Whether your child is learning to ride from scratch, wants to extend on their basic skills, or start to try riding on different terrains, enrolling them in a bike skills course could be fun. There are quite a few places to start looking but the important thing is always safety first. We hope this lists helps you get started.
Your Local Bike Shop
The best thing you can do is check with your local bike store. They will probably know of local businesses that teach kids how to ride, and may even have little courses on offer for customers.
Cycling Clubs
Although it might seem intimidating to contact an absolute enthusiast at a cycling club, they're all about encouraing the enjoyment and sport of cycling and many will have programs and advice for getting kids learning to ride at all levels.
Traffic Schools
Traffic schools provide a safe and fun environment for kids to learn to ride. And they also make an excellent kids' birthday party venue!
State Bicycling Association
Contact your local state bicycling association like
Bicycle NSW or
Bicycle Network Victoria or visit the
Cycling Australia website for more info.
BUGs (Bicycle User Groups)
Another great option is to find your local Bicycle User Group (BUG). They are a great way to discover new local rides, meet other local people who like to ride, and get out in group rides. Do some google searches for a BUG in your area, or try these lists on
bicycles.net.au or
bicyclenetwork.com.au AustCycle
AustCycle is an organisation focused on providing high quality education and training to get the community back on bikes, and this education is done in two ways. Firstly, AustCycle runs training courses to accredit people as Teachers and Skills Coaches, and secondly, these Teachers and Skills Coaches go out and teach community members how to cycle. You can find a list of
accredited AustCycle providers who can teach kids how to ride a bike on their website.
Sporting Schools Program
It's also worth checking if there's an
Australian Government's Sporting Schools program in your area. This is a national initiative that provides primary school children with access to free sport and other structured physical activity programs before, during and after-school care times. Sporting Schools is an evolution of the Active After-school Communities (AASC) programme. It will build on its legacy and success, and include a range of new features. It is an entirely new program that requires all providers, schools coaches to register. Sporting Schools will be working to build the relationship between schools and sports, and to see more children take part in sport based activities - and develop healthy habits to last a lifetime. The Australian Sports Commission, in partnership with 32 national sporting organisations, has developed the resources to help sporting clubs, coaches and teachers to run these activities.
Nationwide online registration is free for all Australian primary schools, skilled coaches and identified sporting partners. And when the school holidays are on, check your local providers of these programs as they often have privately run courses outside of school terms dates. You can read more about a Sporting Schools provider, BIKE and FITNESS, and their success in teaching kids how to ride in our article here.
Privately-run Bicycle Training Workshops
There are many privately run businesses around Australia that offer bicycle training workshops, such as BikeWise bicycle training in Sydney, and Bike and Fitness in Newcastle as exampes (both use ByK Kids Bikes to train kids!). We also recommend Cycling Safe in Victoria as well. There's a great list here of bike education contacts in each state: https://rideonmagazine.com.au/a-bike-education/ And many local Councils have programs that often offer discounted or free courses, or part of AASC programs at local schools as noted above. This is just a list of suggested ways to start looking for a course near you. Happy riding! RideOn Magazine also provide a few more links for various Bike Education companies in States around Australia - check it out here:
https://rideonmagazine.com.au/a-bike-education/