Is Pasha still in operation? We had some great vegetarian meals there--the stuffed grape leaves were superb. There is also the garlic crab at Than Long out on Judah.

Valencia looks prettier. Hayes feels homier.

(Also, Hayes is mostly a repair shop, whereas Valencia has lots and lots of pretty bikes.)

very,VERY different....make sure you go to hayes.valencia,stop by if you have time to spare.you're in luck,as the weather finally broke today.

sorry man, i'm a 62.

if you feel ballsy, let me know.

haha no where near a 62. thanks for the offer though.

it was funny looking in the window of Freewheel yesterday with my friend. i was gettin all hot for the nagasawas and steal stuff and my friend was swooning looking at all the fancy carbon fiber rides and huge gear cassettes on the road frames. we could both agree that the carbon/bamboo calfee was pretty rad though

Me too.
Leaving for SF tomorrow night, also from Brooklyn (Kensington).

evannyc - you haven't happened to rent any bicycles in SF have you? If so, got any recommendations for places offering anything other than rusty old hybrids?

nah, everything ive seen for rent has been like $40 a day for a mountain bike or hybrid.

man, it was beautiful in the city today. so hard not riding. we went to One Post and drank some jamba juice while peeping rides. also checked out freewheel and american cyclery and bought a thompson seatpost. good times. we also went to zeitgeist and i saw a ****load of bikes there.

one thing i noticed... SF is big into no tape/grips on bars

i dont how people do it with no tape/grip in the winter.i did it for like a day when switching bars,and with all the rain we get my hands were freezing.

I've been slowly converting my friends to fully wrapping their bars. Baby steps, baby steps...

well, if thats how they roll, i'm staying here.
someone cancel my flight for me.

I don't understand that either. My wrists take a beating with extra thick and puffy grip tape here in NY.
To each his own, I suppose.

All I could find was $40 a day for a slick road bike - I guess I just assumed that since car rentals are
1/3 what they cost here, bikes would at least be a little cheaper - but I guess it don't work that way.

I'm bringing my shoes and pedals anyway - those hills look fun to me.

check out 'moomaw' tonight (wed - 04/19) @ makeout room. kinda chilled out/indie/folksie... and make-out room is a great bar

http://www.moomaw.info/hear.html

i went to a bike coop yesterday, i think it was called Box Car Bikes or something. they might do rentals. i know they had a tandem for $30 a day

That'd be Box Dog. They're cool folks. They have ass-tons of scratched-up old parts for cheap- great place to scout for conversion fodder. They've got a smattering of new tracky bling most of the time too.

The prices for that stuff, like most shops in SF, aren't great. Good to buy from locals keepin' the flame alive now and then though.

Bladowww

i decided i can never move to SF cause i'd have to buy at least two more bikes - a geared road bike and a mountain bike.

we drove up to marin today and chilled on some beach, watched a seal die, saw a wild turkey and a dear, did some hiking. holy ****, it's beautiful up there.

I used to live in San Rafael, and still head up to Marin almost every weekend. Yeah, it's one of the reasons I love living here. My Kogswell Porteur is going to double as a fire-road bike, so I can go riding all the fire-roads in Marin.

hmmm what to do today?

evan - if you want to go to the freewheel on hayes, I'll be going there after work. American is pretty close to there as well. Then I will be getting stupidly high.

i was gonna head there in a bit actually. i gotta buy a chris king gripnut headset. think they have one? it's the only bike shop i've been meaning to check out that i haven't hit up yet. tried to go by on tues but it wasn't open yet. what time are you headin over there?

I get off work at 5, probably be there by 5:20... If you need a silver one I have a used gripnut sitting in my room collecting dust. Bolts a little chewed up but works fine. I live 2 blocks from freewheel so its pretty convenient. If you need a different color I'm sure they or american has it. Fwiw, I prefer the 2nut one.

can the 2nut be used threaded? i thought it was only for threadless and i needed the gripnut for threaded.

ok, just checked it out and i was wrong. so what's the difference b/t the 2nut and gripnut?

They are both threaded. Ive never used threadless. Basically 2 nut is the traditional 2 bolts, first one threads down the fork and holds down the bearings, the second one works like a lockring and is reverse threaded, holding the first one in place. The gripnut is a single piece where they thread on themselves, and theres sort of a shim inside that clamps down on the fork when it gets tight. They both work well, I just always found the 2nut much easier to deal with.

Read this: http://chrisking.com/tech/tech_headsets.html#gripnut

note how the directions for the grip nut are twice as long as the 2nut :) handy for stupid people like myself who have a hard enough time remembering righty tighty lefty loosy.

haha yeah, i somehow overlooked the 2nut earlier. i'm definitely going with that as opposed to the gripnut.

i'm gonna have to come back to SF sometime in the not too distant future and bring a bike and ride with some of ya'll cause it's killing me being here and not riding. we lucked out with such awesome weather from what i hear but yeah, i dont feel fully able to appreciate it without riding. plus i wanna see how well i can handle the hills.

Absolutely. Gear it down to 68-72 inches and you should be able to take pretty much anything. Honestly, its back pedalling to control speed going down hills thats more of a pain than climbing. You deffinately picked a good week to come here on, first good weather in weeks. I'm loving it. Anyway, I dunno how youll waste your day today but... I know you said you went to valencia freewheel already, but did you go to paxton gate and the pirate supply store? fun stuff :D I'll pm you my phone number and if you wanna go to freewheel 5 ish give me a ring. if not, enjoy your day. I wish i was outside!

we ended up going by freewheel pretty early. awesome shop. i definitely could see myself spending a lot of time there if i lived in the bay area. we went by the pirate shop the other day. way cooler than the super hero store in brooklyn.

little too much time, a little too much money... :D