Quick Answers

Bicycle Exchange location: 3961 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA MAP.

Interested in volunteering? Explore our event calendar and visit our Eventbrite page to RSVP for upcoming opportunities. New volunteers can find details about our volunteer roles and general information.

Stopping by our shop? Make an appointment to shop for a bicycle or parts, ask us questions about volunteering, drop off a donation, receive service for your bike, or anything else! Shop Hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 12 pm - 5 pm.

Have a bicycle to donate? Donate bicycles and parts by emailing us photos and details of what you have, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We'll let you know if we need your items and get you the drop-off details. Please do not make an appointment to drop off a bicycle without emailing us photos first; we cannot accept all bicycles and parts.

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange is a Section 501c(3) non-profit organization.

Have questions? Contact us.

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Our featured volunteer this month is the young chef Sam Spal, who currently is in Germany but spent many hours this year in our shop. 

But Sam came to us first as a customer, and after arriving in California from the Czech Republic, purchased a klunker cruiser from us. His parents came over for a short-term work stay, and Sam and his siblings needed bikes to get around. 

Sam had finished high school in the Czech Republic, and had time on his hands, and outside of riding his new bike, he came to volunteer with us, and quickly picked up many of the essential skills of a bike mechanic, often coming three days a week for four to six hours at a time. 

While Sam's prized high-end full-suspension mountain bike remained over in Europe, he picked up an affordable mountain bike on his own and rode it hard on local trails.

At the beginning of summer, Sam returned back to Europe to attend culinary school. While we wanted to treat him on his last day, he instead treated us with his other craft—cooking. He brought in handmade deserts to share, turning a bittersweet day into a very sweet one. 

Sam took a few minutes to answer our questions in English, despite it being his third language. 

 

Who is Sam Spal?

Samuel Spal is a boy who likes bike riding and sport.

 

What keeps you coming back to volunteering at BikeX?

Friends and the fun I have there.

 

You've worked on a number of different bikes. What is your favorite to work on?

I like to work on mountain bikes best because I know many of them.

 

How is biking different here compared to the Czech Republic?

We have lot of forests there and it is not so hot there.

 

What can you share about your personal or family bike collection?

I can say I and my brother have mountain bikes and rest of my family has street bikes.

 

What have you learned since volunteering with SVBE?

I learned so many things, especially about selling the bikes and repairing them.                                                              

 

What's been the most interesting problem to deal with?

When I needed to change the front suspension fork on a bike.

 

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