Owen wrote:We rode it in a group last night too, feels pretty narrow ...

There's a technical term for that - it's called "single track"!!

Hey Rob: I rode North Face and Smokin today, they are really sweet - the last bit of Smokin' is still very soft but that's to be expected since it's so new. The rest of it is really beautiful, sweeping curves and smooth straights through some of the best bush in Makara Bike Park.

I noticed lots of dead end tyre tracks on the soft outside part of North Face, looks like quite a few riders have been experimenting with the concept of "Life on the Edge ... and Beyond"!

Thanks for the thanks, all the people bulding the trail are very appreciative of all of the positive comments.

The end of Smokin will be cleaned up and packed a bit this Sunday afternoon, and then we can turn our efforts to either perfecting the existing North face, or building the 210m bit at the top!

And of course maintaining the other trails.. such as Nikau and LL !!!

I have spent a lot of time pushing wheelbarrows full of stuff slowly up and down North Face, which has given me plenty of time to see all the tire marks off into the soft dirt, and to ponder why riders would do such a thing

Robbie wrote:

its that guy wrote:hey um just an idea but...Um could we make jfk slightly harder than northface/smokin and just tell the less skilled riders to go down the road from Northface to smokin?\
I love north face and smokin but i feel it lacks somthing...We could use this track as that somthing??

Nope!

With your skill level you will not really be challenged by an intermediate trail unless you go at warp factor ten unfortunately. What is it that NF lacks for you I am wondering ?

We really do have to design the trail to be as ridable by as many intermediate people as possible, (and to be sustainable, and F U N ) and to be an intermediate way down from the top, which Makara Peak has never had. This is why we had permission to build it, so we cannot tell people to ride elsewhere.

Also, we have the go ahead to build this epic set of trails, so we really should be making them as long as we can, which does mean JFK will probably be flatter.

The main NF trail is two or three times steeper than most trails at Rotorua, for example, at 6.5% average, 10% in the steadily downhill bits.

Smokin is 7.5% in the steadily downhill bits, and JFK may well be flatter again.

I thought about my dilemma today and i came up with this... Ive got so used to ridge line and its narlyness that when i ride northface/smokin they feel so smooth(not a bad thing )
and a part of me just loves this narlyness... Im 50/50 between smooth and narly ...
So um yeh i think its just me lol ...

Well the good news of course is that now you and a zillion others now have a choice.

Rode it last night on a night ride. OMG i love it. last bit still needs work I guess, but first half at least is O for ORSOME.

and yup, we are yet to Perfect the lower half ( i.e. from the top of the valley of switchbacks )

VERT wrote:

Robbie wrote:
I have spent a lot of time pushing wheelbarrows full of stuff slowly up and down North Face, which has given me plenty of time to see all the tire marks off into the soft dirt, and to ponder why riders would do such a thing

often when people ride fast or quicker than slow they like to take advantage of using the whole width of the track, unfortunately this can be a but hard to do on th e soft edges of NF, thus people dont quite make corners or loose it on straights. I have been one of these riders on numerous occassions (i have ridden NF a lot), fotunately i havent ended up down the bank or over the bars yet

And also (perhaps more of a concern) it can be beginer riders making their first gentle steps into intermediate tracks. They have this strange tendancy to target fixate around corners, leading them to take unorthodox lines at times. If they see fresh earth the same colour as the trail at the edge of the track they assume it is formed trail. makara has a tendancy to throw spoil from trail building at the outside edge - to the uninitiated it looks like trail, it isnt, its loose spoil on a sloping surface. I have watched beginners wash out in these circumstances numerous times.

Nothing we can do about the soft edges unfortunately...except
1. wait for rain
or 2. close the trail, then wait for rain.

Even placing warning signs would not help those who fixate on the wrong stuff.

Robbie wrote:Nothing we can do about the soft edges unfortunately...except
1. wait for rain
or 2. close the trail, then wait for rain.

Even placing warning signs would not help those who fixate on the wrong stuff.

I havent riddne NF yet, so cant comment on that track specifically. My coment was aimed at the tracks that had been of the cut/fill variety at makara, where gravel had been spread to full width, but the only stable surface was on the cut/bench section, with the fill section (usually the 20% at the outside edge) being spoil placed on sloping terrain without additional bench or compaction. this technique will always slump over time and cause off camber corners with soft edges. Most riders will not venture onto that edge, so are unaffected. A little off line and it is a whole different story. there are many different corners all over the place that illistrate this point quite clearly (and not just a Makara either).

As said, I have no idea if the issue you are raising is this one, as i have not viewed the construction of NF yet. this is not anti makara or anti NF in it's intention, just a general comment as to why some people ride off the "good" line - sometimes they just arent experienced enough to know what the "good" line is, or skilled enough to follow it. As long as the whole alignment is safe (once finished of course, tracks under construction are a whole different issue) I have no issues at all. Looking forward to riding NF some time, perhaps this weekeknd actually

There is no gravel on NF, except what might be the natural rocky soil.

Ditto for Smokin, and I suspect JFK and the unbuilt top track as well.

The soft edges are really obvious, but we have all ridden into obvious, bad things before

VERT wrote:

Robbie wrote:
I have spent a lot of time pushing wheelbarrows full of stuff slowly up and down North Face, which has given me plenty of time to see all the tire marks off into the soft dirt, and to ponder why riders would do such a thing

often when people ride fast or quicker than slow they like to take advantage of using the whole width of the track

Inside line

Or, even the centre of the trail!
Riders who steam down trails are wise to avoid soft edges, this really isn't news on an obviously new trail..

And, if people who are on the " just learning" side of intermediate ride into the soft soil at low speed, they will simply stop. Much nicer than a loose rocky edge that would send them way over the side!

I think making a new thread saying " North Face has soft edges, do not ride on them" would be a bit silly..

And there are heaps of warnings on the makarapeak.org site if people look up North Face.

So digday is on for sunday??
Robbie, Could you give me a lift to the top??

Yes, be at the St Albans gate before 9.45 please ;-)

Sunday at the top in the morning, at Smokin in the afternoon.