I live in North San Jose, and I don't own a car, so whenever I do a recreational ride, I do ride to the start - I did an ACTC ride yesterday (ACTC.ORG) which started in Willow Glen - easy ride. There are a lot of the ACTC rides which start around Almaden Lake, and if you want, you can take the light rail down there from North San Jose. I generally ride to those too, but depending on the ride, sometimes I wimp out and take the train back home from Almaden.