Streetsblog San Francisco

“If the increase continues, the time is not very distant when not to own and ride a bicycle will be a confession that one is not able-bodied, is exceptionally awkward, or is hopelessly belated.”
—“The Bicycle Festival,” July 13, 1895 New York Times

The bicycle came to San Francisco during the last quarter of the 19th century. Like other places, it first developed based on wooden wheels, similar to those that were bearing stagecoaches and being drawn by horses. Horse-drawn streetcars were the predominant mode of transit in the 1870s, peaking in the 1880s, at a time when the individual horse was also still a major source of personal transportation.

And then came the velocipede, an odd device that attracted some early adopters of the era. Here’s Emperor Norton, a fellow who was adept at self-marketing long before Facebook made it a basic survival skill!

The boneshakers were aptly named, running over heavily rutted streets on solid wooden wheels, eventually improved by coating the in solid rubber. The bicycle was not a transit option at that early stage, but a novelty, and a device that attracted the adventurous few who were ready to break with the limits of human powered locomotion. In “The Winged Heel” column in the San Francisco Chronicle of January 25, 1879, the writer fully grasps the possibilities:

“The bicycle ranks among those gifts of science to man, by which he is enabled to supplement his own puny powers with the exhaustic forces around him. He sits in the saddle, and all nature is but a four-footed beast to do his bidding. Why should he go a foot, while he can ride a mustang of steel, who knows his rider and never needs a lasso?.. The exhilaration of bicycling must be felt to be appreciated. With the wind singing in your ears, and the mind as well as body in a higher plane, there is an ecstasy of triumph over inertia, gravitation, and the other lazy ties that bind us. You are traveling! Not being traveled.”

(I have to admit a great appreciation for that last aphorism, echoing through time a later motto of Processed World magazine that I helped produce in the 1980s: Are you doing the processing? Or are you being processed?)

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I caught Mikael Colville-Andersen's inspiring talk on urban cycling from the Copenhagen context at San Francisco's SPUR on the last Friday of October. I suggested we could do an interview when I came to Copenhagen in December and he graciously agreed, stepping outside into the drizzling snow at a December 10 awards ceremony he was hosting. (The title of this post is a quote from him when he was on stage at the ceremony, and is a new tag line on his blog too.) They were handing out prizes for the best new designs for the next generation of Copenhagen's bikeshare program. He is well known for his blogging at Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycling Chic. The photos throughout were taken by me in Copenhagen during the last couple of weeks there.

Chris Carlsson: What was your experience in San Francisco? Did you have a good time there?

Mikael Colville-Andersen: I had a brilliant time. I just blogged a film with three of my friends, about Critical Mass.

C: Did you get in to the Halloween Critical Mass?

M: Oh yeah, all the way!

C: I saw you wrote some vaguely critical comments about Critical Mass in general.

M: I have done… it’s just that marketing thing. You’re not selling it if you’re pissing people off. Riding around… I didn’t see any bad behavior. There were so many people at that Critical Mass that it was more tame?

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With the gradual thawing underway in the three-year freeze of bicycle infrastructure in San Francisco, this year's SFBC Winterfest celebration, one of the best bicycle parties in any year, is sure to warm this Sunday night up right.

"It's a place where cyclists of all shapes, sizes and creeds come together to celebrate cycling and the SFBC," said Jodi Madeiros, SFBC Development Director. "The timing couldn't be more perfect with the green pavement, the bike boxes, the separated bike lane on Market Street. We didn't say that 2009 was going to be the year of the bicycle for nothing and now is the time to come celebrate that."

There will be ample beer from New Belgium and an art auction featuring works from David Byrne, Dave Eggers, Guy Overfelt, and other local artists. They will also auction up to 20 bicycles, so it's a great opportunity to get out on a new bike and ride [download auction catalog PDF].

There is a fee to get in, but the proceeds go to benefit the SFBC and help them advocate for better biking in San Francisco. $15+ for current SF Bicycle Coalition Members, $40 for non-members includes one year of Bike Coalition membership. 

The party is at the SOMArts Gallery at 934 Brannan St. (@ 8th St), from 6pm-10:30pm. DJ's Laron & ShOOey will be spinning and as always you can park your bike with free valet bike parking. This is what it looked like last year:

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Chrome Bags has undertaken a new initiative to further root themselves in the local bicycle community that affords them much of their customer base: using bicycle couriers to deliver bags in San Francisco. Starting November 20th, anyone buying a bag in San Francisco by 3 pm will get that bag same-day, delivered by a hot and sweaty Godspeed Courier, at no extra charge. 

"The focus here is Chrome supporting the working messengers and this further embeds that," said Rob Reedy, Chrome's spokesperson. "I think most folks are going to be stoked for that instant gratification."

Same-day delivery by courier hearkens to the heady days of dot-com hyper-convenience, when messengers were dispatched to deliver everything from DVDs to ice cream and beer. Chrome manufactured the bags for one of those short-lived companies, Kozmo.com. Reedy explained that Chrome had loosely talked with Godspeed and other couriers about bag delivery by messenger since then, but the idea hadn't been implemented. Asked whether the effort was to help Godspeed avoid the plight of downsizing or closure that has hit bicycle couriers across the country, Reedy said his consideration was more about the connection to the messenger community in general.

"Godspeed is doing extremely well, they're fast, dependable, legit. We've organized events and parties with them in the past," said Reedy. When asked how far Godspeed would ride, Reedy said, "Godspeed will pedal everywhere, they're animals. They'll ride over the bridge if needed."  He admitted some longer-distance deliveries might have to be next morning, depending on just how far away and how much business the new promotion engenders.

"The retail store is going to act as the epicenter," said Reedy, who envisioned a swarm of couriers coming in and out on runs. "It's going to add to the mystique of the retail store." The new Chrome store, located on 4th Street and Brannan in SoMa, suffered a break in and theft of goods a couple of months ago, but has been doing well, according to Reedy.

For a small business, working with Chrome can be a significant boost. The kids over at Bicycle Coffee Company, who we profiled in July, recently finished a promotion with Chrome, where each new bag purchase included a half-pound of their coffee.

Mikael Kirkman, who roasts the coffee in his pottery studio in Berkeley, said they had moved 600 pounds through the Chrome deal, an enormous boost to their fledgling company, but one that required near-constant roasting.

For Chrome, the coffee promotion grew out of a connection they had to Matthew McKee, one of Bicycle Coffee Company's co-founders, who had done some artwork for the company's San Francisco store. Reedy was drawn to the path McKee and Kirkman followed to start their company and said Chrome was looking for similar entrepreneurs.

"For us that was just a cool story, period," he said. "Chrome can be tied to bikes, to urban culture, to art. If something feels good and legitimate, that's when we jump on it."

Like so many people, when Soraya Nasirian saw Dutch people on bicycles, she had an epiphany. "Why aren't more Americans riding bicycles like this?" she wondered. "Why do Americans ride hunched over, on bikes with no racks, carrying their stuff in all kinds of bags and riding so fast and aggressively?"

Seeing an opportunity, Nasirian teamed up with Dutch husband Oscar Mulder to open up a new business to peddle Dutch pedals: My Dutch Bike on Market Street just east of Second Street. Their shop sells a few high-end Dutch city bikes, as well as the bakfiets, the Dutch answer to cargo bikes. Their sales are good enough to keep them in business, she says, although most of their business is online, and they will be moving soon to another location.

My Dutch Bike is just one manifestation of a veritable frenzy of marketing to the fastest-growing segment in the bicycle market: everyday, utilitarian bicycles. It sparks some interesting questions: What can we do to encourage the trend? What will the quintessential American, or San Franciscan, city bike look like?

In every country where bicycles are commonplace transportation, almost every single bike comes equipped with lights, fenders, a rack, and chainguard. In Germany, those items, plus a bell and a kickstand, are mandatory on any bike not sold as a stripped-down "sports bike."

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San Francisco designer Lisa Marie Grillos has been on an unexpected journey since she lost her job as a production manager at Williams Sonoma this January, one which took her from frustration and dismay scouring Craigslist and other job sites to having her face splashed across the business page of the New York Times.

The article in the Times Saturday highlights Grillos' journey as an example of what it calls "accidental entrepreneurs," or entrepreneurs that have turned to their current vocation as a result of losing their jobs or their incomes because of the "Great Recession." Grillos' entrepreneurial spark? Connecting fashion with a simple bicycle amenity, the frame-mounted utility bag.

Frame-mounted bags tend to be black canvas and forgettable, something even bike thieves rarely steal. They are usually utilitarian and simple, an extra pocket to keep bike tools and a spare tube, hardly something to look at once, let alone give a double-take.

Now Grillos is trying to change the profile and at a cost that is approximate to the less-fashionable counterparts.

"I think if anybody told you that parts of bicycling isn't about fashion, they'd be lying," said Grillos. "People love to trick out their bicycles."

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