Visiting San Francisco, would like to ride

CyclingRoy

Hey,

I'm from the Netherlands and I'll be visiting San Francisco next week for a conference (9/20 - 10/1).
Since I'm a big cycling fan I would like to do a ride (or more) there.

So my question, can any of you recommend me a place to rent a decent road bike?
Also, since I've never been there, what are the nicer areas to ride to?
Or are there any groups/people I could do a ride with, that would also be great!

Hope you can help me out here!

Thanks.

megilleland

This looks a good place to start. Blazingsaddles.

raybo

One of the big tourist things to do in San Francisco these days is to rent a bike on/near Fisherman's Wharf, ride over the Golden Gate Bridge, and then take a ferry back to San Francisco from Sausalito (town on the other side of the GG Bridge). The whole ride is maybe 10 miles. Hundreds of people do this a day and there are several bike rental options for this service. As you might guess, many of these bikes aren't something you'd want to take longer rides on. But, if you only have time for one bike ride, it is a great one to take.

Obviously, you can take longer rides, as well. This page contains 16 links to information about San Francisco. A few of them provide local ride suggestions.

There are other bike rental places that include quality road bikes for the day and week but you will have to spend a bit of time checking out the bikes to make sure it is something that fits, in good repair, and you want to ride.

San Francisco is all about the out doors. If you have the time, finding excellent rides will not be a problem.

Ray

chrisba

I've done the Golden Gate thing described in the previous post, and can thoroughly recommend it. Sausalito is a lovely place ( not cheap ) and the views from the bridge and the ferry are stunning. If you want to cycle back, rather than take the ferry, the hill back out of Sausalito is stiff, as you will see when you go down it first.

The bikes at Blazing Saddles are a little industrial ( heavy mountain bikes ) , but you don't do the trip to set speed records.

There was another bike shop in the Fisherman's Wharf vicinity, a few blocks back from the front, but I can't remember it's name, and they had better quality bikes.

Marin County is the area immediately north of the GG bridge, and is where mountain biking was invented. When I first went to Sausalito in the early '90s, you could hardly move for mountain bikers on the roads. Went there again a couple of years ago, and everybody had converted to road bikes and Lycra to try and emulate Lance A.

Enjoy your trip, and if it's foggy, wait for it to clear as you won't see anything !

The Running Man

+1 for Blazing Saddles. I rented from them when I was in SF last October and they were really helpful.

Definitely head out over the GG bridge but head up Mt Tamalpais. It's a Cat 1 climb and a cracking test. You'll come back round the coast via Stinson Beach which is beautiful BUT BE CAREFUL ON THE DESCENT as there are some really tight hairpins with nothing below you but the ocean!!

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/25203462

Very jealous : I'm in NY this time so may have to have a tootle round Central Park ...

PS : while I think of it you could give the guys at Mission Cycles a call. They have regular group rides most Sundays and are very friendly and accomodating to visitors!!

allezoops

I've got a friend who's a semi-pro cyclist in SF so I've messaged her with a link to this post, hopefully she'll get a chance to reply

allezoops

You have PM