Graeme Simpson: Ladies Night with a difference

I bought my first "mountain bike'' 25 years or so ago. That's in quote marks because a big, heavy Healing fat-tyred 10-speed has as much to do with today's sleek mountain bikes as a Penny Farthing.

However, it did me fine until I spotted a pearl white and lime green Scott Boulder in a bike shop in Auckland early in 1990.

All of my overtime for working as a TV director on the Commonwealth Games later and it was mine. It was the bike we first started riding at Muriwai and then Woodhill, north of Auckland, mainly asaway to give our two dogs a proper workout. I say "we'' because, yes, we shared. Really.

That lasted about five minutes. New bikes were bought (with vows that we'd never spend more than a $1000 on a bike. Famous last words), then a van to shift them around, a house in Rotorua to visit most weekends and finally amove here in 2000.

Through those years, almost all my riding - in New Zealand, Australia, the US and Europe - has been with Carolyn. I've always thought it'd be good to get more women into riding.

Last year, Kim McVicker from South Star Shuttles ramped that up with weekly Ladies Shuttles through the summer months.

They are back in 2012. "For awhile I'd been sitting on the shuttle bus listening to keen mountain biker men chatting about cassettes [not of the tape variety], hucking to flat and wheelies, thinking what on earth are they talking about,'' says Kim.

She decided it was time for a change. On Wednesday evenings, 30 women from all walks of life and skill level turn up, chuck their bikes (of all varieties and eras) on to the trailer and enjoy a fun-filled evening in the forest.

"Instead of talking about 'casing the Billy T step up', we chat about work, the kids, recipes - and how stoked we are to get a night out to ourselves in the forest,'' says Kim.

"It is very different to the usual struggle of jamming myself between massive downhill bikes to tie my own bike on the trailer, then stumbling on to the bus only to sit next to smelly blokes who slyly let you know they're really fast,'' she continues with a grin.

Southstar Shuttles takes you and your bike up Moerangi Hill in Whakarewarewa Forest, and drops you off at the top of Tawa Rd on the roof of the forest.

It is the perfect starting point for a number of tracks of different lengths and grades, ranging from Grade 3 toGrade 5.

Ladies evening is every Wednesday from 5.30pm, meeting at 8 Mile Gate. The cost is $10 per night or you can buy a $100 concession card for 12 evenings of Ladies Shuttles.

Check out www.southstaradventures.com or like Southstar Shuttles Rotorua on Facebook for the latest information. Favourite trails: Mike Phipps from Auckland loves the Jumps Track. "Huckleberry Hound and Little

Red Riding Huck are the best few minutes of flow in the North Island, full stop, great for beginners or full-noise, speed demons.

"The revamped berms and tabletops are running beautifully at the moment. "I'll happily drive from Auckland and back for a couple of shuttle runs down Jumps.

''Roll on summer.''