Our homework hero Cap'n Jonny shared with us how he restored a Miyata 100 Mixte bike that was donated to Bicycle Exchange. He writes:
I couldn't resist taking this Miyata 100 Mixte home for a bit of love. As received, it looked pretty ratty, with lots of scratches in the paint and generally dirty, but after a thorough cleaning and a dose of rubbing compound, it started looking much better.
The popular Thaco Thursday Tours—a group ride series co-hosted by Western Wheelers and Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange (SVBE)—has just completed its first round of...
For 32 years, Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange (SVBE) has been driven by the passion and dedication of our volunteers, staff and community. We've always strived to make a positive impact, and now,...
Volunteers repairing a bike during a recent Coed Night
Hey SVBE volunteers, staff. You’ve done an amazing job keeping our wheels turning, saving bikes from the landfill and providing valuable transportation to our community!
It’s a bit hard to believe that another year has come and gone, but 2024 is here. 2023 was another tremendously productive year for BikeX, and it was a big team effort. We extend a heartfelt THANK YOU...
Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange's Fourth Annual Silent Auction Fundraiser is Live!
Back again for the holidays, BikeX is holding a Silent Auction Fundraiser! It's our fourth annual fundraiser, and it's better than ever with a wide variety of prizes.
As we approach the year-end, we at Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange (SVBE) are reflecting on the remarkable impact we've had in 2023 and setting our sights on even greater achievements in 2024.
Jack Miller, one of our senior volunteers, leads orientation at a Saturday event.
It has been delightful to witness a surge of interest in our recent Saturday Work Days. Maybe it's the nice weather or breaks from school/work or an easing in pandemic fears. Whatever the reason(s),...
Ecumenical Hunger Program (EHP), our featured charity partner
Newsletter readers have asked for more info about some of the organizations with whom BikeX partners. These organizations work within their communities to provide qualified recipients with bicycles...
We're pleased to announce board members Dave Fork and Jack Miller are the latest SVBE volunteers to be recognized by the Western Wheelers cycling club as Lefkowitz award winners.
From now through Friday, November 25, 2022, (now extended until) December 2, 2022, make a monetary gift to BikeX and your contribution will be matched by the Board during our first-ever Board Match!
BikeX donates lights, locks and helmets to go along with its bike donations.
Everyone at BikeX knows about the bicycles we repair and distribute. This, of course, has been the primary focus of the organization since its founding. The growth and success of BikeX have allowed us to...
We're halfway to our goal of 1,000 bikes donated out to the community in 2022!
(This is the kick-off entry of an occasional column by our board member and treasurer on matters related to Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange's bike donations to those in need.)
SVBE is honored to receive support from the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund!
We're thrilled to announce for the second year in a row, our local newspaper, the Palo Alto Weekly, part of Embarcadero Media, has awarded the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange a 2021 Palo Alto...
2020, along with our hundreds of bike donations, rides off into the sunset.
A global pandemic. Canceled volunteer days. A bike shortage. A backed-up bike parts supply chain. Destructive fires and horrible air quality. And a serious concussion!
We are pleased to announce that the Palo Alto Community Fund has awarded the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange with a generous grant! We previously announced our amazing fortune in our June newsletter, and...
Thanks to the kind folks at Wheel Kids, you can watch the stellar bicycle movie "Motherload" while supporting your favorite bicycle nonprofit, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange!
The Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange is finally on Instagram! Give us a follow on IG at @bicycle.exchange to stay in touch with all our human-powered good.
Starting with our January 2019 events, Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange will now be operating at 3961 E. Bayshore Road in Palo Alto. Please let your bikin' buddies know that we are no longer at 2566...
Bicycle Exchange has found new space in which to continue its operations. Located at 3961 E. Bayshore Road in Palo Alto, the industrial office space is only a temporary solution, but for now it...
Bicycle Exchange has several open volunteer positions. In many of these positions you'd be part of a small team to share the responsibilities. To learn more or to volunteer, please email This email...
We offer a bicycle safety program where we educate recipients of donated bicycles about bicycle safety. Just giving away bicycles to people who struggle to afford one is not enough to ensure their...
These awesome men and women of Google are grinning because of the amazing time they had making bikes safe and ridable once again. On June 2, 2015 Googlers converged on the Bicycle Exchange in...
Each year, Cupertino Bike Shop organizes one of the largest bicycle swap meets in the Bay Area. This swap meet is one of the Bicycle Exchange’s biggest fundraising opportunities, and we’ll be there...
In December 2014 the Bicycle Exchange supported the Silicon Valley Risk Management Society's annual bicycle build. Team of RIMS members unboxed and built a dozen new bicycles for donation to the...
Silicon Valley Bike Exchange was happy to have volunteers from National Charity League, Mid-Peninsula Chapter, for the first time at our workday on Saturday, January 24th. Jennie and her mom Renee...
“Dear Dave and Everyone at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange, Thank you so much for donating 24 bikes to our program! Our families are always so grateful to be given the opportunity to earn...
Each year, the Cupertino Bike Shop and Silicon Valley Mountain Bike Club (formerly ROMP) organize one of the largest bicycle swap meets in the Bay Area. Now at a new location, it’s bigger than ever....
Each year, the Sports Basement in Sunnyvale organizes an end of Summer swap meet. Swap meets are the Bicycle Exchange’s biggest fundraising opportunities, and we’ll be there again this year selling...
"Son, do you know how to adjust derailleurs?" Why was this elderly man calling me son? Maybe because he was old enough to be my father just like nearly every other person at the Silicon Valley...
We hold regular hackathons to build the website and tools that keep the Bike Exchange in the modern era. Contact us if you would like to participate. These events are open to warm bodies and to...
A Diamond Back Ascent bicycle, including white cables and balloon whitewall tires, restored by Cap'n Jonny
Recenly, Cap'n Jonny found in the Bicycle Exchange shop, a Diamondback Ascent tagged for donation. Being one of our top "Homework Heros," he says he just had to put his hands on it. Read on for...
A 1966 Schwinn Varsity stripped and rebuilt, now four pounds lighter, by Cap'n Jonny
Recently, Cap'n Jonny brought home a 36.6 pound gold 1966 Schwinn Varsity with roached paint to use as a base for a weight weenie build he was anxious to try. In the end he just put it on a diet and...
A Raleigh Record repainted, restored and rebuilt by Cap'n Jonny
Cap'n Jonny is back at it again and beautifully restored an old Raleigh and turned it into a nice flat bar commuter. Read about his process in his tale below.
See Cap'n Jonny's latest restoration of a classic Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix
Cap'n Jonny is back with another impressive restoration, and this one is available foranyone as impressed as us, and the sale will support our bike donations! Read on to learn more about this...
Captain Jonny's Pinarello Montello vintage road bike restoration.
Captain Jonny is back with another amazing featured bicycle. This Pinarello Montello might be one of his most stunning restorations, bringing back a bike to its original beauty. The bike didn't last...
A Bianchi Campione del Mundo restored by Cap'n Jonny. photo: Gregg Kato
I do a lot of restorations for the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange here in the heart of the Bay Area tech scene. We get a fairly steady stream of interesting donation bikes and I make a point every...
At BikeX, we are quite experienced tuning up bikes donated to us and ensuring they're in fine, safe operational shape. That's been the key to donating thousands of bikes to our partner charities over...
John Felch worked on several American bikes from the 1960s this month.
Volunteer John Felch is back to his magic this month, but appropriately for the July 4th holiday, his polish and wrenching were spent on good ol' American steel, this time working on a few stylish...
Featured Bike: 1988 Bianchi Brava with Columbus steel tubing.
I just finished work on this 1988 Canadian Bianchi Brava. It came into the Bike Exchange quite dirty and with a dent in the top tube. I really worked at cleaning it using both white polishing and...
With passionate volunteers, we don't always take the most time-efficient path to restore and refurbish bicycles. This fine restoration is a perfect example of a volunteer going the extra mile.
With all the mountain bikes, sport bikes, and race bikes that have graced this space, it might seem that this rather odd-looking kids’ bike is a bit out of place here. It is, in fact, the first...
Here's our most recent featured bike, donated by an owner moving from the Bay Area up to the Sierra, and fully refurbished by our tireless volunteer Cap'n Jonny. Enjoy a brief trip back in time:
In May, the Bicycle Exchange hired Holly Nielsen as our social media specialist. She's thrilled to join us and looks forward to helping to spread the word about our incredible organization even...
Our featured volunteer this month is Helen Hsiu. Helen has been a dedicated Wednesday volunteer all through the pandemic, and has recently taken over as the lead (along with Rose) for our Women's...
Our latest featured volunteer: Fernando Pacheco Cotos
It's been too long since we've featured a volunteer, but hopefully, this one is worth the wait. Read about one of our regular high school volunteers, with a unique life story.
Rob Kleinschmidt in front of his Ford Transit Connect camper van.
The BikeX Volunteer of the Month for June is Rob Kleinschmidt. A native of Buffalo, NY who moved to California 50 years ago, Rob is a retired software engineer, motorcycle enthusiast, and seasoned Bike...
The February Volunteer of the Month is Coleen DeLizza! A California native and long-time Bay Area resident, Colleen made her way to BikeX a decade ago with a friend and has been helping out ever since....
Meet the latest Volunteers of the Month, Mark and Sue. After spending many years working in the finance side of the Semiconductor and Biotech industries, Sue and Mark have been enjoying the...
Gregg Kato bleeds the hydraulic brakes on a Knolly Endorphin full suspension mountain bike.
This month’s spotlight shines brightly on our Shop Manager Gregg Kato, who has been invaluable in helping with retail, donor and volunteer activities in the shop for the last year.
David Kamp turns barely-working bikes into brevet-ready machines.
Regular readers of the BikeX newsletter may recall the beautiful restoration of a 1930s Rudge-Whitworth. This stunning relic of bicycle history was revitalized thanks to this month’s Volunteer of...
John Garrish, our featured volunteer for April, 2021.
This month's featured Volunteer is John Garrish, who has been a regular visitor during the pandemic to pick up homework bikes, help with QA and lend his cargo bike expertise. John has a long,...
Paul Southworth, SVBE Featured Volunteer, March 2021
One of the silver linings of the pandemic is the arrival of some new faces to the Bicycle Exchange. Paul Southworth is one such example, having refurbished more than a dozen bikes from home, and...
Shree Sandilya sorts donated bike parts at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange.
In the last couple of years, SVBE has expanded its social media presence to include Instagram. The regular activity on our IG page has been a great way to get the word out about some of our...
Lucy Hsu, long-time volunteer, donation receiver and coordinator with partner charities.
One of the constants at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange is that there are always more bikes to repair. Our talented volunteers are always repairing bikes at a good clip, but only by moving the...
Most people who have been to BikeX have seen Dave Fork, in his characteristic neon-yellow vest affixing green tags with a smile on bikes that have passed the first round of our rigorous quality...
A global pandemic presents interesting challenges for everyone and everything, and nonprofits are no exception. While the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange unfortunately can't safely hold our large...
The Bike Exchange is increasingly attracting families to our program. Oftentimes, there are mothers and fathers bringing their children in to learn about bikes and how to fix them. Some of these...
SVBE folks and especially all you Googlers out there, welcome the newest kid on the playground, Katie L. A native of the Lone Star State, Katie was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. During her...
On September 7th the Bike Exchange had its semi Annual Bike sale. I have never seen so many people intent on buying a bike from us. We had a line 6-8 deep waiting to hand us money practically from the...
The bike Exchange is getting to be a world-class organization, attracting folks from far and wide. In far-off India in the city of Kolkata, Nilay M was born. Little did he know at the time that his...
Ahmed has been volunteering at the Bicycle Exchange for about three months. He likes to fix road bikes (like what he rides) and kids bikes. His goal is to become proficient in fixing his kids'...
Lately I have had a number of conversations with our volunteers from the Veteran’s Administration. They are all great folks and worth getting to know. Today I sat down with Kevin.
Dennis commuted by bike for decades here in Silicon Valley and maintained his classic road bike. Now that he is retired, he puts his bike-fixing skills to work at the Bicycle Exchange. He is part of...
Jeff has volunteered with the Bicycle Exchange for about four years after finding us via our website. He is our newsletter editor and used to work on bikes when he lived closer. Now he lives near Mt...
On Saturday, Dec. 1st a group got together to sort through our inventory and cull out some of the things that we were never going to use. Then, we packed everything into new crates and hauled it...
One of the ongoing partnerships we have at the Bike Exchange is with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto. We regularly donate bikes to the vets and often have some of them visit us on...
Jerry, 29, hails from St. Louis originally and like so manyof this country’s best and brightest, he found his waya year ago to our beautiful state, and more specifically, here in Silicon Valley....
Today I want you to meet Eduardo. He is one of the veterans we serve who heard of the good work we do from Rebecca, the Veterans Administration Coordinator, and decided to come out and volunteer....
May 5th was our semiannual bike sale and it was a smashing success. People lined up at the gate when we opened and a steady stream of buyers scored fantastic deals. One of them, Maggie M, was a...
Tobi has been volunteering at the Bicycle Exchange for about a year. He found out about the organization through the Google website, as an employee. When he chooses a bike to repair, he often picks one...
Chris is originally from Wales but moved to the US, first Colorado then California, 14 years ago. He commutes daily to work via bicycle, taking the direct route to work, then the nice Bay Trail and...
Rebecca has been volunteering at the bicycle exchange for about 3 years - you will usually see her at the registration table helping volunteers, donors, and people who want to purchase bikes.
Adam was born and raised here in Silicon Valley. He started volunteering at the Bicycle Exchange during the summers when he was in college - about 3 years ago. He enjoys fixing all of the bikes but...
Gordon and I have known each other since I first started volunteering at the Bike Exchange about 5 years ago. I have known him as a quiet, somewhat reserved individual who is always there when...
Lucy has been volunteering with the Bike Exchange for 3-4 years and is the person to go to if you need help with adjusting brakes or truing wheels. Her favorite ride is a Trek road bike which she...
Greg has been volunteering with the Bicycle Exchange for about a year and provides a lot of guidance to new volunteers (especially since recovering from an ice hockey injury). He loves to work on...
What a great bunch of volunteers! Jessica Ken and her horde of 20 volunteers from the Taiwanese American Professionals group descended on our humble facility once again to help us fix bikes. They...
Doug has been volunteering for the Bicycle Exchange for over 15 years. He often works behind the scenes checking our inventory of bike parts and purchasing parts from different suppliers to keep...
Looking around for my next person to interview I couldn’t help noticing Rao hard at work on a bike. He has been volunteering since April this year at the Bike Exchange.
Your ace reporter fell off his bike (in front of his house standing still) and broke his hip earlier this August and has been mostly house bound so has not been able to interview anyone for...
Rachel started volunteering at the Bicycle Exchange in May and is excited to earn her work apron on her fifth volunteer day soon. She enjoys working on the adult bikes because she learns repair...
Calvin started working at the bicycle exchange in 2014 and was promoted to QA about 6 months ago, so you'll see him wearing the yellow/green vest making sure that bikes are fixed to the...
Today we meet up with Kim and his son Jeff. Kim introduced his other son Alex to the Bike Exchange some time ago and figured that his son Jeff could also benefit from the experience, so today they are...
Patrick is a true coastie, born in beautiful San Luis Obispo, California. His family moved to Livermore in 1953, where he grew up in what then was a beautiful rural part of California with miles of...
Usually, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange (SVBE) donates quantities of bikes to our partner agencies, not knowing the stories of the people who actually get them. Most of our volunteers don't get...
Dave Z has been working at the Bicycle Exchange for 2 years fixing bikes. You may see him riding around on his Rivendell road bike - he's logged 100,000 miles on it. He used to go on bike tours...
Jonny grew up in the North beach neighborhood in San Francisco, and remembers the "Summer of Love" and his Black Panther neighbors among many "only in San Francisco" people and places in the City by the...
Judy has been fixing bikes at the Bicycle Exchange for 3 years, has more recently joined the Steering Committee, and writes all of our thank you letters to donors. She enjoys fixing the adult bikes...
Falguni is one of the people behind the scenes at the Bicycle Exchange that helps keep things running smoothly. She volunteered at a workday after her colleague, Doreen, told her about it. She moved...
A native to the bay area, Grant has been volunteering at the Bicycle Exchange for seven years. Many new folks get their orientation from him. He likes to make the orientation engaging and informal -...
Bob M grew up in Tonawanda, a suburb of Buffalo, New York. He started riding bikes as a child and his first two wheeler was a Huffy; complete with a spring shock absorber, light and a horn in the...
Colleen joined the bicycle exchange to learn how to fix bikes and has been volunteering for 2 1/2 years. You'll often see her managing the front table, receiving donations and greeting volunteers. She...
Doreen Y. grew up in Berkeley in the 60's. Her parents didn't own a car so she biked everywhere from the age of six. She didn't buy her first car until she was a college senior. While attending El...
If you've enjoyed some fresh-brewed coffee at the Bike Exchange, most likely Mary brought it. She's been volunteering for about 1 1/2 years and has regularly been bringing coffee to wake up the...
There are some really amazing people who volunteer at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange. This month, meet Carol M. Carol has been volunteering at the exchange for 9 years, and was originally...
A student at Palo Alto High School, Leo M has been volunteering at the Bike Exchange for two years since a friend recommended he try it. When he looks at the pile of bikes needing repairs, he...
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