Mike's Bikes Coming To Pleasanton

Mike's Bikes, a popular Bay area-based bicycle seller with a philanthropic twist, is opening its newest store in Pleasanton's Gateway Square Shopping Center in August. 

A favorite among bicycling enthusiasts, Mike's touts on its web site its singular focus: "We don't sell snowboards, we don't sell kayaks and we don't sell tents. We only sell bikes - you might even say bikes are our life."

The planned, 7,000-square-foot store, adjacent to the on Bernal Avenue, will be the eleventh location for Mike's, which began in 1964 in San Rafael.

Selecting Pleasanton for its latest venture was a natural fit, said a company official.

"A lot of our current customers already live there," said Tony Para, a Mike's Bikes manager who will head up the new store.

"There's a lot of good riding around there, too," he added.

Mike's trademark philanthropic mission, dubbed Africa Projects, collects customers' old bicycles and ships them in containers to the developing countries of Ghana, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone.

Mike's volunteers then meet the bike shipments and work with locals to establish community bike shops, as featured in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5qVHgxCQlI.

Para plans to hire roughly 15 employees for the Pleasanton store, which is expected to open the first week in August.  

 The new Mike's will offer free weekly service clinics on Wednesdays, and will host group rides for both mountain and road enthusiasts, Para said.

Also planned is a multi-camera, video system that custom-fits customers to bicycles, he said.

Mike's Bikes currently operates in Petaluma, San Rafael, Sausalito, San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Sacramento, Walnut Creek, and San Jose.