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Bike clubs are a great way to meet people, have fun, learn about new rides, find riding partners, learn about equipment, tell tall tales, hang out with like-minded folks, ride-share to places and… did I mention have fun?
There are clubs that race, mountain bike, are Christian, are gay/lesbian, tour, commute, ride a long, long ways… you name it!
I’ve included club mission statements below to give you an idea what they are about.
There is probably one near you. If I missed your club, please let me know.
These are listed by county.
Alameda
The Berkeley Bike Club (BBC) is an incorporated non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote the sport of cycling by recruiting and training riders for racing, and bringing bicycle races to the attention of the public. Membership in the club is open to all interested persons. The club includes both riders and racers. The goal of the BBC is to give physical, mental and financial support to its members; to develop coaching and training programs; to promote team racing and tactics; and in general to ensure the success of the BBC Team and its members in races.
Cherry City Cyclists of San Leandro
The Cherry City Cyclists are cyclists from all over the Bay Area, who share the love of cycling. The Club provides an environment for cyclists to meet other cyclists and experience the beauties of Alameda County and the surrounding Bay Area, together.
For us, rides are social events, not races, so we make every attempt to ride as a group for safety and camaraderie. Our members ride all sorts of bicycles: road bikes, mountain bikes, tandems, hybrids……We also do special events, such as overnight rides to Sacramento, San Juan Bautista, Santa Cruz, Monterey, etc. Once in awhile, we even organize a week-long tour, in different areas of the country. We have been to the San Juan Islands in Washington, done a loop from Medford, Oregon to the coast & back, ridden through Montana and done a ride from the Bay Area to Yosemite.
We welcome everyone to join us on a club ride. Membership not required. We think you will enjoy the camaraderie of riding with fellow cyclists and will want to join our club! Rides for all levels of riders are included in each month’s ride schedule. So check the ride schedule out and join us on a ride! You are welcome to join us at a club meeting, which are held the second Wednesday of every month.
Fremont Freewheelers Bicycle Club
The Fremont Freewheelers Bicycle Club (FFBC) is a non-profit club organized for the purpose of promoting all facets of bicycling, which includes leisure, recreational, touring and racing, always with an emphasis on bicycle safety and education.
Our formal objectives are:
…to provide cyclists with a variety of challenging bicycle-riding experiences and to promote safe bicyle riding and touring.
We have club rides most weekends in the year. We are based in the East Bay and have rides all over the Bay Area. Some of our club rides are held in conjunction with other bicycle clubs. We have some members leading mountain bike rides and self-contained tours.
Our annual Grizzly Peak Century draws a high level of volunteers from among our membership. We hold large introductory ride series a couple of times a year to introduce urban cyclists to the challenges of responsible group riding, with rides of increasing length and difficulty over the course of five or six weeks. In addition, there are often weekly pre-work and after-work training rides as well as frequent “Easy Rides”
Oakland Yellowjackets Bicycle Club
Established in 1986, the Oakland Yellowjackets Bicycle Club (OYJ) is a social, multi-cultural bicycling group for men and women of all ages and skill levels. We are not a racing team. Our “no-drop” policy ensures that even the slowest cyclists will always ride accompanied. For us, rides are social events not races, so we make every attempt to ride as a group for safety and camaraderie. Our members ride all sorts of bicycles: road bikes, tandems, mountain bikes and hybrids.
Valley Spokesmen Bicycle Touring Club
The Valley Spokesmen are a San Francisco Bay Area bicycle club based in Dublin California, approximately 15 miles southeast of Oakland. The club schedules both local and non-local rides. Emphasis is on road cycling, but mountain bike outings occasionally make it onto the calendar. We provide a wide variety of club rides, ranging from short neighborhood tours suitable for families with children, to strenuous century-length epics. We encourage non-members to attend our club meetings and join us on any of our outings. We typically schedule several ‘Newbie Rides’ and rides of shorter duration each month. View our ride calendar and find a ride that is right for you!
Alpine
The Alta Alpina Cycling Club (AACC) is a road and mountain bike club in the Carson City, Gardnerville and Lake Tahoe area whose primary focus is to promote cycling and to create an environment in which cyclists of all ages and abilities can enjoy the sport and socialize with other riders.
There are many activities for all ability levels. For the recreational riders there are organized rides most every weekend both mountain bike and road. For the more competitive riders there is a spring race series with categories for beginners as well as for the more experienced riders.
Club rides are open to non-club members. We encourage you to join us. Hotline Number - 877-845-2453 (877-845-BIKE)
Amador
Unlike other clubs Erma’s Diner collects no dues and holds no meetings other than on bicycles throughout Amador and nearby counties. We ride out of the parking lot behind the police station just off Main Street in Ione, next to Iron Ivan the locomotive, every Saturday and Sunday of the year (barring rain). Check the web site or join Erma’s Diner email group at groups.yahoo.com for the mid-week ride, known as the AARP ride.
Butte
In our infancy, we have nothing but ideas and energy about how to make Chico California, the greatest cycling community in the USA, even better. What Chico was missing was a Race Club. We started with the goal of racing but have found that most of our members just want to ride faster than the slow group without killing themselves trying to keep up with the fast group. We think we fill that need.
Chico has a great, long standing cycling club, Chico Velo, which has been doing a fantastic job advocating cycling safety with our local government, providing organized weekly rides and promoting organized century rides. We encourage all of our members to also support Chico Velo via membership in the club. Chico Velo has not promoted a race in years and is not a race club. In part, this is why Chico Corsa was born.
We at Chico Velo think our town is pretty nice for cycling — we think some of the best in California. So nice that even our City Council has worked to make Chico the nation’s most bike-friendly town by the year 2000 (we succeeded!).
The reasons for our town being so good for cycling are numerous. Located 90 miles due north of Sacramento, our town is nearly flat (the biggest hills are the freeway overpasses). But Chico is also nestled at the base of the foothills leading up to Mt. Lassen, so we get the best of both worlds when it comes to cycling — flats for commuting and easy rides, and challenging mountainous rides when desired (with plenty of logging roads within a short drive for mountain bikers).
For many years, Chico Velo was a group of loose knit riders until we officially formed in 1980. Our first century ride was in 1981 and about 100 riders showed up. Today, our Wildflower Century alone attracts over 3,800 riders and is still growing. The club boasts a full-time club coordinator and events planner to oversee the many century rides we offer and to watch out for cycling interests in our urban area.
Finally, we are very proud of our efforts between the club and the city to actively working towards the realistic goal of being awarded the nation’s Most Bicycle Friendly City from Bicycling magazine by the year 2000 (which we did in 1997). Browse our web site for information about our century rides (you can download maps, information sheets and entry forms you can print out on your printer), or information about some nice local rides should you be new to Chico or visiting, and commuting info and other cycling resources.
Chico State University Cycling Team
Chico State riders are dedicated to advancing riders in all disciplines of cycling. Our goal is to promote active participation and team unity while encouraging team members to be the best individuals they can be, whether on the pavement, dirt, classroom, or workplace. We strive for close social unity and view our team as family.
Contra Costa
The Delta Pedalers is a cycling club located in Eastern Contra Costa County. We are a bicycle touring club having bike rides throughout the week. We also support cycling advocacy and cycling events in the East County area. Come join us on one of our rides.
Humboldt
The objectives of the Club are: to promote interest in all aspects of bicycling to members and to the general public; to encourage and facilitate recreational bicycling for all skill levels; to encourage and facilitate amateur bicycle racing; to promote bicycling as a means of transportation; to facilitate and encourage youth involvement in all aspects of Club activities; to facilitate and encourage involvement of Club members and the general public in all aspects of Club activities regardless of race, gender, or skill ability.
Marin
We are cyclists from all over the Bay Area who share the love of cycling. The Marin Cyclists Road Club provides an environment for cyclists to meet other cyclists and experience the beauties of Marin County and the surrounding Bay Area, together.
We offer organized rides during the weekend and shorter rides during the week. When you become a member; you will enjoy club picnics, skills clinics, free speaker events, and a holiday party at a fine restaurant. You will have the chance to be a part of hosting the Marin Century, providing a memorable experience for over 2500 cyclists and donating a portion of the profits to cycling related organizations. You will have the opportunity to schedule and lead your own rides throughout the bay area while making new friends and riding partners that will enrich your lives beyond cycling.
- Sustain a women’s off-road cycling network so that members may find a riding partner
- Encourage girls and women to try cycling for the fun of it
- Learn local trails
- Improve riding skills
- Keep up with the latest news of interest on “women who love mud too much”
- Enhance awareness of bicycles as a mode of transportation
- In short, change the world
Monterey
The organization’s purpose is to foster and encourage bicycling activities and opportunities. These activities include, but are not limited to: recreational riding, long-distance touring, training and racing (amateur), mountain biking, triathlon, duathlon, cyclo-cross, and BMX. Also supported and advocated is bicycle safety (especially for youth), advocacy for the interests of cyclists including those that are safety related, improving or increasing access to public and private lands, and creation of new bicycle routes and pathways for recreation and the accompanying environmental benefits. Since bicycling is an inherently social activity, the Club shall also seek to create many other social opportunities for cyclists to enjoy each other’s company and establish new friendships.
Napa
The Eagle Cycling Club provides cyclists with a variety of riding experiences. Our members can be seen on the road, in the hills, on tandems, onrecumbents and often pulling kids in trailers. We help the community by promoting safe bicycle riding, having members on Bicycle Advisory Committee, Napa Bicycle Coalition and sponsoring an Adopt a Highway cleanup section on Silverado Trail.
Nevada
BONC (Bicyclists of Nevada County) is committed to fun rides and better trails. To keep riding around here second-to-none, we also build and improve singletrack.
SEBC fosters road cycling activities for all ability levels in a friendly atmosphere, develops relationships with organizations that affect road bike riding and promotes bicycling safety among cyclists and motorists.
The Sierra Express Racing Team (SERT) is based out of Nevada City, CA. The team was originally created by the Tour of Nevada City Bicycle Shop founders, Ron Miller and Jim Rogers, a current member, in 1980. In November of 2004 the team was resurrected by local riders and the help of local sponsors. Sierra Express resumed its history of strong regional competition in 2005 and 2006, winning many local Mountain Bike and Cyclocross Races as well as reaching the podium in Road Races throughout Northern California. Our goal is to leverage team effort and sponsor support to provide our cyclists the means to perform at their highest level and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Plumas
Plumas -Sierra Bicycle Club is a recreational bicycle club whose members have a common bond -the love of bicycle riding. Club activities include road and mountain bike recreation and training rides. We also share a commitment to our area with a charter to initiate and support programs that promote bicycling as an enjoyable and healthy sport and economical form of travel.
Club membership is open to all abilities of cyclist. If you are new to bicycling, the club will get you rolling in the right direction.
Our members equally enjoy a leisurely tour, a brisk pace, or tackling a mountain pass on smooth asphalt or a lonely dirt road.
Sacramento
Sacramento Believers on Mountain Bikes
SacBOMB is the Sacramento chapter of BOMB (Believers On Mountain Bikes) International. We offer regularly scheduled rides for all levels as well as fun events in a friendly atmosphere! There are NO membership fees or obligations.
The Sacramento Bike Hikers is the oldest continually active bicycle club in the Sacramento area - founded in 1968.
The club’s focus is on touring and recreational cycling. The club provides for year round weekend rides, holiday rides, summer evening rides, weekday rides and special rides such as the Party Pardee Century. A variety of rides are scheduled to attempt to provide for all abilities and interest.
The Sacramento Wheelmen bicycling club is a nonprofit organization for cycling and cycling-related activities based in Sacramento, California.
The club was formed over 30 years ago and currently has over 600 members. It is well known for sponsoring the annual Sierra Century, a premier cycling event in northern California.
Throughout the year, we schedule rides on weekdays, weekends, and over multiple days. The majority of rides are for road bikes, but we also offer mountain bike rides and self-contained tours. Nonmembers and guests are welcome at all our rides.
The club prides itself on being a major resource in the cycling community and a good friend to the community at large. We donate time, money, and labor to a number of organizations that benefit cyclists and others.
San Francisco
Velo Girls was founded in March, 2002 by Lorri Lee Lown, a San Francisco Bay Area cyclist. The club is a place where women and girls can share their love for cycling in a safe, friendly, encouraging environment.
The club focuses on fun, recreational riding, with the opportunity to attend cycling skills and general fitness clinics to improve riding and overall fitness. There are scheduled rides for all level of riders from beginners, recreational riders, and racers. We number almost 250 members from throughout the greater Bay Area, including San Francisco, North Bay, East Bay, Silicon Valley, the coast, and the Peninsula. Our online community numbers over 1,000 women cyclists and is an incredible resource.
Different Spokes San Francisco
Different Spokes San Francisco is the San Francisco Bay Area’s Lesbian and Gay bicycling club, open to all members of the Gay-Lesbian community and its friends. We promote relationships through the shared interest of bicycling.
The club has been active since 1982 and currently has over 100 members, almost 30% of which are women.
A brevet is a long distance recreational ride that is timed. Brevets are offered in progressively longer distances in order to prepare you for the challenges of the longest events such as the Paris Brest Paris Randonneur (PBP). A brevet tests your endurance and provides a unique opportunity for self discovery.
Depending on the distance, our events will travel northward though Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. The routes will vary from flat to hilly and will include segments of short frequent hills (rollers) as well as include several long hill climbs. Events in the past included the challenges of very strong head winds (gusts to 40 mph), rain, dense ground fog. You can read past events participants’ reports by clicking on the linked names on the Brevet Resultspages.
San Francisco Randonneurs’ brevets are minimally supported events on unmarked roads to keep costs low.
San Joaquin
Central Valley Wheelers Bicycle Club
Central Valley Wheelers Bicycle Club is based in the San Joaquin Valley in California. We are involved in road and mountain biking in the Central Valley, Sierras, and San Francisco Bay areas. Both casual and serious riders are welcome. We have regular weekly rides as well as other road, off-road, family, and fast rides on weekdays and weekends.
The Stockton Bicycle Club consists of cyclists living in or near Stockton, California. Flat rides start and finish primarily in San Joaquin County, while the hillier or mountain rides usually start and end in the neighboring counties of Amador, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Alameda, and San Mateo where the rides are often more geared for the more fit recreational riders. In the winter, when fog and cold sometimes envelop the mid Valley area, many rides are scheduled in the foothills to seek out and bask in the sunshine. Some of these roads weave though mountain vineyards up to the lower pine forests.
Santa Clara
The Almaden Cycle Touring Club (ACTC) is a group of about 1000 bicycle enthusiasts based in the south San Francisco Bay area. Emphasis is on group fun and safety, with a variety of bicycling related events for a wide range of ability levels. The club ride calendar has an average of over 150 rides per month, so there is usually a ride that will fit your needs. Guests are welcome on club rides, and it is easy to make new friends.
The Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club (LGBRC), a 501 C7 non-profit (Federal) and a 501 C3 non-profit charitable (State) corporation, is a highly competitive amateur cycling team founded by 1960 Rome Olympic team members Bob Tetzlaff and Jack Hartman in 1960 as a developmental racing and training club. Traditionally closely-knit club, the LGBRC is one of the most successful amateur bicycle racing clubs in the US.
Western Wheelers Bicycle Club, Inc. is a nonprofit organization based on the San Francisco Peninsula that hosts a variety of rides every month to suit cyclists of all abilities. We have regular weekday morning rides, evening rides during the summer, and rides every weekend. Currently, most rides are road rides, but mountain bikes can be used. Guests are welcome on club rides, unless the description of the ride says that it’s for members only.
San Jose Bicycle Club (SJBC) members actively participate in club and United States Cycling Federation (USCF) racing in the greater Bay Area and Northern Nevada. The USCF is the U.S. organization from which the U.S. Olympic cycling team in selected and professional status is attained. SJBC has consistently been one of the most successful amateur bicycle racing clubs in Northern California region over the course of its 69 year history.
SJBC has committed itself to the nurturing and development of beginning and junior cyclists through club racing and participation in USCF competition at the highest levels. The club provides its members coaching and organized racing events aimed at increasing the skill, ability and enjoyment of each member.
The club is active in recruiting young riders to the sport. SJBC has developed 8 Jr. national team members, 11 alternate Jr. team members, 4 Sr. national team members and 4 professional riders (all with the club as Juniors). Masters racing is also a large part of SJBC’s community involvement. Drawing many members from the high tech companies in the Silicon Valley.
Skyline Cycling Club, founded in 1972, is a social, recreational club in the San Francisco South Bay Area. Our club motto is: “We ride to eat, we eat to ride”. In addition to road bicycle rides, we have occasional hikes, ski trips, and other outings.
Stanford University Cycling Club
Stanford Cycling is the umbrella organization for the University’s Road and Track Racing Team, Mountain Bike Racing Team, recreational rides, and cycling-oriented community service efforts. Our members come from all parts of Stanford: we are PhD candidates, lawyers, businesspeople, as well as undergraduates.
All levels and types of riders are welcome to join. Even if you don’t want to race, benefits of club membership include group rides, Stanford Cycling clothing, coaching, and access to club events. The club facilitates rider development for all levels of cyclists.
Webcor / Alto Velo Bicycle Racing Club
The Alto Velo Bicycle Racing Club is one of America’s top amateur cycling clubs. Based in the Silicon Valley of California, Alto Velo supports and encourages bike racing across all categories, with a special emphasis on master’s and women’s racing. The club also has strong elite men’s and women’s teams to complement the masters racers.
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz County Cycling Club
Bringing cycling to all levels of riders, and encouragement of healthy lifestyles through education, friendship, teamwork and fun.
The rides of the Santa Cruz Randonneurs, Inc. are organized by Lois Springsteen and Bill Bryant. Lois and Bill have been involved with all aspects of cycling for decades, both as riders and event organizers. They have been randonneuring a long time too; Bill since 1983 and Lois since 1990. Between them they have ridden over a hundred American brevets. Bill is a two-time finisher of Paris-Brest-Paris, while Lois is a five-time PBP finisher, a GRR finisher, and recipient of the Randonneur-5000 award. In addition to riding brevets, they both helped found Randonneurs USA in 1998 and have served on its Executive Committee since the organization’s inception. Long-time residents of Santa Cruz County, Lois and Bill know all the good roads in this part of the state for long bike rides. They both look forward to meeting new riders on the Santa Cruz brevets and introducing them to the adventure of randonneuring. Santa Cruz Randonneurs, Inc. is a non-profit organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Velo Bella is a non-profit, grassroots, multidiscipline cycling team based out of Watsonville, CA. But we’re popping up in spots all over the country.
The Velo Bella mission is to encourage a healthy and active lifestyle through cycling and laughter. We inspire women to get out and ride a bike, race a bike, and to eventually grow the pool of talent and have a lot of fun along the way. While the core Velo Bella Team is a committed group of female racers, membership includes female cyclists interested in completing their first race, century, or even group ride.
Sierra
Plumas -Sierra Bicycle Club is a recreational bicycle club whose members have a common bond -the love of bicycle riding. Club activities include road and mountain bike recreation and training rides. We also share a commitment to our area with a charter to initiate and support programs that promote bicycling as an enjoyable and healthy sport and economical form of travel.
Club membership is open to all abilities of cyclist. If you are new to bicycling, the club will get you rolling in the right direction.
Our members equally enjoy a leisurely tour, a brisk pace, or tackling a mountain pass on smooth asphalt or a lonely dirt road.
The club sponsors group rides every month on the rural back roads of Plumas and Sierra Counties, and on a vast network of dirt roads and mountain trails in the area.
The club is also associated with several bicycle advocacy groups including the League of American Bicyclists. We work with such organizations to improve public awareness of bicycling through educational and bike safety activities in order to establish a “Bicycle Friendly Community” in the greater area.
Solano
The Solano Cycling Club is a Fairfield, California bike club set up for leisurely, recreational biking for the entire family. We offer short and long rides throughout Solano County the surrounding areas. We have bike rides in Fairfield, Vacaville, Davis, Woodland, San Francisco, Napa, Sonoma, and many other cities. No one gets left behind, there is always a sweep rider for the slower riders. On longer rides we stop to regroup several times. Non-members are invited to attend rides and meetings to get a feel for the club, without obligation. Join us for a couple bike rides to get a feel for the Solano Cycling Club.
Sonoma
Petaluma Wheelmen Cycling Club
We are a social and recreational club of passionate cyclists of all levels. Our goal is to provide Petaluma with a community of fellow riders to share the fun of exploring our beautiful Sonoma-Marin countryside.
If you’re new to this area or just new to bikes, or if you’re a veteran pedaler tired of riding alone, an introduction to the Santa Rosa Cycling Club may be the best way for you to enhance your enjoyment of cycling in Sonoma County.
The SRCC is a social/recreational organization comprised of cycling enthusiasts with a wide range of abilities and interests. Our purpose is to promote the safe and efficient use of bicycles by staging club rides and cycling events and by maintaining an active presence in the local community through safety programs and political advocacy.
The club was founded in the late ’60’s as a racing team to replace an earlier club called the Century Cyclers. Over the years, its focus has broadened from just racing to embrace and foster many forms of cycling: weekend recreational rides; long-distance touring; commuting; randonneuring; ultra-marathons; and off-road riding.
Around the late ’80’s, as interest in cycling grew, club membership really blossomed. Now we’re the largest cycling club in the county, and perhaps in the North Bay, with somewhere over 500 members.
Stanislaus
Stanislaus County Bicycle Club
The Stanislaus County Bicycle Club is a not-for-profit organization working to support cycling growth and education in Stanislaus and surrounding counties. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in bicycling.
Yolo
Annual events sponsored by the DBC
- Ultra-distance Events
Internationally recognized as one of the premier Clubs supporting long-distance cycling events, we welcome you to ride with us and extend your mileage. - March Bicycle Madness
Pick a mileage goal for the month of March and join hundreds of other DBC members trying to rack up the miles in every spare moment of the month. - Dunlap Memorial Time Trial
USCF sanctioned 20Km and 40Km flat, out and back. - Davis Double Century
Most popular double century in California. Good “first” double for advancing riders. Terrific support, less than 7500′ vertical climbing. Always held on the third Saturday in May. - Fourth of July Criterium Classic Full day of racing for all categories with generous prize list.
- Foxy’s Fall Century One of the last centuries in the year. Visits the hill country west of Davis. Includes 50Km, 100Km and 100mi options.
Welcome to YUM nation – the home of Yolo United Mountain-Bikers! YUM is a dedicated, fun-loving group of local mountain bikers. Currently, we are working to develop trails at Lake Berryessa, Ireland Ranch and Otis Ranch.
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