Give your kids the gift of confidence.

Balance Bike Camps & Community Programs for ages 2-6

The BC Cycling Coalition began running Kids on Wheels Balance Bike Camps and Community Programs in 2014, under the leadership of Vancouver-based cycling advocate, educator and parent Maya Goldstein.

Effective January 2026, Kids on Wheels Programs are now hosted by HUB Cycling—for details, email streetwise@bikehub.ca.

Why Balance Bikes? 

Balance bikes are no-pedal bicycles, an important first step to cycling for young riders-to-be.

Balance bikes help children discover balance and steering in their own time and comfort zone, so they can gain confidence, improve their self esteem, and learn valuable active transportation skills.

The experience gained through balance bikes leads to an easy transition to a pedal bike, often without the need for training wheels.

How Does Kids on Wheels Work?

Kids on Wheels is a public program operated by the charitable non-profit organization HUB Cycling, with support from various education partners, including TransLink through their TravelSmart for Kids Strategy.

Since 2014, Kids on Wheels has offered a variety of camps and programming options for parents and their kids, including:

• Parent Participation Camps are focused on getting the children comfortable on the balance bikes and wearing helmets, providing tips to parents on how to fit a balance bike to their children, and helping kids gain important skills such as stopping, riding, balancing, and gliding. Parent Participation Camps also incorporate reading bike books and singing songs. This camp is designed for beginners and intermediate riders, with parent/caregiver participation required.

• Preschool Camps are packed with fun balance bike activities, led by experienced, skilled instructors who design an interactive riding course for the children to explore every day in a week of half-day sessions. Through fun games and riding around the course, kids get to practice important skills such as stopping, balancing, and gliding, and are introduced to road signs and basic safety rules of the road. This camp is designed for intermediate and advanced balance bike riders. Children are expected to participate independet of their parents/caregivers for the duration of the camp.

• Daycares and Community Centre Programs are Balance Bike Camps run at daycares and community centres where, from Monday to Friday, experienced, skilled instructors bring all the necessary equipment to a public location (including bikes, helmets, games, signage, cones, books, ect) and operate the camp in collaboration with the daycare/centre.

Does Kids on Wheels align with general best practices in cycling education?

Kids on Wheels is foundational learning towards a lifetime of cycling literacy and enjoyment. Our program supports and encourages key concepts in pre-k development and active start philosophy.

Children can progress from the Kids on Wheels balance bike education to the Cycling BC Hop On program to further develop their safety and riding skills.

The goal is to develop a safe and rewarding relationship with cycling that will nurture each child throughout their lives.