Mary Jane Watson / Flickr

Expect things to be a bit crowded.

Even if you're generally allergic to marketing campaigns, Bike to Work Day -- happening tomorrow (Thursday) in San Francisco and beyond -- seems like one of those can't-lose deals. Bicycling in itself isn't that difficult, but if you're going to join the commute, here are some things to expect and ways to get prepared.

Bike to Work Day was initially part of American Bike Month, established in the 1950s by the League of American Bicyclists (hey, not all K-Street lobbyists are evil!). In our far-flung corner of the nation, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is leading the charge. The group says it expects "hundreds of thousands" of people in the Bay Area to observe tomorrow's event, including Mayor Ed Lee and 10 of the 11 supervisors. It has its own Bike to Work Day information page, including group rides, "energizer stations" throughout the city, and bicycle mechanics who'll be out to help. On offer at the energizer stations in the morning and evening will be goodies, schwag-bags, and encouragement, because bikes are just that terrific. Here's a link to an interactive map showing where the stations are.

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Jeffrey Beall / Flickr

"No one pays any attention to it, of course," wrote the man who photographed this light in Denver last year.

Welcome to The Spokesman, our weekly bicycle column written by French Clements, a San Francisco resident and distance cyclist who considers it pretty routine to ride his bike to Marin County or San Jose and back. He belongs to a club, the SF Randonneurs, and is active in numerous aspects of the cycling community. For those of you wondering, the title of this column is a slightly tongue-in-cheek merging of bicycling and blogging terms, not a claim that Clements speaks for anyone but himself.

--Keith Bowers

In the wake of the tragic Castro bike crash in March, you'd be hard-pressed to find cyclists or pedestrians who don't feel some twinge of connection to the case. Sutchi Hui, a Daly City resident, was crossing Castro Street at Market on foot, just behind his wife, when he was struck by a rider, Chris Bucchere, who's suspected of speeding and being out of control. Hui, 71, died four days later. Bucchere, meanwhile, could face a felony vehicular manslaughter charge from the District Attorney's Office

Everything about this case just plain sucks. Even by the morbid standard of fatal bike collisions, which can be as sensationalized as they are rare, this one sticks out. People try to pin a lot of cartoonish BS on cyclists -- scan the comments of most any blog post or story on the subject -- and most of it we can shrug off. But this case is un-shruggable. There's so much to learn and too much at stake.

Many riders are lucky not to have caused a Bucchere-style crash, yet in their hubris -- going fast does feel awesome -- they see themselves not as lucky but as skilled. At least one video exists of Bucchere in the intersection, effectively showing his luck running out. In an online forum following the crash, Bucchere, probably woozy and dull with medication and adrenaline, wrote, "the light turned yellow as I was approaching the intersection, but I was already way too committed to stop." Those are the words of someone who didn't realize until far too late that he wasn't the rider he thought he was.

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Shawn Allen / Flickr

Bicycle + car = OW! This cyclist wasn't at fault, but the crash did happen at a stop sign.

Welcome to The Spokesman, our weekly bicycle column written by French Clements, a San Francisco resident and distance cyclist who considers it pretty routine to ride his bike to Marin County or San Jose and back. He belongs to a club, the SF Randonneurs, and is active in numerous aspects of the cycling community. For those of you wondering, the title of this column is a slightly tongue-in-cheek merging of bicycling and blogging terms, not a claim that Clements speaks for anyone but himself.

--Keith Bowers

When riding a bike in this hilly, congested, distractingly scenic, and carefree burg of San Francisco, breaking the law is a little too easy -- especially at stop signs. On Tuesday I wrote about some principles of good communication at intersections. ("S.F. Cyclists: If We Don't Communicate Well With Others, We Don't Deserve Respect.") Now, from a practical perspective, here are some points to aid our role (ha, roll) when navigating intersections with stop signs:

1. Slowing Down Is Great.
As the saying goes, where's the fire? Conservation of energy is great and all, but so is conservation of your life. Boo-yah! That said, the law -- roughly, "stop at that sign, or we'll, um, you know..." -- is broken about 134,000 times a day here. It's effectively unenforceable. Fixed-gear riders and folks in cleated shoes are especially vulnerable to ticketing. That said, more ticketing is not a viable solution. But a solution exists.

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James D. Schwartz / Flickr

UPDATE: We now know this sign is in Toronto. We wonder whether things are any different there?

Welcome to The Spokesman, our weekly bicycle column written by French Clements, a San Francisco resident and distance cyclist who considers it pretty routine to ride his bike to Marin County or San Jose and back. He belongs to a club, the SF Randonneurs, and is active in numerous aspects of the cycling community. For those of you wondering, the title of this column is a slightly tongue-in-cheek merging of bicycling and blogging terms, not a claim that Clements speaks for anyone but himself.

--Keith Bowers

The bike scene in San Francisco feels bipolar lately. There's nice stuff -- more bike shops, more bike lanes, more riders -- but there's some nasty stuff too.

Two-wheeled scofflaws compel police to go on a ticketing binge, a spree that's as sudden as it is misdirected. Deadly bike accidents on the Embarcadero and in the Castro gain a sensationalized aura that disguises their rarity. Victimization posts in comments-sections online ricochet across the web and spill into intersections and crosswalks.

And there's so much YELLING!

The Spokesman hereby offers a communitywide talk-down. I appeal to my fellow cyclists (and hope my distant motorist-cousins will take our efforts to heart). Dudes, dudettes, let's step up our game. The only figure that's rising faster than San Francisco's bike-ridership is its bike-accident rate, and studies show we cause more accidents than we might realize.

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Velo Steve / Flickr

See what we mean?

San Francisco bicyclists face constant battles. Rain. Hills. Rainy hills. Cars with outraged drivers. Jaywalkers wearing headphones. FiDi workers on cell phones. Agitated skateboarders. Overloaded bike racks. BART at rush hour. Muni, ever. Haight Street when the bars are open. Nineteenth Avenue when anything's open. Impatient and rude fellow bicyclists. Critical Mass. (Oh wait. Same thing.) Add it all up, and the stress seems to offset the benefits. Who'll show us a well-adjusted and tolerant way to navigate the ill-adjusted and intolerant masses? BikeSnobNYC, that's who. He'll be in San Francisco on Saturday at Rapha Cycle Club to lead us out of the darkness.

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The history of protest in San Francisco is a hippie thing, right? Age of Aquarius, war demonstrations, flowers stuck into the ends of soldiers' rifles, stuff like that? Guess again. It started in the 19th century with organized labor protests and continued from there. One good example of S.F. sticking it to the Man is the waterfront dispute known as the Big Strike of 1934, ground zero for a battle that included ports along the whole West Coast. It's one of the things covered in Saturday's Labor Bike Tour, part of LaborFest 2011.

Striking unions demanded to have a say in hiring, better pay, and a contract. After almost two months -- with the help of the S.F. police and mayor -- the companies took back the port and established a "safety lane" of rail cars and police vehicles near Pier 38 to move materials from ships to trains. Clashes resulted. Hundreds were injured, and three were killed. A public funeral procession was attended by 40,000.

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Kate Conger

Patrick Marks

​100 Profiles SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 84: Patrick Marks

Three decades ago, Patrick Marks set off from St. Louis on his bicycle, bound for Los Angeles. He took a haphazard route, riding through Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oregon, before traveling along the Pacific coastline and arriving in San Francisco after four months of pedaling. Seduced by the city, he never made it to Southern California. He set up camp in Golden Gate Park and earned a living as a bike messenger. Eventually, he crossed the bay to attend UC Berkeley and work as a buyer for Cody's Books.

Today, Marks leads a more stationary lifestyle: He owns and operates the Green Arcade bookstore, sings in the lounge act Lars Mars and His Men, publishes noir literature, and lives in the same San Francisco apartment he's had for the past 27 years.

That's not to say he's lost his piquancy. He's maintained the same daredevil attitude that brought him halfway across the country on a bike. Despite Cody's closing, Borders' bankruptcy filing, and Barnes & Noble offering itself up for sale, he decided to open his own bookstore.

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Timbuk2

SF Weekly's Matt Smith observes that "bags the size of throw pillows have been slung over Americans' shoulders since Pony Express days. But they became a fashion statement during the early 1980s, when enterprising bike enthusiast Erik Zo created a messenger-specific pack similar to a telephone lineman's satchel made by New York's De Martini Globe Canvas Company. His now-rare 1980s and 1990s creations are key signifiers of local hipster fashion cred, selling secondhand for hundreds of dollars each. But the cottage industry he helped spawn is still around and growing, with at least half a dozen San Francisco companies now designing and making messenger bags. Producers see them as the best bags in the fashion industry: They don't have to change with the seasons, and they don't have to create separate lines for men and women. The local businesses mean buyers benefit from good prices and innovative designs."

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Bike riders aren't usually the nattiest of dressers, unless ripped-up shorts, Chrome bags, and ironic mustaches fit your definition of the height of fashion. Fortunately for the continued existence of the species Homo bicyclus, there are some who do, and God love 'em for that. The Bike from Work Party and Fashion Show, happening Thursday night, after the Bike-to-Work-Day workday, presents the rare opportunity for the utility-dressed set to show off their duds on the runway and let their inner fashion divas out. Check out the clip above from last year's event.

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​With the recent crummy weather finally coming to an end, this is definitely a good time to check your chain. You've probably spent the past two months splashing through puddles on the Panhandle and picking up all manner of gunk as you ride over who-knows-what garbage in the gutters of the Tenderloin. Even if S.F. streets were completely clean, rainy weather is particularly hard on bike chains, so you'll need to be extra vigilant for signs of rust and debris this time of year. Gunk on your chain can have a sandpaper-like effect, wearing parts down and killing them before their time.More >>