San Francisco Chronicle Follow link for photos... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/04/BAG9S93DBM1.DTL&type=news The Bay Area, long storied as the wine, fine-dining and most- expensive-housing capital of the United States, now has a new and distinctly different accolade -- the greatest place in America to ride a motorcycle. Motorcyclist, said to be the nation's oldest continuously published motorcycle magazine (it started in 1912 as Pacific Motocyclist), has dubbed San Francisco and, by extension, the Bay Area as the premier locale for motorcycling in the United States. In a way, it's not surprising, given the moderate climate, conducive to year-round riding. Even the unstudied eye can find motorcycles all over the Bay Area -- parked in serried ranks in downtown San Francisco, lane- splitting through the commute jungle on the Bay Bridge, gracefully coursing through the twisties of Marin County on any given weekend. "There can be only one Best Motorcycling City, and among all the United States of America's roughly 19,355 incorporated burgs, you can't beat San Francisco," the magazine wrote. "Great roads, great weather, great shops and great hangouts make the Bay Area a no-brainer as the best place in the U.S. for two-wheeled citizens." The also-rans were San Diego, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Denver, Daytona Beach, Fla., and Columbus, Ohio. What also makes this place Biker Central, however, is a feeling in the local motorcycle world that the area is, as it is in other walks of life, tolerant of bikers, perhaps even friendly. Motorcycling in the Bay Area is supported by a number of factors, some of them tangible -- like the motorcycle-only parking meters sprinkled around San Francisco. Then there are the numbers. San Francisco has nearly twice as many registered motorbikes per capita as the average for California, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles, and more than twice as many as that hotbed of hot rodding, Los Angeles County. Compared with cars and light trucks, motorcycles are in a distinct minority. Of the more than 28 million cars, light trucks and motorcycles registered in California, fewer than 600,000 (or about 2 percent) are motorcycles. A few of the area's riders -- computer programmer Saskia Pardo is just one of them -- moved here from other states largely because they had heard that the Bay Area was Biker Nirvana. In 1990, Pardo, who is now 54, was living in Maine, where the winter roads are icy or covered with snow (this is not motorcycle friendly). She went on a motorcycle tour in Europe and met a bunch of Bay Area riders "who were middle-aged and rode really well, and it all kind of clicked with me." She moved to San Francisco, an area that not only is biker friendly but also computer-programmer-friendly, got a job and has not looked back. Four years ago, she met her future husband, cycle racer Joe Pardo, at what is now Infineon Raceway in Sonoma County. They eventually joined another racer, Paul Somerville, in opening Moto Java, a combination biker cafe and motorcycle repair and sales shop on Ninth Street near Bryant Street in San Francisco. Michael Reese, an ex-motorcycle courier, recently bought the cafe part of the operation and now caters to all manner of motorcycle folk -- couriers, hobbyists and commuters, who stop in for a shot of espresso and a chat. Bikers also tend to congregate in the Mission District, particularly at a bar called Zeitgeist; at Sunday morning rides in suburban counties; and at the motorcycle shops that dot the Bay Area. Such places are, in effect, destinations, excuses to get on the bike. It's not uncommon for long-distance riders to drive 100 miles to California Sport Touring, a specialty store in Martinez, to pick up an accessory they could easily have bought online. It's the ride that's the point. John Joss, a 70-year-old Mountain View writer and consultant, says he has ridden more than 1 million miles over the past half a century and still does about 25,000 two-wheel miles a year. "What makes this area so wonderful is the marvelous roads and the weather, " Joss said. On most days, you can find bikers riding through Marin County, frequently taking Highway 1 from Mill Valley out to Inverness, or others going up Highway 84 in San Mateo County to where it meets Highway 35. Many riders can be found on roads farther afield -- Highway 160 along the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, or Highway 4, snaking out through the Stanislaus National Forest. One popular source for where to ride is the Web site www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm, a voluminous Baedeker of Northern California touring roads. But Joss cautions the would-be biker about to set out on any of these rides that, unlike driving a "cage," a bikers' term for cars, motorcycles are edgy little things that require utter concentration and skill by their pilots. "If you screw up, you die," he said. "Badly ridden motorcycles are lethal. " Harry Hurt, a retired University of Southern California professor of safety engineering, wrote an exhaustive 1981 study on motorcycle safety. He said almost nothing on the subject of safety has changed in the 23 years since. "The conclusion of the study was that they're fun, but they're not friendly," said Hurt, 76. "Riding a motorcycle is 16 times more deadly than driving the smallest small car." Hurt, Joss and other experienced riders say those who want to stay alive on bikes should wear as much protective gear as they can -- figure out what your head is worth, then buy the best helmet you can -- and always be prepared for the unexpected. "Like the car coming down the street that doesn't signal, then turns left in front of you," Hurt said. "And you're not ready to stop. Take a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (www.msf-usa.org) training course." Evidence of this prudent zeal for self-preservation can be found in the fact that many of the bikers cruising around the Bay Area these days are older folk, like Brian Halton, the 60-year-old publisher of City Bike, a monthly San Francisco motorcycle newspaper that has been around for more than two decades. Halton says he think he knows why motorcycling is popular in the Bay Area. "Most motorcyclists are convinced it contributes to your mental well- being and keeps you young at heart," he said. "When I had my first motorcycle in California, I rode home to upstate New York. I was 26 and my friends were already clerks and bookkeepers. They said, 'Aren't you getting a little old for this s -- ?' " Many years later, Halton was riding out in rural Marin County one day and a guy on a BMW motorcycle sped by him "going very fast." The BMW rider pulled off the road at a turnout overlooking the sea and Halton pulled in, too. "The guy had to be 75 years old, and I said, 'Aren't you getting a little old for this s -- ?' And he just laughed."
San Francisco is also a good mc city in terms of the relative advantage that getting around by motorcycle confers on the rider as opposed to the cager or Muni patron. Rich, Urban Biker
