Our Mission
Good Karma Bikes is a non-profit organization empowering the community through bikes.
Each year, thousands of bikes come to us through donations. All are repaired by our dedicated volunteer crew and half are redeployed to those in need through partnerships and programs, and half sold in our bike shop to help fund our mission. Our partners support programs for youth, low-income families, homeless, those in recovery, recent parolees and refugees. We have never turned anyone away for financial reasons.
Good Karma Bikes offers a variety of programs to help the community including Women’s Night, Volunteer Programs, Outreach Events, Youth and Family Programs and Holiday Programs. Check out all our great program here.
Our History
Good Karma Bikes CEO Jim Gardner began fixing bikes in 2008 for homeless people living in a downtown San Jose park. It took less than ten minutes for him to clearly see what was going on– and it was not about bikes. It was about self-esteem.
Attempting to service the enormous need, Jim began to teach them bike repair. They soon began to teach others. That’s how Good Karma Bikes was born on a rainy Saturday in 2008.
Shortly after, Jim began reaching out to people in any form of recovery and providing a bike to those who couldn’t even afford the bus. After helping over 1,000 people, a used appliance repair van was donated in 2010 allowing us to be mobile. Later in 2010, Good Karma Bikes secured a permenant location on Sunol Street in San Jose. In 2016, Good Karma Bikes moved to a location on Lincoln Avenue.
And in July of 2023, we moved to our current location at 82 South Montgomery in San Jose. A one minute walk from the Diridon Transit Hub.
How We Do It
The mission of Good Karma Bikes is to empower people and build community through bikes. 77% of our expenses are on direct programming that supports our community (7% Admin, 16% fundraising*). Free repairs, parts and bikes are funded by your donations. Help us pay it forward!
We are proud to have over 140,000 volunteer hours. Interested in volunteering? Contact us!
*It costs us $0.12 cents to raise a dollar, the national average is $0.20
Testimonials
Pedram Hajjarian
“…This is a great non profit with an awesome friendly staff and volunteers. I’m glad they’re still going strong and donating bikes they fix….”
Edward Yu
“… This place does good work. The people are nice. And they have some very good deal on both new and used bikes. And it’s a good cause!…”
Chelsea Taber
“…We had such a great experience at GKB! Their mission is fantastic, their employees are knowledgeable and friendly, and they have a great selection of new and used bikes. We left with two bikes, and are very happy customers!…”