While Fishermans Wharf is the least attractive/most touristy part of San Francisco it is a wonderful place to pick up a bicycle for the day and enjoy the natural delights of northern California.
You can tailor your day to suit your level of fitness, a group of four of us (two keen cyclists and two not so keen) cycled a gentle 15 miles over the space of a warm February day.
The route can take you across the very impressive Golden Gate Bridge and down a lovely fast hill into the beautiful town of Sausalito. Stop for lunch and get some great sandwiches from the deli - head on around the bays stopping sporadically to enjoy the view and feel self righteous about the exercise being taken and end up at Tiburon.
Board the Blue and Gold ferry and head back across the harbour past Alcatraz. Cycle back to the hire place, return bicycle while smiling, go for a beer - a practically perfect day.
As there are no buses from the North end of the Golden Gate Bridge, pedestrians are faced with having to walk back (boring) or carry on to Sausalito along the side of the road (about 30 mins walk, perfectly safe as long as you are mindful of the traffic). In Sausalito, watch out which ferry you catch. One of them is more than twice the price of the other - Golden Gate Ferries take Clipper passengers for $5, but Blue & Gold are around $10.www.goldengateferry.org
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As a tip though, before you leave these bike rental shops, check the bike carefully. We hired a tandem and the tire was so worn that it wore through to the inner tube. The bikes get a lot of use and clearly not enough maintenance so give your bike a thorough going over before you leave and get stranded across the bay.