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Bike to the Future

Interested in sustainable transportation and electric bikes? Bike to the Future is a high school scholarship competition where students build an electric bike and participate in different challenges for over $16,000 in scholarship awards.

What is Bike to the Future?

Students participating in Bike to the Future, a scholarship competition hosted by Silicon Valley Clean Energy, in which high school students design and build an electric bike (e-bike) engaging in hands-on engineering, environmental innovation, and teamwork. Over the course of 3 months, high school teams from all over SVCE’s service area designed and built an electric bike from scratch, presented pitches on the future of sustainable transportation and competed in various challenges. In building electric bikes, students engaged in hands-on learning in the fields of engineering, design, environmental innovation and clean technology.

2021 Competition Cancelled

Due to COVID-19, Silicon Valley Clean Energy has decided to cancel the Bike to the Future 2021 competition. In order to be consistent with the county’s public health guidelines, SVCE has canceled Bike to the Future 2021. We encourage students to check out the other opportunities to engage with SVCE at the Offers and Services for Students webpage.

All of the bike to the future 2019 participants

What are the awards for winning teams?

First, second, and third-place teams will be awarded scholarship prizes to be divided equally among team members. The scholarship amounts are:

  • 1st place is awarded $7,500
  • 2nd place is awarded $5,000
  • 3rd place is awarded $3,500
Winning Team of three high school boys holding trophy and giant check

Bike to the Future Recaps

Bike to the Future 2019 Recap

  • 16 high school teams competed in challenges throughout the day testing acceleration, battery efficiency, maneuverability and creativity. The challenges included a test to see how quickly bikes reached 20 miles per hour from 0 miles per hour, a battery range test to recognize the most efficient batteries, an obstacle course to test their bikes functionality and a presentation of innovative strategies to achieve a clean transportation future.
  • Bike to the Future Competition Day was held at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds on April 27, 2019 and hosted close to 200 attendees.
  • Teams were comprised of students from the following high schools: Branham, Calaveras Hills, Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, Fremont, Homestead, Leigh, Live Oak, Milpitas, Mountain View and Saratoga.

Bike to the Future 2019 Winners:

    • 1st Place – Team IYA Industries from Homestead High School
    • 2nd Place – Team Spartans from Mountain View High School
    • 3rd Place – Team BBB from Branham High School

In our inaugural year, the event was hosted at Gilroy Gardens on Saturday, May 5, 2018 and brought together students, families, elected officials and members of the public to watch as the e-bike riders ran through an acceleration challenge, obstacle course, range test and presentation of their e-bike. Teams from Freemont High School, Mountain View High School, Saratoga High School, Alta Vista High School, Los Altos High School and Milpitas High School all showed off their amazing e-bikes.

Bike to the Future 2018 Winners:

  • First Place: Fremont High School “Fire E-gles”
  • Second Place: Mountain View High School “Spartans”
  • Third Place (two winners): Saratoga High School “E-FISH” and “Fastastic Falcons”
  • The “Fastastic Falcons” from Saratoga High School were awarded with the School Spirit Award for demonstrating excellent school pride and team resilience.

Thank you to the 2018 Partners & Sponsors!