Cycling New Zealand re-branding
13 August 2009
Cycling New Zealand re-branding signals closer relationship with BikeNZ.
Cycling New Zealand, a member organisation of BikeNZ, announced their re-branding to be known as ‘BikeNZ- Road &Track’ from today.
“It is vital to the ongoing success of road and trackcycling in New Zealand that we adopt a ‘one brand’ policy with anything relating to cycling, and use the BikeNZ brand,” says BikeNZ Road & Track President Garry Bell.
BikeNZ Road & Track are the volunteer member organisation of BikeNZ, charged with guiding road and track cycling in New Zealand.
“New Zealand’s National Road and Track Cycling Championships have been branded BikeNZ for a number of years, but it was a logical step in order to eliminate any confusion from our members or the wider public.”
The re-branding also signifies a closer working relationship between BikeNZ Road & Track and parent organisation BikeNZ.
“We identified a real need to develop our cycling clubs and broaden their membership to capture the growing recreational cyclist,” says BikeNZ CEO Kieran Turner. “A closer working relationship also creates a more seamless transition for junior and senior club riders into BikeNZ’s High Performance programme.
Together, we’re working on creating a solid platform for our young riders to succeed on the world stage.”
To guarantee the delivery of key BikeNZ Road & Trackprogrammes during a significant growth period in New Zealand cycling, BikeNZ have announced the appointment of Rachael Neutze as BikeNZ Road & Track Relationship Manager. Prior to her new role, Rachael has worked within the BikeNZ event management team over the last two years.
“Having already built many key relationships within the BikeNZ Road & Track community, and as a genuinely passionate cyclist, I’m excited about getting stuck into my new role.”
“It all means an improved and more fluid delivery of member organisations’ key projects, and providing better tools to empower our clubs.”
“We’ll be especially working on creating a ‘marketingtoolbox’ for road and track cycling clubs. This will help to increase their capability to run better events and market themselves to attract new members.”
BikeNZ created a world first in 2003 by bringing together all forms of cycling from road and track cycling, to mountain biking and BMX, under one organisational structure. BikeNZ are currently in discussions to establish relationship managers with each of their other member organisations.
Comments
All forms of cycling??
I question some of the comments above.
"bringing together all forms of cycling from road and track cycling, to mountain biking and BMX, under one organisational structure"
BikeNZ has a very strong bias towards sports cycling, and little recognition of people who ride bicycles at a fairly leisurely pace for transport and fun. Are we less of a cyclist, less noteable, because we don't wear body condoms and pointy helmets, enjoy the feeling of mud splattered up our backsides or play chicken with pedestrians and delivery trucks?
"It is vital to the ongoing success of road and trackcycling in New Zealand that we adopt a ‘one brand’ policy with anything relating to cycling, and use the BikeNZ brand,”
I cycle on the road ... where are cyclists like me represented in this 'one brand' 'anything related to cycling' policy? Perhaps if I form a 'going to the supermarket' club ... Anybody keen?
Don't get me wrong, I think that extra support and promotion for cycling in NZ is a great thing, but BikeNZ should be clear that they represent primarily 'sports' cycling rather than 'all things' cycling. Alternatively, broaden their scope to really support, encourage and promote ordinary 'getting about' type of cycling for all New Zealanders.
In my opinion, one of the barriers to getting more people on their bicycles in this country is the perception that riding a bicycle has to be a sport and that you have to wear ridiculous and unflattering clothing. This is simply not true and we have to get this message across to the general public if we want to swell the numbers of active cyclists in NZ.
Unity
Auckland Cycle Chic
Ammendment
Ok, my apologies, I have checked out their new website and I have found a few sentences about us 'everyday' cylists so maybe it's moving in the right direction but you still have to get past the picture of a cyclist doing some fairly extreme aerobatics and dig fairly deep to find it.
Unity
Auckland Cycle Chic
Unitiy i agree with the
Unitiy
i agree with the sentiment and love your writing style. Their "all forms of cycling" does have a heavy bias toward those forms that involve a competitive element.
When I was in the US last month, admittedly in a very bicycle friendly city, one of the great things I observed was seeing the majority of cyclists with ordinary clothes on - very little lycra or flouro - and only about half of them wearing helmets.
Stephen Wood , based in Central Otago
Call it 'Bicycling'
In the BikeNZ Constitution's glossary, 'Cycling' is defined as 'all forms of commuting,recreational and competitive cycling, including road cycling, track cycling, Mountain biking,BMX and cycle touring.'
No mention of 'utility cycling'-the biggest group of cyclists in the world -still virtually non-existant in New Zealand.
'Commuter cycling' from my experience in New Zealand seems to be about getting from A to B in the shortest time, as fast as possible with many of its practioners and advocates sharing the core values displayed by competitive recreational cyclists: hard-out exertion, obsession with speed, and nth degree performance.
'Utility' cycling on the other hand, is simply about getting around, carrying stuff, doing stuff ,- on a bicycle.
Anybody can do it. It doesn't require any preparation or special skill and has no other goal than simply to be a means of transport.
It is as easy as riding a bike. -'Bicycling' - without all the hype of 'cycling'!
When I brought my utility cycling habits from Japan ( where I lived and bicycled for 10 years) I definitely felt like the odd one out riding my 'old-fashioned granny shopping bike with baskets, mudguards and a bell, among all the gung-ho lycra clad commuters in Christchurch.
Where were all the 'ordinary' people I was used to riding with: men in suits, girls in dresses, elderly ladies, school kids?
The Bike NZ definition of 'cycling' shows that their organisational culture reflects the cultural attitude predominant in New Zealand that is oblivious to the notion that ordinary people can simply get around on ordinary 'sensible' bicycles in a relaxed and casual manner,- while being totally disinterested in speed, performance, competition, recreation or 'sport'.
If BikeNZ is really serious about getting ordinary New Zealanders out of their cars and onto bicycles, it needs to start marketing more of what we should be calling 'Bicycling'.
Alan Preston in Mangawhai, Northland.
http://urbanbicycles.googlepages.com/
Promoting urban appropriate utility bicycles and utility cycling in New Zealand
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