The Forest Loop is a thing that has been developed in my home town of Rotorua which gives more or less anybody a decent serve of the splendours of the location without being particularly challenging. It is what we call Grade 2, which around here means a metre wide path with very few roots or rocks, no drop-offs or anything very steep, and pretty well weather proof. It provides nice view of three lakes, a variety of forest and 34 kilometres of rolling trail. There are countless ways to adjust the route for personal preference, but the official version is very well signposted so it would be difficult to get lost. It serves two useful purposes for me. Firstly, any newcomers to town who want a ride can be sent on it. Before the Forest Loop it was almost impossible to send an initiate into the woods without a guide. Maps are useful, but with Whakarewarewa is a complex place. Now it is simple, follow the signs. The second benefit for me is that it provides a good outing when it is too wet to go in rest of the trails.
When it is raining, but I want to rack up some kilometres, it is a good choice.
The Krampus is a machine I acquired it to do a long bike packing tour, which for various lame reasons has not yet happened. Meanwhile, the bike is fun for some applications, on certain days.
It is the original version of a concept Surly more or less invented, 29+. The wheels are 29 inch, and carry 3 inch tyres.
No suspension, simple and inexpensive running gear, no dropper post, not that much to wear out or worry about.
I have added and subtracted a few things over the years, but currently it sports some bars which are very wide, have a lot of rise, and a cross brace like an old school motocross example.
Once again, when it is raining, but I want to rack up some kilometres, it is a good choice.
Mostly out of habit, I started my gps recording device and beetled off up the first climb.
It turned out to be a pretty decent day, the rain was light and stopped a few times, and there was even a brief appearance from the Sun.
My route ended up following the Forest Loop until the last section, which is a boring concrete path down the side of the highway. I take a bit of singletrack and a couple of forestry roads to stay on dirt in the trees. To my surprise, I got back to the van in a hair over two hours. That represents an average speed of 17 kph. That is a good chunk faster than my usual mountain bike ride, but I figured that was because my usual rides involve riding up several long steep climbs where I am going so slow that my gps device sometimes pauses because it thinks I am stationary. The Forest Loop has a total of 600 odd metres of climbing, but it is never very steep and widely distributed over 34 ks. Still, pretty fast by my standards.
That is why a couple of weeks later I decided to take the same route, this time aboard my late model, comparatively sophisticated trail bike.
I tried to emulate all the variables. It was a fairly crappy day, but maybe a bit nicer than the first example. Breakfast was matched exactly, coffees calibrated to be of equal quantities and strength. Same outfit, different print on the cotton T.
My ride was very nice, although I confess I was maybe trying a bit harder: the first outing didn’t become part of any performance experiment until after it was completed. This time I knew there was a sort of race on.
I got back to the van in a time that was faster than the first one. By a minute. Well, a minute and 13 seconds if you want the details. Heart rate, a measurement I sometimes wish I didn’t know about, was fairly evenly matched, and top speed showed only 2kph of difference.
OK, there are dozens of places in the woods I wouldn’t even try to ride on the Krampus that are fun and light work for the Fuel. But still, amazed by how two rides that felt so utterly different to complete were more or less the same in terms of how long they took.
REPRINTED FROM A THING I WROTE FOR NEW ZEALAND MOUNTAIN BIKE MAGAZINE