Hamilton City Council
Te kaunihera o Kirikiriroa
Celebrate cycling this October with Love Your Bike Day and our bingo challenge. Join us for free family-friendly activities, explore Hamilton Kirikiriroa by bike, collect stamps, and be in to win prizes.
When: Saturday 3 October, 10am - midday
Where: Hillcrest Stadium, 19 Cambridge Road, Hillcrest
Celebrate cycling with a fun-filled morning of activities for children and families. Whether you're a confident rider or just starting out, there's something for everyone.
Enjoy a range of free activities, including:
Bring your bike, scooter, or helmet and join us for a morning of fun, creativity, and active play.
Come along to Hillcrest Library at the Gardens to create a free Biketober badge.
Personalise your badge by colouring in the Movin Martin template or draw and create your own.
When: Friday 30 October, 3.30pm - 5pm
Where: Hillcrest Library at the Gardens
Collect a bingo card from a Hamilton library during October 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.
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 eight 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. This workshop is perfect for for students aged 13+.
Tools and small parts will be provided, but attended must bring their own bike and helmet. Parents are welcome to stay with their child. A maximum of six spaces are available.
Are your kids interested in trying biking as a sport? We’re partnering with local bike clubs for two open day sessions during October. Register below and come along to the following sessions to try mountain biking or BMX for free.
Mountain bike: Wednesday 21 October, from 5.30pm at the Pukete Farm Park, 66 Maui Street Pukete. Bring your own bike and helmet.
BMX: Wednesday 28 October, from 5.30pm at Minogue Park, 6 Moore Street, Hamilton Lake. BMX bikes and helmets available to borrow.
Road cycling: Thursday 15 October, from 5.30pm at Horsham Downs School, 4 Martin Lane with Hamilton City Cycling Club. Bring your own bike and helmet.
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 11 September 2026