Hamilton City Council
Te kaunihera o Kirikiriroa
Biketober is a month-long festival of cycling held throughout October. With activities for all ages and abilities, the festival aims to encourage the community to get on their bikes, give it a go and strengthen their love of cycling.
Does your primary aged child want to learn how to ride a bike but you’re not sure where to start? In these courses young riders will be given biking tips and guidance by our instructors, with parents giving support to their child to start biking.
Bikes and helmets are available if needed. A maximum of six spaces are available per session. Parents must stay with their children.
Learn to how give your bike a safety check and how to complete basic repairs. These workshops are perfect for for students aged 13 – 17. There will be bike ramps for students to have a go on after the workshop.
Tools and small parts will be provided, but attendees must bring their own bike and helmet. Parents are welcome to stay with their child. A maximum of nine spaces are available per session.
Enjoy a range of bike themed arts and crafts, face painting and badge making activities. There is no registration requirement for these workshops.
Celebrate the recently completed shared paths connecting Lake Domain Drive and the Western Rail Trail. Enjoy a range of activities including a decorating station for your bike, scooter or helmet, face painting, games and more!
Saturday 1 November, 10am – midday
Collect a bingo card from a Hamilton library and earn stamps to go into the prize draw!
Hop on your bike with your whaanau, travel around Hamilton Kirikiriroa and visit the locations on the card.
Simply snap a photo of yourself, your helmet or bike and show it to our friendly library staff to earn a stamp.
The aim is to collect as many stamps as possible throughout October, before handing your bingo card into a Hamilton library.
Those with the most stamps will be in to win prizes - be sure to write your name and contact details on the card.
*Our Transport Education team will contact prize winners in early November.
For the School Holiday Skill sessions, we prefer that you bring your own bike and helmet. However, we'll have a limited number available for learner riders.
For the Community Rides, you'll need to bring a bike and a helmet. Please ensure all bikes and helmets brought to sessions and rides are in good working order.
There is no cost to attend any of our holiday programmes or community rides.
Yes, please indicate they are a novice/learner rider at the time of booking, and we will ensure one of our expert cycle instructors are able to support and encourage their participation within the session. We often find children progress quickly during these sessions, building confidence, and capability to ride independently when they’ve previously struggled at home.
We'd prefer not to use bikes with stabilisers/training wheels. Instead, we can offer one of our bikes which are ideal for learner riders. We find the progression of new riders who learn without stabilisers/training wheels much faster and it promotes greater control and balance, leading to better, stronger, and more confident riders.
We ask you to register in advance – this ensures we have appropriate staff-to-participant ratios and we can provide further details to all registered participants in advance of their selected session. This will include parental consent forms for the school holiday programmes which must be returned prior or at the start of your session.
We unfortunately cannot accommodate on-the day participants, with bookings closing 24 hours prior to the session commencing.
Generally, we will aim to go ahead with all planned sessions irrespective of weather. In the event of a severe weather event (e.g. cyclone, prolonged heavy rainstorm, etc) where the risk to staff, participants, and the public is assessed as being unsafe to conduct the activity, then we will unfortunately have to cancel or postpone the scheduled session/ride. For School Holiday Skill Sessions, in the event a planned session is shortened due to unforeseen circumstances, we will ensure contact is made with parent/caregiver and collection arrangements are made as required.
We aim to advise of any cancellations or postponements 24 hours prior to the scheduled start time. Please ensure you have provided the correct phone/email details as these will be our primary communication method.
Things change and sometimes it is last minute – please send an email to cycling@hcc.govt.nz at the earliest opportunity as we may have a waitlist of people wanting to attend and we’ll be able to offer your slot to another participant.
The earlier the better. There may be high demand for some sessions especially during the school holiday period and we have limited spaces to meet with instructor to participant ratios.
All registered participants will receive pre-event information that detail meeting places, equipment to bring, and a rough outline of your selected session. This will be emailed to the address provided at time of booking. If you have not received any information 24 hours prior to the start of your booked session, please email cycling@hcc.govt.nz.
Last updated 10 September 2025