Bay City Wheelers

San Francisco is a city of marvelous contradictions - with a hip, active, and progressive youth culture surrounding a more staid, though worldly, up-class core, The City By The Bay continues that duality in the way it's people get around. 

More than most other large cities in the US,  San Francisco embraces two wheels.  Even bursting at the seams with options like buses, trolleys, light rail, cable cars, and taxis, the people of The City like to ride their motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles.

Walking just one four block area there recently, I counted 3 bicycle shops.  I was passed by at least a dozen motorcycles, and I passed more parked in the street.  And there were scooters parked up on sidewalks everywhere.  And this in a city with tight traffic, slippery tram rails, and steep hills - all nasty things to deal with on two wheels, whether powered by fossil fuels or your own flesh pumps.

Maybe it's the commuting and parking challenges residents face that lead them to two wheeled alternatives in greater numbers than elsewhere.  It's not an easy thing to find a space to park a car in San Francisco.  I once spent the better part of an entire evening stubbornly searching out a spot near a friend's house to park my car.   Any local would have given up and parked illegally and accepted a ticket, but that idea didn't register with my LA-trained brain.

It could be the hassle of driving and parking a car, but I don't really think so.  I believe I know the real reason two wheeled travel is so popular in San Francisco:  it's just plain cool.  And fun. 

For bikes with motors, the hills are like ramps to the heavens, a rush-up to the precipice of Knievel-like jumps.  For pedal pushers, they are a personal Everest or Tour de France hill climb.  For both the downhill run is like, well, a downhill ski run, or a parachute jump.  If you hit the right sort of bumps it could be like flying. Thrills, fun.

If there are more reasons to be found for San Francisco's two-wheeled love affair, I don't need to find them.  It's simply cool to see.  From tattered 70's era Honda CB550 Fours, through the latest Ducati superbikes, from Vespas to Made-in-China unknown scooters, from exotic $4,000 bicycles to ancient Schwinns, it's a visual (and aural) treat for lovers of things two-wheeled.

If you travel on two-wheels, or hope to, visit The City By The Bay.  Sit outside a coffee shop in North Beach, or hang out in the Haight, and observe.  You will be inspired...