Bicycle Chic(?) San Diego

I've been away on vacation, so haven't been posting for a while. Now I'm back, so I'll try to get a post up every once in a while. Summer is a hard blogging season, 'cause I'm out actually doing stuff and have less time to write about it.

Thought I'd share this photo of my wife and I taken on this month's Mid-City Bike Blast ride, which toured community and private food gardens in the City Heights area of San Diego. It was a great ride. In the photo, I've gallantly offered my cycling cap to my wife, who was worried about sunburn, flipped up my collar, and soldiered-on. We actually look pretty happy, no?

Original photo (and others from the ride) here.

Tour de Florida (Canyon)

Well, I'm back in San Diego after a lovely trip to Oregon for the holidays. It rained almost the whole time, but we had a light dusting of snow on Christmas--the first time it has snowed on Christmas there for quite a while. I took a little jaunt on the Peugeot yesterday to put it through its paces, having previously only ridden it up and down the alley to get the derailers adjusted. I rode down through Balboa Park on Florida Drive to Pershing, then turned around and came back. It's a pretty short ride (about 4 mi. round-trip), but from my house to Pershing, there were enough elevation changes to work through all of the gears and also enough flat open space through the canyon to open 'er up. I never had a ten speed when I was a kid, so it was a new experience for me and a lot of fun. Hopefully, many more such rides in the new year. I didn't take a camera with me to take any pictures, but go to my Google map to see my route. You can also see the Street View of Florida Drive if you open a regular Google map of San Diego--I'm not sure why it isn't an option on my customized map. Especially noteworthy is the nice bicycle lane, although the road surface itself is not in great condition.

Down Townies Ride Report

Today's Down Townies ride took us around the 'hoods of South Park, Golden Hill, North Park, University Heights, Kensington, and Normal Heights and finally ended up at the Adams Avenue Folk Festival. This was one of largest rides we've had so far, and this contributed to a small group of us getting seperated at the back. Eventually, we lost the main group entirely. We're thinking of calling ourselves the Down Shifties. We are officially the slowest of the slow! Oh well, everyone knows the cool kids hang out in back.

Once we got seperated, we figured, hey let's do our own thing, and stopped at an excellent coffee shop owned by some friends of folks who were in our delinquent group of stragglers. I had the best chai latte I've had in a long time, and we got to chill with the owner for a while and meet some very awesome dogs. Gotta give a shout to Mystic Mocha.

The Down Shifties inaugural meeting.

The bikes had their own meeting.

The folk fest itself was rather "meh." There were a lot of vendors, more than anything else. Who buys window treatments at a folk fest anyway? Saw the last few minutes of a great trio, but then it seemed like the music kind of dried up, and it didn't really seem all that folky or bluegrassy, either.

By that point, we decided we'd already had too much sun (whoo boy, we found out later just how much), so we headed home. I found a shiny new wrench laying in the middle of the street on the way home (just a small one, though), so the day wasn't a total bust. Oh, and the Huffeigh is a total blast to ride--nothing major has even gone wrong yet (knock wood).

Bayshore Bikeway

I frequently encounter the perception that old bikes are only good for short runs to the grocery store or the park, and that they're too fragile or slow or clunky to take on longer rides. This couldn't be farther from the truth, and especially so with old 3-speeds, many of which were built to be touring bikes, not just city bikes or leisure bikes. I proved this point today (without really specifically intending to) by taking my 1971 Columbia Sports III on its longest ride yet, about 30 miles round trip.

My route was primarily the Bayshore Bikeway, which you can find detailed with a map here. I packed a picnic, the camera, and lots of water (I sweat a lot) into the rear baskets and set out. There is something so normal, and yet so special about making a trip like this by bicycle. In the car, it would be a chore, but on the bike, it's an adventure.

First, I had to get downtown, which is where the route begins. The best way from my 'hood is to take Park Boulevard down to Broadway. It's mostly downhill and fairly wide. I turned west on Broadway and followed it all the way to the Broadway pier, where the trail starts beside Harbor Drive in a lovely bayfront park. Except for a few taxis whose turn signals apparently didn't work (grrrr), it was an uneventful ride through downtown.

Most of the route down Harbor Drive has a bike lane, if you could call it that. I might as well have been off-road. Just terrible. The photo below shows one of the better stretches.

Anyway, you take Harbor all the way down to National City, then you get on the Sweetwater Bike Path, a separated path with some pretty cool bike infrastructure running under I-5. I wish I'd taken a photo. From there, it's pretty much all seperated bike path down through Chula Vista and Imperial Beach and around the southern tip of San Diego Bay. The highlight for me was the desalination plant with evaporating ponds and giant mounds of salt.

Then, up the Silver Strand on another seperated bike path all the way into the city of Coronado. The path along here is separated from the beach by the roadway and a fence, but in the Silver Strand State Park, there are several tunnels that will take you under to the ocean/beach side.

In the city of Coronado itself, wonder of wonders, is a bike boulevard, with a fully separated, landscaped, and perfectly maintained two-way bikeway. There were so many cyclists on it that I couldn't stop to take a photo (and my panda skills are zilch). I was almost able to imagine what it must be like in Amsterdam or Copenhagen. I wish I had reason to ride this way more often, because it's really wonderful.

Finally, I caught the ferry from Coronado back to the Broadway pier, fought my way east on Broadway (it wasn't that bad, really, but traffic was pretty heavy), then back up Park, which was way less fun going up than down. Total cost for the five and half-hour outing: $3.25 for the ferry, and no worries about filling up the tank, finding parking, finding the right exit off the freeway, etc.

I got passed by a lot of spandex-clad speedsters on very expensive bikes, but it was very clear that they were on a different sort of outing than I was. They were on a "bike ride," while I was just using my bike to get to a new place I hadn't been yet. I saw a few like me, but not many, so while it was cool to see such amazing bicycle infrastructure being well-used, it was a little disheartening to see that the bikeway as transportation idea still has a long way to go around here. Probably it had a lot to do with when I went, and I bet I'd see some commuters if I was there on a weekday morning. All in all, a very excellent day.

I know a place where no cars go.

I took a ride today down into Balboa Park, down to the Prado area--the pedestrian-oriented complex of museums near the San Diego Zoo. Since it is Thanksgiving today, I figured the roads would be pretty bare, and for the most part I was right. The picture above is at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Village Place. Park Blvd. is normally a very busy north-south thoroughfare through the park, but not today. There was some traffic, but not much. Once I got to the park, I was surprised to see quite a number of pedestrians strolling about, despite the fact that the museums were all closed for the holiday.

I saw joggers, bikers, pedestrians, people walking dogs, kids with scooters, you name it. Although I was kind of hoping for a post-apocalyptic level of quiet, I was also really pleased to see so many people eschewing the turkey coma and football stereotype that has become so common for this holiday.

It would have been a near-perfect ride, but for the fact that there is no good way to get from one side of Balboa Park to the other, unless you're driving a car. The canyon that runs through the center of the park is steep, and there are no sidewalks on Morley Field Drive, the main connector between the two sides. I made it about half-way up the hill on my bike before three speeds proved too few, and I had to bail out and haul my bike over the curb and onto the steep, rocky path that has been worn onto the shoulder (see photo above).

In terms of bike performance, I'm still getting used to shifting and getting the cable tension right. I had a couple moments of heart-thumping when the peddles freewheeled forward in second gear while I was in the middle of the street (one reason I wanted to go for a ride on the holiday). I think I've got everything adjusted now. Also, I charted my course on my Google map, which you can click at right.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Weekend Blowout

No, neither a party nor a clearance sale, but the kind that goes thup-thup-thup-pow! and leaves you stranded on the other side of town. I took the Peugeot on a little jaunt over to the Spruce Street suspension bridge, hoping to snap some pictures. I took the Upas Street trail, and had a nice ride/hike over there, but not long after I arrived on the west side of Balboa Park, this happened:

I guess the culprit was probably over-inflation, aggravated by the air in the tube warming and expanding as I rode. This is incentive to buy either a non-crappy bike pump with a decent pressure gauge or one of those handy pen-sized pressure checkers. Fortunately, I wasn't going very fast, so it only took me about ten feet to stop, and the tire and rim were undamaged. It was mostly just a pain in the ass, as I had to hoof it back home to North Park with an injured bike and didn't get to take the pictures I wanted.

I did snap a few before the blowout, including a neat one of a dead on/off-ramp on Richmond Street over the 163. I wanted to jump the barricade and get some better pics, but there was a cop right there, so next time. Get used to scenes like this, what with gas prices rising, infrastructure crumbling, and the end of the world fast approaching. Seriously.

Down Townies/Earth Day Ride

I haven't been making it to the weekly Sunday Down Townies rides for a few weeks, but today I debuted the Huffeigh, which went very well. I'll have another post soon about finishing it up. I didn't even manage to get any photos of it today, so I'll just dedicate a whole other post to it.

The ride today went to Balboa Park for one of the largest Earth Day celebrations in the nation. It was pretty cool, I must say, and the very best part was the secure bike valet parking offered by the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. Of course, I forgot to take a picture.

I was only able to hang out for about an hour and a half, then I had to run, but the rest of the group was scheduled to go to the bike swap at the velodrome later. I'm really bummed I missed that, but it's probably for the better that I just don't tempt myself. Here are some photos from the event:

Bad Blogging, Grocery Shopping

Urg, I've been (and will continue to be) busy lately, so the blogging is slowing down, even as the riding is picking up. That, and I'm trying to spend less time in front of the computer. I wanted to check in, though, and post about the first real grocery run on the Columbia. I packed a picnic into the rear baskets a couple of weeks ago, but this was the first genuine trip to the grocery store. Smooth as silk, no worries at all.

My typical grocery day involves two stores, and the car. This is a weekly trip. Today, I did the first store in the car, which is kind of necessary (okay, well, at least very convenient), and the second on the bike. Even though it's not much, it feels great to have eliminated at least part of the driving. And now you know what brand of toilet paper we buy. Too much information? Nah.

IT LIVES! Mwaaa-ha-ha!

Two big revelations today: 1) I actually have a bike with three speeds now, instead of a three-speed bike that doesn't work right; and 2) I am dramatically out of shape.

Both of these came to me today while taking my bike for its first test ride. Let's focus on the first one. After much adjusting and fidgeting and swearing, I finally got the shifter cable adjusted properly (see Sheldon Brown's how-to section on 3-speed cable adjustment--it's about half-way down on the linked page.) The real bugger was getting it adjusted so that it wouldn't freewheel in the middle gear. I now thoroughly understand how to make such adjustments in the future. Thoroughly.

For the first year that I had the bike, I never noticed much difference in the three gears, and now I know that I probably wasn't even moving through the gears when I moved the trigger. Having all new parts (cable, trigger shifter, and indicator spindle) makes a huge difference, and knowing how they should be properly adjusted is essential. It's really a joy to ride now, especially with everything greased and oiled. I was hoping to notice a dramatic difference in the way it rode, but I had no idea it would be this dramatic! I wish I had done this as soon as I got it.

I've got a few more little adjustments to make on the brakes and a loose nut to tighten on the rear fender, then I'll polish it up with another coat of Turtle Wax and take some "after" pictures. I've also assembled an album of "before" pictures that didn't get posted. An "after" album will go up soon as well.

PS--check out my Google map to the right for the route of my test ride today.

Today's Down Townies Ride

The third of the local Sunday Down Townies slow rides took place today, this time with three stops: the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge, Balboa Park (where a group of us enjoyed some tea, ice cream, and bean cake at the Japanese Tea Pavilion), and ending at local restaurant The Linkery for some locally-sourced, organically-grown tasty lunch, provided at a discount by the owner, who happens to be an SDBikeCommuter member. It was a pretty healthy ride, around 15 miles total, which was a bit more than we were planning for, but wonderfully cathartic. It was just cool and cloudy enough to get warm after an hour or so in the saddle, and by the time we reached the park, the sun was starting to take over, and the day turned absolutely gorgeous. Springtime in San Diego is truly a blessing.

I'm afraid I was more focused on good conversation with new friends to snap many photos, but I got a few.

A lovely flowering tree in Balboa Park, near the United Nations Building.

Arriving at The Linkery

Molly's 1970 B.S.A., which I totally geeked-out over. Sorry, Molly.

Waiting anxiously for lunch! The light was weird, sorry for the blur.

Upas Street Trail

So, I've heard tell of a trail that links the various parts of Upas Street from the northeastern corner of Balboa Park to the northwestern corner. If you're traveling west on Upas, the paved street stops at Alabama Street, then picks up again at Florida Street, then runs all the way to Vermont Street, where it dead-ends again, then picks up again at the northwestern corner of Balboa Park. Well, the dead ends are all connected by trails, so I decided to set out with the Peugeot and the camera on a little expedition today to see if there was, in fact, a good way to get from one side of Balboa Park to the other without a car. You may remember that I bemoaned the lack of such in an earlier post. Well, the answer is yes and no. You can get from one side of the park to the other without a car, but it's not really a trail for the faint of heart or weak of knee.

I started from the corner of Pershing Street and Wightman Street, rode down Wightman to Arnold Street, then turned south to Upas. At Upas and Alabama, Upas dead-ends, but if you cross Alabama to the dead-end turnout, you find the entrance to the first leg of the trail.

The first section of the trail between Alabama and Florida Streets is too steep and narrow to ride comfortably, so I walked down. At the base of the hill, you're in Florida Canyon and at Florida Street. Cross Florida, and continue up Upas. The climb up is formidable, and also not ridable for most. There are no sidewalks, however, so keep an eye out for cars coming down/up the hill.

At the top of the hill, the street levels-out for few blocks and you can ride all the way from Park Boulevard to the next part of the trail, where Upas ends at Vermont. The trail entrance is on your left, marked by a gate to keep cars out, and a helpful sign informing you of the "HILL".

There is a hill, and it is substantial, so most riders will be dismounting again. The trail is also pretty rough, and probably not the best for road bikes (it would be fun on a mountain bike). But, man, is it beautiful. I'm always amazed by Balboa Park, there are so many beautiful places tucked away.

The trail then crosses the 163 on a pedestrian bridge.

On the other side of the freeway, take the trail to the right, which is another steep climb, and not exactly bicycle friendly.

At the top, you come out in the northwestern part of the park, near the Marston House mansion, and here Upas Street picks up again.

By this time, though, I had abandoned Upas Street for a ride through the park. You can either get on Balboa Drive, which runs south down the western side of the park (and which is an obstacle course of bad pavement, car doors, and drivers pulling in/out of parking spaces), or you can toodle along on one of the paved paths. I did the latter, and eventually ended up at the lawn bowling greens for a few minutes. Then, I got on Balboa Drive for a ride down to the far southern boundary of the park, overlooking I-5 and part of downtown.

Where Balboa ends, or rather where it turns back and loops north, there's a really wicked hairpin turn at the base of a gentle (but velocity-building) downhill grade, which is really fun to whip around at top speed, if you're comfortable with that kind of thing. Then, I toodled back up through the park on the trails, and picked up the Upas Street trail again and headed home. It was a beautiful ride and hike, but in terms of ease and convenience, I would say that it is not an especially practical way to get from one side of the park to the other without a car.

For a few more pics, see my Picassa album, and for a map of my route, see my Google map.

San Diego to National City

So, I took this ride last weekend, and have just now gotten around to posting about it. I've never really taken the Peugeot for a real ride, so I took advantage of a cool, cloudy Sunday and took a spin down to National City (about 20 miles round trip from North Park). I wanted to check out a cemetery down there to see if I could find the headstone of a Civil War veteran I've been researching, so off I went at about 1pm.

I biked down along the east side of Balboa Park, through Golden Hill and South Park on 30th Street/Fern Street. I passed a huge Cinco de Mayo celebration somewhere along in there, and was tempted to stop, but pressed on for the sake of time. I kept going on 30th Street, which zigs and zags a bit, to where there is a pedestrian bridge over I-5. I crossed the bridge, kept going on 30th for a block, then turned west on Main Street for two blocks to 28th Street, turned south on 28th, then southeast on Harbor Drive. To my surprise, there is a bike lane on Harbor, but in places it's kind of like riding on a washboard. I was passed here by a spandex-clad older man on a very slick-looking new road bike. "Go get 'em, chief!" I thought, but didn't yell.

I took Harbor Drive all the way down through the Naval Base to National City, where I hung a right on Civic Center Drive, which turns into Tidelands Avenue. Tidelands runs south through warehouses, shipping depots, and giant manufacturing yards. It was completely deserted on a Sunday, except for the strange wind-and-percussion ensemble of about a dozen people that was standing conspicuously on a sidewalk, playing (quite loudly) apparently for no one. I guess they were practicing, but it was kind of surreal. The railroad tracks that criss-cross that part of town are a little rough to cross, but the streets are nice and wide.

I stayed on Tidelands all the way down to 32nd Street, where it ends, and took a left. In a couple of blocks, I came to the north entrance to the Sweetwater Bikeway (see photo), a paved path that runs along the Sweetwater River for a ways before turning south down through Chula Vista. I stayed on the path until 2nd Avenue, then turned north to Sweetwater Road, then east to get to La Vista Cemetery. Turns out, I didn't find the grave site I was looking for, but it was a really great ride, and fully worth the three hours (round trip, including time spent at the cemetery; about an hour, one way). In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make this ride, which I had expected to be a real challenge. Mind you, I'm not in great shape--decent, but not great. The take-home message is: getting around by bike doesn't have to be hell-raising, butt-busting, sweat-fest if you don't want it to be. If you live in San Diego, and want to check out my route, see my Google map.

I did notice a few funky problems with the Peugeot once I got going, but I'll save these for later posts. Hopefully things I can fix.

Friday Evening

Another Sunday Ride

I didn't make it on the weekly Down Townies Ride today, but my wife and I took a slow afternoon jaunt to the park. One of the many treats of our neighborhood is that the alleys have all kinds of lovely blooming things overhanging people's back fences. A slow amble down several blocks worth of such alleys and we're at Balboa Park, which is itself a city treasure. We sat in the sun for a couple of hours, I did some reading, my wife did some embroidery, and then we headed back home. Here's a few photos. Even though my wife's eyes are closed in the last one, we both still like it. Lady looks good on a bike!

Down Townies Ride #1

The Columbia's rear fender & wheel in the foreground, another rider's lovely Raleigh with panniers in background.

Today was the first of a series of local Sunday slow rides in the tradition of European casual touring. The weekly Down Townies ride is organized through San Diego Bike Commuter Forums, an online discussion forum put together by the owner of a local shop. This week was the Hillcrest Farmers' Market, one of the largest (if not the largest) local markets. I put an old front basket on the Columbia (since the Huffeigh grocery bike isn't ready yet) and went along to get some groceries.

The ride was lovely, winding quietly through some of the city's old craftsman neighborhoods, some new friends were made, and the market was bustling. It was a fantastic warm, sunny morning, and the company was great. We had probably 20-ish riders, and all were great ambassadors for transportational, errand-type cycling. The quantity of bells was really remarkable--moving through some intersections, the whole group "chimed in," creating a beautiful cacophony. I'm excited for the next ride, and hope to make these ride reports a weekly thing. I'm not too good at them, I'm afraid, but I'll try.

Just Another Sunday

Some weeks you want just one day that you don't have to set an alarm to wake up. As a consequence, I didn't do the Down Townies ride this morning. After lunch, my wife and I rode down to the park and spent the afternoon just relaxing in the sun. I took the Schwinn for its first ride with weight in the crate, and it did just fine. Then we ran a quick errand to the pharmacy and went home. Wonderful!

Super Sunday

Rather than ignore the Super Bowl at home, we decided to ignore it at the park with a game of Novelty Flying Disk and enjoyed the extraordinarily nice SoCal February weather. I won't say how warm it was, but I busted out the cycling knickers and shoes without socks.

Express Mail

Running to the post office is one of my favorite bike errands. For me, it's everything an urban bike errand should be: simple, short, and easy. My local post office is about a half-mile from our house, making for a whopping 1 mile round-trip. I couldn't morally justify driving that distance, anyway, and riding a bike is a whole lot faster (and more fun) than walking. This sort of errand is also perfect for folks who might be a bit reluctant to take their old bikes on longer hauls (although there's no reason not to). If you'd rather go easy on an old bike, short trips like this make up a surprising amount of life's little errands, and an old bike is a perfect way to accomplish them.

Down Townies Ride #1 Redux

By popular demand, here are some more photos of last Sunday's Down Townies ride to the Hillcrest farmer's market here in SD. First two are mine, the rest were taken by SD Bike Commuter Forums member IHeartMyBeard. Link to full set is here (scroll down a bit for the post). I'm in waaay more of these than I was aware of at the time. Yeesh.