Mission Mission

Full disclosure: As the project manager, I may be biased. Feel free to take this post with a grain of salt.

So here’s what’s up. Tomorrow, Mission Bicycle unveils (thanks to Betabrand for the veil) what we’ve been working on for the last 2 years.

• Integrated lights
• GPS tracking

Starting in 2018, all Mission Bicycles will come with theft-proof lighting. Front and rear.

Two lights, one battery, one button. Close to a month’s worth of commutes with one charge of a removable rechargeable battery.

Mission Bicycle is adding a GPS tracking device to help reunite bike owners with their bikes in the event of theft. “The bike industry regularly takes note at what’s happening in the Mission. The suits literally come into our store for ‘inspiration.’ ” gloated Jefferson McCarley, General Manager of Mission Bicycle Co. “I actually hope they rip us off.” McCarley said. “More bikes on the street with GPS tracking will help us move the needle in reducing bike theft. Might take them a couple of years, but I really do hope that more bike companies can figure this out.”

An Android and ios app shows Mission owners where the bike is at all times.

Tuesday night at 6:00, Mission Bicycle staff will be on hand to answer questions and demo two prototype bikes in their R&D workshop which is located on the 2nd floor over the 766 Valencia storefront.

If Mission Bicycle Company’s Kickstarter campaign is funded then the LYRA will be available later this year to Kickstarter backers and to the general public in 2018. 

The company is planning to host a Bait Bike project in June as a part of their research and development. We’ll be posting videos of those adventures here.

• seven course gourmet meal
• inspiring bicycle short films
• conversation and Q&A
• raffles, prizes
• New Belgium beer

All for about $20.

In its 6th year, Dinner & Bikes is a month-long tour that brings people together to eat a huge vegan dinner and share bicycle stories, campaigns, and inspiration.

It’s presented by Joe Biel, Elly Blue, Joshua Ploeg and hosted by Mission Bicycle.

Joe Biel is the director of the feature documentary Aftermass: Bicycling in a Post-Critical Mass Portland as well as over 100 short films. He is the author of half-a-dozen books, including Beyond the Music. He founded Microcosm Publishing and has published over 350 nonfiction books, zines, and movies.

Elly Blue is the author of Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economyand Everyday Bicycling: How to Ride a Bicycle for Transportation (Whatever your Lifestyle). She’s the marketing director of Microcosm Publishing, producing books and zines about all aspects of feminism, self-empowerment, and bicycle transportation.

Joshua Ploeg is the the traveling vegan chef. When not touring the world, he’s a personal chef and delighter of secret cafe goers in L.A. His 8th and newest cookbook is This Ain’t No Picnic: Your Punk Rock Vegan Cookbook.

Tickets here:

Friday, June 10, for Dinner & Bikes: Food, movies, and bicycle inspiration.

Rob and Lauren, formerly of the band He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister (not actually brother/sister but yes actually husband/wife) have a new project called KOLARS. They’re stopping by Mission Bicycle Company for an intimate acoustic show tomorrow before their sold-out Independent gig on Saturday. Free beer courtesy of New Belgium Brewing.

Friday 3/18. Doors at 7:30, show at 8:00. Limited tix available online and at the door. 766 Valencia, between 18th and 19th.

http://bit.ly/KOLARS

If you have any curiosity, at all, about the 1906 Earthquake (especially a morbid one), the Mission District is probably the most interesting place to look. Here are the top 3 reasons history nerds should take a closer look in the Mission.

1. LIQUEFACTION

Turns out that when you fill a marsh in with sand and debris, build lavish 3 & 4 story buildings on that sand and debris, then shake the ground for half a minute, those buildings pretty much sink right down into the ground.

Sinking buildings were built over what was once lake or marsh.

Guests on the 4th floor of the Valencia St. Hotel (top) simply stepped out of the window onto the street. Those sleeping on floors 1-3 weren’t so lucky. Most of the buildings destroyed by the earthquake were wiped out by fire. But this block of victorians on South Van Ness (below) survived 3 days of fires to become a tourist attraction.

South Van Ness between 18th & 19th.

2. FIRE LINE

The fires burned out in the Mission leaving a dramatic contrast between prosperity and homelessness (just like today!), thriving commerce and total annihilation (just like today!), Victorian architecture and Edwardian. Walk down 20th street from Dolores Park to Valencia paying attention to the architecture on the North side (post 1906) vs. the south side (pre 1906).

Much of the commercial hub in the Mission District survived. There weren’t many places left in the city that you could buy anything so thousands flocked to the Mission for goods and services in the days, weeks, and months after the fires.

3. DOLORES PARK

At the corner of 20th and Church remains one of the few fire hydrants in the city that was functioning after the city’s water mains had burst. This hydrant is credited for helping stop the fire for pushing forward and is painted gold on April 18th each year.

Dolores was also the temporary home for some of the quarter of a million refugees (more than half of the city’s population). A handful of these Army built earthquake shacks remain in the city.

Next week Mission Bicycle Company begins hosting 1906 Earthquake bike tours which include a theatrical simulation of the 46 seconds of the earthquake, 10 stops with before and after pictures, little known stories, a few surprises, lunch and a rental bike (more info).

You know that moment when Valencia is quiet? Early before all the shops open? I show up to work and there’s a woman out front knitting quietly on a little folding stool. A real live yarn bomber.

I wasn’t expecting her to be so open or charming. I thought yarn bombing was done anonymously in the shadows. I started asking questions and here’s what I learned.

Emily Stauffer (fogknits.com) has been doing this since 2010. As sweet as she is, she started out of snark. “All my friends kept sending me this yarn bombing story that had gone viral. It got kind of old saying ‘Yeah, I saw it. Thanks.’ So I decided to yarn bomb something so that I could say yeah, ‘I’ve done it. Thanks.’”

“5 years later, this is probably my 200th bike rack.”

Emily has bombed pansies in a garden, statues, fences, mail boxes and pink flamingos in a neighbors yard (the only time she’s yarn bombed on private property). But her favorite thing to bomb is bike racks.

“I’m so opposed to yarn bombing trees. Trees are beautiful. They don’t need improving. Let’s add some color to something that needs some help. An ugly fence. A steel bike rack.”

“It took me by surprise that the bike community appreciated it,” Emily said. “I used to just cover the very top of bike racks – the most visible part. But I kept noticing that people would slide the yarn down to one side. Eventually I figured out that bikers were doing that to protect their paint from getting scratched by the rack. Since realizing that knitting racks was actually functional, about 95% of my yarn bombing has been on racks.

Emily’s work tends to stay up anywhere from 24 hours (in the Castro) to a year.

When strips get boring, Emily throws in an Easter egg like this Charlie Brown stripe.

Do you recognize this pattern? Take your best guess in the comments below.

So how long does it take to yarn bomb 5 circular bike racks? Emily does most of the work in what she calls “found time.”

“10 minutes while waiting for the bus. Another 10 minutes because the bus was full and it just passed me by. 20 minutes on the bus. I don’t really sit at home and work on a project like this.” When pressed, Emily confesses, “I probably spent 60-70 hours on this one.”

I thanked her for her contribution and with a smile she corrected me, “my egregious act of vandalism.”

In 1894 the Pullman Strike cut San Francisco off from all physical communication.

From the San Francisco Examiner on July 7, 1894:

“An enterprising citizen of Fresno has organized a bicycle mail relay from that city to San Francisco to carry letters only. The route taken is west to Gilroy, then north through San Jose to this city.”

For $0.25 you could have a letter carried relay style from a bike shop in San Francisco all the way to a bike shop in Fresno. From there, or 16 other cities along the route, the local post office could deliver your letter right to the recipient’s door.

This weekend the route will be recreated. All that’s left is to get some mail.

In 1894 each letter was carried on the backs of 8 different bike messengers over 210 miles. The journey took about 18 hours, riding single speed bikes on mostly unpaved roads.

800 stamps were produced so quickly that an glaring mistake was overlooked. San Francisco was misspelled San “Fransisco.”

Full story here: Ingenuity, Murder, Fraud and Fixies (San Francisco in 1894)

On Friday a small group of friends will commemorate this ride by departing from a bike shop in San Francisco and tracing the same route to Fresno. None of them are bike messengers, and in fact, this will be the longest ride of their lives.

All they need now is mail.

This is where you come in. Stop in Mission Bicycle Company any time between now and 6:00 pm on Friday night if you would like to send a commemorative postcard to anyone in Fresno.

Don’t have any friends in Fresno? The recreators will hand deliver a message to any of the following stops.

• Spokeasy Public House (bar)

• “Unnamed awesome little taco truck”

• Fresno County Bicycle Coalition

• Metal Mark Climbing & Fitness (where the crew will be showering after 18 hours on a bike)

After 121 years, the price remains $0.25.

Estimates indicate more than 1,000 lined the half mile race course earlier this evening for what was possibly the first legal bike race to take place in the Mission.

76 racers competed in two races that lasted about 40 minutes each.

“There was one crash but it was minor” said volunteer, Stephen Grady. “It seemed to be very well taken care of. The paramedics were on it but everybody walked away from it.”

Nearing the final lap, Marc Marino about to overtake his friend Chas Christiansen.

$700 in cash prizes were distributed to the podium finishers of both the women’s and men’s races.

Winners – Women’s

• 1st Veronika Volok
• 2nd Kora Colasuonno
• 3rd Christina Peck

Winners – Men’s

• 1st Manuel Barra
• 2nd Marc Marino
• 3rd Chas Christiansen

This Saturday about +70 people will be racing what may be the first fully legal, closed course bike race in the Mission District. Ever.

In NIMBY, USA it’s a miracle out of scripture that Mission Crit organizer, James Grady, was permitted (literally) to carve out a triangular velodrome on a Saturday night.

The total cost to produce the race is nearing $10,000, which is coming from a handful of sponsors and a crowdfunding campaign. In an unconventional move, the SFMTA agreed to waive the $30,000 fee normally charged to reroute buses. Some members of ISCOTT, the committee that regulates street closure permits, “were dumbstruck,” Grady said. Race registration fees go towards cash prizes for the winners.

Mission Crit features two 120 degree turns. Spectating should be good and harrowing.

Spectators can buy tickets to win prizes like Kryptonite locks, Tshirts, and GoPro cameras. Proceeds go to the San Francisco Bicycle Messenger Association’s Broken Bones Fund, which helps messengers in times of need.

Last year’s Mission Crit featured 20 racers in a parking lot. This year the mens race sold out and has a waiting list of 17. Two teams are coming up from Los Angeles.

In organizing the event, what was most remarkable for Grady was, “how supportive the Bay Area bicycle community is. I’m just a guy with an idea. This could not have happened without the overwhelming support of the community.”

Sunday’s 60 Minutes piece on the other coast’s brakeless fixed crit.

Like any track race on a real velodrome, all bikes are fixed (no coasting). And while it may seem counterintuitive, riding brakeless is essential to the participants safety.

“There’s been a dramatic increase in the popularity of cycling but there are very few opportunities to see an actual bicycle race” Grady said, explaining his motive for organizing the race. “The goal of the Mission Crit is to promote cycling and community.”

Wanna race?

The men’s race is at capacity but if you’re a woman (1 in 10 registrants at press time) there is still time. Register here. Winner gets $200 in cash.

Official Rules:

• Fixed gear only (no freewheels)

• No brakes. Even if they’re disconnected, take ‘em off.

• Drop bars

• Clipless pedals strongly encouraged

• Lights and GoPros permitted

• Helmets required

Wanna watch?

Just show up this Saturday, 4/11. The women’s race is at 8PM, the men’s at 9PM.

The best spots for watching should be 18th and Treat, or 17th and Harrison. If you want an inside corner (to get closest to the action), stake out a spot before the race begins. Crossing the course during the race is extremely dangerous for you and the racers.

To make sure the crit is invited back next year, pack out your trash and use the provided Port-a-potties.

When a cop does something unexpected or outrageous bystanders are sometimes compelled to capture pictures or video.

What you’re seeing here is a cop issuing a $110 ticket to a driver for double parking in the bike lane. And this isn’t just any cop. This is the Captain of Mission Station.

“I tagged two people today who I’ve warned before,” Captain Perea said.

Cyclists and pedestrians alike seemed confused by the rare sighting. But none more than this Uber driver (pictured above and below) who seemed to be just hanging out between fares. Note the big empty spot he could have pulled into to allow rush hour cyclists access to the bike lane.

“What we’re doing in this district is what all stations are doing across the city. We call it Focus on the Five. Every district will identify the causes of the most collisions.”

Focus on the Five is one of the tools the SFPD is using to support Vision Zero – the city’s goal to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2024. It includes both enforcement and education.

“[Focus on the Five] Is not about tickets, but enforcement is one way we can track data to see how we’re doing.“ Captain Perea continued, “We’re just trying to keep people safe. And this is what we got. So we work with what we’ve got.”

TryCaviar.com driver finds an awesome place to park and wait for his order earlier this month.

Before Capt. Perea headed out to write one more ticket, he said, “We have to make sure that the streets are safe for public travel. It’s public safety at its most basic.”

The cement is curing on the first court in the US built from scratch specifically for bike polo.

After years of being run out of nearly every court with lights, the San Francisco Bike Polo (SFBP) club will finally have a place to play without the threat of being ticketed. SFBP met with both the mayors office and the Park Director after being kicked out of Dolores Park in 2011. “This allowed for some frank discussions about the need and what to do with us” explained Bikeman Ben, one the SFBP organizers.

“Once we heard about the park renovation, we as a group, attended all of the planning meetings and made sure that the parks department knew that there was a demand” Ben continued. “SFBP is the reason the court is being built.”

When asked why a vacant basketball court wasn’t sufficient, Ben detailed three main factors:

1. Safety – Posts and poles are a danger to the riders.
2. Flow – Keeping the ball in play – Walls (at least 2’ high) surrounding the court.
3. Size – Bigger than tennis or basketball. Smaller than hockey.

“We are happy to be able to play anywhere, but being able to design the court to our specifications has made San Francisco the envy of the international polo community” Ben added.

SFBP members include national and world champions, among others considered top players in the sport. Ben continues “more players are moving to San Francisco just because of the talent and the new court. It is a quality fraternal sport that is welcoming to all who love the sport.”

Until the new court opens, you’ll find bike polo being played nearly every night of the week at the Corondo Playground on 21st. Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM is newcomer night.

Previously

• Dolores Park Bike Polo Crackdown