road_tiger

Im in the bay area and a begineer to biking.. any good group rides or clinics?

BlastRadius

Fremont Freewheelers Bicycle Club
https://www.ffbc.org

kster

To second what BR said, try a M (moderate) pace ride with FFBC. If that is too slow, you can move up to the faster rides.

Dchiefransom

Sunday is the Fremont Freewheelers Getting to Know Us ride. It starts at the Raley's shopping center at Newark Blvd and Jarvis in Newark at 9 AM. It's a No-Drop ride and will give you an idea of your riding ability.
Here's the Ride Classification page:
https://www.ffbc.org/html/RideClassification.html

DRietz

We can meet up for a ride sometime if you're ever in San Leandro and willing to endure my snail pace.

g3ck0

I'm new to the area too, are there any equivalent bike clubs for the south bay?

BlastRadius

San Jose Bicycle Club, Alto Velo, Almaden Cycle Touring Club.

g3ck0

Thanks

ahmose

Another to add to the list is Western Wheelers https://www.westernwheelers.org/main/index.htm

deep_sky

As a member of the Western Wheelers, I second that notion. Although there aren't too many A rides (our slowest classification), there are B rides on just about every weekend, and we do not leave any one behind on B rides. I am the B ride coordinator, and I also ride most of the B rides. We are in the midst of our Long Distance Training series (Saturday rides), and they are definitely starting to ramp up in difficulty, so probably want to hit the Sunday rides instead until you know your ability level. We are more recreation based, although I am sure there are racers in the highest classifications. ACTC is also more recreational. If I recall correctly SJBC and AV are more of the racer types. WW is more Palo Alto area based (although we do go all over the peninsula and south bay), whereas ACTC ranges further south than we do.

roguedog

man, i should catch one of the ww rides. for some reason the ww website always looked like a "serious" rider site to me (an av type) so i've always gone w/ actc.

deep_sky

Nope, we pretty laid back, usually. While I am sure there are people who race in the club, but we as a club do not race. We always welcome guests on our rides, just bring a functioning bike and a helmet (helmet is required for safety and liability reasons) and you are good to go

g3ck0

A bit OT, but a quick question, could you guys recommend a good bike shop for accessories (tools, bike tubes, brake lines, ...) around the sunnyvale/san jose area?

deep_sky

For me, I usually get all my stuff done at Chain Reaction, but that is in Los Altos. Depending on where you are in Sunnyvale, that might not be all that far. If you are near 85, then Chain Reaction isn't too far from you.

agarose2000

The western wheelers club is be a fabulous place for any beginner cyclist to start. I've been on 5 of their rides, ranging from very easy to fairly difficult, and it's perhaps the most welcoming, social, and fully no-drop rides I've been on. I love riding with them on long routes to find new places to ride since the no-drop rule has been strictly enforced. I've gotten fast enough to ride with VeloAlto competitive bike racers, but I still love cruising with the friendly WW group any time I want a social long ride. Highly recommended.

Hint - their Monday AM ride is short and very easy, and has a good number of beginner riders.