Enamoured.

Intelligentsia in silverlake.

Here in the Bay Area, I can walk into many of my fave coffee spots and stare at their process all day. One of my favorite moments last time I visited the Southern end of our state was when Los Angeles welcomed me with open, caffeinated arms.
Came across this video and couldn't help to share. Enjoy!

Espresso, Intelligentsia from Department of the 4th Dimension on Vimeo.

Los events: for the weekend.

♥ Saturday /

mini bike cabaret 9pm-2
at the Box Factory Street, 865 Florida st.
"The Bay Area Derailleurs present MINI BIKE CABARET, a multi-media art and dance extravaganza featuring peers, friends, and supporters of the bicycle dance movement this Sat."
More info and Derailleurs page here»

♥ Sunday /

Nopa Velo 9:30am
_from ibikenopa: "When's the last time you took a Patty/Tania Hearst commemorative bike ride with a stop by the site of her NOPA closet captivity? Patty/Tania starts us off Sunday, Jan. 31, 9:30 am followed by a ride on smooth JFK Drive to the ocean and on to NOPA's Ranger Dale telling all about habitat restoration in the Presidio. Cafe to start out and then drinks and lunch at the end. Both in NOPA.
(Tania and Park Ranger riding attire encouraged!)" More info»


Soil Saloon high:noon
Golden Gate Park. more info»

Happy Friday!!

Fender love.

Ride through the park, ride to the ocean, ride through a puddle.
Bring your friends, run into them, make new ones.
the bike lane, the streets, the park await you.

Get out and breathe some fresh air. Your legs and the rest of your body will thank you. Cheers!

♥ xo/meligrosa ♥

Ade and I.

Las usual suspects. We are in a loop, no matter what our priorities are, we eventually meet upafter a fe mis-fired texts or pure badass telepathy, with our bicycles and a ready for the good times. Add coffee or a drink and we're there, u-lock and all.

Double troubles.

The happyssss


Let's ride.

Get it off your chest.

Sometime around 1997, a girlfriend and I had ditched school and went to the record store. On one of days (ok, this happened often) I bought some music I don't recall now, local zines & 2 magazines starting with the letter B, I had never seen before. BUST and Bitch. I remember reading this article on PJ Harvey and 10,000 maniacs and of course some very cool stuff to read for when I got grounded. Both magazines have evolved and I am happy to see both of them around and not gone. Very cool

So, now I'm going to shamelessly let you know I'm in a magazine. It's BUST.
The beloved Frenchie – the motobecane astra that has become the vehicle and my shrink of confidence everyday– this steel beauty, gets some love. yay!

February/March 2010 issue posted at bitsandbobbins.com

and this is a photo of the page by my friend eric :-)

Many gracias to the fabulous lady behind bits and bobbins and creator of the wonderful Wardrobe Remix, Tricia Royal. I was pretty flattered when she contacted me about this and also I think is super rad that the beautiful America Ferrera is on the cover & those hearts!!!!

We had fun doing the shoot. The photo was taken in Alamo square (you know, those postcard houses) and it even though it looks quite dry when the sun even came out for a bit, then we got some freak flash rain, crazy. Thought I'd share

Lucy, the photographer. Very cool lady.

What makes me happy is the exposure of the bike, the cities we live in and that being dressed 'normal' and a woman is no longer that rare. We don't need crazy get-ups (cute shoes are not consider crazy! he hee), fancy gadgets or man-lead long distance groups, to be part of the bicycle culture. We are here, and we are ready to ride, with our normal clothes and our happy faces. We move forward, sometimes make friends along the way ‹I have met amazing women that are now best of friends›, discover new places in town, enjoy the great smells from the bike lane (ok in SF, often not-so-great at all), climb hills, fall, bleed, sweat, learn to dodge doors and learn everyday that really it is not hard, to move around with your bicycle.
And dress up? sure why not! give it a try :D

and my wicked cat Velcro approves.

- - - -
Gracias Lucy, Tricia y BUST – and all of you.
♥ much love / meligrosa ♥

Brad snaps.

Hi Brad!

put your hands up!

Ran into Brad in action last week, when we both bumped into the Reid Brothers Architecture ride. I have been following his blog for a some time, so it was quite nice to finally meet him in person. His blog documents the city and beautifully captures it in a very open, raw way, as if it omits its sounds on purpose and allows you to place your own score to it, your own script and subtitles. Black and white, color, you choose.

Check out his blog here: City Snaps

And below is his result from the picture I took of him above.

photo property of Brad | citysnaps.net
- - - - -
Fish eye lens in action – it was great meeting you Brad & thanks for sharing the awesome picture!

Things and Thoughts on Tuesday: Global window of views.

My bad - I didnt catch the artist/series name, but love the (most certainly) placement intentions.
This is a Haiti fundraiser. A juxtaposition with the images, the captures, the current passing by the intersection of haight/steiner streets, the current world going through the lens of the photographer, and some of the tragic events that happen every few years around the world.
Had to go to toronado's but might pop-in to get more info later this week.

I took this photo from inside the Lower hater | 597 Haight st.

Los Events: Today 12-4PM

The second day of the I Love My Bike book project will be today at the cupid span on Embarcadero. Too bad I won't be able to make it but hope you will! & share some pics :-)

"Brittain and Matt are traveling across the county to meet friends and their bicycles to be a part of a photo book."

Flyer below, spacebook page here: link

San Francisco
Location: Bow and arrow, Rincon hill
Mon. 1/25 4-7pm
Tues. 1/26 12-4pm

Inside out.

Will & Rosanna's bikes.

Saturday: 1648 hr
Meal: chemex for all, cilantro soup and grilled cheese sandwich for me.
Weather: clouds, rain, sunshine, wind, no wind. Puddles, lots of puddles.
Cherished item of the day: fenders.
Company of 4 jumping brains: fixie pocket headphone designer, food recipe enthusiast, telepathy coffee coder and monochromatic ninja.
Place: Outerlands | 4001 Judah, San Francisco California.

inspiration: Cortázar

El number two.

The second article I have gotten published in print is here. I was pretty stoked because all the lovelies look awesome + it is a center spread. Rad!
Many thanks for striking a pose, and to Momentum :-)

You can pick up the current Momentum magazine around bike shops and cafes in the Bay Area (for the regional Bay Area issue) or see the online version here: Momentum issue 43 | What to Wear

Kicks that kick butt.

A dress + tights + these.
oh yea.

found via this tumblr, shoe link originally from here.

Take these and go chase some rainbows, which are quite abundant in the last few days in the Bay Area (asides our flags –the real ones) :D he hee

TGIF: Keep your standards way high.

I was standing outside Four Barrel near the owner of the motorcyle at the bottom right. He had just parked and he noticed I took my camera out, faster than dirty harry's magnum and looked intrigued. This piece of San Francisco-on wheels rode past us and mr. motorcylist looked back and me at a present 6'4 gave me a nod and said. "That is rad."
Yup, I replied.
Later inside he told me "I'm glad there are still people in the city with cool shit like that. I really love that." We cheered with coffee and went on with our lives, just like the cool cat in the high bike, went on with his ride.

♥ Have a lovely weekend everybody!!

Bikes, coffee, my peeps.

Four Barrel meeting of the caffeinated zombies on bikes. We consume plenty of that good stuff, so watch out. Then we go ride bikes and drink some more coffee.
We all had 2 rounds each, except for la calitexican who broke her tea pattern and finally had a cup (drummin pleez). That was from one seating.

Those rivendell peoples are everywhere! he hee. Bratllieeee's bike :D

For you.

But all mine ;-)
Four Barrel.

Meet Brenda and her Beautiful Black Bike & Basket.

I met Brenda flying down the panhandle. By flying, I mean gracefully going fast thru the park. I thought hey what a cool lady on such a smooth bike. If you have ridden alongside with me I'm a very slow rider, and I easily notice things as such. How can you not notice the rad basket, right?!
Anyways, it was great running into you and we'll see each other often around the city. I am excited to hear that there are many of us out there that exist and don't want to dress to beat a personal time, distance or have the latest gadgets (ok, are high heels the equivalent of gadgets? ;)
–As she would 'sartorial'. And not that there is anything wrong with that, but hey we all want to be normal people on bicycles to get around the city. Cheers!

Hi Brenda!

January evening, Golden Gate Park

Things and thoughts on Thursday: Roaming Market st.

Market place.

I had not ridden on Market st. for more than a few weeks. I honestly think I'm too slow for the whole action deal that goes on, and I had my many years of fair share riding on Market more than a few years ago, when dresses and cute baskets were not very popular on wheels what-so-ever. Never mind mixtes, what is that? a new fixie acronym?!... well. I'm soooo glad it is 2010.

So much nicer – There are so many already visible improvements and more to come!
Over the last few years, I personally have preferred riding on Folsom or Howard. Yes I have. The streets are better paved (lately) and there are no crazies harassing you in the sky with diamonds. Just leather shops, fast cars and much more. But, often I make exceptions. This past weekend was a reminder that I can actually ride at my own pace on Market st. more often, without rushing to work (ca.2003) watching out every minute for blowing-red light fixie kids and without traffic for some blocks at a time. Change is slowly coming and lingering around for good, junkies, bikes, trendy stores, cops, meter maids, SROs, union square shoppers, cabs, weed smells, Chanel N°5 smells, financial district, Zuni and muni - along with us, the bicycles.

One day we will all dance this chaotic ballet in a wonderful unison.

No matter the weather, you can always find them somewhere downtown / Los cute beanies.

A Dutch bike.

frenchie and the dutch

So once I passed New Montgomery, my thoughts were in caffeinated miles. While riding on Market st. I thought I'd stop to get coffee at Blue Bottle in the Ferry Building before heading back to meet my peeps at Four Barrel. Sounds extreme, but if you are one of us, coffee addicts, you'd understand. In the middle of all these coffee dazed thoughts orbiting my head, out of nowhere, I noticed two pretty bikes chillin' on the sidewalk. I said UH UH -wait a minute- ok those are Dutch bikes... mmhh yes.

Without a doubt, it was: My Dutch Bike -a bicycle company. Oh what do you know!?

hi will
he thinks this came out funny, but it's -oh so cute- :D

hi oscar
I'll stop by to check out your espresso soon!

I couldn't believe the existing space that was home to the much missed Stacey's books was right here. Well, a bicycle retail space is much better than some upscale foofie fake Italian joint that claims to have the best of things popping outta nowhere. bleh. If you are in San Francisco, you know what I mean. Bikes are good. Very good. -anyways-

San Francisco's very own Dutch bicycle space. Very cool.
I walk in and I'm greeted by Will, a mutual Flickr® friend and we chat. Bike, photos, chat. And Oscar, who knows my blog. How cool! I wonder if he's seen Adrienne's Bat, a true Dutch bike yacht. So, I said oh hey what's up, I check out the space, the bikes. I was rolling solo, so I didn't want to test any bikes, as there would be no one to crack up about me riding those cute monsters with.

They also have a blog in which, they post recent adventures to cities they travel to. At any rate, the space has good energy, Oscar scored some major points as a retail person in my books, by asking "Do you want any coffee? -we've got an little espresso machine" Oh gloriousssss.
Well, if you are curious about the whole Dutch feeling, I recommend you check it out. The have a variety of colors, beautiful lively panniers, all these Crumpler bags I had no idea existed (basket bags with handles!) and Will and Oscar are two super mellow nice lads. Their store is located on 575 Market st. between 1st/2nd.

Retail space

My favorite two things? their bell selection, and a miniature bike the shop got as a gift - def. not for sale ;-)
Well, of course - their bicycles are super as well. Cool -

Ding dingz

miniature awesomeness

- - - - -
Cheers Dutch biker peeps!

Linktastic!

♥ Bay Area luv:
| Berkeley: Girl on Bike, Bikes, food, sustainability, and more
| Will's blog: WHBikes
| Information on the happenings in San Francisco's Western Addition. Divisadero & The Western Addition

♥ Around our beloved state:

"Lowriding" from Vélo Flâneur
| San Diego's fellow coffee fanatic and flickr friend :D mr.protorio's: Velo Flâneur
| Sacramento: Locked Cog
| LA's sassy fashion girl. No bikes here, but I like her groove: s000 LA

♥ International
| Guadalajara México: Rodado 1070AM
| Bandung, Indonesia: Bandung Cycle Chic.

Les lovelies.

Les lovelies.

I have seen this bike around the city many times, and always thought –that bike and my frenchie are so made for each other— I do not know who the owenr is (yet) but well, apparently the very tall he/she likes coffee too, because this was a stone throw away from Four Barrel. Good taste mate, good taste ;-)

details:

Frenchie's boyfriend.

neat-to

*tip/hat to Jason, who showed the link to the person that actually built the bike//
Through the flickerland, J.Muir from Santa Cruz has this picture below showing Frances buiilding details:

BK HT by J.Muir from Santa Cruz on Flickr®

As it turns out, J.Muir is the frame builder behind Frances Cycles, based out of Santa Cruz, and has built beautifuullllllll creatures such as this yellow mixte below. Oh my...

Emily's Mixte by J.Muir from Santa Cruz on Flickr®

Anyways, couldn't help myself but to share immediately a good dose of eye candy.

If those frames ever had offspring it'd be the an absolute gorgeous glittery blue tricycle...
Frenchie et Frances. Qué cute.

- - - -
♥ Ah, the beautiful things roaming the small San Francisco bikeneverse!! ♥

Happy MLK Day!

Foxy ride /on Market st.

Are you off work/school? What will you do today to celebrate your dreams, our history? Martin Luther King is a Day of Service here in the states. I found the website for the bay Area, though no bike-related volunteer events are listed, thought I'd share anyways: All for good»

And because my service today will be called work, this is for those of us at work today:

We've got bikes to ride afterwards. yeah.

Triple parked.

Triple crown bike parking. Market at Valencia/Octavia

Stolen bike.

Jeremy sent me an email for his bike which was stolen last week from Valencia 16th/17th. Please feel free to comment if any info.

Photo de dia: You're so lucky.

Octavia st.

The ∏ value.

San Francisco is bubbly laboratory of popping pizza joints. In the last few years the sensation and following of pizza –of all styles– has emerged and whatever pies you are into, you can find. The latest place that I've gotten to check out is the Mission's newest pizza joint "pi" as in ∏. They are even open at 3:14, they claim ;-)

Circle of openings.

If I will let first impressions impress me, then we start with bike parking racks. It influences me as a consumer and city dweller, weather or not my decision to visit a place allows my bicycle to be in the vicinity, and if it's visible, it is extra good points.
That said. We rolled up and they were already a few bikes (including an xtracycle) parked outside, which typically means -look for another rack- right? so I suppose the 3.14+ formula was implemented because an extended bike rack welcomed our bikes to kick it with the other bikes, and as a plus, is right in front of their huge up front window. Perfect.

pie parking

The pizza for the night was some kind of multiple cheeses with pesto. The beer selection is good, and yeah, I'm gonna make this post all about the bike parking experience. The staff was super chill and friendly, which is always a plus. I had a draught porter beer and their local beer selections is pretty good. A dark beer was a cheerful option to prepare for the soaking wet ride home.

I see beer in your future

eel river porter, organic and all - wooooo fancy :D

Pi bar on Valencia gets a my bike-parking friendly seal of approval. Cheers!

Let's hear it from New York.

Michael, the man behind Bike Blog NYC, visited San Francisco this past week and we met up to talk bikes while sipping coffee. It was great to put a face to the blog. We first connected when Michael sent me an email for a brief questionare when he first started his profile series Bike Bloggers series back in Spring 2009. I thought that was pretty cool.

We talked about bicycles, critical mass extreme different experiences between New York and the rest of the world, the weather, riding with kids, and many things that as people on bikes in cities within the United States, experience. My amiga the calitexican, fellow bike partner in crime and part of our women collab posse Change Your Life, Ride a Bike! also dropped in which was super, because she also experience the big apple on wheels a few years back.

I am not a huge Critical mass attendee, but the couple of times a year when I have gone, has been mostly positive. Michael told me about the tremendous amount of tickets that are given to just everyone on bikes and how the attendance has dropped as a reaction to this.
It was nice to talk about the positive things, however, that NY has had in the bicycle infrastructure over the last few years and to hear it from someone that rides the city, has kids and is not a wild rider. Too bad our friend Adrienne couldn't make it, but she was there in spirit :D

Next stop: SF goes to NY, Berlin, Chicago, CPH!??

Maybe so in the near future. In the meantime, I am deeply enjoying the connectivity that bikes+internet has brought to the bicycle blog community. Thanks for visiting ♥San Francisco. I am also pretty grateful to have met people and good friends from within the city as well as around the world, especially in the last few months, and share our perspectives, thoughts, and visions over a cup of coffee, celebrate with a beer, dinner and ride around the city as a result. It's great.

It was great to have you Michael! :D