SF Urban Riders » SFUR

Sneak-A-Peek at the NEW Interior Greenbelt Trail

dan — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:10:00 +0000

Dan Schneider and Chris Ruedy inspect the Interior Greenbelt Trail Corridor.

Its been rumored about for quite some time, there have been community meetings, and there was even an emotional vote of approval from the SFRPD Commission, but nothing tells the story like a photo.

The long awaited Interior Greenbelt Trail project, or better known as the Stanyan Street trailhead, finally breaks ground on Saturday October 2nd, 2010. The project is a partnership with UCSF and SF Rec & Park since the trail corridor shares property lines. Visit the SF Urban Riders Volunteer Page for more details on getting involved in this exciting and historic project.

The Interior Greenbelt trail was originally established in the 1880′s when Adolph Sutro owned the land and planted the trees that would become the infamous Sutro Forest. At that time Cole Valley was farm land, UCSF had not been constructed, and the newest train stop was at Stanyan Street to bring visitors close to Golden Gate Park. In order for Adolph Sutro to get weekly laborers to his Nursery at Clarendon and 7th Avenue he needed a connecting trail, so he constructed it and made it into an official route. It went on to become another of Sutro’s amazing recreational gifts to the city he loved, only to be improperly managed and lost to the public in the 1950′s.

This project will take 6-9 months to complete, and thousands of hours of volunteer work. It will add approximately 1/2 mile to the current Mount Sutro trail system, and more importantly direct access to Mount Sutro from Stanyan Street and Cole Valley. This trail project also signifies the beginning of a dream to build a trail that will continue from the Stanyan Street trailhead all the way around Mount Sutro, continuing over to Twin Peaks, and then down into Glen Canyon. Its a big dream shared by many open space organizations, and just One Big Reason why the cycling community needs SF Urban Riders to be at the big table and advocate to keep this dream accessible to bikes!

Please be excited for this NEW Trail Project, but be RESPECTFUL. Please do not try to use the trail during construction, as it has NO EXIT. Local neighbors thank you in advance for your courtesy!

The best way to check it out is to VOLUNTEER at the monthly trail building party.

The best way to stay informed of all things Mount Sutro and Trails is the Sutro Stewards website:

This section the Interior Greenbelt trail has been closed to the public for 50 years

Chris Ruedy, Craig Dawson, and Bandit at one of the hidden Chert Rock outcrops that are waiting to become cool trailside features.

Summer Mountain Bike Camp a Huge Success!

dan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:27:54 +0000

Conquering Mount Sutro by Mountain Bike.

The SFUR Summer Mountain Bike Camp in partnership with the Presidio YMCA, was once again an overwhelming success. Over 45 youth participants between the ages of 10-14 years old attended the week long camps. Schools from all over the city were represented, such as Brandeis, Claremont, Marina, Presidio, Everett, Aptos, Star of the Sea, Claire Lilienthal, Live Oak and more.

After a day of safety instruction and primary skill building challenges, the action moved to some of the best local riding spots.The smooth and gentle trails of Golden Gate Park, the rolling hills of McLaren Park, the switchbacks of Mount Sutro, and the awesomeness of China Camp Sate Park as a finale. Some of the more adventurous rides started at the top of San Bruno Mountain and wound all the way down via pavement and dirt trail to McLaren Park, while another ride started at Mount Sutro and rode all the way through Golden Gate Park and back to the Presidio YMCA.

The advanced group rolling San Bruno Mountain towards McLaren Park.

Each days location offered a progressive learning step to the next in order to build strength and confidence along the way. Each location also offered its own unique outdoor experience. The group learned about micro climates like the fogginess of Mount Sutro vs the Sunniness of the Presidio on the same day. The locations also offered numerous wildlife experiences like Hawks, Deer, Turkey, Snake, Lizard, Birds, Bugs, Gophers, and numerous native and non-native plants.

From the many smiles along the way, we are certain our curriculum was enjoyed by the participants. The first day of the program was spent entirely on black top and structured around teaching the basics of balance, breaking, and shifting followed by a progressive series of skills challenges like a balance beam, small teeter totter, ramp ups, drop offs, tight corners and usually by popular demand some basic wheelie instruction. Learning these skills in a controlled environment, with appropriate spotters made the transition to the trails much easier. When the action moved to the trails, instructors were able to emphasize lessons as they pertained to upcoming sections of trail, and set up safety spotters on more challenging sections. Individual instruction was targeted where necessary. The program offered plenty of challenge, and participants were able to learn at their own comfort level.

Enjoying a post ride beach experience at China Camp.

Speaking of our training curriculum. Many thanks need to be given to the Norcal High School Mountain Bike League, whose brilliant approach to teaching basic bike fundamentals was heavily borrowed from. The Norcal League has a coach’s manual, and even offers a coaching clinic every October which SFUR considers mandatory for any youth instructor.

A big shout out to the Instructor Crew of Matt , Mark, Tanya , Lilly, Ted , and Dan, with major help from our Volunteers Christy McCain from SFUR, and Zach Moore from the Norcal League.

SF Urban Riders has several awesome Youth Mountain Biking Events coming up in the Fall of 2010. Keep in touch for more details!

Switchback training on Mount Sutro.

Jeremy masters the rocky section of Bayview Trail at China Camp.

The old BMX trail in McLaren Park was a fan favorite.

Think Bike Park

dcrites — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:35:55 +0000

We’re making progress on the McLaren Bike Park. We’re gathering support and reviewing proposals to submit to the city. Thanks to everyone who has already joined our McLaren Bike Park facebook page. Thanks to everyone who has visited our new MBP page here on this site. A very special thanks to everyone who signed our support petition and wrote a letter.

We’re also making a separate website just for this project.

Come by and visit us @ www.mclarenbikepark.org.

With enough voices, our momentum towards a bike park and mountain bike trails in McLaren and elsewhere will be unstoppable. We really need everyone’s help to spread the word. Tell people on facebook, tweet it out, send some emails, or just talk about it after your next big ride.

SF Bike Expo Needs…YOU!

Dan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:14:41 +0000

We’re looking for a few volunteers to help build dirt jumps, help setup a cyclocross race course, and other tasks of a general high grade of awesomeness. If you think you could assist, please head on over to the SF Bike Expo volunteer signup page which can be found here. They’re looking for volunteers for a few days before as well, so don’t let your schedule slow you down. SF Bike Expo has teamed up with Marin Bikes to raise funds for our future SF bicycle park (location TBD) by raffling off a Marin dirt jump hardtail! If you’d like to enter the drawing, click here, and buy as many tickets as you are wonderful.

If you miss this event, you’re missing out on the best bicycle based event that San Francisco ever sees. Cross Race, Dirt Jump contest, Track stand contest, great deals on all those beautiful, shiny upgrades you’ve been scouring craigslist for…

The blog over at www.sfbikeexpo.com is keeping everyone updated on last minute details.

SF Urban Riders will be there with our triple threat feature – come, ride, play, and support your local cycling scene.

Con Amigos

dcrites — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:24:18 +0000

Why SF Urban Riders? Why bother? Because of the pure enjoyment that comes from gathering good people together, and enjoying the experience of a bicycle adventure together. Laughing, looking, and leaning through turns and berms, one after another. That’s why we lead group rides. That’s why we’re working to create more off road opportunities in SF Parkland.

Cyclocrossers, Singlespeeders, Frankenbikers, Trailbikers, and Dirt Jumpers united this last Sunday under the banner of a SF Urban Riders group ride. One accomplice even came down from the land of Sonoma for, “something different”. Seems that even though you can have the endless miles of singletrack of Annandel and West County out your back door, there’s always that allure of park/pavement/burger/beer combination that our fair city serves up so very well.

We met up around 9ish. I say ‘ish’ because in proper mountain biker style, no one had a watch on or was really worried about exact times. While we waited for a friend to arrive, we practiced wheelies and bunnyhops to bide the time. I also took pictures of us not practicing. Easier photo subjects, if somewhat less interesting.

Our route went out through some fun trails in Golden Gate Park, carefully plotting our route around and through the Nike Women’s Marathon – though we did get some free chips out of the deal. They were worth the price, and that’s about all I can say for popchips. A new spot to me, who has been riding in GGP for the last five years, was the dump yard out near the beach, and talk about a potential bike park area, there’s already a ton of material there, and no use other than allowing RPD to dump materials. That and ride down hills,

Past Graffitti walls,

And through puddles, as boys on bikes must do.

From there, we went up to Mt. Sutro, which was beautifully moist from the fog and recent rain. Per typical, it felt like a wonderful escape from the city, from San Francisco, and everything urban.

From there, we went out to Twin Peaks, Whiz Burger, and Zeitgeist. There aren’t much for trails in the latter two spots, but there are certain other attractions beyond bicycles and trails after one has spent a few hours on bicycles on trails…

Hope to see some more folk, or just more of the same next month, or simply crossing paths on our fine SF trails. We’ve got a lot of room to get better, but it’s pretty damn nice as is. Now go out and ride your bikes.

Mouse-click fundraising!

dcrites — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:19:44 +0000

So many shoes, so many shoes, that our kids will soon have beautiful trails to ride and glorious bike parks to explore… Nike, the same powers that brought Union Square visitors the giant, gaunt, and intense poster of Lance Armstrong’s race face are now running a 650,000 dollar grant to support community and school groups which aim to unlock the potential of young people through programs that focus on sport. Well, as you can see in the current lead story – SF Urban riders is all about getting the young’ns out on the trail.

We need your help to secure funding from this unique opportunity. Please follow this link to vote for our group and spread the word via facebook!

With your help we can secure funding to organize regular youth rides and skills camps. If anyone remembers our skills clinics at the local Pilarcitos race series last fall, those type of programs are exactly what we will expand upon and bring to more places, with more quality features, challenges and lessons to engage and exhilarate children who stop by, no matter what their age. If you don’t remember the events, perhaps the images and video below might stir your imagination.

Thank you for helping us in this unique community based fundraiser.

Here’s what we’re up against

dcrites — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:10:05 +0000

And I don’t feel it will be hard to succeed, though the path to building off-road cycling recreational areas may take longer than we want, someday, our children will look back at videos like this, and shake their heads in bewilderment that parks areas cut down trees to keep out cyclists…

Making Beautiful Trails with IMBA

Dan — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:49:51 +0000

It’s what we do around here. We just wanted to remind everyone to come out in 2 weeks time to learn how to do it right.

Saturday April 4th

Join SF Urban Riders as we join the International Mountain Bicycle Association’s (IMBA) trail crew, Jason Van Horn and Inga Beck as they lead a trail building workshop that includes a morning presentation followed by an afternoon of on trail experience. We are proud to announce that Jim Jacobson (China Camp, Camp Tamarancho) and Zack Anderson (Forest Trails Alliance) will also be lending their knowledge to the project. We will be realigning the East Ridge Trail and adding THREE unique switchbacks to divert the original trail from sensitive habitat and mitigate steep elevation loss.

Don’t Miss Out – Register today!
http://go.imba.com/sanfran.

Food and refreshments will be provided all day. Free food, free education, and working to make your world a better place. Does free get any better?

Below this fine photo, you will find some well-honed event details, and as always, feel free to contact SFUR with any questions you may have.

Saturday April 4th
Event Schedule:

8:45 am – 9 am Check In
9:15 am – 11:45am Trail Building Presentation in City Lights Room on UCSF Parnassus Campus (Behind Milberrry Union Food Court - 505 Parnassus Ave)

12 noon – 12:30pm Lunch in Woods Parking Lot

12:45 pm- 4:30 pm Trail work on Mount Sutro East Ridge

End of day- Tool clean up and Post work celebration

Food: Breakfast will be donated by NOAH’s Bagels - Bagels & cream cheese served with coffee and hot tea. Lunch will be hosted by UCSF – local pizza with water and soft drinks Afternoon snacks will be provided by Clif Bar.
End of day festivities will be hosted by SF Urban Riders & Beach Chalet Brewery with refreshments and snacks.
Tools: All gloves and tools will be provided by the Mount Sutro Stewards. We strongly encourage wearing work clothes with long sleeves and full pants.

All Cars must park at the woods lot (Off of Medical Center way, south of Parnassus)

Those utilizing other modes of transport should meet at the city lights room of UCSF @ 500 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco

DUE TO CONSTRUCTION: Remember to travel via Clarendon to Johnstone then down Medical Center Way.

Parking is available for volunteers only during scheduled activities.