MTB: Effortless park making the grade

NEW VENTURE: Trail builder Adam King at the opening of the Skyline Gravity Park mountain biking tracks last week. PHOTOS/BEN FRASER 080814BF1

Barely raising a sweat and effortless aren't what mountain biking is usually associated with.

So the preview of Skyline's Gravity Park last Friday meant a recalibration of the thought processes.

Gondola up using a simple bar-coded swipe card system? Effortless.

There was a little bit of queuing. But that meant extra time to catch up with friendly locals and some out-of-towners, who were whooping and hollering like all of us, while at the same time probably finding yet more reasons to live here. This was riding with your mates - with the peace and quiet of a sedate and comfortable gondola ride up to the trailhead to catch your breath and do a bit of networking.

These trails are all downhill, with little pedalling (except to carry speed). They were crafted by the Empire of Dirt crew and roll beautifully. Berms flow and so does the adrenaline. I stuck to the entry level Simple Jack, so I wouldn't hold up the quick guys on the more technical trails and to see how much faster I could get over half a dozen runs.

Answer: a lot.

And that's where "barely raising a sweat" comes in. I was easily the oldest at the preview and I still could've kept going all day. But I would've missed a superb lunch put on by Skyline.

Sorry, that doesn't come as part of a day or season pass for the Gravity Park. However, those passes do allow unlimited runs on six trails from grade 2 to grade 5 (with soft lines round all the big stuff). That's good value.

Start on Simple Jack and its offshoot, Day Walker. This is grade 3 and more like an old-school single track with sketchy and off-camber corners. I loved it.

After getting your eye in on these, work your way north across the face of the hill and the grade 3 to 5 Sprint Warrior, Hipster, Moss Piglet and Ten Fifty One. Spend a day doing that and, by the end of it, you will be a far better rider, even if you start as a newbie.

There is plenty here to challenge the most skilful riders and mellow rollers that will entertain the whole family.

The people at the preview day underlined how deeply mountain biking has penetrated the psyche of our town and its economy. Not just the usual suspects, the bike shops and hire and guiding businesses.

On the hill were tourism operators, bike distributors, graphic designers, photographers, representatives from Rotorua Mountain Bike Club and Descend Rotorua - and mayor Steve Chadwick and Rotorua MP Todd McClay, both looking very fetching in bike helmets.

Take a bow all the people involved in the Skyline development. And also take a bow, all the hundreds (no kidding) of people who have contributed to the growth of Rotorua MTB Inc over the last 25 years.

The Gravity Park will be one of the main venues for the Rotorua Bike Festival next February with other major events and more trails to follow.

I am hoping to head up there in the next week or two to sample the whole hill and also have a play on one of Mountain Bike Rotorua's Giant fleet to see what all the fuss about the 27.5 wheel size is all about.

Let the games begin.