Cheeky Birds and Falling Bikes

The wind was still whistling through the trees on Sunday morning, but I braved the Golden Gate Bridge and 7 miles of 101 North for our second "bikers brunch." Our destination was Guaymas, on the waterfront in Tiburon. (Also popular with cheeky birds that swooped in for tortilla chips at the tables nearest the water.)



The ride out -- with Don riding along as "wingman" -- was pleasantly uneventful. Riding back, I slowed down when I saw brake lights up ahead and started scanning the road to see what was causing the delay. Suddenly I saw two tangled racing bikes in the fast lane and two frantic guys crossing four lanes of traffic to retrieve them. The bikes had apparently fallen out the back of a truck that was parked on the side of the road. More evidence that it's not possible to worry about the actual thing that you might need to deal with on the road -- in this case, dodging a flying 10-speed (or are they 20-speeds now?)

Wicked Wind

It's been a foggy summer in SF, but last week there were three days when it was clear enough to ride my motorcycle to work.

I have to make the decision at 6 am, when it's still dark outside, so the question is whether I can see the moon overhead. If yes, it's clear enough to ride. The only problem with this decision tree is that it doesn't take into account the wind, which was keeping the sky clear of clouds, I guess, but making it challenging to steer. Especially at high speeds on the freeway. At one point, the front tire did a weird shimmy and I decided to take surface streets the rest of the way to work so I could face the wind at slower speeds.

Making a virtue of necessity, I took El Camino Real the rest of the way to Palo Alto. (El Camino Real is the famous 600-mile road that connects 21 misssions in California and runs all the way from SF to Palo Alto -- with stop lights every few blocks and speed limit of 35 mph when traffic allows.) On the return trip, I took El Camino from Black Mountain Road, where my usual route feeds onto the freeway, to San Franciso and discovered that El Camino becomes Mission Boulevard. It added 30 minutes to my commute, but I survived to consult my motorcycle book about riding in the wind.

I was relieved to find that the shimmy was not a problem with my motorcycle. As the author described it: "When riding through crosswinds, you may get some strange feedback from the front wheel..." The proper response, he says, is to "concentrate on countersteering to make the motorcycle go in whatever direction you wish, and let the tires swerve around under you."

Yikes.

After dinner on the evening of the windy ride, we watched a documentary about the making of four Broadway musicals (Wicked, Caroline or Change, Taboo, and Avenue Q). The star of Caroline or Change shared a favorite quote: "Things always works out in the end, so if things aren't working out, it's not the end." Maybe I should think about that when I'm riding through wind.