Are you a San Jose State student? Come visit our booth on Earth Day, Tuesday April 23rd from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM. In true Bike Clinic fashion, we will have our skilled bicycle mechanics, tools, and stands ready to help you get your bike in good working order. RSVP on Facebook!
San José Bike Clinic’s next Skill Share is Wednesday, April 24 from 7 to 9 p.m., at San Pedro Square Market in downtown San Jose, at the corner of San Pedro and Saint John. We hope to see you there!
Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event and invite everyone you know!
Come for this month’s Bike-to-Work Gear-Up! That’s right, Bike to Work Day 2013 in San José is May 9, which means Bike to Work Week 2013 is all that week (May 5-11) and Bike to Work Month is all of May! In preparation the Bike Clinic is popping up shop so you can meet with skilled bicycle mechanics to make sure your bike is ready. Please ride/bring your bike so you can fix what needs fixing! The goal is always to put the tools in your hands so you can do it on your own the next time around (or share those skills with someone else).
This event is free and open to the public.
San José Bike Clinic is partnering with San Jose Inner City Outings (SJ ICO) on Nov. 17 to help disadvantaged San Jose youth fix up mountain bikes they use for their outings and learn some bike maintenance skills along the way. Bike Clinic will provide a workshop in the morning before ICO volunteers load up the bikes and take the youth for a mountain bike ride.
Sound like fun? We need your help! Please register to volunteer by Nov. 9.
Event: San Jose ICO (Inner City Outings)
When: Saturday, Nov. 17, time TBD
Location: KIPP San Jose Collegiate High School, 1790 Educational Park Drive
San Jose.
Registration Required to Volunteer: Deadline to register is Friday November 9. Email sjbikeclinic@gmail.com with “San Jose ICO volunteer” in the subject line. Include your name, email and phone number in the email, and we’ll send you the SJ ICO participation forms to fill out and return.
We’re looking for several skilled volunteers, especially if you have experience maintaining mountain bikes but that’s not necessary. The tasks will be simple: adding air to the tires, aligning tires, adjusting brakes, and indexing the derailleurs. We would like this to be educational for the urban youth who participate in ICO programs.
Continue reading
The San José Bike Clinic at the San Pedro Square Market
Just last Sunday on April 29th the San José Bike Clinic set up shop for the second time. Held in front of the brilliant San Pedro Square Market sign, the Bike to Work Gear Up was a smashing success, packing a lot of learning and a lot of fun into a mere four hours!
In addition to over a dozen volunteers staffing the event, several visitors returning to the Bike Clinic for the second time, and many folks just dropping by to see what we’re about, we had 40+ newcomers stop and stay a while to participate in Bike Clinic activities.
The Bike Clinic offered classes to help people get their bikes ready for Bike to Work Day, covering everything from tuning your bike up and checking for safety before heading out, to planning your route through the city of San José, to properly locking your bike once you get there — and making sure you have proper lights for your trip back home!
The Bike Clinic even took the education out onto the streets in coordinated safety rides through the city, emphasizing proper riding practices and how to effectively share the road and get by with your bike as a viable mode of transportation.
Back at the workshop, our skilled bike repair ‘medics’ diagnosed problems with many a drop-in patients’ bike, and wrote ‘prescriptions’ to empower those in need to fix their bikes themselves.
At the end of the day attendees unwound by playing fun group biking games like Last Bike Standing, and weaving around cones in a slalom run. For some it was plenty just to enjoy an afternoon hanging out with a bunch of other bicycles enthusiasts.
The San José Bike Clinic is all these things — free bike education, a place to learn and to work on your bike, and a biycycle fan hangout spot — and more! We know we’re doing something right when people keep asking us when we’re going to be back! We are very excited at our positive feedback and are proud to be working towards establishing a permanent fixture for the greater San José bicycle community.
Watch this space for news of the Bike Clinic’s next event!