Biketober is a month-long festival that celebrates riding a bike.
Biketober takes place in several cities across a number of countries, including Australia and New Zealand.
Biketober is locally organised and looks different in different locations.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, Biketober is a collection of community-organised activities such as group rides. [1] There is a strong focus on inclusivity and encouraging a wide variety of people to get involved. [2]
In Australia [3] and the US, [4] Biketober has included a challenge where people can win prizes for biking.
Some Biketober festivals have cycling activism elements too. [5]
Critical Mass is a form of direct action in which people travel as a group on bicycles at a set location and time. The idea is for people to group together to make it safe for each other to ride bicycles through their streets, based on the old adage: there's safety in numbers.
The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane motorway bridge over the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It joins St Marys Bay on the Auckland city side with Northcote on the North Shore side. It is part of State Highway 1 and the Auckland Northern Motorway. The bridge is operated by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA). It is the second-longest road bridge in New Zealand, and the longest in the North Island.
A cyclosportive, or often simply sportive, is a short to long distance, organised, mass-participation cycling event, typically held annually. The Italian term Gran Fondo is commonly used for these events in the United States, Australia and some other English-speaking countries.
Andrew Drummond is a New Zealand painter and sculptor. He attended University of Waterloo in Canada, graduating in 1976. He was a Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1980.
William Pratney was a New Zealand professional cyclist and politician. He won New Zealand championship titles on track and on road.
Bike Auckland, formerly Cycle Action Auckland (CAA) is a pro-cycling advocacy group in Auckland, New Zealand. The predominantly volunteer group aims to improve infrastructure and conditions, as well as perceptions of cycling to encourage more "everyday people" to use bicycles, including for commuting and recreation.
Cycling in New Zealand is the 5th most popular form of active recreation, but a very marginal commuting mode, with the share hovering around 1–3% in most major cities. This is due to a number of factors, principally safety fears.
The New Zealand Cycle Trail project is a New Zealand government initiative, co-funded together with local councils and charitable trusts, which is to build and operate a network of cycle routes through the country.
RideLondon is an annual festival of cycling held in London. Intended as an annual legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it was first held in 2013. The festival consists of a series of cycling events on closed roads around London and Essex.
The NZ Cycling Conference is a series of cycle planning conferences started in 1997 in Hamilton. Since 2001, the conference series has a biennial schedule. The conferences are one of the key ways of exchanging expertise about planning and design for cycling in New Zealand. Starting in 2012, the scope of the conference includes both walking and cycling, by combining the previous Living Streets Aotearoa biennial NZ Walking Conference series, and was rebranded "2WALKandCYCLE".
The New Zealand Cycle Friendly Awards were devised by the Cycling Advocates' Network (CAN) in 2003. The purpose of the awards is to acknowledge and celebrate some of the most notable achievements in the country that are helping to promote cycling and to create a cycle-friendly environment. Since 2016, the awards have been jointly organised with the New Zealand Transport Agency and rebranded as the 'Bike to the Future Awards'.
Bike Week is a yearly international event, taking place in different countries throughout the world. It is typically a seven-day event that advocates bicycling for transportation. The event has been steadily gaining popularity in Asian, American and European cities and countries over the past decade. Bike Week has been running in the UK since 1923.
Cycling in Auckland is a mode of transport in Auckland, New Zealand. The dominance of the car in the city, the negative attitudes of car drivers and general changes in transport patterns have made it a very marginal transport mode in the early 21st century, with remaining cyclists often riding for leisure and sports purposes.
Pippa Coom is a New Zealand politician, who is a former councillor on the Auckland Council and former chair of the Waitematā Local Board.
Cycling in Atlanta has grown in popularity in recent years, from 0.33% of commutes in 2000 to 1.1% in 2009, aided by improving cycling infrastructure and community support. Although Atlanta has historically been a city defined by the automobile, its increasingly compact urban form and mild climate are encouraging residents to cycle to work, shopping, and recreational destinations. Though Atlanta's famed hilly topography can make cycling challenging, though fun, many parts of the city are relatively flat, including some of the more densely populated areas. However, heavy automobile traffic, the lack of bike lanes on many streets, and difficulty in crossing major streets deter most residents from cycling frequently in Atlanta.
The Tribesmen are a prominent outlaw motorcycle club based in the North Island of New Zealand. They have a relatively large presence, having set up chapters in Ōtara, Northland, Rotorua, Murupara and Christchurch.
Le Ride is a film which recreates the 1928 Tour de France ride by the four-person Australasian team, and in particular of the New Zealander in their midst, Harry Watson. The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan and his riding partner Ben Cornell completed the 5,600-kilometre (3,500 mi) ride in 22 stages spread over 26 days to the original schedule in 2013. Keoghan's wife Louise Keoghan was the producer for the film, which premiered in Watson's home town Christchurch in July 2016.
Kathleen Lynch is a retired competitive cyclist from New Zealand who competed both on and off the road. With a talent for multiple sports disciplines, she won the canoeing events New Zealand White Water Downriver and Slalom Championships in 1987 and represented her country at the 1988 Canoe Slalom World Cup. Around the same time, she was also a successful triathlete, but did not continue with that sport. She bought her first mountain bike in 1988 at the age of 31 in order to compete in an adventure sport event, and within a year she had become the New Zealand national cross country champion. Around the same time, she also took up road cycling. She was included in the New Zealand team for the 1990 Commonwealth Games and was assigned as domestique for the top New Zealand road rider, Madonna Harris. Harris and Lynch finished in fourth and ninth places respectively. In September 1990, Lynch competed at the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and finished tenth. In November 1990, she became a household name in New Zealand by winning a 22-day multi-sport race the length of the country that had prime time TV coverage every night.
The Gravel and Tar Classic is a one-day cycling race, held annually in the Manawatu region of New Zealand, since 2016, finishing in Palmerston North. It is rated 1.2 and has been part of UCI Oceania Tour since 2018. The race is primarily on sealed roads, however the highlight of the race is the multiple gravel sectors throughout the course. The race is now considered to be the toughest one-day elite race in the Oceania region. The race is held in January each year, making it one of the first races on the UCI Calendar, and a key chance for teams and riders to gain early UCI points. The event has seen teams enter from countries such as Sweden, Japan, the US, and Australia, along with the best New Zealand men's trade teams.
Alexandra Mary Raine Matheson is a New Zealand transgender activist, entertainer, and educator.