Northern California - More folding bike climbing fun in San Francisco (pics & video)

I was in San Francisco two days in a row, so I brought along my Bike Friday Pocket Companion folding bike to check out some new hills. The first day I rode around Noe Valley and climbed a bunch of steep streets, finishing off the day with Hill Street between Church and Sanchez. The Garmin seems to always be wildly inaccurate in SF, so I estimate the grade on that street to be about 27% or 28%.

The second day I explored the Twin Peaks area. I climbed Twin Peaks Blvd, descended to Mountain Spring Ave and climbed that to the base of Sutro Tower, then went back down to take pictures of the grade at the bottom. While I was doing that, another cyclist climbing Twin Peaks Blvd stopped and asked me to take a picture of him with his iPhone. I was happy to oblige. Then I ended up climbing back up to the top of Twin Peaks again with him. Of course I got dropped, but that's no surprise. The Bay Area is full of strong climbers. But he was very friendly and turned around twice to go back to me and continue the conversation.

I had my GoPro mounted on the handlebars both days, so I recorded video of both rides.

Here's the Garmin data for Day 1: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/196200517

Day 2: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/196469435

Video of the first day's ride. Like all my videos, this one is 100% natural sound. That means plenty of female cyclist suffer sounds on the climbs, so be forewarned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyPXvkXo05Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyPXvkXo05Y

Video of second day's ride. Same audio warning applies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qcih4j1Ubk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qcih4j1Ubk

I only took pictures on the second day. I didn't find much worth taking pics of on the first day.

View from Twin Peaks parking area at the top of the climb.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/viewfromtopofTwinPeaks2.jpg
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/viewfromtopofTwinPeaks.jpg

View of Twin Peaks from neighboring hill.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/TwinPeaks.jpg

View of Sutro Tower from top of Twin Peaks climb.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/SutroTowerseenfromTwinPeaksparkingarea.jpg

Top of hill Sutro Tower is located on. This was the nice steep climb up Mountain Spring Ave, which turns into Glenbrook Ave. and finally Marview.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/SutroTowerandstreetboxes.jpg

Bottom of Mountain Spring Ave.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/MountainSpringAvesteepgrade.jpg

Grade signs on 17th St.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/abruptgradechange.jpg
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/17gradesignon17thStSanFrancisco.jpg
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/17gradesignatUranus17thStSanFrancisco.jpg

LOL!

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/erectionofsanfrancisco.jpg

Makes me want to get a Bike Friday too!

Makes me want to get a Bike Friday too!
I'm very impressed with how well the Bike Friday climbs. It is sold as a touring bike, but when it is stripped down like the way I have mine set up, I think I climb as well on it as I do on my road bike. I bought it solely for climbing when I need to transport a bike in a smaller vehicle or rental car. I have no interest in touring.

I will be climbing Ebbetts Pass and the steep side of Geiger Grade with this bike next weekend. Stay tuned. ;)

Only watched the first video, but that was very impressive! I have done lots of climbing on my Birdy but I'm not sure I would put together a ride like that especially with those crazy SF drivers. Glad you were able to make that quick maneuver out of the way.

Only watched the first video, but that was very impressive! I have done lots of climbing on my Birdy but I'm not sure I would put together a ride like that especially with those crazy SF drivers. Glad you were able to make that quick maneuver out of the way.
I wasn't too worried about the drivers. I'm sure the white van didn't intentionally back towards me. Other than that incident, I had zero problems with motorists, just like here in Sacramento. I'll admit that I was a bit concerned about cyclists having a tarnished reputation because of the pedestrian death in SF in March, but it seemed like business as usual down there. :thumb: