As we close out this year, we’re grateful to take a moment to reflect on all we’ve been able to accomplish together. Thanks for being such an important part of Good Karma Bikes Family! 2023 is going to be a special year. We’re glad you’re along for the ride.
Together, we pay it forward.
January 2022: A Big Announcement
At a special event in December, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and District 2 Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, formally announced Good Karma Bikes will move into a permanent home on the ground floor of Charities Housing’s newest development, currently under construction at 399 Blossom Hill Road in San Jose.
“We’re thrilled to see Good Karma Bikes and their inspiring vision grow in San Jose to serve thousands more of our community members in need” stated Mayor Liccardo.
The new, 11,000 sq. foot headquarters is almost double the size of the current location on Lincoln Ave. The generous layout enables more volunteer workspace and education, community-run programs, a higher volume of refurbish-able bicycles and community aid.
Scroll through the photos on the right to see the progression of our new location.
Good Karma Bikes Supports ACTC’s TierraBella Ride
We love supporting our friends at the Almaden Cycle Touring Club. Each year, they invite the local community to celebrate Spring by riding some of the prettiest roads in southern Santa Clara County on thier annual Tierra Bella Bicycle Tour. One of California’s top-rated cycling events, Tierra Bella offers six new and different routes, from flat to very hilly. Over 300 ACTC members including many from our GKB community – were on hand to provide outstanding rider support, including multiple rest stops on every route. There was plenty of GREAT FOOD at every stop, plus a delicious catered hot meal, including ice cream, at the end of the ride. We were happy to set up at Gavilan College early in the morning to provide free last minute safety checks and adjustments for all riders.
Speaking of ACTC….
Check out this great feature on our very own Lisa De Golier. If you’ve been to Good Karma Bikes, you’ve met Lisa. She has been with Good Karma Bikes for three years now. Lisa started volunteering with us after attending Women’s Night with her daughter and is now our rockstar Operations manager running our busy service shop.
Good Karma Bikes Supports Bike to Wherever Day and Earth Day 2022
Whether you bike to work, school, shops, parks, libraries, or just wherever, biking is good for you and our environment. Bicycling is one of the biggest ways you can reduce Climate Change as well as improve your health! May is Bike Month and May 19, 20, 21, and 22 were Bike to Wherever Days! Good Karma Bikes set up an energizer station to support riders passing by on Lincoln Ave. We handed out bags, fruit, water and met some great people in the process! We hope you will come see us again in 2023.
On Friday, April 22nd Good Karma Bikes supported Gunn High School students at “March and Rally for our Earth” downtown Palo Alto at King Plaza. The “March and Rally for Our Earth” was a chance to celebrate the climate progress our cities have already made and to encourage a community spirit as we push for a more sustainable future! Gearing community members up for climate action, students led a march around downtown Palo Alto and back to King Plaza. Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Assembly member Marc Berman, and Mayor Pat Burt all spoke on the importance of climate change awareness. After the march, attendees visited local organizations’ tables and hung Earth Day pledges on the “Pledge tree.” NBC Bay Area covered the event on the nightly news.
Great Times at our Spring Salon, Summer, and Winter Socials
We missed gathering in person! We were so happy to have three events at Good Karma Bikes this past year. Our Spring salon was held in our retail shop and brought members of our community back together after another spike in the pandemic. Guests heard from board members and we had our good friend Hayley Diep in attendance selling her book, “If You Give a Girl a Bike.” Hayley contributes 15% of all proceeds of her book back to GKB.
Our Summer social was a hot one, with temperatures reaching over 100 degrees consistently the week of August 18th. The turnout was still great and our guests were treated to a sneak peak overview of the outcomes of our strategic plan that was recently completed by our board. GKB Board chair, Taurean Dyer unveiled our new two part mission: Empowering people and building community through bikes.
Our Holiday Social on November 17th was our best event yet with over 50 people in attendance. Held in our service shop, guests mingled and heard updates from our CEO, Jim Gardner while taking in the sounds of the season and enjoying complimentary beer and coffee from our friends at Hapa’s Brewery and Chromatic Coffee.
Check out some of Jim Gardner’s remarks here.
Good Karma Bikes Featured In Spotlight San Jose
Thanks for visiting us Spotlight San Jose!
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Check out this great article that was published in the Spring.
Viva Calle San Jose x 3
It was another great year supporting our community at Viva Calle San Jose. Viva Calle is a temporary event that takes place three times a year that shuts down miles of San Jose neighborhood streets to bring communities together to walk, bike, skate, play, and explore the city like never before.
We are so happy to partner with the City of San Jose for this amazing event. You’ll find us set up downtown at a different location each time – fixing up bikes for free, engaging with our community and spreading the good karma that we are all about. Many of our volunteers at this event come to us through our affinity programs – learning the basics of bike mechanics, bonding for the greater good of giving back to our community.
Not only are we connecting people geographically and demographically. We are building community and making life long friendships in the process. Sold? Come join us. Register for a free repair clinic or learn how you can help. Watch for upcoming events on our website and be sure to follow us on Instagram.
Bonding Families Through Bikes: Santa Clara County Supervisor, Susan Ellenberg Funds GKB’s Family Unity Program
Our new “Family Unity Program” supports families with a parent facing re-entry, addiction, or mental health challenges. We grant a bike not only to the individual in need, but to the entire family -strengthening the parent/child bond, while providing a healthy outlet for quality time together outdoors. Biking also supports mental health, reducing stress and anxiety which can have life-long effects for children facing family adversity. Thank you Supervisor Ellenberg!
Women’s Night is Returns, LGBTQ+ Night Launches!
Women’s Night is back after a brief hiatus during the pandemic. We are happy to be back and connecting in person again! Led for women by women and our new LGBTQ+ Night, led by mechanics who also fit that description, are free community programs. A safe space to improve confidence in bike mechanics, we strongly emphasize inclusion, education, and community. Held twice a month, these programs allow individuals to fix their own bikes through tutorials and demonstrations.
We are building community: connecting you demographically but geographically as well. Get to know us, get to know each other. Serve your community together, what could be better?
We’ll be posting 2023 dates soon on our programs page.
A Board Retreat, a Strategic Plan, now a Two-Part Mission
Over the summer, our board members participated in a lengthy retreat- taking stock of our strengths and developing a plan to clarify our core competencies and deepen the impact of our mission. The outcome was our new two part mission: At Good Karma Bikes we empower people and build community through bikes. We also unveiled a new version of our logo seen to the right. Buy a bike, donate a bike, fix a bike. Anything you do in white, you make happen in green. Read more about our two part mission in a letter from our board chair, Taurean Dyer.
Tito’s and Union 271 Pass the Buck to Good Karma Bikes
Palo Alto’s farm-to-table restaurant and hot spot, Local Union 271 has partnered with Tito’s Handmade Vodka (Love, Tito’s Program) in an effort to give back to the community in a meaningful way. Their vision? To create a campaign in which the purveyor, consumer, and vendor all work together to give back to a cause they truly believe in. In July, Local Union 271 & Tito’s committed to donate 5% of the proceeds acquired through the sales of the pass the buck cocktail & specialty t-shirts to Good Karma Bikes. Board members, staff, and Volunteers were treated to a great night of food and drinks at the restaurant following the promotion.
If you are looking for great food and drinks, head downtown Palo Alto Union 271.
Good Karma Bikes (and our Faithful Bright Green Van) Hits The Road….
Our Mobile repair clinics have become more and more popular – especially around the holidays. Back in June, we set up shop in front of the Redwood City Library to provide free bike repairs to families and individuals passing by. We met some great people and met the founder of Bike Redwood City who we hope to partner with in the future. In October, we headed over to August Boeger Elementary school to fix up bikes for their students. In December, we received a call from Portola Valley’s Alpine Chain Gang, a group of local men and women that gather at a home once a year to build bikes for kids in need that are distributed by the Woodside and Redwood City Fire Departments. The Menlo Park Almanac wrote a nice feature on it. (Read it here)
Finally, we capped off December with one of our all-time favorite events with our long time partner, Sacred Heart Community Services in San Jose.
GKB and SHCS have been partners since 2009 and this event we do together supports the SHCS Toy Box program. This program is about giving out holiday presents to youth in low-income families who need help. The toys and bikes are distributed to the parents free of charge. The GKB role is to safety check the bikes before they are given out by SHCS. The bikes are donated from many different local corporations, agencies, and religious groups. We start at 8am and stay until the last bike is built and safety checked. This year, we built over 250 bikes that will go to good homes and a lot of happy kids. It’s a fun day that brings our staff, volunteers and friends together from all over San Jose. We build, we eat, we talk, we laugh – it’s a great time. We hope you will consider joining us next year. Don’t know much about bike repair just yet? We’ve got you covered, sign up for one of our free repair nights this year. 2023 dates will be posted soon.
Good Karma Bikes Featured on “NBC Bay Area Proud”
Back in mid-December we received a call from Garvin Thomas who wanted to come in and film a segment for his Bay Area Proud series. Garvin did a story on Good Karma back in 2015 when dozens of volunteers showed up to help us move a few blocks west from Sunol to our current shop on Lincoln Ave. It’s a great story (you should watch it here in case you missed it.)
Good Karma Bikes is YOUR Best Bike Shop in 2022!
For the 7th year in a row, Good Karma Bikes was voted Best Bike Shop in the Silicon Valley Metro. We are grateful to you, our community, for making this possible. Your patronage, donations, volunteering and word of mouth referrals are deeply appreciated.
Good Karma Bikes Selected as Beneficiary in Target’s Circle Program
In October, we were contacted and told that we had been chosen to participate in a special charitable giving campaign, sponsored and funded by Target.
Through December 31st, our community could vote for us through the Target Circle program to help determine how Target’s donation will be divvied up. The program has wrapped and we are patiently waiting for the results that will be posted any day!
Help us make the most of this incredible opportunity. Every vote counts to help us receive a portion of the available Target funds!
As you earn more votes, you can keep voting multiple times during the campaign.
A Look Ahead to 2023
It’s been a great year. Please help us keep up the momentum in 2023. We have a big move planned in the fall to our new location on Blossom Hill. Meanwhile, we will keep doing what we do best – empowering building community through bikes. For all of your support in 2022, we thank you. Our clients thank you. You are impacting the lives of people in need each and every day in your community.
