A wet winter has meant a few cancellations for the Kids Bike Taupō programme.  The good thing is that with the wind trainer that we now have on board, even on rainy days we can run worthwhile sessions at early childhood centres.  Putting a wee bike up on the wind trainer makes for very user friendly pedal practice.  They use it like a piece of play equipment and it works for children from around 2 years old.  If they have plenty of access to a balance bike as well, they are able to put the two skills together and have much more success.  It is much kinder on the adults’ backs too.

Thank you to Jenny Barnett for donating the wind trainer that we have.  A couple more would be fantastic so that we can leave one a centres for a few days/weeks and give the kids a good go on it.  Please, if you have a wind trainer in your shed that is only gathering dust Kids Bike Taupō could make good use of it.

Another popular rainy day pastime is pumping up tubes and finding the puncture.  It is much easier for the little guys to use the pump on a tube than on the tyre on a wheel.  They are fascinated by the bubbles when we use a bowl of water to find the hole.  At Playcentre the whole process morphed into blowing up long balloons and making animals!  We are very flexible.

Kids Bike Taupō is spending more time in Turangi, thanks to some funding from the First Sovereign Trust.  Tongariro School has a bike track and bikes in the school and we can help the teachers to make more use of the equipment.  The kids are so enthusiastic and energetic.  They have the Tongariro River Trail on their door step and it would be great to see the school make use of it.

We are definitely noticing that some teachers have more confidence around cycling and are organising their own sessions.  We cannot be everywhere but are able to support schools by providing extra bikes and helmets when they are running their own adventures.

We are looking forward to being able to use the BMX track again on Mondays, soon.  The club has rebuilt the second straight and once it has new lime applied it should be back in action.  It is such a popular activity and layers on biking skills while the kids have a blast.  Kids Bike Taupō appreciates the support we receive from the Taupō BMX Club for these Monday sessions.  Keep an eye on the Bike Taupō Facebook page for when we restart.  We are still at Spa Park on Tuesdays from 3.30pm to 5pm.  This is a quieter time and is great for those needing practice on two wheels.

The new van, Ricky Biker, is a real joy.  We feel safe, comfortable and professional in it.  We are working smarter and don’t take as many bikes, but better ones. The idea is to fill in the gaps so everyone gets to ride but at the same time, encouraging people to have bikes of their own that work. 

Enjoy the warmer, lighter days and thank you to everyone who supports the Kids Bike Taupō programme.

Cath Oldfield  -  Kids Bike Taupo Coordinator         This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.