Source: Radio New Zealand
Trail builders on the Timber Trail. Supplied / Timber Trail
Thousands of electric bike riders are taking to a central North Island great ride trail – even though e-bikes are illegal on it.
Bike trail builders and operators on the Timber Trail say it is a classic example of the tangled rules and hurdles that faces an industry worth more than $1.3 billion a year.
Rider numbers on the 85km Timber Trail – which goes through massive rimus and over long swing bridges in Pureora Forest Park – topped 20,000 two years ago and are still rising.
Paul Goulding has run Epic Cycle Adventures, which offers glamping, shuttle and ebike hire, for 12 years.
“Two years ago was the first time, the first year, that we… hired out more e-bikes than normal bikes. And since then it’s just that percentage is increasing every year,” he told RNZ last month.
“Just as an example, two weeks ago, we sleep 36 people at our Camp Epic and 32 people were on e-bikes.”
But while most trails nation-wide allow e-bikes – which are meant to be under 300 watts power, although many bikes now exceed this – the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) rules are tougher in Pureora.
“It’s a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’, but that does make some things a little bit difficult,” said Lynley Twyman, who helps promote the trail as part of the Central North Island Great Rides.
DOC acknowledged e-bikes were not allowed under the Waikato Conservation Management Strategy, but said this was “very challenging” to monitor and enforce.
A law change next year may fix this, it said.
Goulding said the occasional person rang to ask about the ban, but “I just tell them, you know, that’s not a problem”.
“Even though it’s illegal, DOC aren’t sort of policing it or anything.”
While it has not had an impact on Epic’s business, Goulding thought it might help if the trail could be promoted for e-bikes.
The 85km Timber Trail in central North Island goes through massive rimus and over long swing bridges in Pureora Forest Park. Supplied / Timber Trail
But Twyman is not allowed to do that, or to put out safety messages that were specific to the heavier bikes.
“We are just silent on it, which is not really where we want to be,” she said.
“We can’t officially promote e-bikes. However, all of our commercial partners, you know, rent e-bikes. And probably 60, 70 percent of our customers are using them because they’re a great way to travel on the Timber Trail. They work perfectly.”
The ban originated when the area’s unique Conservation Management Strategy (CMS) was drawn up. The CMS remained relevant even though it recently expired, Twyman said.
“I know that the team in the Waikato are grappling with that.”
New Zealand Cycle Trails acting chair Pete Masters said DOC could not possibly police e-bikes.
He said DOC had been behind the times when it opposed the first mountainbike trails on conservation land in a project Masters was involved with years ago, and was again behind the times on e-bikes, thinking that both were passing fads.
“The Timber Trail’s the classic, in that e-bikes are illegal on the Timber Trail, according to their CMS, which is a prescriptive CMS, but 90 percent of the users of that trail are e-bikers,” he said.
The accommodation providers had battery chargers, and all the concessionaires hired out e-bikes.
“And it’s all good. It’s fantastic,” said Masters. “We’ve got people out riding them. It’s not a problem, but technically… technically, they’re all illegal.”
He is hoping for a common sense approach in an overhaul of the Conservation Act, which the government has promised for next year.
“The train’s left the station on e-bikes and the department is 10 years behind where e-bikes are. So that should be addressed by the Conservation Act review.”
The Timber Trail lodge – which offers beds and e-bike charges at the halfway point – had not been impacted, said Guy Whitaker, who helped set it up.
“But it’s certainly not ideal. It’s just crazy that they can’t sort it out because they have known about it for years.
“DOC know what’s going on so surely… they are guilty themselves,” Whitaker said.
Trail builders on the Timber Trail. Supplied / Timber Trail
E-bikes can make a difference to how trails are designed. They can be made a bit steeper than for regular bikes, and sometimes might need more camber on the downhill corners as e-bikes are heavier.
DOC said the trail was meant for walkers and regular mountainbikes, and the more powerful e-bikes could do more damage and compromise the trail for other users
Riders should stick to the rules, but: “The isolated nature of the Pureora Timber Trail, and its length, make it very challenging for DOC to carry out compliance and monitoring activities in response to trail damage with the small number of suitably trained and available staff to do this work”, it said.
Trail riding is a growing tourism sector, but a disjointed one.
“Every area is different,” said Twyman. The Timber Trail comes under one set of rules, while trails she promotes around Tongariro under others.
“Whether we’re working on conservation land… Kiwirail land… LINZ land or private land or road reserve, there’s a basket of rules and regulations,” she said.
“It’s just really hard to know where to go. It can be very complex and expensive to navigate your way through that.”
DOC said the proposed conservation law reforms should streamline things and get rid of outdated restrictions, and give it greater flexibility to update guidance and respond to changes in biking.
“We acknowledge e-bike technology has evolved significantly since the guidelines were drafted,” said DOC director of heritage and visitors Cat Wilson.
The CMS rules in various regions mostly predate the upsurge in e-bike use globally since about 2020; e-mountain bikes are an even more recent phenomenon.
Another old rule that is also being flouted on trails and on the road is NZTA’s limit on e-bike power, set at a maximum 300 watts. Many e-bikes now exceed this which officially classifies them as motor vehicles (on conservation land, the law considers all e-bikes as motor vehicles).
“No final decisions have been made yet, but this is an area we expect to be able to modernise in future,” said Wilson.
Catching up can not come soon enough, said Masters. “E-bikes have saved in some ways cycle trails because we’ve got a whole new demographic of people riding,” he said.
“You know, 70, 80 year olds out riding every day, it’s just fantastic. You know, the health benefits alone must be worth a fortune.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
