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Buying a Bike

Bikes are a great transportation and recreation choice for convenience and fun on this large Stanford campus and in the entire Bay Area. A bike from the Campus Bike Shop will let you experience this convenience and fun. We welcome our primary customer set, the students, faculty and staff of Stanford, and our large base of off-campus customers for bike purchases, and for rentals and repairs.

The Stanford campus is very large. If you haven't experienced it, check the partial aerial view to the left. Walking from your dorm, from class to class, and back is doable but time consuming and maybe gives you more daily exercise than you really want. Very limited parking makes using a car on campus either near impossible or too expensive. But bicycling gets you around quickly, with plenty of free parking convenient to wherever you are going on campus. And bicycling gives you some daily exercise, but certainly less than walking.

The Bay Area, particularly the area behind the campus up and down the peninsula, has some of the finest road and mountain biking in the United States. So it's a fun place for some great road and trail riding with awesome scenery and any level of riding challenge you want. For example, The Tour of California international professional road race has featured the Bay Area, including Stanford in 2008, each year right from its start in 2006.

Stanford and the Bay Area are bicycle friendly. Therefore your rides on campus and off will include bicycle routes, lanes and paths and peaceful coexistence with the drivers of other vehicles. Between and including San Francisco and San Jose, and also including Stanford, there are nine communities that are a Bicycle Friendly Community (Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara are the other six). Stanford is also a Bicycle Friendly University and is the only university with the highest award, Platinum, in the 2010 initial awards. (UC Davis recently joined Stanford with the second Platinum award.) These are official designations by the League of American Bicyclists and represent the greatest concentration of such communities in the United States.

So buy a bike! We have a great selection of bikes to fit your needs for getting around campus and the local area and for the many fun recreational opportunities off-campus near by and in the Bay Area. Our available types of bikes are below.

Check the descriptions below to help you pick out the bikes that may fit your needs. The price ranges below are for new regular-price bikes. We typically have many bikes on sale at lower prices, including returned rental bikes in near new condition. Note that at any given time we may not have bikes available that cover the whole regular price range shown. Click on the bike type or example photo for the bikes available in that category.

Click for Comfort Bikes

Comfort Bike ($300 to $450) - These bikes are designed for comfort, and are our most popular student bike. They are a great bike for campus and local area transportation. They are available in conventional frames and in step-through frames (shown) for easy on and off.


Click for Hybrid/Commuter Bikes
Hybrid/Commuter Bike ($300 - $500) - These bikes have easier pedaling and an upright riding position. They are a great bike for quick and efficient trips on campus and local destinations, and for longer rides. They are available in conventional frames (shown) and in step-through frames for easy on and off.


The following bikes are less popular for campus and local area riding. We typically don't stock these bikes, but once in a while we find very good ones at a low sale price. Click to see if any are available.

Click for Sport/Mountain BikesSport/Mountain Bike ($300 to $500) - These bikes have a less upright riding position and tires with aggressive treads. They add mountain trails to your transportation options. They typically have front suspension and are available only in conventional frames.

Road Bike ($500 and up) - These bikes are quick handling and responsive with precise shifting and braking and have a less upright riding position. They are quick in getting you around campus and great for the hills behind campus. Their design emphasizes performance, not comfort, and they are available in conventional frames.

Do your shopping right here or stop by the shop and take some bikes for a test ride, make your choice, and then check our Security, Service, Utility and Safety Packages and decide what packages you want. Then make your purchase at the shop or right here over the Internet for pickup at the shop. If you are ordering over the Internet, click on Bikes for Sale. If you are a new student arriving in September, go to the Bike Purchase Program at the top of the navigator to the left. If you are not a new arriving student and you are interested in purchasing a bike in the period mid-May through September, please give us a call, 650 723-9300, and let us know your bike(s) of interest and it (they) will very likely be available.

The photos below show you some of the action that's waiting for you on campus, left, and off campus, the three on the right, in Palo Alto (California Avenue) and the hills behind Stanford. For more on the scenic off-campus action, click here.