Different Spokes San Francisco

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Different Spokes San Francisco

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Different Spokes is the San Francisco Bay Area’s recreational bicycling club for the Le***an, Gay,

Founded in 1982, the club is open to all members of the LGBTQ community and its friends who have a shared interest in bicycling. We offer a variety of cycling rides and social events throughout the year. We also have a Facebook group here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dssf.org/

09/22/2026

From the ChainLetter blog:
Cycling the MUPs

"Multi-Use Paths (MUPs) pepper the Bay Area and come up in some places you wouldn’t think to look. Here in Contra Costa we have MUPs derived from abandoned rail lines—rails to trails—such as the Iron Horse and the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trails. Sections of Concord, Walnut Creek, and Pleasant Hill were originally orchards and farmlands, and canals were built to provide water to farmers. Those canals are still there and their service roads have morphed into MUPs. All of them are well used. The orchards are long gone. The Mill Valley-Sausalito Path, which we all use for the Jersey Ride and most excursions out of SF into Marin, is a MUP, built across a tidal mud flat for some reason. The Midpeninsula has a long section of the Bay Trail, much of it mixed terrain, which is a MUP. In fact most of the Bay Trail around the Bay is or is conceived as multi-use. The Bay Trail in Berkeley/Emeryville is part of that network. The Los Gatos Creek Trail, which we use in the SF-to-SJ ride is also a MUP. Further south we have the Monterey Bay Trail that starts in Castroville and goes to Cannery Row.

In the past I avoided cycling on MUPs. The main reason was safety. At that time I thought it was safer to ride amidst cars than with joggers, doggers, and wayward toddlers. I also was rarely going less than 15 MPH, which is the standard speed limit on MUPs. Nowadays I ride on them frequently and enjoy them immensely. As car traffic has increased and become more wanton, the roads are less welcoming and the experience anything but calming and peaceful whereas the MUPs can provide tranquil relief from motordom. We may not realize it but riding with traffic consumes mental and emotional energy. There is much to attend to in order to stay safe and that is anything but conducive to relaxation and recreation. I’m not a fan of recreational cortisol."

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/09/07/cycling-the-mups/

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09/19/2026

From the ChainLetter blog:
Disc Cuss

"It had been quite a while since I had deigned to check the disc brakes. They had seemed to be working fine albeit the freestroke was increasing, which I knew was a rough indicator of the pads and disc rotors wearing down. About a week later I remembered to inspect the rotors and one was almost to the minimum wear level of 1.5 mm thickness. This one was 1.53. The brake pads looked fine from the outside—they seemed thick enough. But I know you have to check both the top and the bottom of the pads because they rarely wear down symmetrically; sometimes it’s the top side that looks fine only to reveal that the bottom side is down to the metal pad backing, i.e. there ain’t no pad left. Sometimes it’s the reverse and the bottom side looks fine but the top side is worn down to the spring. Usually you’ll hear an irritating scraping sound at that point—metal on metal—and then you know those pads are done. In this case, the top side—the side of the pads near the spring—were almost gone.

So what did I do—replace them toute de suite? Nah, they probably have about one or two hundred miles left and those suckers are not cheap. So I haven’t changed them yet. Preventive maintenance has usually been my mantra but as I get older I’m less interested in fettling with my bike unless absolutely necessary."

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/08/31/disc-cuss/

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09/17/2026

From the ChainLetter blog:
What I Noticed 2

"It was going to be hot in Contra Costa and we were planning to drive to Castroville to ride the Monterey Bay Trail down to Asilomar and back, about 42 miles. The night before we decided the prospect of a two-hour drive in traffic and then a return trip in even worse traffic was just too debilitating. Where could we ride instead and not get deep fried in the heat? Bay side somewhere? Ah, Tiburon! I suppose if I still lived in SF I would have picked a different destination. But we don’t ride to Tiburon often—maybe twice a year—and we had not ridden on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge since the MTC acquiesced to car users and demoted the bike lane on the bridge to limited hours, Thursday afternoon to Sunday night.

One of the nice things about not doing a club ride or not having to meet friends for a ride is that the only schedule you have is entirely self-imposed. Got up late? No problem, there’s no one you have to meet. We took our time getting ready and left the house piano piano. Strangely enough, if we had been doing the East Bay Tiburon loop to meet the Jersey Ride, we could have left the house even later."

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/08/24/what-i-noticed-2/

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09/15/2026

Interview with Karry Kelley: The First AIDS Bike-A-Thon [Updated 8/18/26]

"This interview was long in the making and finally it’s done. Although I continue to research the history of the club’s AIDS Bike-A-Thon, it will be the last interview I publish. I had asked Karry earlier last year if he would consent to be interviewed and he was enthusiastic about it. However we were not able to get together to talk until December shortly before both of us were going in for medical procedures that would put us both out of action for a while. Predictably I was not able to transcribe the interview soon after. After it was done we did some back and forth to polish up the interview. Then I realized that unlike the previous interviews Karry’s was replete with references to many members who long ago either died or left the club and that members today would know nothing about them. So I added some “footnotes” about who these members are/were in order to flesh out the individuals we were talking about. To make that even more readable I had to search my enormous collection of old club photographs for appropriate images of each of them. That’s why this interview is arriving so late. Consider this interview as not only a record of the BAT but as a fond in memoriam to our friends.

In the early days of the club Karry was a stalwart member, throwing himself into the club practically from the time he first showed up at a club meeting."

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/08/10/interview-with-karry-kelley-the-first-aids-bike-a-thon/

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09/12/2026

From the Chainletter blog:
Do It Yourself

"I hate to admit it: I no longer like to do bike maintenance. That doesn’t mean I don’t do it. I still do. But I no longer look forward to it and that results in a lot of delayed maintenance as I wait for things to completely fail, make horrendous noises, or work so poorly that I don’t enjoy riding it. Then I have to do it. The problem with that last one is that I have more than one bike. So what do I when my bike doesn’t work well? I just throw it in the corner and ride another bike. Until it also falls apart and then I have to do some maintenance. I currently have two very old rusty, nonfunctioning bikes that haven’t seen a minute of maintenance in years; they sit quietly gathering rust until one day I will either swallow my pride and haul them to a proper shop mechanic or I’ll set aside a day(s) to actually get them fixed. One bike is hella old and has, believe it or not, tubular wheels and tires. The tires are completely shot and I’m ambivalent about replacing them simply because getting another tubular flat means I have to fix that one too. Fixing tubular flats is a punishment the Devil metes out. I used to do it and I always did a mediocre job. Then I found a guy who would repair them for me at low cost and for a few years I never had to repair a tubby. He retired, darn. Fixing tubular flats, glueing tubular tires to rims, and cleaning the rims of old cement are execrable tasks. But I love the ride of tubulars. Those who ride tubbys know what I’m talking about.

This lamentation is not about tubular tires, which no one is riding anymore except for a few old farts. It’s about doing your own general bike repairs and maintenance. And this is not about the lack of knowledge, tools, or where to get experience to do repairs although they too deserves their own lament. It’s about where you do your repairs."

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/08/04/do-it-yourself/

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09/09/2026

From the Chainletter blog: Dont Look Back

"Look out kid
You’re gonna get hit
—Bob Dylan, “Subterranean Homesick Blues”

This spring Dr. Bob in LA wrote to tell me about his latest and greatest. He got a Garmin Varia radar unit and waxed enthusiastic about it: “I recently got a Garmin Varia rear light/radar. There was an article in Bicycling about these radar lights and they picked that as the best one. It works just as advertised and I have had no false negatives in the 3 weeks I’ve had it. By some weird magic I don’t understand, it will show not only one but however many cars are coming up behind you as dots progressing from bottom to the top of the Garmin computer display (on the extreme right side of the screen).
If you don’t already have one, I’ll tell you more about it because you should get one for each of you. I know you always used one of those geeky little mirrors that attached to the helmet. Aside from the geeky thing, I was always afraid that if I crashed and my head hit the ground, the extension stem would be driven into my temple and I’d get a scrambled frontal lobe.”

I’ve also known about radar units for some years now and they have always struck me as overkill…for me. As Dr. Bob mentioned I’ve flown my Fred flag high for decades by sporting a helmet/eyeglass mirror. I do not recall the year I started using one but I had one on my Bell V-1 Pro helmet. So this puts it in the early 1980s and I’ve been a mirror devotee ever since.

Recently my thinking about bicycle radar units has evolved."

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/07/28/dont-look-back/

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09/07/2026

What I Noticed

"We went down to the Midpeninsula to ride down Cañada Road through Woodside and Portola Valley. Ever since gasoline prices rocketed up, we’ve barely taken the van elsewhere to ride preferring either to ride from home or maybe get on BART to go somewhere. We’ve both had a rough spring physically so doing short rides near home has fit the bill. As you know, it may be more boring riding from your home but it is a lot less hassle. It saves time, gas, and whatever additional irritation you reap by playing bumper cars with all the other drivers out there.

Ostensibly it was Bicycle Sunday. But when we got to the north end of Cañada Road there was no barrier to block cars. Also there was plenty of parking when usually you have to hunt and shoehorn your vehicle into some weird spot because it’s so crowded. As we cycled south there was the sign that the Bicycle Sunday was cancelled for the day and no reason was given. Apparently a lot of other people didn’t know in advance either because there were still a lot of cyclists including families with kids, which is the major benefactor for car-free cycling on a very wide road."

https://dssf.home.blog/2026/07/14/what-i-noticed/

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09/02/2026

Rails to Trails project in the making?

"Now that the freight trains no longer run to the Permanente plant, there’s talk of a rails-to-trails project.

At this point, it’s just idle chatter about what to do with the route, but you can be sure a recreation corridor will be considered.

The final freight train ran on Sunday, July 24, 2022, operated by Union Pacific via the Vasona Industrial Lead (Permanente branch). The cement factory shut down shortly thereafter.

If you’re not familiar with the train tracks, I’m not surprised. The trains weren’t frequent. The only other company using the trains for shipping was Economy Lumber Company in Campbell.

The UP line originates in downtown San Jose and follows Southwest Expressway, Wi******er Boulevard. It branches north at Vasona Junction where Netflix HQ is located.

The only time I saw a train running was at Prospect Road and Stelling Road (see YT video).

Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) will want to extend the Los Gatos light rail line to downtown, but that’s going to be a difficult proposition."

Full read here (link to Bay Area Bike Rides blog):
https://rayhosler.wordpress.com/2026/08/13/rails-to-trails-project-in-*the-making/

Bio:
Ray Hosler is best known for the "Bay Area Bike Rides" tour guide, in publication since 1990 by Chronicle Books. Beginning with daily newspapers in Wyoming and Colorado, he branched out to Runner's World magazine in Mountain View, California, followed by a weekly bicycle column in the San Francisco Chronicle for three years in the 1980s. He has chronicled his many bike rides in two paperback books. His other literary efforts include a novel about a San Francisco bike race in 1889, a children's book, a novel about self-driving cars, and a trilogy about a Chinese family living in 19th Century America.

08/31/2026

It’s Dirty Work And Someone Has to Do It

Last week I rode some dirt—actually, a lot of dirt—with Valley Spokesmen, one of the other clubs I ride with. Unlike the late 1980s and 1990s, Different Spokes today has few exponents of offroad cycling. Back then a mountain bike ride would bring out anywhere from four to ten people and there were several of us who regularly led club dirt rides. The club’s annual trip to Lake Tahoe, which started out as a road tour, started to attract dirt riders due to burgeoning interest among the Spokerati who were curious about the famous Flume Trail as well as the copious trails around the lake. Alas, no more. About half the time David Millard gets no one to join his easy and convenient dirt rides in San Francisco and the Marin Headlands. Joan seems to have ridden off into the sunset since no one ever joined her for her all-day dirt escapades.

What of other clubs? There are a very few clubs with mountain bike rides including Almaden Touring, Fremont Freewheelers, and Grizzly Peak Cyclists. However the latter is noteworthy because it has two weekly “gravel bike” rides, one taking in routes in Redwood Regional Park and Sibley Volcanic, and the other Tilden and Wildcat Canyon Regional Parks. This makes it a real outlier by having two rides every week. It’s also noteworthy that these rides are called ‘mixed terrain’ rides with neither ‘gravel’ nor ‘mountain bike’ nomenclature. They’re rides that include paved and non-paved terrain and you can show up on any kind of bike.

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/06/26/its-dirty-work-and-someone-has-to-do-it/

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07/13/2026

Ride Recap: June Happy Hour in the East Bay

"This month we broke the mold of the HHITEB by starting in Moraga instead of Lafayette and pedaled an astounding (!) fifteen miles instead of ten. Whew. All of this epoch-breaking, era-ending change was so we could check out Canyon Club Brewery for dinner. Unfortunately Roger and I couldn’t personally vet this haunt before the ride so we were blindly treading into possibly dangerous territory. A meal at a brewery? This could end badly for all concerned. Getting blasted and fine dining, I’m not sure those two concepts go together. But when you’re toasted doesn’t everything taste delish?"

Full read here (link to ChainLetter blog also in bio):
https://dssf.home.blog/2026/06/22/ride-recap-june-happy-hour-in-the-east-bay/

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Address

San Francisco, CA
94114

Website

https://linktr.ee/differentspokessanfrancisco

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