Bikes of San Francisco

i thought i'd take a short break from my self-promoted art, and share a print from torweeks instead.

i've always thought there were two very different san franciscos: the local version and the tourist version. it's easiest to see when you watch movies that take place in the city. the heartbreak kid is a horrible movie, but a good example of a tourist's san francisco-- they're easy to pinpoint because the golden gate bridge finds reasons to show up in b-roll despite whether or not the characters are anywhere near it. and they ride cable cars everywhere at all times. older movies like dirty harry are much better at portraying the city. in fact, mr. eastwood drives down vermont st. in one chase-- and that's the actual crookedest street in the world (not lombard).

anyway, this bicycle print labels the neighborhoods well. and, again, you can see the difference between the tourists' san francisco and ours: it's a matter of fixies versus pedicabs. though i've never ridden either.

click the image to see the rest of the bikes.

the mostly stolen bike of the tenderloin is great. once, i read a story from someone reviewing their experiences in the TL and their only real complaint was that crackheads had learned how to make pipes out of her vespa's spark-plugs and kept stealing them to smoke their rocks. apparently it's pretty easy to do if you have access to google.

oddly enough, though, the only time i ever saw a unicycle was in the tenderloin-- and not in the haight. and i know the cyclist. if you met her, you'd never guess she lives in the loin or rides a unicycle. not to say that those sorts of facts should be very obvious.

oh, and i do i love the that the marina is represented by a tandem bike. whoever invented those should be tied to a rock and left in the desert. and when i say "those" i mean both the tandem and the marina.

in related news, please check out liz hickok's city of san francisco... made of jello.