My regular, OK not as regular as it should be, Sunday ride is around the Auckland Waterfront and under the Harbour Bridge. This weeks ride was different: It was Sunday here (but Monday in NZ): a different waterfront and a different bridge.
I can't visit San Francisco without doing the iconic "Bike the Bay" ride which takes you along the waterfront, over Golden Gate Bridge and back to the city by ferry. In the past I've rented a standard bike and extended the loop a little with a loop around Golden Gate Park or up the Marin Hills.
This time it was supposed to be a bit more serious, proper road bike (Giant OCR2 from Bay City Bike) and my own shoes/pedals. The main reason for that is after riding forever with clip-ins I found riding without them to be rather tiresome. Last time I only did about 60km but could hardly walk the next day. So armed with a decent bike I hit the streets of San Francisco to checkout the sights.
It's supposed to be winter here but didn't look like it today. I only managed about 70km as it was so awesome I stopped to take heaps of photos. I did get to some parts of the Marin Headlands (North of the GG Bridge) which I hadn't seen before, the downhill run to Rodeo Beach was fun and the climb to get out wasn't too bad. It was great to be on a proper bike, one with a triple chainset. On other trips I've caught the ferry back, from either Sausalito or Tiburon, but this time rode home. It was getting toward sunset as I crossed GG heading south and the clear fine weather made for spectacular views. Isn't this place supposed to be cold & foggy?
I have the bike tomorrow, Monday, so can explore more of the city, get run down by a cable car, that sort of thing. I also have a blog related meeting. I hope they don't mind me arriving looking quite a bit like a cyclist...
All the photos are at Flickr.com - RobiNZ San Francisco 2009 Set (about 1 gazillion of the Golden Gate Bridge it appears)
