Wednesday 16 October 2013

Blue Mountain Haole Trail Review

A large improvement to Blue Mountains 2013 bike trails was the full rebuild of Haole, turning it into a features run. All features have been built for people of any skill level can ride it. The trail was re routed and shaped. The builders added many new wooden features including a large drop at the beginning of the trail. It flows into a short jump section. Afterwards you will find a line of new wooden features. A great addition was the wall ride built to help maneuver around a fast sharp corner easier. Next you will find one of the only sections not changed, the red wooden drop. I believe the new top section of Haole was an amazing improvement to the trail. The bottom half was poorly built. It consists of switchbacks across the ski runs. Along the switchbacks they had built dirt jumps. All of the dirt jumps are too large and nearly impossible to clear. To maintain your speed for the jumps you will have to pedal across every switchback. This being the bottom half of the run you are already tired and pedalling this much can become very difficult and even annoying. Finally you will meet up with the “Collector” and follow it to the chairlift. A small downfall is to ride this run you will need to pass a simple features test and get a special pass to ride Haole.

Overall the new Haole is a great improvement to Blue Mountains Downhill Biking trails. For those who love fast and flowing trails its great for you. The wooden features are all very well built and make the trail much better for those who like jumping. My only complaint is the bottom section of switchbacks but if your legs are feeling fresh you should be able to maintain a fast enough speed to clear all jumps. Haole has now become one of the most popular runs due to the successful rebuild. I strongly recommend you ride this run.


2013 video of Haole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qugI0sYQnM

2 comments:

  1. I think that this is an excellent review if you are familiar with the sport and with various downhill biking trails. As someone who is not familiar with this sport, I attempted to visualize the trails. Perhaps you could add some pictures?

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  2. Very good blog post TTE. I'm going to have to agree with Mrs.Le on this one, some pictures or videos would have been nice to help visualize and understand this new trail better. You'll have to make some cool new Youtube videos for me to watch!!!!!

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