Respect others

• Stay in control. So you can safely avoid others and keep yourself intact.
• Give way to walkers.
• Use a bell or greeting when approaching others. Most negative feedback from walkers on shared-use tracks concerns being surprised by bikers approaching without warning.
• Ride shared-use tracks in small groups. A ‘bike-train’ with a dozen riders displaces other users. 6-8, or less, is a better number.

Respect the rules

• Only ride mountain bike and shared-use tracks; stay off closed tracks – including those that are seasonally closed to protect the surface or minimise conflict with other users. Land managers are generally pretty reasonable so talk with them about issues or ideas you may have.
• Be prepared – take food, water, tools, first aid and warm clothes. Plan for the unexpected – a change in the weather, an accident or getting lost and late.
• Obtain permission from private landowners before you set out.
• Leave gates as you find them either open or closed to keep stock where they are intended to be.

Respect the track

• Don’t skid, cut corners or make new lines. Skidding creates water channels and causes erosion. Use both brakes to slow down without skidding as you approach a corner. Cutting corners is cheating and damages fragile ecosystems.
• Avoid riding in the mud and rain. Both bikes and walkers damage soft, wet tracks.
• Clean your bike to prevent spreading weeds like gorse and didymo.
• Take rubbish home – like banana skins, old tubes and snack wrappers. Rubbish in the outdoors detracts from everyone’s experience.

Respect public access easements

Some mountain bike rides travel along public access easements through private land. All easements and tracks are well marked. 

• Stay on the public easement track.
• Leave gates as you find them.
• Do not disturb stock – cycle slowly through livestock areas.

Don’t ride on designated Mountain bike tracks unless they are specifically designated multi-use tracks. Bikes may move fast and silently- bikers will be looking at the ground in front of the front wheel and won’t see you until too late, screeching on the brakes and spooking your horse. On a multi-use track, bikers will be alert for other users and hopefully travel more slowly. Horse riders, please remember to thank bikers who show you the courtesy of slowing down or stopping to let you go past. Bike and walking bridges are not designed to take a 600 kg horse. Please avoid using foot/bike bridges and boardwalks if at all possible. If your horse leaves a pile of manure on a trampers track, please get off and kick it off the track.

Camping on Public Conservation land.  

Don’t tether your horse or build a paddock near to a hut. Horse manure brings flies in summer, and not every user enjoys the aroma of horse manure. Remember some people are scared of horses. If the hut is shared, please try to keep your sweaty horse gear out of the hut under a tarp or under the hut as the smell may offend other users. When you de-camp, please kick the horse manure around to enable it to break down faster, and to help stop the breeding of botflies.

To horses, a bike is a silent predator who creeps up from behind, just out of their very wide field of vision. Sometimes that silent predator suddenly ‘screams like a Banshee’ by applying brakes as they approach the rear of the horse. This will startle and alarm the horse, possibly resulting in the horse kicking out and/or bolting. If you approach a horse and rider from behind on a multi-use track, please call out to alert the rider that you are coming. If passing a very nervous horse either direction, please dismount and give the horse room to quietly walk past.