San Francisco Motorcycle Club: City Landmark (And Fun-Loving Home To Our Release Party)

This granddaddy of motorcycle clubs celebrated its centenary in 2004. As the second oldest motorcycle club in the United States, the San Francisco Motorcycle Club (SFMC) is an iconic city landmark, a symbol of free-spirited bikers crisscrossing the American landscape.

Started in 1904, it gypsied from one place to the other before finding a home on 2194 Folsom Street in the Mission. The club website proudly proclaims its philosophy: they are not fixated with a particular motorcycle brand, open to all age groups (over 18), and members must take the business and the art of motorcycling seriously. The SFMC also likes to support the city's aspiring literary masterminds, and has played host to the Fourteen Hills release party for several years running.

Is there a reason these too seemingly disconnected groups -- writers and bikers -- go so well together? Of course there is, according to SFMC member John A. Sweeney. “The writer and the motorcyclist are kindred spirits," he explains. "We search for our souls in the blank sheet of paper and the open road.”

When you step inside the club this Friday at 7 p.m. for a night of readings, prizes, and literary celebration, you'll enter a plush wood interior to see trophies and historical photographs lining the walls. Take a seat, because this gorgeous room will quickly fill up with poets, writers, artists, bike riders, and more, reciting, bantering, and dancing. Voila, the next Fourteen Hills release party is born.

- Ashutosh Bhuradia, Fourteen Hills staff