon for brand-new knees before they turn 40.

Just now, I saw something that put it over the top for me: a fixed-gear MOUNTAIN BIKE. Yep. No brakes, no derailleurs, big fat knobby 26-inch tires. But gosh, what a sweet paint job, with rims and tires in matching tints even! And me without my camera.

This, kids, is like going snowboarding in stiletto heels and a monokini. Painfully stupid, pointlessly dangerous, borderline life-threatening... but damn, it looks HAWT.

The shortest path from A to B is under construction

RIDICULOUS amounts of construction going on today. Most or all of the lanes are shut down at:

• 6th & Irving
• Page between Divis and Octavia
  
• 10th & Folsom
• Folsom & Hawthorne

Mercifully, a lot of it looks to be almost finished.

The Red Shoes

Corner of 2nd and Howard. Someone apparently tired of these glitzy shoes, and just took 'em off, and left 'em on the curb.

Freegans take note!

I saw the sign

Man standing on the corner of 6th and Brannan, holding up a huge, hand-lettered sign to traffic. On one side:

YOUR
BEAUTY
GOES
DEEPER

On the other:

THAN
YOU
CAN
PERCEIVE

The guy seemed much too young and well-dressed to be another Frank Chu.

My guess? Viral marketing campaign for Dove Soap.

Hang up and Drive

In what is no doubt soon to become another commonplace experience, encountered a cyclist weaving around in traffic while attempting to hold a conversation on a cell phone. As ridiculous (and dangerous) a practice as this is while operating a motor vehicle, this is even more reckless while riding a bicycle one-handed.

But I never really intended this blog to become a catalog of moronic behaviors. How about some name-dropping?

I rode past Ix running through the Panhandle. He's lost a hell of lot of weight since the CP days, and looks great.

Rough night

Young male pedestrian, talking into a cell phone while crossing the street in the Haight: "... so I woke up this morning, fully clothed, in their bed. I have no idea what happened."

A bad driver is perfectly safe until they meet another one

Things that are no longer remarkable, after a month of bicycle-commuting in San Francisco:

• High-speed red-light runners. It's so commonplace that whenever I'm waiting at a light, I wait another two or three seconds after it changes, expecting the large black SUV that'll blast through right about then. I'm rarely disappointed.
• Cyclists who anticipate the green light, and roll out into the intersection while the other direction is still yellow.

It's probably only a matter of time before a perfect storm of the above creates road hamburger right in front of my eyes. Mercifully, this hasn't happened yet.

Chacun à son goût

Today, I was called an idiot by a Francophone ("EEEDIOTE!") yelling from a car behind/beside me. I had just signaled for a left, and turned left from the left edge of the lane.

Later, while barreling down 10th from Market to Folsom at ~15-20mph, on the left edge of the road, a moving car rolled up beside me, matching my speed, and the driver rolled down the window to ask me if the CostCo was nearby. I said, "Yeah, it's just up there on the right," and she thanked me and drove off.

OK, I'm used to giving directions. Especially in SF, since it's a tourist destination. But never while riding down the street at speed. I suppose it was easier for her than pulling over and looking for a pedestrian.