San Francisco
Bike Tours
Inside the City
San Francisco bike tours are interesting due to its small size (7 miles x 7 miles) and wide variety. You can see a lot on a short trip. However, if you are not an experienced urban rider cycling can sometimes be quite dangerous. Below are a some good city bike tours which will avoid most such risk:- Golden Gate Park -- Sundays are best because on Sunday cars are not allowed on JF Kennedy Dr and a few other park streets.
- Golden Gate Bridge -- the west side of the bridge
is for bikers only; walkers take the east sidewalk. Once you
get over the bridge from SF follow the other bikers left, left
again, then under the north end of the bridge and on to Sausalito.
Biking on Golden Gate Bridge
Biking under south end of Bridge
- The Marina -- follow the northern shoreline west starting from Fisherman's Wharf to Golden Gate bridge.
- The Embarcadero -- Taking the Embarcadero eastern shoreline sidewalk south from Fisherman's Wharf to the SF Giant's AT&T ballpark is a nice flat little ride.
Outside the City
Outside the City is where the fun really begins for serious bikers. Here are some excellent places to start:- Marin County -- There are several excellent rides immediately after you cross the Golden Gate Bridge. For example, to the Marin Headlands, Sausalito, or Tiburon.
- Off Skyline Ridge (Hwy 35) -- On and around Skyline Blvd heading south from Hwy 92 in San Mateo to Hwy 9 at Saratoga Gap has many top rides.
- McNee Ranch -- Great mountain bike country with beautiful views including an 8 mile partial loop that goes 1840 feet up to the top of Montara mountain. Some of these steep, now partially paved trails were used by early settlers to get to SF as early as 1769. One good trail head heads east off Hwy 1 at the north end of Montara State Beach.
- Bicycle Sundays, Canada Rd -- This is a great ride for bikers of all skill levels.
- Stanford Campus -- Biking is one of the best ways to see the campus. We've even seen Apple's Steve Jobs and his kid riding bicycles together in the College Ave. neighborhood between Stanford & Stanford Industrial Park, home of Hewlett Packard.
There are literally hundreds of outstanding bike rides within a few minutes of most SF Bay area cities. I've only picked out a few of the best.
One way to obtain more details is to check out a few of the better bicycle stores near your area of interest. Most will have a wide selection of books on local cycling routes. Many bike shops also sponsor friendly informal bicycling groups which ride weekly and will be happy to show you the ins and outs of local rides.
Be careful of cars and enjoy outstanding bike touring around the San Francisco Bay!
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