A photo of the runway from last year's BikeExpo Fashion Show. Photo by Richard Masoner.

We love a good fashion show and are excited that the SF Bike Expo is back and better than ever with two Pedal Savvy Fashion Shows! The SF Bike Expo will also feature a BMX Stunt Show, Lowrider Bike Competition, Custom and Vintage Bicycle Show, Bike Swap and much more happening next Saturday, Nov. 6th at the Cow Palace.

To sweeten the deal, we’d like to get into the SF Bike Expo FREE

• Join or renew your SF Bicycle Coalition Membership and we will give you a free ticket to the SF Bike Expo (offer ends Tuesday, November 2nd!)
• Volunteer as a bike valet or outreach volunteer , and get a free ticket.

Following is a repost of our Bike About Town article that ran before last year’s BikeExpo and fashion show.
by Deb Greco

Have you noticed how well-dressed San Francisco people biking in San Francisco are? The bike lanes on Market Street are full of dapper folks showing that you can ride your bike for transportation and look stylish doing it. Who says you can’t have it all?

For people bicycling, the destination is as important as the journey – and they want to arrive in style, not sports clothes. But biking – even on a city commuter bike – asks more from a rider’s wardrobe than simply standing on a streetcar will.

This might seem like a lot to ask, but only until you see the looks that independent clothing designers are creating to meet the needs of this growing market. The looks seen on bike fashion show runways this fall prove that these designers have taken biking to heart and that they believe you can have it all and then some.

Offering looks from designers and brands from the Bay Area and beyond, next Saturday’s Fashion Show at the San Francisco Bike Expo is the perfect opportunity to check out seasonal alternatives to screaming yellow Gore-Tex – including sleek, sexy, expressive and bike-friendly urban style.

We surveyed several stylish San Francisco people to see what clothes, tips and tricks they use to look great while riding – especially in inclement weather. For life on a bike, form and function are simply inseparable.

Howard Chambers of the bicycle boutique Bcyclette said: “I believe that they are both equally important. Like peanut butter and jelly or yin and yang. You need both in order to really use your bike as an everyday vehicle.”

David Birdsong, a systems architect at a media company startup, agreed that a cyclist needs both, “but function first. It has to not get in the way. No bunching up. No getting caught in stuff. And it needs to be decent at wind blocking.”

Laura Eklund, on the other hand, is a lawyer and daily bike commuter who starts from form. “But, as Frank Lloyd Wright knew, form follows function,” she said. “The form will be more important because I am attentive to how I need to present myself at my destination, because I’m riding as a form of transportation.”

Common themes included the art of layering for San Francisco microclimates, new fabrics that “break the jeans monotony,” as Birdsong puts it, and the importance of wearing a helmet.

Bold colors are also prized by many, for both their form and function. Freelance journalist Patricia Decker likes to ride in “anything with bold colors and vintage patterns. It keeps me beautiful and highly visible.”

Saskia van Gendt, who works for the Environmental Protection Agency, agrees: “Bright yellow and orange look striking against a gray sky, and wool fares well against precipitation.”

Balin Brandt, proprietor of Bcyclette, sees two essential options for outerwear: “Option one: Wear some comfy, but hard-wearing ‘wet clothes’ and then change into your stylish dry clothes upon arrival, or option two: shellac yourself into one of those full rain suits. I usually opt for the first one; I always feel like a steamed sardine in the rain suit.”

Pedal Savvy Fashion Show is the main event at the BikeExpo on Sat. Nov. 6 at the Cow Palace, 2600 Geneva Ave., Daly City. For more information, go to sfbikeexpo.com.