Mountain Biking: Work crews put bikers on track

Red McHale dropped in for a cup of tea in the weekend as he does every so often.

He's a mate and an important component in the Rotorua mountain bike community, even though he doesn't ride.

Red's a supervisor of Department of Corrections work crews. He's been doing the job for 30 years and for the last 20 of those a lot of the work has focused on the Whakarewarewa Forest. He was there at the start of the trail network with the work crews chipping out sections of narrow, handcrafted single track, for the relatively new-fangled bikes called "mountain".

A small group of people, including Fred Christensen, had the idea and Red and the work crews put in a lot of the hard, physical work to make their vision a reality.

When the first trails were built in the Whakarewarewa Forest, mountain biking was still in its raw infancy. It began more as a lifestyle than a sport in the Bay Area of San Francisco in the 1970s when old single-speed delivery bikes were reinvented as fat-tyre, off-road bikes on the forest trails in Mill Valley and on Mount Tam. The bikes were nicknamed "klunkers".

Sometimes I wish I'd kept my original mountain bikes. The first was a mid-80s Healing 10-speed that was so heavy it could have comfortably substituted as a boat anchor. The second was a 1990 fully rigid Scott Boulder. They were primitive.

To quote one of Gary Sullivan's recent NZO newsletters: "Back then the idea of a bike with a reinforced plastic frame, 150mm of highly-tuned suspension at both ends, hydraulic disk brakes, and a seat that can change height on the fly, weighing in at about a kilogram or two more than the latest road racer of the day, would have been as far-fetched as the idea of a forest with over 100km of purpose-built trails for bike-riders."

(If you want to read more of Gaz's wisdom, subscribe to his newsletters at www.nzoactive.com).

Fast forward to 2013 and mountain biking is a massive, worldwide industry and we have that glorious network on our southern doorstep. Lots of people have contributed over the years. Many have come and gone.

One thing remains the same: Red and his crews are still out there up to four days a week. The name may have changed from "periodic detention" to the more politically correct "community service". However, the work goes on.

The value of all this transcends trail building and maintenance. Take a moment to stop and have a yarn to the crews. See the pride when you compliment them on the work. Remember these are often guys who have received little praise in their lives.

They move massive amounts of dirt and, at the same time, many are learning valuable skills. A few have gone on to paid work in trail building and maintenance. Maybe it'd be a good thing if a few more were given the chance to break the cycle and find paid work using these skills?

Anyway, always good to catch up with Red and hear what the crew have been doing recently. This includes repairing trails damaged during the Moonride and fixing up the drop in to the Creek track from Baker's Hollow.

Great work, guys.